624 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



GARDEN IRRIGATION 



By PROF. J. W. GREGG, State College, Pa. 



The expen'once of the farmer in every century and age lias shown 

 that the productiveness of the soil dejjends 1o a great extent upon 

 an adequate sujtply of water; no water, no crops; no crops, no 

 animals; and in the case of countries like India, oftentimes a loss 

 ()t' human life. 



Some form of irrigation has been known and practiced in the 

 older European countries for hundreds of years, and even in our 

 own country the idea is not new and yet it is safe to say that sixty 

 yeais ago the practice of irrigation (m a connpercial scale was prac- 

 tically new to the people of this country. Conditions are now rapidly 

 changing and there are hundreds of market gardeners and green- 

 house men that are making use of some form of irrigation to pro- 

 duce for them the maximum returns from a given area. With all 

 this rapid progress that is being made by many up-to-date growers, 

 there are those who still depend upon the natural rainfall to furnish 

 enough water for their growing crops. These men ai"e not awake 

 to the improved methods now in use by successful truckers and still 

 associate irrigation with that vast area of parched laud west of the 

 Mississippi, and little do they realize the importance of some form 

 of irrigation in their own constantly varying climatic conditions. 

 These same men may not be questioning the extensive use of manures 

 and chemical fertilizers, neither do they undei-value the practice of 

 thorough cultivation or drainage, yet with all their diligent culture 

 and generous fertilization, they are annually incurring losses amount- 

 ing to thousands of dollars because they are unable to supply water 

 when needed by the growing crop. It is loo often the case that the 

 grower sees the returns for his j^ear's labor and expenditures fade 

 away in a few days or weeks of uncontrolled drought. 



The question that naturally arises is why are so many growers 

 neglecting the use of some method of irrigation? There seems to 

 be three reasons: First, the prevalence of the old idea that irriga- 

 tion is of value only in the arid sections of the west; second, the 

 general ignorance of the ease and cheapness tliat some form of irri- 

 gation may be installed, used, and maintained as compared with the 

 great annual loss without such ])ractice; and, third, the failure to 

 recognize or realize that a constant supply of water promotes in 

 growing crops a more complete development of the crop, more 

 luxuriant and uniform groAvth and early maturity to say nothing of 

 increased quality or, in other words, many do not know the agri- 

 cultural duty of water and fail to align the practice of irrigation 

 with fertilization, cultivation, and drainage as a factor in intensive 

 culture. 



In order that we may fully apijreciate the importance of some 

 form of irrigation, let us consider briefly what has been called the 

 agricultural duty of water as it is concerned with the growing 

 plant. Soil water carries mineral and organic matter and is to the 

 soil and plant as blood to the human body. A soil may become 



