118 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



How about vineyards ? Can more grapes be grown under sys- 

 tems of subsurface irrigation than by ordinary methods in coun- 

 tries of rainfall? That surface irrigation has been found a neces- 

 sity in arid regions, is well understood; and there also, have the 

 finest grapes of the world been grown. Up to this time, however, 

 no vineyard, so far as we are aware, has been planted under 

 circumstances, and cultivated under conditions conforming to the 

 utmost developement of the vine and product. The terrace is 

 constructed and when the rainfall is abundant the waters, des- 

 cending the incline, are checked in degree by the level of the ter- 

 race, but when this becomes dry and baked the water of brief 

 showers moves off in rapid flow, and, if the shower is a hard one, 

 the terraces in groups come little short of presenting an ap- 

 pearance of successive cascades. In rainless regions, where pro- 

 vision is made for irrigation by mechanical means, and in those 

 of an abundant rainfall, so numerous have been the cases of 

 failure to realize a crop as to have had a discouraging effect. 



In no regard has Mr. Stewart's book more profoundly im- 

 pressed us, than his frank confession throughout the work of 

 the impossibility of so applying water to the surface, as to in- 

 sure profitable results. Nothing could be more convincing of 

 the superiority of our system than this confession. 



After devoting a large amount of space to prove that winter 

 irrigation of meadows and pastures has proven not only suc- 

 cessful but profitable in climates of Southern Europe, and de- 

 monstrating the fact that in all portions of our own country 

 where the ground freezes only to the depth of a few inches or 

 not at all, irrigation in the winter months would have wonder- 

 ful effect in continuing the growth of grasses at their roots, 

 Mr. Stewart hands over to the hopeless desolation of winter the 

 regions in which dwell millions of our most intelligent, enterpris- 



