THE IRR1 GA TIOiV A GE. 157 



on agricultural subjects. As we all know, last summer was a hot, dry 

 time and we also know, if we have the slightest acquaintance with 

 cucumbers, that they are a vegetable which requires a vast amount of 

 water to do well at all. If you expect to have cucumbers of any size in a 

 dry season you will have to carry water to them that is if you live in 

 Indiana, where irrigation is not practiced and when you have pumped 

 up bucket after bucket full of water from the well and carried it to the 

 cucumber patch at the "far end" of the lot (the vines would be planted, 

 of course, farthest from the pump of any other vegetable) you will be 

 willing to take your oath that the cucumber is about the dryest thing 

 on earth, not even excepting the hard drinker on the "morning after." 



But to return to our neighbors, or rather to our neighbors' gardens. 

 Like the old song of the man who had plenty of peanuts, "One man had 

 plenty of cucumbers while his poor neighbor had none," at least none 

 worth mentioning. And the one whose crop was a failure htd been most 

 assiduous in carrying water all through the heat of summer. He put on 

 bucket after bucket of water, but the hot sun drank it up, the ground 

 baked hard, and the vines received but little of the moisture that was 

 furnished with lavish hand. 



The other man, being a Yankee, devised a scheme whereby he not 

 only kept his vines moist, but saved himself much labor. He put old tin 

 fruit cans between the hills of cucumbers, filled the with water, and in 

 each can put a woolen rag, one end of which was in the water and the 

 other laid along the ground close to the vine. The rag acted as a syphon 

 and through it the water oozed slowly but surely to the plant, keeping 

 it moist and causing it to produce cucumbers that astonished the natives. 

 One applied water judiciously and the other did a great deal of watering 

 without result. 



It is claimed by some that it is a good plan to irrigate in winter so 

 that you may have the aid of the frost in mellowing and breaking up the 

 ground. If the land is new and water plentiful, flooding may be resorted 

 to with good results, and it will do all right for certain crops, such as 

 alfalfa, the small grains, onions, etc., but is injurious to many other 

 crops. In irrigating corn and potatoes, for instance, the water should 

 be kept in the furrows between the rows and on no account allowed to 

 rise above the plants. Unless the ground is very wet, irrigate before 

 planting any small grain or seed. 



Successful irrigators, one and all, lay stress on cultivation as well as 

 irrigation. One writer, in an article regarding this subject says: "Most 

 important of all, it should be borne in mind that, important as is irriga- 

 tion, thorough cultivation is still more important. To soak up the 

 ground time after time only to let it stand and dry out as hard as a brick, 

 is to waste time, water, seed and labor. 'A thorough irrigation tends to 

 compact the soil. Unless the surface is thoroughly stirred n.t the proper 

 time, the ground, unless it is very sandy, becomes hard, evaporation is 

 rapid and plant growth is retarded or even smothered out." 



