PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 31 



facture it for his community? As a commercial article at the drug stores 

 it is too bulky. 



Q. Could not it be got dry? 



A. AVhen you get it dry it is very difficult to get it mixed up with the 

 water. You get lumps. The lime must be thoroughly slaked before 

 using. It could be handled in cheap jugs. It is not any more difficult to 

 make than Bordeaux mixture. 



IRRIGATION. 



BY MR. S. S. BAILEY OP EAST PARIS. 



Never in the history of the state has there been such a general longing 

 for more rain and more water for crops than in the present month of 

 June. In such times the watering of crops by irrigation is receiving, as 

 it deserves, serious consideration. 



To a limited extent, Michigan, which is so blessed with its many small 

 lakes and streams and brooks, has a future before it for irrigation and 

 profit equal to any other state, and artesian wells are yet to play an 

 important part in the work. 



If all the available sources for irrigation were utilized, the state would 

 be enriched beyond computation. Plants once established would last 

 many generations. 



Just how best to utilize and avail ourselves, without too great expense, 

 of the waters that now flow away unused as well as "unvexed to the sea," 

 with no perceptible benefit to mankind, except to commerce, is a question 

 that demands the serious consideration not only of the individual but of 

 the state itself, for whatever benefits the individual benefits the state at 

 large. A thorough investigation and discussion of this subject may bring 

 practical results and show us how we can best utilize these waste waters. 



For the last few years my son and myself have in a small way been 

 practicing irrigation with satisfactory results. On our farm is a small 

 stream made from springs on the farm. At first we diverted the brook by 

 plowing furrows in different directions out on the land in pasture, and by 

 so doing made green fields and fresh pasture out of dried-up grasses. In 

 August, daring a severe drouth, the fields were made as green as in 

 spring. 



These rough experiments led us to thinking we might derive greater 

 benefit by husbanding the water and using it for gardening and more in- 

 tensive farming. We thought the waters that had been running to waste 

 for thousands of years were designed for man's benefit, the same as land; 

 and so, in a suitable place, we built a dam and made a pond covering 

 about three fourths of an acre, and diverted the water into it with a 

 depth of from four to six feet. About twenty rods below this pond is 

 some twenty acres of comparatively level land, about five feet lower 

 thnn tlie top of the pond. On the upper side of this land we made a ditch 

 (using pIoAV and scraper) about three feet wide and eighteen inches deep. 



