66 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
As to the question “Will it pay toirrigate?”’ If the summers are 
all to be like the last, it certainly will. But if we are going to have 
the rainfall in the future average as it has in the past, I think it 
doubtful; and would advise any one about to try it, to commence on 
a small scale at first, and then if it pays to extend it. And just here 
I want to say that it requires an astonishing amount of water to 
keep plants thriving ina drouth. On the quarter acre of strawber- 
ries watered last summer, I put at least one hundred and forty bar- 
rels of water a week, from the middle of May till the last of the ber- 
ries were ripe, June 25th, and that was not near as much as they 
ought to have had. 
And on the tomatoes, fifty-two plants, I put one-third of a barrel 
of water on each plant, three times a week. Making just a barrel a 
week for each plant. That was enough, and I never saw tomatoes 
do better. I picked thirty-one bushels of splendid tomatoes from 
them, making the yield at the rate of nine hundred bushels per acre. 
My experience leads me to think that six hundred barrels of water a 
week, would be needed on each acre of sandy soil during sucha 
drouth as we had last summer. I have heard folks say that no 
amount of watering would equal a rain, but think it is a mistake, 
and that if enough water is put on, and it is done inthe evening, and 
keptup, strawberries, tomatoes, and perhaps anything else, will do 
as well as though they had plenty of rain. 
In conclusion, I will say that I have never regretted having gone 
to the expense of irrigating ; the satisfaction of being able to keep 
the garden greenina drouth counting for something, as well as the 
dollars to be made by it. 
IRRIGATING SMALL FRUIT WITH WINDMILL AND TANK. 
A. H. BRACKETT, LONG LAKE. 
I was asked by our secretary to write a short paper on the above 
subject,as that was the method I pursued in the transmission of 
water to my fruit this past season. Do not think that I consider it 
wholly practical on any great scale, but I used the meansI had at 
hand to get the greatest good fromit. The outfit was put in more 
particularly for domestic use, as I had no water in the immediate 
vicinity. I have a two and one-half inch tubular well 244 feet deep, 
costing $500, a 240 barrel tank on a twenty foot substructure, costing 
$200, and a fifty foot tower with a fourteen foot Geared Duplex mill 
for $275, making a total of $1,000. The tank is in a grinding building 
to prevent freezing. The pump was adjusted to make about eight 
strokes to the gallon, so that it would take about seventy-two hours 
or less continuous pumping to fill the tank with an ordinary wind; 
but, unfortunately, the wheel was atastandstill about two-thirds of 
the time. I would state that the water flows to within forty-five feet 
of the surface. I have one-inch pipes to conduct the water to the 
berries, with hydrants or faucets at the higher elevations. 
I started the mill as soon in May as the ground began to dry out 
and it remained open until after the blackberries were over. I gen- 
erally allowed the water to accumulate to about two-thirds of a tank- 
full before using and then ran the hose to the upper ends of the rows 
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