42 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cracks between them, with a slope of not over one foot in one hundred. 

 This system seems of value for crops grown in close drills, and where 

 one has only a small supply of water, or only a small pipe to carry 

 the water, as one only needs to turn the water into the 

 tiles and can go off and leave it running for the proper length of 

 time. On the other hand, surface watering requires some attention. 

 We use, to distribute the water, a series of wooden troughs, each sixteen 

 feet long and eight inches square, that can be taken up and moved from 

 point to point. At intervals of three feet along one side, these have two- 

 inch holes that can be closed with zinc slides. At the end of each section 

 of the troughs there is a wooden gate, by means of which the water can 

 be held back as desired. With three troughs we can water a strip fifty 

 feet wide, running down each of the fifteen rows a stream of water about 

 as large as would be supplied by a three-fourths-inch hose, which is 

 about as fast as it can be applied without washing the soil. If one hun- 

 dred gallons per minute, which is the capacity of a two-aud-one-half-inch 

 pipe, is applied, it will require about one and one half hours to water 

 rows three hundred feet in length. This amount of water over an acre 

 would cover it to the depth of an inch, and would amount to 27,000 gal- 

 lons. With a stream of this size running from a single hydrant, a man 

 can water two acres per day, while the amount of water that can be sup- 

 plied by the pump is such that, with two hydrants running, two men can 

 easily cover four acres and put on each nearly a thousand barrels of 

 water, which will be suflScient to wet down to the depth of a foot in ordi- 

 nary soil. We applied this amount of water a week ago to the potatoes. 

 The soil was then cultivated, to retain the moisture, and today the soil 

 seems to be quite moist. Some advise withholding water from potatoes 

 after they blossom, while others grow them without water until that time. 

 We shall have a plot treated in each way, a third watered both before 

 and after blooming, and a fourth plot that will receive no water at any 

 time. 



Although not yet complete, an experiment with garden peas shows a 

 marked effect from the use of water. As with the potatoes, a portion 

 were grown without water, while the remainder received two applica- 

 tions. 



The irrigated section is drier and lighter land than the unirrigated, so 

 that it is at a disadvantage, but from present appearances we shall have 

 three times the yield of pods that will be gathered from the unirrigated 

 section. This will mean a gain of nearly a ton per acre in the crop of 

 peas, at an expense for applying the water of about two dollars per acre. 



One of the hydrants stands in a small piece of timothy, and when not 

 using the water for the garden the water has on three occasions been 

 allowed to run upon the timothy. There the heads stand perhaps three 

 feet high, while upon the portion without water the grass is drying up and 

 the crop will hardly be worth gathering. On one occasion it was allowed 

 to run for an hour or so upon another section, and within a few hours a 

 marked difference in the appearance of the two plots was observable, 

 andthe section that has received the water will probably yield three times 

 the amount of hay that the one without water will cut. This indicates 

 that one can afford to go to a considerable expense to obtain water for 

 meadow land. If a stream or pond can be tapped at a point above the 



