28 



No. 25. William Ash, of Cumberland County, irripites 3^ acres, one 

 half acre of which is under glass. The water is pumped from a dug 

 well Sh feet square and 15 feet deep, curbed with wood and brick. 

 The well was sunk at a cost of $16. Water stands 5 to 13 feet below 

 the surface. A 2 ^-horsepower gasoline engme drives two double- 

 acting pumps, which deliver 60 gallons per minute to a line of 2-inch 

 pipe 900 feet long. Three gallons of gasoline, costing 16 cents per 

 gallon, are consumed in a ten hours' run. 



The soil is a light sandy loam 10 inches deep, with a sandy clay sub- 

 soil. The sprinkling svstem is used, with four lines of f-inch pipe, 

 each of which has three water witches 17 feet apart. The f-inch pipes 

 are set in the field from 14 to 18 feet apart and are connected to a 

 2-inch main by not to exceed 60 feet of .j-incli hose. Normally the 

 sprinklers run for one-half hour in a place, though sometimes an hour. 

 The plant will irrigate 1| acres in a twelve hours' run, during which it 

 will take about one-fourth of a man's time to attend to the irrigation 

 and move the pipes. The cost of labor is $1.50 per day. The maxi- 

 mum lift against which the pump operates is 18 feet. The total cost 

 of the plant was $700, the engine costing $150. 



From two to three crops are grown on the same land, the spring 

 crops consisting mamly of cauliflower, radishes, beets, and cabbage, 

 and the fall crop of lettuce. Irrigation will fidly double the crop in 

 average seasons. The following table shows the yield of the various 

 crops and the frequency of irrigation : 



Irrigated crops near Vineland, N . J . 



Crop. 



Yield 

 per acre. 



Beets bunches.. 



Cabbage heads. . 



Cauliflower do 



Radishes bunches. . 



Lettuce heads.. 



20,000 



12,000 

 12,000 



Rate. 



3i cents per 



bunch. 

 $1 per barrel . 

 $1.50 per bar- 

 rel. 

 20,000 5 cents per 



bunch. 

 51,000 



Value. 



$700 



350 

 750 



1,000 



1,000 



Maximum 



irriga- 

 tions per 

 crop. 



Irrigation season. 



May 20 to .Tunc 20. 



Do. 



May 20 to July 1. 



Aug. 15 to Oct. 1. 



In the driest weather crops are irrigated not more than twice a week, 

 sprinklers being allowed to run for one hour in the same place. Five 

 hundred and fifty bushels of potatoes were raised on an acre of good 

 rich irrigated truck land and 300 bushels on an acre of poorer soil. 

 One acre of unirrigated land, the soil of which was better than the 

 second plat of irrigated potatoes, yielded 90 bushels. 



No. 26. George Mitchell, of Cumberland County, has an irrigation 

 plant of sufficient capacity to irrigate 10 acres of truck land. The 

 water comes from a small creek near the farm, across which a small dam 

 has been erected. In dry weather, when the supply from the creek is 

 insufficient, the storage afforded b}" the dam will supply the pun>p for 



