44 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Superintendent Gregg is very reasonable in the allowance of time 
given our subject. Itisnot his policy to force anything upon our 
audiences, unless they show some interest and are inclined to re- 
spond. The writer does not feel satisfied with his own success in 
stirring up our people as they should be on the matter of making 
the surroundings of our Minnesota homes attractive to ourselves 
and a refining influence and pleasant memory for our children. We 
feel certain that if we can find a man or woman among our horti- 
culturists who combines a good practical knowledge of his subject 
with entertaining platform ability he will be accorded the most 
prominent place at the institute. 
4 
COST OF PUMPING WATER. 
GEO. LE VESCONTE, IRRIGATING ENGINEER, MINNEAPOLIS. 
In making an estimate of the cost of lifting water for irrigating 
purposes, it is first necessary to decide what type of pumping appa- 
ratus is best adapted to our conditions. For small quantities of 
water, forced against heavy pressures, the direct acting steam pump 
is most generally used. These pumps will consume about twenty- 
five pounds of soft coal per horse-power perhour. That is, for every 
33,000 pounds of water delivered against a pressure due to one foot 
head, or for every 330 pounds delivered against a pressure due to one 
hundred feet head in one minute, twenty-five pounds of coal will be 
burnt in one hour. 
For large quantities of water and low lifts,all hydraulic engineers 
agree that the centrifugal pump, driven by a steam engine, is about 
the best and cheapest method of pumping. These pumps will raise 
water on a coal consumption of from three to eight pounds of coal 
per horse-power per hour, according to the type of engine used to 
drive them. 
‘There are, of course, many other kinds of apparatus in use, such, 
for instance, as the various kinds of plunger pumps, steam syphons, 
injectors, steam vacuum pumps, etc. These latter have their advan- 
tage of first cost being light, and they deliver the water more or less 
warm, but the cost of operation is considerable, the vacuum pumps 
using about sixty-five pounds of coal, while steam syphons and in- 
jectors will consume as much as one hundred pounds of coal per 
horse-power per hour. If gasoline engines be used to drive centrifu- 
gal pumps about one pint of gasoline per horse-power per hour will 
be used. In most climates,and especially on market gardens, about 
twelve inches of water per year is considered the right quantity to . 
use. Now, if we use that amount and lift it, say twenty feet, it will 
take about thirty-five horse-power hours at a fuel consumption, ifa 
centrifugal pump and steam engine be used, of not to exceed eight 
pounds of coal per horse-power, or 270 pounds of coal per acre. This 
amount of coal, at $6 per ton, will cost eighty-one cents, so the an- 
nual expense of irrigating one acre of land, exclusive of labor 
should not exceed eighty cents for a twenty foot lift,and higher lifts 
will be in proportion. 
