Discussion on Trrigaiion. 57 



the flow. If I buy twelve inches of water the gate is raised oiu' 

 inch ; if I buy twenty-four inches the gate is raised two inches, atid 

 so on. One inch of water is generally sufficient for an acre, thougli 

 some things, especially strawberries, require more. We are ad()j)t 

 ing a system of sub-irrigation by running tile near the surface. 

 This requires much less water. 



G. Y. Johnson, of Kansas — How would one inch correspond to 

 rainfall? We would like to know the relative amounts. 



Mr. Grimes — One inch of water is equivalent to about six inches 

 rainfall, but on account of evaporation we, perhaps, require more 

 water than you would; We have been told to ripen up the wood 

 and let the trees go into winter dry, but we find that will not do. 

 We lose fewer trees if, just before freezing, we make the ground 

 wet. 



Mr. Johnson — You say during the season. How long do you 

 count for a season?. 



3Ir. Grimes — From April to November. If you irrigate wheat 

 before it is large enough to shade the ground it will not do well. 

 As soon as it is large enough we turn on the water. 



Mr. Folck, of Missouri — I once lived in New Mexico. Our sys- 

 tem of irrigation was somewhat different. During April, ^Nlay and 

 June we expected to raise our crops. We used the eight-day sys 

 tem of irrigation, and most of the cereals were irrigated about three 

 •times. We let the water run until the ground was soaked several 

 inches deep, then in about eight days we could cultivate it. 



The President — Upon this subject we would be glad to hear from 

 Mr. Hale, of Connecticut. 



3Ir. Hale, of Connecticut — My experiences have all been in a 

 small way, but they have convinced me that irrigation is becoming 

 a necessity with us. During a dry season I got a lot of shoe boxes 

 and had my men fill them with water and set them near some straw- 

 berry plants. By having some holes bored in the bottom, the water 

 soaked away and watered the plant.s. In this way we doubled the 

 size of strawberries in twenty-four hours. We are laying plans to 

 irrigate our place. We thought of doing it last spring. If we had, 

 it would have been a blessing to us, for we lost our crop from 



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