GARDEN IRRIGATION ITS ADVANTAGES AND LIMITS. 41 



means of it had made light, sand}- loam productive, and succeeded 

 in raising pears where he supposed it was impossible to grow them. 

 Now that he has got water he needs manure. It is injurious to 

 apply water in large quantities without drainage. The summer 

 before last his sweet peas stopped blooming in July, and he let so 

 much water on to the ground that when he attempted to walk on it 

 he sank eight inches. The peas began to bloom again and con- 

 tinued until frost. He did the same last year, but they must have 

 plenty of manure as well as water. He did not think it would pay 

 to use water at the rate of twenty-five cents for a thousand gallons. 

 He gets his supply from the Concord water-works, which have a 

 hundred feet head. The Water Board can furnish water at low 

 rates, and are read}' to make liberal terms with gardeners. He did 

 not believe it would pa}- to use water through a meter. No crop 

 takes the moisture out of the soil more quickly than strawberries, 

 and for these and other crops which soon suffer for want of water 

 he lets the water run down the rows all night from half a dozen 

 large pipes. 



Mr. Wilder said that the secret how Mr. Moore produced his 

 large sti-awberries had now come out, and that Mr. Moore did not 

 sell his brains with his plants. 



N. B. White had used sink drainage without perceiving any good 

 results from it, and would rather have pure water than greasy 

 matter from a cesspool, unless enough alkali were added to it to 

 cut the grease. 



James Cruickslianks spoke of the method of disposing of sewage 

 in Edinburgh, where it is collected in a tank with a gate made so 

 as to lift and let out the contents of the tank on mowing land. In 

 this way five or six heavy crops were raised in one season. 



President Gray said that the best crop of grapes he had ever 

 seen was from vines watered with soap suds. 



Mr. Atkinson said that the alkali used in making soap disin- 

 tegrates the grease so that it would have a good effect on vegeta- 

 tion. When he succeeded Mr. Oldaker as gardener, he applied all 

 the wood and coal ashes made in the house to the garden. This 

 ■ contained little bits of fat which were neutralized by the alkali of 

 the ashes, and he thought that when thus neutralized the more of 

 animal matter there was in manure the better. 



Mr. Moore asked if the grease could properly be called grease 

 after being changed by mixture of alkali. 

 6 



