THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



Tii diversified farming' by irrigation lies ttie salvation of agriculture. 



IRRIGATION OF TEA 

 An investigation recently inaugurated 

 by the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture promises, if successful, to promote 

 such development. This is the irrigation 

 of tea at Pinehurst, the home of Dr. C. U. 

 Shepard, near Summerville, S. C. The 

 labors of this gentleman have already pro- 

 duced interesting results. He has about 

 50 acres planted to tea, which will when in 

 full bearing produce each year about 

 10,000 pounds. Last year it produced 

 about one-third of this amount. His in- 

 vestigations have been continued long 

 enough to make it masifest that in any 

 part of the South where the temperature 

 does not usually fall below 25 F., and 

 never falls below zero, tea can be success- 

 fully grown, but that in order to make it a 

 complete success in all cases irrigation is 

 necessary. The great obstacle in the way 

 of making this industry a commercial suc- 

 cess is the cost of production, and the 

 readiest means of reducing this cost is to 

 increase the yield per acre. If more 

 pounds per acre can be grown, it means a 

 less cost per pound for fertilizers and for 

 cultivation. Picking will also be made 

 cheaper because less ground will have to 

 be traversed. 



The need of irrigation to stimulate the 

 growth of foliage is shown by a comparison 

 of the rainfall at Summerville with that of 

 other tea growing districts. This is given 

 in Dr. Shepard's report (No. 61, United 

 States Department of Agriculture), and 

 shows that the precipitation during the 

 growing season at that point is only about 

 one-half to one-quarter of that of tea- 

 growing districts of India and China. 

 Summerville is within 20 miles of Charles- 

 ton, S. C. The rainfall at Charleston from 

 May to September is only 1.3 Sinches, 



while the rainfall of the tea-growing dis- 

 tricts of China for the same period varies 

 from 60 to 111 inches. Through the co- 

 operation of Dr. Shepard and Elwood 

 Mead, the irrigation expert of the office of 

 Experiment Stations, plans have been 

 made for the construction of a storage 

 reservoir sufficient to hold water enough 

 for a season's irrigation of one of the tea 

 gardens. This reservoir will be filled from 

 a well dug to a depth of 20 feet and sup- 

 plied by the underflow of a neighboring 

 stream. The tea garden to be irrigated is 

 planted in rows five feet apart. These 

 rows have a fall of four inches in one hun- 

 dred feet, which gives ample fall for dis- 

 tributing water an'', for underdrainage 

 should this prove necessary. In order to 

 test the relative merits of surface and sub- 

 irrigation, about one-half of this plat will 

 be watered by means of tile placed one 

 foot beneath the surface and laid down be- 

 tween the rows. The distance between 

 these tiles will therefore be five feet, 

 and the water will have to percolate lat- 

 erally two and one-half feet to moisten the 

 ground around the plants. Another por- 

 tion of the garden will be irrigated by sur- 

 face furrows run on each side and one foot 

 from the plants. In order to test the dif- 

 ference between the growth and productiv 

 ness of the irrigated and non-irrigated por- 

 tions a small part of this garden will be 

 left unwatered. 



An interesting feature connected with 

 this extension of irrigation is the fact that 

 a part of the farm on which tea is being 

 grown was formerly devoted to the produc- 

 tion of indigo, and was irrigated. The 

 production of this crop finally became un- 

 profitable and was abandoned, but the re- 

 mains of the ditches can yet be seen. 



