THE ART OF IRRIGATION. 



STUDIED WITH REFERENCE TO VARIOUS SOILS, CROPS AND CLIMATES. 



BY T. 8. VAN DYKE. 



[The strongest single feature of THE IRRIGATION AGE for 1894 will be the exhaustive study of irrigation 

 methods by Mr. Van Dyke, begun in the following pages. It is now nearly a year since the author entered 

 into an agreement to produce these papers for serial presentation, to be followed by publication in book form 

 and to appear as the initial volume of " The Irrigation Library," a group of volumes projected by the pub- 

 lishers of THE AGE. Mr. Van Dyke, in "The Art of Irrigation," will deal with the subject in its relation to 

 various soils, crops and climates and will fully present the good and the bad points of all known irrigation 

 methods. The demand for a standard work of this character has never been adequately met until now. The 

 work is copyrighted and can only be obtained by regular readers of this journal. It will be attractively 

 illustrated when opportunity offers. EDITOR.] 



[Copyright 1893. All Eights Keserved.] 



CHAPTER I. 



IRRIGATION AN ART THAT MUST BE LEARNED 

 DIFFICULTIES THAT BESET ONE TRYING TO WORK 

 OUT His OWN EXPERIENCE Too MUCH OR Too 

 LITTLE WATER. 



THAT perversity of human nature that leads us to 

 take hold of so many new subjects by the wrong 

 end seems to rejoice especially in misleading the be- 

 ginner in irrigation. And there are many ways in 

 which it works. It may so discourage him at the out- 

 set that he thinks his land is not adapted for irriga- 

 tion, or that it injures the quality of produce, or that 

 it does not pay the labor and annoyance, or that irri- 

 gation is at best but a wretched substitute for rain, 

 and any country where it is necessary is a good coun- 

 try to vacate. On the other hand this perversity may 

 mislead him into thinking he is accomplishing won- 

 ders when he is really losing money by the day. He 

 may point to his trees with pride and honestly think 

 Providence never- permitted elsewhere such vines as 

 his. And yet, though they look well and are appar- 

 ently yielding well, they may be doing only half or 

 even one-third of what they should be. They may 

 also be suffering from wrong treatment in a way that 

 shows no immediate results yet in a few years may 

 make them worthless. One may also be injuring the 

 laud in various ways without suspecting it, and about 

 the time he has lost considerable money may conclude 

 that irrigation is a heartless hoax. As a rule any irri- 

 gation beats no irrigation. But there is no man who 

 can afford to do bad work where he can as well do 

 good; and nowhere does this apply with such force as 

 in artificial watering of the soil on any extended 

 scale. Nothing is more silly than trying to work 

 out your own experience when some one else has 

 done it for you. Especially is this true of a subject 

 that is so certain to lay snares in the path of the 

 beginner and keep him entangled in them so long as 

 irrigation. 



The first way to avoid the wrong track is to consider 

 the reasons why vegetation needs water. This seems 

 easy. It is easy when you think about it. But it is 

 one of those things that few think about. 



Vegetation requires water: 



First. To enable it to feed. Unless the soil is suffi- 

 ciently moist the fine roots cannot extract those chem- 

 icals which are essential to the growth of the plant. 



Second. To furnish the sap and the water in the 

 fruit, whatever it may be. 



Third. To evaporate, or, rather, perspire. 



The two first are included in the last, for if the 

 ground is moist enough to give the plant all the water 

 it needs to evaporate there is enough for the other two 

 purposes. 



The amount of water required for the two first is a 

 mere trifle compared with what the plant evaporates. 

 A plant, when working heavily, especially in hot 

 weather and a dry air, like a man working hard, is 

 throwing off a vast amount of water from its pores. 



You may get an idea of the amount of this by 

 bringing the branch of a growing tree or vine into a 

 window. Run it into a perfectly dry glass jar and 

 seal it up. Then chill the outside of the jar with cold 

 wet cloths. If the tree is growing well the inside of 

 the glass will cloud over with moisture in a very few 

 minutes. 



A man may accustom himself to working heavily 

 with very little water, though in hot weather he 

 would be the better for plenty of good water to per- 

 spire, but a plant cannot dispense with it, and unless 

 fully supplied will fail in its work. This failure is 

 generally partial, and may show itself in many ways. 

 The only one I shall mention here, because it is 

 enough, is the uniformity of the product. 



Let us take as an example an eastern apple orchard 

 when it has what is there called a "good crop." 



The tree looks well, is well laden, the apples seem 

 fair to the eye and are of good size. That is, every- 



