98 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



After stopping the pump we were a little surprised to discover that, 

 apparently, the water had penetrated laterally only a very few inches, and 

 we wondered if so much of it had gone directly downward that but little 

 good could result. On the following day, how^ever, the entire surface of 

 the ground had a darker appearance, indicating that moisture had come 

 to, or near, the surface; and, on pushing aside only thin portions of^the 

 soil, moist earth was found. 



The next piece irrigated was a bearing peach orchard that needed culti- 

 vation. Here, as on the former piece of ground, we applied the water in 

 furrows near the trees, and as before it seemed to go downward without 

 wetting the ground laterally. But, unlike the former experiment, it did 

 not come to the surface again, and so we gave the orchard another wetting 

 by flooding the water over the entire surface so far as practicable, instead 

 of confining it to furrows, and as the result of these two experiments it 

 would seem that, for orchards at least, cultivation and irrigation should 

 go together, the former being necessary to draw and gather moisture near 

 the surface; and if cultivation is not practicable, then flooding the surface 

 is better than applying water in furrows. 



And now a few words as to results. It must be remembered that water 

 was applied to the bearing orchard but a few weeks before time for gather- 

 ing fruit, and it had not received proper cultivation ; yet, on carefully 

 sorting the fruit with a grading machine, a plain difference in the size of 

 the peaches was shown, and on the irrigated piece of ground there could 

 be clearly seen, within two weeks, an improvement in appearance of trees 

 and plants. In fact, before watering, quite a number of the strawberry 

 plants were dead or dying from drought, while, after watering, those not 

 already too far gone took on an altogether better appearance, while the 

 potatoes yielded double what anyone would have expected had water not 

 been applied. 



On the whole, our experiments are, so far as we can see, quite satisfac- 

 tory thus far, and we intend to continue them another year if the season 

 should be dry. Having already moved our engine and pump so we can 

 draw water directly from the Kalamazoo river, we do not anticipate any 

 further trouble from an insufficient supply ; and, while we do not expect 

 to show all the benefits of irrigation in one or two seasons, yet in time we 

 may be able to demonstrate either our own folly in undertaking such a 

 thing, or the folly of allowing orchards to suffer from dry weather in a state 

 almost surrounded by water and abounding in streams and inland lakes. 



Mr. Morrill: Is it practicable to drive four-inch tubular wells to a 

 lower level, from a height, and pump in quantities to pay? 



Mr. Williams: Yes, for fruit, but not for com or other such crops. 



Mr. Tracy: I have at times been in Kansas where they irrigate by use 

 of pumps, many of them being very crude contrivances. They make large 

 reservoirs, on elevated spots, from which they irrigate from five to ten 

 acres of ground. I have heard men there speak of the great possibilities 

 of irrigation in Michigan. Large quantities of water are necessary to the 

 accomplishment of anything practical. But they have water in Kansas, 

 Nebraska, and Colorado which is thick — you can not see into it. It flows 



