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'1HE IRRIGATION AGE. 



STRAWBERRIES BY IRRIGATION. 



MR. B. F. SMITH, of Lawrence, Kas., is a most 

 intelligent and enterprising horticulturist. Al- 

 though located in the eastern part of the State, 

 which receives what is considered abundant rainfall 

 for all agricultural purposes, according to old stand- 



MONTROSE COUNTY, COLO., FRUITS. 



ards, he has had this season a practical self-taught les- 

 son as the value of irrigation, even in a humid region. 

 In a recent number of Smith's Fruit Farmer, he 

 gives an account of the lesson referred to. If similar 

 experiences, the past season, of farmers and horti- 

 culturists the county over, could be collected and 

 published, they would constitute a valuable addition 

 to the practical experience and suggestions helpful 

 to irrigators in general. THE AGE would gladly re- 

 ceive accounts of such experiments from all sources 

 for publication. Mr. Smith tells his experience as 

 follows: 



THE TEMPTATION. 



" From the first laying of the city water pipes along 

 the street near one of my berry patches, I have de- 

 sired an excuse to experiment with water applied to 

 strawberries during the ripening season. The drouth 

 in April and May presented the opportunity to try a 

 little irrigation scheme, different from any I have 

 ever heard of in the west. 



" It was about the 10th of May that I observed that 

 my strawberry plants were starving for water. I 

 then sought for information about the cost of pipes, 

 hose, etc., from a reliable pump and water fixture 

 man of Lawrence. He figured quite a large bill for 

 pipe to be laid two and one-half feet below the sur- 

 face of the soil. I hesitated at the expense of ditch- 

 ing for pipe and suggested laying it on top of the 

 ground, as I had no use for the water in the fall or 

 winter season. I found the pipe could be thus laid at 

 considerably less expense, and that I could remove 

 piping after the summer season was gone. 



LAYING PIPE. 



" So I laid the piping on top of the ground along the 

 roadways through a two-and-a-fourth acre berry 



patch. Three hundred of the five hundred feet of 

 pipe used is common inch iron, and two hundred feet, 

 half inch galvanized iron pipe. At intervals of about 

 one hundred feet are water cocks or faucets for at- 

 taching a three-fourths-inch rubber hose. This hose 

 being one hundred feet long enabled me to reach the 

 entire berry patch. Beginning at the first faucet, I 

 watered all within reach of it, then moved the hose 

 to the second faucet, and so on till the whole patch 

 was watered. 



LEARNS A LESSON. 



"At the commencement of the experiment I used a 

 nozzle in the manner that we water our lawns; but 

 soon discovered that the better way was to dispense 

 with the nozzle and let the water run out of the rows 

 of berries from the end of the hose. The water was 

 thus applied at the rate of about a gallon to every 

 twenty inches in length of the row. This amount of 

 water thoroughly soaked the rows, but not the entire 

 space between the rows, which is not necessary to the 

 well ripening of the berries, as the water supply is 

 wanted among the roots. Then to have watered the 

 two feet space between the rows would have taken 

 double the amount of water, with no addition of fruit. 



"The irrigating was all done at night. The time 

 taken to go over the patch was twenty-eight hours 

 and the cost to apply the water ten cents per hour. I 

 used 16,000 gallons of water the first application and 

 10,000 gallons the second application. There was an 

 interval of a week between the waterings. The water 

 company charged fifteen cents per 1,000 gallons. 



THE RECKONING. 



" The piping and hose cost me $60; water, $5.25; ap- 

 plication to the plants, $5.60; total, $70.85. I got the 

 water plant ready to work May 19. Up to that time 

 I had picked the patch over three times, and in my 

 estimate of the crop by those pickings, I would have 

 gotten about seventy-five crates off the patch, but 

 with the use of water I gathered 225 twenty-four 

 quart crates of berries. In fact, 150 crates might be 

 placed to the credit of my irrigation experiment. 

 One hundred and fifty crates at $2.10 per crate, the 

 average of the crop, figured up $365. Subtracting 

 the water expense, $70.85, we have left to the credit 

 of Kaw river water, $294.15. Had there been no kill- 



HOME OF A FRUIT GROWER. 



ing frost in May, and had I applied the water ten 

 days sooner than I did, I honestly believe this berry 

 patch under irrigation would have yielded 400 crates 

 of berries. 



" Now these irrigating fixtures will be housed in the 

 barn the coming winter, and replaced early next sea- 



