124 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



1,000 to 1,500 oranges annually, worth from $15 to $50 per thousand, according to size and 

 quantity.&quot; 



Windmills are sometimes used for pumping water from common wells for the artificial 

 watering of lands. Hydraulic force, in the form of the common hydraulic ram, can also be 

 easily utilized for the same purpose. A recent writer in one of the leading agricultural jour 

 nals, gives the following simple method of irrigating meadows by means of a hillside spring: 



&quot;A typical instance may be given: A hillside field is flooded with water, which either 

 flows from springs above it, or bursts out from springs upon it. The water lies there ; the 

 land has been poached by cattle, turned on to feed down the coarse grass of early growth, 

 when other pastures were still bare, and the surface has grown up into bogs, tussocks, and 

 bunches of reeds, interspersed with muddy pools. Below this lies a meadow which produces 

 only a light crop of hay or scanty pasture for the cows when they are tired of trampling mud 

 up above. Such a piece of land it was once my lot to own, and my business to renovate. The 

 process was as follows: As I could not control the land above the wet part of my field, I dug 

 a drain 3 feet deep along my fence and laid 3 -inch tile in it. This gathered a large quantity 

 of water from the land above, and partly dried the land below. But here there were several 

 strong springs, which melted the snow in the winter, and which were always surrounded with 

 luxuriant green grass. From the upper drain, one-inch tiles were laid, cutting through these 

 springs and the wettest spots. This effectually drained the wet ground. The flow from these 

 tiles discharged into an open sodded ditch or furrow six inches deep, and about eighteen 

 inches wide. The water from this ditch was directed, in small zigzag channels, over the dry 

 ground below; and here and there it was forced to overflow by placing stones in the water 

 way to arrest part of the water. In this way the water could be distributed wherever it was 

 needed, and it furnished a steady supply until late in the summer. The effect the first year 

 was to give two heavy crops of hay from each piece of ground, neither of which had given 

 anything of any value whatever before. 



Since that time, I have improved many similar pieces of ground at a very small expense, 

 as compared with the beneficial results; and I have seen a much larger number that could be 

 improved and made valuable, if the owners could be induced to do the work for themselves. 

 The full reclamation of the tussocky ground gives the most trouble. This is best done by 

 cutting off the bunches of roots with a heavy grub-hoe, and then running over the surface 

 when dry with a disc-harrow, by which the sod is cut up and fresh earth thrown over it, and 

 the surface smoothed. Some fresh grass-seed, and a dressing of ten bushels of lime or two 

 bushels of plaster per acre, is a great help to the growth of the better kinds of grass. I do 

 not advise such ground to be plowed; generally it breaks up very rough, and gives much 

 trouble to reduce to a fine surface again. After a few years the herbage is totally changed, 

 and timothy, red-top, and fescue grass come thickly into both the drained and the irrigated 

 parts of the ground.&quot; 



Secretary Gold, in one of his Agricultural Reports of Connecticut, gives, as an example 

 of the value of irrigation, the farm of Albert G. Ayres of Preston, New London County, 

 Connecticut. It consists of about two hundred and fifty acres of land, of average quality, 

 when compared with the other farms of that vicinity, and has been the homestead of the 

 Ayres family for at least three generations. &quot; The beginning of the system of irrigation that 

 prevails upon the farm dates back to the time of his grandfather, a hundred years ago or 

 more. Any good farmer in passing by would notice the exceptional greenness and fer 

 tility of the southern slope of this farm. This is owing entirely to the free use of water for 

 a hundred years or more upon about forty acres of the farm. The system of irrigation is of 

 the simplest and most inexpensive kind, just such as any enterprising farmer could make for 

 himself without the aid of stone-mason or engineer. Near the north end of the farm a small 

 trout-brook comes in, never big enough for a mill-stream, and in summer often dwindling 



