96 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tigating a number of places where windmills were used for pumping water 

 for irrigation. 



The peculiar feature which in some form seems a necessity with this 

 plan of irrigating, is the reservoir, already alluded to. These are con- 

 structed at as high a point as possible, by scraping up the soil into an 

 embankment some three or four feet high and enclosing from a few square 

 rods to half an acre or more. Then sufficient water is pumped in to wet 

 the bottom and sides, and the whole is puddled by tramping with horses 

 until the entire surface is reduced so fine as to close the pores in the soil 

 and make it capable of retaining water. At the bottom of this reservoir, 

 on one side, is provided an outlet to admit water into a ditch, from which 

 it is distributed over the land in substantially the same way as heretofore 

 described. 



It may be remembered by some who were present at the meeting of this 

 society at South Haven, that T was not very enthusiastic in speaking of 

 windmills for irrigation ; but in view of what they are actually doing in 

 some portions of the west, there seems to be no denying that under certain 

 conditions windmills are a success for this purpose. But certain facts 

 should be kept in mind. 



A good reservoir of suitable capacity might almost be called the keynote . 

 of success, and second only to an abundant supply of water for a good 

 windmill and pump to draw from. Then we should not forget that the 

 power required to raise water increases as the height increases ; or, to illus- 

 trate, if one windmill will raise a certain quantity of water ten feet in any 

 given time, it would require two mills to raise the same quantity twenty 

 feet. Again, the power required increases as the quantity of water raised 

 increases, or the power required decreases as the time allowed to raise a 

 given quantity of water increases. 



While such facts appear so nearly self-evident as hardly to need stating, 

 yet, if we are not careful, some of them are occasionally overlooked. If, 

 for instance, a man on low ground could get water by going ten feet below 

 the surface, and should erect a windmill, and by the side of it a tank with 

 staves ten feet high, might he not fail to realize, without a second thought, 

 that it would require two mills to pump over into that tank the same 

 amount of water that one mill would deliver at the surface of the ground? 

 Or suppose a man has a well fifty feet deep, and another has one ten feet 

 deep, and the nature of the soil and crops belonging to the former is such 

 as to require irrigating twice as often as the latter, with the same amount 

 of water each time, and each having the same amount of land. Would he 

 be sure to realize at first, that if the latter required one windmill, the 

 former would need ten mills; or that, while one could irrigate only one 

 acre with one mill, the other could irrigate ten acres with the same mill? 



It will be noticed that we speak of using several mills, instead of one 

 larger mill, when more work is required, and generally we think that it 

 will be found more satisfactory, as the first cost is but little, if any, more, 

 and they are less likely to get out of repair and less expensive to put in 

 order if they do need repairing ; and besides, it enables one to start in 

 with an inexpensive mill and then add others as necessity and experience 

 seem to make desirable. It also often happens that a vien of water which 

 is ample to supply a small mill and pump would not afford enough for a 

 large one, although several small ones might be used near enough together 

 to pump into the same reservoir. 



