IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS. 487 



The report of Mr. David Astle, of Vinchmd, X. J., will serve as an 

 illustration of the others. He irrigates potatoes, ))eets, onions, toma- 

 toes, celery, Lima beans, cabbage, etc. His water supply comes from 

 driven wells, is pumped into a tank, and distributed from there 

 through pipes attached to moval)le sprinklers, the form of sprinkler 

 being devised by Mr. Astle. It is a long pipe, supplied at intervals 

 with spraying nozzles and supported by means of a wheel framework. 

 Water is introduced into this by means of a rubber hose. The ground 

 to be watered is supplied from a series of iron pipes, and when one sec- 

 tion has been irrigated the rubber hose is uncoupled and attached to 

 the next tap on the supply pipe. (Sec PI. XXV, tig. 2.) The results 

 of Mr. Astle's experience this year is told in part in a letter, from 

 which the following extract is taken: 



I began irrigating in 1899. The lirst cr(ji> watered was an acre of cabbage and the 

 experiment was a great success. In the spring of 1900 1 irrigated cabbage, beets, 

 potatoes, and onions with excellent results. Irrigation worked so well that I 

 watered all the crops which could be reached with our pipes. Among the crops 

 were two jjlats of potatoes, one of whicji was irrigated and one could not be. The 

 yield from the same area of the irrigated plat was four times that of the unirrigated. 

 In 1902 we irrigated half a plat of ground and left the other half unirrigated. The 

 iniirrigated half was two weeks later in maturing and the i:)roduce greatly inferior in 

 (piality and (luantity. 



During the spring of 1900 we irrigated garden crops adjacent to a field of hay and 

 some of the water fell on the meadow. We harvested twice as much hay from the 

 irrigated portion, although the rainfall for the season was al)undant. 



During the present year we have irrigated a plat of 246 square rods, 227 of which 

 was planted in potatoes. We began irrigating these March 10 and began digging 

 .lune 10. They were all sold by the 20th, and we received a little more than $272 

 for the crop at wholesale rates. During the growth of this crop we had a period of 

 seven weeks in which not a drop of rain fell and without irrigation the crop would 

 have been a complete failure. After the potatoes were harvested 207 rods of the 

 ground wa.s planted in celery. Some of this was injured by a heavy rain and wind- 

 storm while being bleached, but up to the present we have sold at wholesale $278 

 worth, and more than half remains unsold. 



LOinSIANA AND TEXAS. 

 Morton A. ALDRicrr and W. B. Gregory, professors in Tulane University, in charge. 



Five stations for the measurement of the amount of water used in 

 rice irrigation were estiiblished in Louisiana and Texas and complete 

 records obtained from three of them. The others were injured by the 

 l)reaking of levees, which turned the water in or out of the fields where 

 measurements were being kept, and thus destro3'ed the accurac}^ of 

 the records. 



During the summer of 1902 this Office collected a largo number of 

 samples of salt water for the Bureau of Chemistry, and this year our 

 agent has visited the fields on which this M'ater was applied to see 

 whether its eli'ects were noticeable in the subsequent crop. No diffi- 



