178 PRIZE GARDENING 



at least twice before it is plowed, and feed it to my 

 cows and thus get a flavor of grass in our butter long 

 before pasture is ready. Plowing the green crop under 

 has a wonderful effect upon a clay soil, as it lightens 

 it up. The soil where the clover is growing can be 

 worked much earlier than where the ground has 

 been bare. 



Owing to the fact that my garden has a slight fall 

 from the upper end, it is very easy for me to irrigate 

 any part of it. Some time ago I purchased a lot of 

 second-hand inch pipe and valves for two dollars, giv- 

 ing me enough pipe for my garden twice over. The 

 pipe I laid from my windmill fifty feet away, on the 

 surface of the ground. The pipe has five branches ; 

 each branch has a valve cut-off, and there is also a cut- 

 off in the main pipe between each branch. I have a 

 barrel at the end of the pipe into which the pipe dis- 

 charges. This barrel I always keep full, and from it 

 I fill my water pots for special sprinkling. 



When there comes a dry time I start the wind- 

 mill, open the branch I wish to use, make a small chan- 

 nel with my hoe down the whole length between the 

 two rows I wish to water. The water then runs by 

 natural fall gradi ally to the bottom of the garden, and 

 I can go away and leave it several hours at a time. Of 

 course the fall is very gradual or it would not work ; 

 very much fall would wash. The windmill T have for 

 my supply of water for the house and barns. It pumps 

 from a well at the house into a box at the kitchen porch 

 The box has two outlets, one running to the barn and 

 the other to the garden ; when the water is running to 

 the barn T stop up the other pipe. When things are 

 well soaked I usually stop the flow and with my hoe 

 I draw some dry earth back and fill up the gutter; 

 otherwise I find the ground bakes when the water has 

 been running, on exposure to the sun. 



