22 



Precipitation, April-August, 1903, at Columbia, Mo. — Continued. 



Irrigation was not begun on any of the crops except onions until 

 August, because showers had been frequent and the soil seemed to be 

 fairly well supplied with moisture. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



The value of irrigating an old strawberry field having been fully 

 demonstrated heretofore in these tests, this experiment was planned 

 to determine the effects of watering a young plantation of the vines. 

 The plants were set in the spring and given good culture throughout 

 the season until the irrigation began. In a few rows there was a poor 

 stand, owing to some of the plants having been injured in transplant- 

 ing. Also, this being a partial test of some, a few of the newer 

 varieties planted proved to be weak growers. 



The rows were 4 feet apart and the plants as set stood 2 feet 

 apart in the rows. The irrigating ditches were made by opening a 

 furrow beside each row of plants with a single-shovel plow. This 

 plan was favored because the ground sloped gently from near the 

 center toward both sides — the east and the west — as well as toward 

 the south, the direction in which the water was to flow. The furrows 

 being as near the rows as possible and always on the upper sides, no 

 diificultj^ was experienced in saturating the soil about all of the plants. 

 When the plants had made a good growth the runners had covered 

 nearly all the spaces in the rows between the original plants, and in 

 some parts of the plat there were solid mats of plants as much as a 

 foot wide. 



The water used was secured from the city waterworks system, and 

 was conducted through pipes and hose and fed into a trough, from 

 which it was distributed uniformly into six furrows at a time. 



Water was first turned into the strawberry field on August 3, and 

 was allowed to flow at intervals for five days. The area irrigated 



