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TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 



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THE WISE USE OF WATER. 



BY CHARLES W. GREENE. 



EXCEPT for grass and grain crops water should 

 not be used by flooding, and it certainly should 

 not be in the preparation of the ground for the 

 planting of either of them. 



There are certain crops upon which the water may 

 be used with impunity, so far as touching the plant is 

 concerned. Some of the stronger of the garden veg- 

 etables will not be injured by any use of water, while 

 others will certainly be, if the water is allowed to 

 touch the stem of the plant. I am making it an in- 

 variable rule, as a matter of safety, that the water shall 

 not be allowed to touch any plant or the bark of any 

 tree or shrub. Under the best circumstances, it does 

 no good, and is certainly liable to do injury. 



WATER ON THE SURFACE. 



It should be remembered, too, that running water 

 upon the surface of hard-baked land, or of rain-washed 

 land, under a hot sun, will be attended with almost as 

 rapid evaporation as it would be if poured upon the 

 top of a hot stove, nor is its effect advantageous to the 

 surface of the soil when so applied. If, on the other 

 hand, the surface be broken so as to apply the water 

 to the cool under-soil, the absorption is much more 

 rapid and more thorough, and then, with the pulver- 

 ized surface soil, no matter how dry, thrown back 

 upon it, will serve to retain it there many times longer 

 than it will if applied broadcast. 



WATERING ALFALFA. 



In watering alfalfa, if the water is applied about a 

 week before cutting while the ground is shaded, and 

 consequently cool, and especially if it is applied at 

 night, the grass will be in very much better condition 

 for cutting and will start more promptly after cutting 

 by far, than to wait until after it is cut before water- 

 ing. Then, if as soon as the hay can be cleared from 

 the ground, a harrow be run over the surface to break 

 the surface while it is soft, and there be another ap- 

 plication of water, say two or three weeks after the 

 previous one, it will certainly make a very great dif- 

 ference in the yield of the crop. One watering inter- 

 mediate between this and the watering at cutting, 

 will, I believe, invariably insure a good crop of hay. 



MAKING THE FURROWS. 



I have found one of the most useful tools that we 

 have yet used to be the disc cultivator. With these 

 land, in reasonably fair condition, can be thrown into 

 ridges about four feet apart, either rounding ridges or 

 sharp ones. In preparing our land we have found the 



best results to come from throwing the ridges as high 

 as possible, or at least leaving the dead furrows be- 

 tween as deep as possible and applying the water in 

 these furrows. We run our furrows all the way across 

 a forty -acre block, where the slope of the ground per- 

 mits, running the furrow as full as possible until it 

 has nearly reached the lower end, and there shorten- 

 ing the supply so as to run just as much as the ground 

 will absorb by the time it reaches the lower end of the 

 furrow. 



A little stream left in this way for five or six hours 

 will soften almost any of this ground so that it will 

 mire a horse, and will use, in doing so, little more than 

 half the water that would be required, if applied on 

 the surface; and a good irrigator can run ten or twelve 

 of these furrows at a time, and can irrigate more land 

 with less labor, and more uniformly, than he can by 

 flooding. With the same cultivator, with the discs 

 straddling the dead furrow, the ridges of dry earth 

 are thrown down over the water furrow as soon as it 

 is dry enough for the teams to travel over it. Then, 

 by harrowing the ground smoothly, the surface is left 

 thoroughly pulverized and to a depth of six or eight 

 is as mellow as ground need be for any crop. Ground 

 watered in this way need not be watered oftener than 

 once in six weeks, and no matter how hot the weather, 

 moisture will be found within half an inch of the sur- 

 face at any time, and plants will thrive in it. Of 

 course, such ridges can be made by the ordinary plow, 

 but not so cheaply. 



PREPARING THE LAND. 



We plant on the leveled ground with planters after 

 this preparation, and there is moisture enough to bring 

 any plant up and give it a rapid growth until it is 

 from six to twelve inches high, As soon as the plant 

 is large enough, we put the cultivators in for simple 

 cultivation, throwing up as little ridge as possible. 

 Two or three weeks later we run the cultivators 

 through again, and then water in the dead furrows 

 between, following watering by another cultivation 

 with the discs set with a view to leveling down the 

 ridges as much as possible. 



There should, in my opinion, be at least one cultiva- 

 tion between the waterings, and two will be preferable. 

 The finer the surface soil is kept the longer will the 

 ground retain moisture, and the more mellow and 

 pliable will it be to a depth of from twelve to eighteen 

 inches. 



My general rule would be, keep the water off the 

 surface, get it underground from the outset; keep it 

 entirely away from the plants, trees or vines, and use 

 as little as practicable to keep the soil in good growing 

 condition. 



