448 State Horticultural Society. 



6 feet long was fastened to the bottom of the wagon. It took two of 

 us to hold the hose and deliver the water to one blackberry row at a 

 time, letting the team walk slowly while we steered the hose and water 

 to the roots of the plants as fast as it would flow. We had 8 acres of 

 blackberries, but there were but 6 acres of late berries, the Kitatinny, to 

 water. The tank held 400 gallons and we hauled one load per hour or 

 4CXX) gallons per day of 10 hours. The ground was so dry and cracked 

 open, that it drank the water greedily, and it went immediately to where 

 it would do the most good. The rows were 8 feet apart and we crowded 

 through the best we could without doing much injury to the canes, but 

 it was a ground hog case. 



It took us about a week to get over the ground once, but it saved 

 the balance of the crop. It cost us $8 per day, or $48 for the job, and we 

 saved $100 worth of berries. The expense and cost of water and labor 

 did not suit me and I determined to work it more economically, so I got 

 a tank and wagon for myself and rigged a 2-inch gas pipe on the rear 

 end of the tank with two elbows and nipple near the tank so that the 

 driver could elevate the gas pipe hinging on the elbow turning on the 

 thread of the nipple when filling and teaming the water and lowering it 

 when ready to deliver the water, so that one man and team could do tne 

 work alone, and the cost of my team and man was about 2 dollars per 

 day, instead of the other rig at $5 per day, and 2 extra hands at $1.25 

 each, saving $5.50 per day, and getting free water at a pond a mile from 

 the field, we could make a trip in one hour and a quarter. 



I used it next on half acre of strawberries when crop was half gone, 

 and hot dry weather began to make the berries smaller. We began at 

 4 p. m. and teamed 3 loads each evening, letting the 2-inch pipe run on 

 to the centre of each row. We kept this up each day for one week, 

 going over half the bed each day and had a very visible gain in size and 

 freshness of the fruit for all the remaining days. This was in 190 1, the 

 dry season. I saved my raspberries without irrigation, but the con- 

 tinued drouth began to tell on my blackberries, of which I had 8 acres. 

 I began irrigating them with the same outfit used in strawberries. I 

 turned the pipe on the middle of the row under the wagon, while I had 

 another elbow and short piece of pipe to carry the water to the outside of 

 the right wheel in the blackberries driving between the rows. It 

 worked all right, but too slow, while the water held out, but after 10 

 days the pond went dry and there being no other supply nearer than 

 Cedar Creek, 31-2 miles away, I gave it up and lost 500 bushels black- 

 berries. 



I have used the same rig to irrigate strawberry plantation in August 



