56 IRRIGATION. 



nels to the limits of the tract. The water escapes through 

 the joints of the pipes, and rises by capillary attraction 

 or absorption to the surface of the soil. As the water 

 will naturally tend to sink in the soil in a greater measure 

 than it will rise to the surface, the distributing pipes will 

 need to be placed very closely, a distance of from six to 

 eight feet being the greatest that should be allowed. This 

 system has the advantages of cheapness of material, 

 of permanence and of economy in applying the water. 

 But it possesses the disadvantages of large cost of labor 

 in laying the tiles, and of a very wasteful expen- 

 diture of water, a large portion of it escaping downward 

 and useless to the crop. The trenches in which the tiles 

 are laid may be very cheaply made by plowing twice or 

 thrice in the same furrow until it is twelve inches deep, 

 and when the tiles are laid, most of the earth may be plow- 

 ed back into the furrow again. But one other objection 

 will occur, in that for any sort of favorable result the 

 slope of the ground must be regular, or the arrangement 

 of the tiles must be made with costly exactness. Of the 

 three systems here described, this last is the least promis- 

 ing, and should only be adopted in those special cases 

 when, under a combination of favoring circumstances, it 

 offers special inducements. Under such circumstances 

 it has been successfully applied in California, and a cor- 

 respondent of the " Eural Press," of San Francisco, from 

 Santa Eosa, wrote recently to that Journal as follows : 

 " I have practiced it on a small scale for several years. 

 I lay down 'two-inch tile ten feet apart, so the top of the 

 tile is just below the plowshare. I give them just fall 

 enough to run the water along, and fasten up the lower 

 end. I make the entrance large enough to have plenty 

 of head, than turn in a good stream of water that will 

 force its way through. By this process the land never 

 bakes, but keeps moist and loose. I believe one-fourth 

 the water used under the ground is better than the whole 



