20 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to assist at such times would be a great advantage. Would recora- 

 nieiid mills of ample power to pump when the wind is very moderate. 

 If" water is only eight to ten feet below the surface, use a six-inch 

 cylinder to a ten-foot mill or an eight to ten inch cylinder to a twelve- 

 foot geared mill. If water is conducted through pipes, the reservoir 

 at the pucup should be elevated eight to twelve feet, for when pipes 

 are extended 300 to 400 feet the pressure is greatly neutralized by the 

 friction. 



If you have plenty of water use it abundantly, warm or cold, and 

 do not slack irrigating if a light shower has fallen. Farmers who 

 have windmills and plenty of water might, as well as not, use the 

 surplus water for irrigating a patch of strawberries and other fruit. 

 Often a few waterings at critical times will be all that is needed. 

 Often another pump could be used for this j)urpose and worked by 

 quadrants and wires, attaching it to the mill several hundred feet dis- 

 tant. A few dollars thus invested might atford a garden bountiful in 

 fruit and vegetables in the driest seasons . 



I would recommend that the land intended for strawberry plants be 

 subsoiled eighteen to twenty inclies deep in the fall, if it can be done 

 then, or early in the spring, and then filled with water. If watered 

 in the fall or winter, the frost will leave it in fine condition for early 

 spring planting, and will retain moisture a long time. 



For subsoiling I have used a breaking plow minus the mould board 

 or rods, but now use a tree digger such as is used to cut one side of a 

 row of trees. I can go as deep as I want to with it and I like it full 

 better than the subsoil plows now used. After irrigating, cultivate 

 the following day and do not allow the ground to bake and dry. 



BENEFITS OF IRRIGATION. 



When I commenced irrigating in 1894, the ground was very dry, 

 the weather extremely hot, and my plants were perishing. Tiiey rap- 

 idly revived when the cold water direct from the well was applied to 

 them. I was told by many older and more experienced men that such 

 watering would ruin the plants; that the water should first be warmed 

 in a tank or reservoir. I had not the time to build tanks or reser- 

 voirs, so tried the direct application of the water to the plants when- 

 ever the pump and mill furnished it, and was pleased to observe that 

 where the plants received the most water they flourished the best. 

 The plants near a leak in the pij)es were especially benefited. 



