244 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



acre, worth less than $6. 50 per acre at 

 the farm. It is manifestly impossible 

 for land either North or South which 

 yields only thirteen bushels of wheat 

 or 200 pounds of cotton per acre to 

 produce beets to the value of $100 

 per acre. And experience in Cali- 

 fornia, Nebraska, Utah and Virginia 

 shows conclusively that the best beet land 

 in cultivation in most of those States does 

 not give the returns announced by the 

 Florida Farmer. But an average of 

 thirteen tons of beets per acre which sold 

 at $5 per ton during the life of the 

 bounty law is the highest product ever 

 reached in this country and probably in 

 the world on large areas. Thus, while 

 sugar production should be encouraged 

 by all legitimate means, it should not be 

 stimulated by holding out inducements 

 impossible to realize. But let the sugar 

 industries be built up! There is ample 

 room for them to flourish. 



PRACTICAL FRUIT AND VEGETABLE 

 IRRIGATION. 



JOHN TANNAHILL, f Columbus, 

 Neb., in a recent speech before the 

 Horticultural Society, gave the following 

 as the result of his work: 



"From 'an orchard of apple trees, of 

 which 190 are beginning to bear, I got 

 twenty bushels of apples in 1894, and 

 this year I got from the same trees over 

 300 bushels. The trees are twenty feet 

 apart; water is run between the rows, and 

 I find that it does not take nearly so much 

 water this winter as it did last, for the 

 reason that the subsoil has been moist 

 since last winter. As an experiment, I 

 left some apple, cherry and apricot trees 

 un watered last winter; those apple trees 

 not watered were in bloom just six days be- 

 fore those that were watered, with the ex- 

 ception of one tree that I mulched, which, 

 after watering, was six days later and was 

 loaded with fruit. The spring frosts hurt 

 some of those that were watered, but,as they 

 were not overloaded, the fruit was much 

 larger and very superior to that of the 

 others. Of those trees not watered two 

 died and seven had some fruit to set, but 

 it kept dropping until time of ripening, 

 when there was but very little of it left, 

 and that was poor, almost worthless. My 



cherry trees, ninety-three of which I 

 watered, bloomed two days later than 

 those not watered, and all were heavily 

 laden with large, juicy fruit, none drop- 

 ping off or drying up; of the eighteen un- 

 watered, ten died, eight bore very inferior 

 fruit, hardly worth picking, and the trees 

 made but six inches of growth of wood, 

 while those watered made a growth of 

 twelve inches. The cherry trees were 

 watered during the last week of Decem- 

 ber, and received no water before or after; 

 the apple trees were watered previous to 

 this and when the ground was frozen. 

 Water goes much farther and does more 

 good in orchards if used in winter, but 

 in no case let the water come into contact 

 with the body of the tree, as freezing will 

 injure it. Always have the ground a few 

 inches higher around the tree. 



AS TO VEGETABLES. 



" I irrigated six acres for vegetables 

 and made more profit off those six acres 

 than off thirty acres unwatered. I grew 

 from one-fourth acre that was watered 

 three crops of cabbage, and the best part 

 of it was that I got a good head of cabbage 

 from every plant. At the same time I 

 had two acres of unwatered cabbage, and 

 I did not get one-fourth as many as from 

 the one-fourth acre, and they were very 

 poor. I plant cabbage two by four feet 

 and water between the rows. The ground 

 should be kept not only moist, but quite 

 wet for them. When I see a cabbage be- 

 ginning to head, I set a plant close by it, 

 and when it is ready to cut, pull the roots 

 and give room to the plant set a week or 

 ten days beforehand. On all other vege- 

 tables on which water was used we were 

 well repaid, as they were larger, smoother 

 and of better quality* and the crop always 

 sure. I have been in Nebraska twenty- 

 seven years and am satisfied that a practi- 

 cal man with five acres under private irri- 

 gation would make more money than from 

 fifteen acres without irrigation; and no 

 one need to be without it in our valleys, 

 as we have plenty of water just a few 

 feet below us, also plenty of wind above 

 us, and by combining the two I believe 

 we can irrigate more land than we can 

 from rivers and creeks by ditches, believ- 

 ing that there is more water passing in 

 the underflow than passes down rivers and 

 creeks." 



