TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 201 



that you have to apply the stream very slowly. We could easily connect 

 four lines of tile, and a finch hose would supply all they could use. 

 These tiles, placed twelve feet apart, cover a breadth of three rods, and for 

 vegetables and the small fruits, where one only has a supply through the 

 ordinary service pipe, it will water it thoroughly if given time enough; 

 turn the water on and let it run, and it will in time soak the ground 

 thoroughly. 



Many times, if you have large amounts of water, you can easily apply it 

 by means of underground tile, running out from an open ditch. You can 

 pump the water or take it from a stream, fill the ditch with water, and 

 have the tile at a depth of two feet, and two rods apart, thus carrying the 

 water under the ground, and allow it to soak away. These tiles, if placed 

 level, will answer for drains in the spring, and later you can use them for 

 irrigation by closing the lower end of the ditch. But in our case we use 

 the tile to connect the various lines, and even the |-inch hose would carry 

 four lines over 100 feet in length. This small amount of water was ample 

 to sub-irrigate at one time a space of twenty square rods, which would 

 make a very fair-size garden for an ordinary family; and even the |-inch 

 hose was shut off to some extent, for it ran too fast. 



Be careful in sub-irrigation to avoid too steep slopes. If you have a 

 slope of more than a half foot in 100, it will break out in the loose soil 

 where it is not over one foot in depth. Have them laid nearly level, and 

 don't put in too much water. Shut down the force if necessary. 



In sub-irrigating, whether on the surface or with the tiles a foot in 

 depth, we applied from five to eight hundred barrels per acre, once in per- 

 haps two or three w^eeks. 



In irrigating a crop of tomatoes, wo had in one place the tile a foot in 

 depth, in another it was at the surface, while in a third the furrow was 

 used, and a fourth plot was without water at all; and in weighing the 

 crops from these small plots, to learn as to the benefits of the different 

 systems, we found no great difference between the first three. The total 

 yield from the first plat was 1,445 lbs.; No. 2, 1,403; No. 3, 1,343, and No. 4, 

 without water, 1,180 lbs. ; showing a yield of from one third to one half 

 more fruit with water than without. 



While the yield was somewhat greater from the sub-irrigated plots, the 

 gain would be more than counter-balanced by the cost of the tiles and the 

 expense of laying them, so that it is not likely to be desirable except in 

 small gardens or where they can also be used as drains. 



In the case of a crop of snap beans, to which we applied water only 

 three times, commencing when the plants were in their third leaf and 

 repeating at intervals of two weeks, we found that the crop irrigated 

 was ripe the 22d of July, with a total yield for the season of something 

 over 70 pounds from one square rod. Without water, they did not 

 ripen until August 1, or ten days later, and we had for the season only 

 17^ pounds, while we picked from the irrigated plat 76f pounds, or more 

 than four times the yield from the irrigated plats as from those grown 

 without artificial water. 



Another experiment was upon a field of timothy. At one corner of 

 the garden we had, two years ago, a fine crop of timothy, of perhaps an 

 acre, but in 1894 it was badly injured by the dry weather, and this year 

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