36 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



applied at a veiy trifling cost, — so cheaply that it is used for all 

 farm crops in Lorabardy and the south of France. 



In most gardens, however, the supply of water, if any can be 

 found within reach, will be at a level too low to reach the land 

 without pumping, and a few suggestions will here be in order as to 

 the best methods of pumping, which brings us to the next division 

 of the subject. 



3d. The Means of Ajij^lication aiid Distribution over the Land. It 

 will be seen at once b}- any practical person that it would be futile to 

 think of distributing 27,000 gallons of water, or 108 tons to every 

 acre, by means of watering carts. Not onl^' would much time be 

 required, but the land would be badly beaten down by the cart 

 wheels, which would also injure the growing crops. To distribute 

 the water by tiles, laid a foot below the surface, to escape the plow, 

 would be ineffectual, only wetting the subsoil and wasting much 

 water, which would soak into the subsoil or drains. 



The only method of distributing water much used in gardens 

 where pumping is practised, is the system of iron pipes laid under- 

 ground, with h3-drants distant two hundred feet asunder, from which 

 the water is distributed by one hundred feet of India rubber hose. 

 This is also the plan adopted b^^ the gardeners who make use of the 

 public water supply. 



In this method of applying the water, it is not necessar}^ to grade 

 the land with reference to running the water in niearl}- level ditches, 

 as must be done where the open ditch system is used. Where the 

 land is undulating, as is mostly the case with our garden land, it 

 will be desirable to carry the lines of pipe along the high ridges 

 and headlands as much as possible, so as to enable the gardener 

 to let the water run down the grade of the land between the rows 

 of the crops to be watered. This will be found more expeditious 

 and less laborious than carr^'ing the hose down the rows and sprink- 

 ling the whole surface from the nozzle of the hose ; the latter 

 method, however, is sometimes used where the land is very uneven, 

 and where furrows for running the water cannot convenientl}' be 

 made between the thickly planted rows of garden crops. 



Where the water has to be pumped and distributed by hose and 

 sprinkler, it will be found good economy to use a powerful pump, 

 that will give a head of at least thirty feet, and to use for distri- 

 bution, pipes of not less than one and a half inches diameter, pro- 

 vided, of course, that an}' consideralile area — an acre or more — is to 



