302 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



DOt an abundant supply of water, it would be well to commence to irri- 

 gate in November and continue until May, so that all might be supplied 

 with water, and perhaps equally benefited. 



In regard to corn, the land should be thoroughl}- wet before planting, 

 then with proper cultivation and one time irrigating, say in June, will 

 warrant a good crop. So with fruit trees; once thoroughly wetting the 

 land, sa}' in Maj' or June, is sufficient to warrant a good crop of iruit. 

 Vegetables, of course, should be irrigated as occasion may require. 



In regard to the cost of irrigating lands, no definite amount can be 

 stated as a universal rule, for the reason that it depends entirely on the 

 lay of the land and the character of'the soil. Land that is level, with a 

 smooth surface and clay soil, requires much less water than land that 

 laj'S with a rapid fall, an uneven surface, and sandy soil, and hence the 

 cost must necessaril}^ vary. But the farmers in this vicinity svho have 

 experimented for the last five years, agree in saying that where land is 

 properly prepared, that the average cost will not exceed one dollar per 

 acre, at four dollars per foot for twenty-four hours for water, which is 

 the price charged by the Cacheville Agricultural Ditch Company for 

 water from their ditch. In eighteen hundred and 6ixt3% the 3'ear the 

 ditch was completed, there was irrigated about five hundred acres : in 

 eighteen hundred and sixty-one, one thousand five hundred; in eighteen 

 hundred and sixty-two, five hundred ; in eighteen hundred and sixty- 

 three, one thousand two hundred; in eighteen hundred and sixty-four, 

 one thousand ; in eighteen hundred and sixty-five, one thousand five 

 hundred acres. 



STATEMENT OF U. WYCKOFF, OF WOODLAND. 



I. N. HoACx, Esq., 



Secretary State Board of Agriculture : 



Sir: — In compliance with your request, I send you such matters in 

 reference to irrigation that have fallen under my observation. 



The amount of land irrigated during the year eighteen hundred and 

 sixty-five does not fall much short of five thousand acres. The amount 

 of land that might readily be reached by our ditch is near twenty-five 

 thousand acres ; and if the ditch was put in good condition, would have 

 sufficient capacity to irrigate the most of this, if the lands were prepared 

 to receive the water, and applied at proper season. Last 3'ear was 

 more than the average in the supply of rain, still the increase of crops 

 throughout the neighborhood was at least tweut}' per cent. I know one 

 piece of land that was irrigated, then ploughed and sowed, which yielded 

 sixty-five bushels of barley to the acre ; land that has jiroduced but one 

 crop that paid the expenses for the past ten years. This case, in my 

 opinion, showed an increase of fifty per cent in a year, which was better 

 than an average, thus proving that there are some lands that ma}- be 

 benefited even in the best of seasons. I am fully of the opinion, that 

 however favorable the season may be for some land, there are those in 

 the same neighborhood that may be so greatly benefited that the crop 

 throughout will exhibit an increase of at least twenty per cent. There- 

 fore, 1 deduce that even in good seasons, an irrigating ditch through a 



