IRRIGATION. 309 



bling the pine barrens of New Jersey) was put into profit- 

 able cultivation when it could be irrigated." The plain of 

 Gennevilliers, near Paris, seemed utterly worthless for culti- 

 vation. It consisted almost wholly of coarse gravel, and 

 bore no rent. No land-owner would make any effort to use 

 water, so the city of Paris bought about twenty-five acres 

 and turned upon it part of the sewage. It now rents for 

 nearly $50 per acre, with sewage supplied. In parts of 

 Spain, land is worth $2,500 irrigated, and but 1^125 without 

 the privilege of water. 



The enormous and long-continued crops of strawberries 

 raised in Cahfornia prove that water is equally effective in 

 our new land, where the climate is similar, as in the older 

 countries. Will irrigation pay in our latitude, where we 

 hope for seasonable rains? I think that in many sections 

 it will, and occasionally I hear of remarkable results obtained 

 by the free use of water. In one instance a gravelly hill- 

 side, almost worthless for ordinary cultivation, became the 

 wonder of the neighborhood, so large were the crops of 

 strawberries secured by irrigation. 



Mr, Chas. W. Garfield, Secretary of the Michigan State 

 Pomological Society, gives an interesting account of his 

 visit to ISIr. Dunkley, a successful gardener, at Kalamazoo : 

 *' A force," he writes, " were picking strawberries from rows 

 of vigorous plants, and as we opened the vines in advance 

 of the pickers, a more delightful strawberry prospect we had 

 never seen. The varieties were Monarch, Seneca Chief, and 

 Wilson, and under the system of irrigation employed they 

 were just prime for market, after all the other berries in the 

 vicinity had ripened and were gone. Very remunerative 

 prices were thus secured. His vines were vigorous and 

 independent of the rains. Every berry that set reached 

 perfection in size and form." The abundant moisture 



