206 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



less tlian sixty feet. This shows the marvelous capacity of some soils to 

 conduct water laterally by capillary attraction. Early in our experience 

 in irrigation, at Douglas, J was struck with the difference in the soil we 

 now have to deal with in this respect. After the water had been flowing 

 in an open ditch for hours, it had apparently penetrated the soil only a 

 few inches, laterally, and we have often dug down a foot or more, near 

 such a ditch, to find the ground as dry as ever; and this has led us to 

 adojit what is known as the basin method of irrigating trees. Much of 

 our land is sandy to the depth of several feet, with but little humus in 

 its composition. Water applied to the surface soon disappears by the 

 action of gravitation, and there seems to be but little capillary attraction 

 to either draw it sidewise or to bring it to the surface again. We have 

 heard and read with interest discussions of the dust-mulch theory, by 

 which frequent shallow cultivation of the surface is to take the place of 

 irrigation, and possibly of rain, moisture being supplied by capillary 

 attraction from below, and from a limited trial we think well of it, bat 

 still I believe the efficacy of this practice will depend largely upon the 

 character of the soil and subsoil, and that the owner of a deep, sandy 

 soil, though he scratch it ever so diligently, will still occasionally sigh 

 for a little rain or water to freshen things up. 



Again, that method of irrigation which has been practiced with such 

 excellent results by some fruitgrowers, of hauling water in tanks or bar- 

 rels and pouring it into basins around the tree, and covering the moist 

 earth with loose, dry dirt to prevent evaporation, depends largely for its 

 success upon the power of the soil to retain moisture, and I question 

 whether it would be found profitable in a dry, sandy soil. 



Other causes, which produce many variations in methods of distrib- 

 uting water in irrigation, are the contour of the ground or the lay of the 

 land, and the nature of the crop to be irrigated. Thus, with land that is 

 level or nearly so, and for crops whose roots do not penetrate the ground 

 permanently to a considerable depth, and which pay a sufficient profit to 

 a given area to justify the expense, there is no doubt that sub-irrigation, 

 by means of tiles or other conductors laid under ground, works well and 

 is specially useful if the water supply is limited; for, while it is costly in 

 money, it is economical of water. But for general orchard use there are 

 serious objections to it. First, it is too expensive; second, there is danger 

 that the tree roots will penetrate the tiles and clog them; and third, 

 where the ground is undulating it seems to me that sub-irrigation must 

 fail, as the pressure of the water in the tiles will force it to the surface at 

 the low points, and produce such an unequal distribution of the water as 

 to render the system unsatisfactory. 



Now, a few words as to the methods we have adopted and our reasons 

 for adopting them. The land we desired to irrigate consists of about 

 sixty acres, elevated from forty to forty-five feet above the Kalamazoo 

 river, which is our water supply, and about twenty acres more of bottom 

 land along the river, from five to ten feet above the water level. The 

 contour is gently rolling, with a main ridge running nearly through the 

 farm from east to west, from which, generally speaking, the land slopes 

 to the north and south. But this general slope is occasionally broken by 

 slight ridges and ravines, which interfere seriously with the flow of water 

 in ditches run from the main ridge. We first satisfied ourselves that 



