17 



Furrow irrijjrttioii is used for pcUatoos, and floodini:: down the slope 

 for grass. 



No. 4. P. B. Dilks has a 3-acre irri^rated farm near Philadelpliia, 

 the water being supplied by a pumping plant. A triplex double- 

 acting pump delivering 50 gallons per minute is driven by a 4-horse- 

 power gasoline engine. Water is lifted 14 feet and forced through 

 600 feet of 2-inch pipe. The plant is usually operated twelve hours 

 per day, in which time 1 acre is irrigated to a depth of 1.3 inches. 

 Sometimes only half this depth is used. The engine is not loaded to 

 its capacity and consumes but 2 gallons of gasoline in twelve hours. 

 The engine and pump cost SoOO, pipe and hose $300, making the total 

 cost of the plant $800. Two-inch piping costs 20 cents per foot. 



The crops irrigated are celery, cabbage, and lettuce, and in very 

 dry seasons beets and radishes. The entire flow of the pump is 

 turned into one furrow, and takes ten to thirty minutes to run through. 

 The furrows vary in length from 200 to 350 feet and are 2.5 feet apart. 

 Occasionally the ground is sprinkled to kill lice on the celery or 

 lettuce. Celery is irrigated once a week in dry weather, requiring 

 three to four irrigations in a season. In dr\' weather irrigated celery 

 and cabbage gave excellent yields, while unirrigated crops were a 

 failure. Irrigated lettuce was 75 per cent better than unirrigated. 

 One acre of celery will bring on an average $300, and 1 acre of cabbage 

 $400, the price usually received for cabbage being $1 per barrel. 

 Cabbage is irrigated in drj^ weather only when heading. The owner 

 estimates that this single irrigation fully doubles the yield, and that 

 the value of the celery crop is also doubled by irrigation. 



No. 5. M. V. Dilks, on an adjoining farm, irrigates an acre of 

 truck with water from the city waterworks. The flow is about 18 

 gallons per minute and the cost of the water $30 per year. 



No. 6. Alfred Paul, of Montgomery County, irrigates one-half acre 

 of strawberries with water from a springy applied by the furrow 

 system. The net returns from the crop were $250. Irrigation is 

 said to double the value of the crop, and in 1905 it would have been 

 a failure without water. Water is applied during the night, the 

 irrigation season lasting only about two weeks. The total cost of 

 developing the water supply was $50. 



No. 7. U. J. Wieand, of Lehigh County, has a pumping plant for 4 

 acres of strawberries and potatoes. The plant consists of a 5-horse- 

 power motor taking its power from a trolley line, and a No. 2 cen- 

 trifugal pump delivering 165 gallons per minute against a 24-foot 

 lift. It takes twenty-four hours to irrigate the 4 acres by the furrow 

 system, making a depth of 2.2 inches. Mr. Wieand intends to install 

 a 15-horsepower motor for the irrigation of 100 acres to be planted in 

 rye, hay, and potatoes. He estimates that the irrigation season for 

 potatoes would last six weeks. 



