8 IRRIGATION. 



drouths may be averted by irrigation, but whether or 

 not the general average of the crops may be largely in- 

 creased by the systematic use of partial irrigation, and 

 the use of such supplies of water as a majority of farmers 

 can readily avail themselves of in every part of the 

 country. 



What farmer is there who has not, in the majority of 

 seasons, felt that some at least of his crops could have 

 been largely benefited and increased by a copious supply 

 of water at critical times ? Market gardeners, whose 

 crops on the average reach a value of several hundred 

 dollars per acre, and to whom a loss of crop is partial or 

 complete ruin, every year experience a vast amount of 

 loss which might have been avoided were a supply of 

 water available. A portion of this loss, in the shape of 

 higher prices, necessarily falls upon the consumers, whose 

 resources are insufficient to meet the increased demand ; 

 and the poorer of them are compelled in consequence to 

 deny themselves those articles of food which are necessary 

 to their complete health. The failure is then a public 

 calamity. The season of 1874 was especially disastrous 

 to strawberry growers, whose crops failed for want of rain 

 at the season when the fruit is formed. Here were losses 

 approaching in many cases the large sum of a thousand 

 dollars per acre to the growers, which might have been 

 avoided by the timely application of water. Every year 

 there are more or less of such cases in connection with 

 such special crops. The present year (1876) has been 

 equally disastrous to gardeners and market farmers over 

 a large extent in the East. The great difficulty experi- 

 enced by the orange growers of Florida is precisely this 

 want of water at critical periods. It is unnecessary to 

 multiply instances. 



No one doubts the absolute necessity of water to the 

 growth of plants. The value of water as a nutriment or 

 as a means of conveying nutriment to plants, however, 



