62 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



No general rule as to the amount of water that will be required can be 

 given that will apply to all crops and all seasons, and the same can be said 

 as to the length of time that should elapse between the different irrigations. 

 Besides the above conditions, there are several others that should be con- 

 sidered, such as the temperature and dryness of the air and the amount 

 and distribution of, the rainfall. As a rule, we would recommend that not 

 less than one inch of water, amounting to eight hundred barrels per acre, 

 be used, except, perhaps, for young trees and other crops that do not fill 

 the entire ground with their roots, at one watering. The amount supplied 

 to the crop can be varied by the number of applications. In seasons like 

 the present, a thorough watering once a week will be none too much for 

 many crops, but for others, from one to three waterings will suffice. For 

 the small fruit crops the last watering should be given just before they 

 begin to color, as water applied after that time will make them too soft 

 for shipment. 



Even with this method of irrigation a considerable portion of the sur- 

 face soil will be saturated, aad if it is clay it will bake so that a large 

 amount of water will be lost from evaporation*. If water is scarce, and 

 especially if the irrigation is less frequent than once a week, the surface 

 should be given a thorough cultivation so soon after each watering as the 

 land is fit to work. In case the ground beneath the trees is flooded as 

 recommended, a mulch will be of value to hold the water. 



When this method of irrigation is practiced the water can be carried to 

 the furrows in various ways. If pipes are used and the furrows are twenty 

 or more feet apart, the pipe line may be carried along the ends of the fur- 

 rows and the water supplied at pleasure through small hydrants or fau- 

 cets opposite each of them. A small wooden flume may also be used in 

 the same way. When closer together the water from the feed pipe may 

 be turned into a distributing furrow that is carried along the upper side 

 of the field from which the small furrows receive their supply. A better 

 way is to locate hydrants supplied by one-and-one-half to two-inch pipes 

 from which the water can be turned into the furrows through large fire 

 hose, which can generally be bought quite cheaply second hand. If a 

 large area is to be watered, three-inch pipes should be run to some central 

 point from which it can be distributed in smaller ones. In some cases the 

 small pipes are run upon or just beneath the surface of the soil and are of 

 course taken up in the fall. 



If the furrows are properly laid out and a good head of water is at hand 

 it can be run along a trench for three or four hundred feet, and only a 

 minute or so will be required to fill it; if the land is nearly level it will 

 generally be best to be able to apply the water at intervals of not over two 

 hundred feet. 



SUB-IRRIGATION. 



Although somewhat more expensive at the start, this system will work 

 with little or no care, and on many accounts is preferable to any of the 

 others under proper conditions. It consists of lines of drain tile laid from 

 one to two feet below the surface and at intervals of from ten to thirty 

 feet. The lines of tile should have even less slope than the furrows, if an 

 even distribution is desired, and if level it will be all the better. If there 

 is much head to the water the joints of the tile should be laid as close as 

 possible, and at any rate all large cracks should be avoided. The depth 

 and the intervals between the tiles will depend to some extent upon the 



