PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 85 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Morrill: Such seasons as the last two make people wonder if 

 there is not some way of getting the water where it will do some good. 



Mr. Kork: I have had no experience in artificial irrigation, but I like 

 to study nature. I am not sure, sometimes, but she is a better teacher 

 than any of us. She has a method or irrigating and a method of mulch- 

 ing and of fertilizing, and that is, by means of the snow. The question of 

 the water supply and of irrigation is upon us. Much of our water supply 

 is lost, when the snow drifts into the ravines and streams, and melts 

 while the ground is frozen, and runs to the rivers and lakes. We did not 

 have so much dry weather when we had plenty of forests, and the snow 

 brought plenty of ammonia, and we grew fat. Now our forests are gone, 

 the wind blows off the snows, and we lose the benefit of them. Some 

 of us, up our way, have organized a forestry committee, and we propose 

 planting trees, shelter belts, along our farms, that they may catch the 

 snows and save them. I was in Minnesota once, where they could not 

 dig deep enough to get water, and when they dug they got rocks, so they 

 went to work to save all the snows. I think in this country it stands us 

 in hand to save the snow that falls on our fields, if we can. In my judg- 

 ment there is no one thing that will do us any more good than to save 

 our snows. 



Mr. Monroe: Mr. Burdick, how large a tract can you irrigate by the 

 method mentioned? 



Mr. Burdick : I had five or six acres irrigated by having all the water 

 run down hill. 



(I. How did you manage about the sand? A, I prepared my ditch. 

 At first I let the water run slowly, and went along as the water was 

 running. I took my hoe and puddled the ditch, and when I got through 

 the water would run in the ditch without soaking away much. I have 

 heard it argued that we could not carry the water over sand. I can carry 

 my water a hundred rods, and carry it all the way on sand. 



Mr. Rice: We get rather curious ideas someway. Today I was told 

 that I would have to cut down the timber on each side of my orchard, 

 to keep the frosts off, and now I am told to plant it, to keep the snow on. 



Mr. Morrill : Try both. 



Mr. Ilutchins: I know of two or three places that were surrounded 

 by timber last season, with substantially the same conditions that he 

 suggests, and they were the only ones I know of that were injured by 

 frosts. It makes the temperature a little warmer, advances the buds, 

 and brings them along so that they catch the frosts. I think, after 

 the gentleman has had a little experience, he Avill conclude that it is 

 better to lose the snow. 



Mr. Eice: I think I will cut away the timber and sow oats, and let 

 them stand there to catch the snow. I didn't like the idea of going to 

 work and planting the timber, when I have it cut down. 



Mr. Rork: I did not suppose you would i)lant n forest. 



Mr. Morrill: There is a difference, as you say, Mr. Rork, between a 

 shelter belt and a forest. 



