22 VEGETABLE GARDENING 



soils. In clayey soil the water runs too slowly through the 

 sides of the tiles. Land tiles make as good channels as 

 any for this purpose. They should be buried a few inches 

 below or by the side of the plants to be watered, being laid 

 level with open joints. Some experiments seem to show 

 that it is a very wasteful way of using water, while others 

 have shown this system to be economical. As practiced 

 for watering plants in greenhouse benches, especially for 

 lettuce, it has given excellent results. 



Objections to the system are that it is too expensive to 

 supply tile and take them up and reset each year, unless 

 they are set deep below the surface. It will not work well 

 in all kinds of soil. On the other hand, there is less waste 

 of water and less baking of the soil when this system is used. 

 Overhead or Skinner System. The Skinner system of 

 watering first came into use about 1904, and this system, 

 or modifications of it, has been of great value to gardeners 



and florists generally. 

 It is used quite exten- 

 sively throughout the 

 market gardening dis- 



r^N^-fS tricts of the East and to 



some extent in the West, 

 m ifflOS MM an< ^ ^ as P roven f ' im ~ 

 mense value to some 



garden crops and also to 

 Fig. 4. The skinner union. greenhouse vegetables. 



The advantages of the Skinner system over other sys- 

 tems are: 



1. Water is applied uniformly and in a fine spray; 

 thus the ground is not crusted or the plants injured. 



2. Very little labor is required to operate the system. 



