IRRIGATION IN FIELD AND GARDEN. 



BY PROFESSOR E. J. WICKSON. 



(Reprinted from Farmers' Bulletin No. 138, issued by U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



THE DEPRESSED BED. 



The depressed bed, largely used in the growing of vegetables and 

 small fruits, is really a form of rectangular checking. In this case, 

 however, the levees are widened so that they are not merely bounda- 

 ries to confine the spread of the water to the inclosed areas, but they 

 are also made to carry water to these areas by small raised ditches 

 which are made upon their tops. Pig. 15 shows an arrangement of 

 this kind. It is best for light, sandy loam, which has slight retentive- 

 ness and therefore loses moisture rapidly both by drainage and sur- 

 face evaporation and must be frequently irrigated. 



Shallow rooting plants like strawberries, which would perish by 

 the methods of irrigation employed for them on more retentive soil, 

 and which will be described presently, make very satisfactory growth 

 and have a long fruiting season if grown in a depressed bed, espe- 

 cially if they are mulched well with rotten straw or coarse manure 



Fig. 15. Depressed bed for vegetables and strawberries. 



and the water allowed to distribute itself under this cover byadmis- 

 sion from the raised ditch at several points at the same time. The 

 ditch at the surface level is much less satisfactory in such work; con- 

 sequently it is run along the top of the levee. This arrangement is 

 particularly adapted to very light soils, as stated, and especially in 

 the hotter parts of the arid region, where water has to be applied 

 once or twice a week to shallow rooting plants and where the shading 

 of the ground by a mulch lowers its temperature. and protectsithe roots 



