CAUTIONARY SUGGESTIONS. 179 



of the practice can be reached. To some extent, our 

 appliances are rude and ineffective, and the watering of 

 crops is sometimes done in such a way as to be injurious 

 to them or wasteful of water. Farming by irrigation, 

 beneath an atmosphere in which evaporation is excessively 

 active, requires special skill to avoid misfortune, and the 

 payment of those costly fees which experience demands 

 when employed as a teacher. To recapitulate some of the 

 most important points to be remembered, might be useful 

 here. The first danger into which the inexperienced irri- 

 gator falls, is usually the use of an excessive quantity of 

 water, of a too frequent application of it. The copious 

 ness and frequency of the watering must depend upon 

 the character of the soil and subsoil, to a very great ex 

 tent. A porous, sandy soil, with a similar subsoil, can 

 hardly be injured by over-watering so long as stagnant 

 water is not allowed to remain upon it, and it is sufficient 

 ly well fertilized to bear the vegetation which copious 

 waterings would encourage. Saturation of the soil, long 

 continued, would be fatal to almost every crop. A soil 

 containing 80 per cent of sand, may be copiously irrigated 

 every five days without injury, while another containing 

 but 20 per cent of sand, would not bear moderate irriga 

 tion more frequently than every 10 or 15 days. The 

 watchful care of the cultivator must be exercised to keep 

 the soil moist and mellow and no more. Over watering 

 tends to bake the soil. Flooding the surface also tends 

 to the same injurious effect. Water should be applied 

 in the evening, in preference to any other time, but on 

 no account in the day during the prevalence of sunshine 

 or a drying wind. A calm evening is the very best time 

 to irrigate. The soil then dries upon the surface before 

 morning, and the sun will not bake or crust the ground. 

 During an occasional shower is a specially favorable time, 

 and this opportunity should be seized and utilized without 

 delay. The use of drills, or small water furrows, is pre- 



