276 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



Beach grass has been found the best adapted to grass planting. 

 No grass that is not hardy enough to live in the sand and will not 

 produce thick and matted roots will succeed. Another plan has been 

 to cover the dunes with a thick layer of brush. 



IRRIGATION. 



Irrigation should be recognized as an agricultural art of very 

 wide applicability and value. Its association with the idea of desert 

 reclamation has blinded the public mind to its value for regions 

 where the need of reclamation does not exist. Irrigation is a means 

 of soil improvement to be employed, like other means of improve- 

 ment, when the soil needs it. Water is the most important food of 

 plants, not alone because it enters in such volume into their tissues, 

 but because without it in adequate amount the plant can not use 

 other foods in sufficient quantity. No one questions the wisdom of 

 the saving and storing of manures, nor the wisdom of generous out- 

 lay for commeroial fertilizers when required. The same is true of 

 soil improvement by means of drainage. There should be a similar 

 feeling in regard to irrigation. 



The most diligent culture and the most generous fertilization 

 are often made of no avail, and actual loss is sometimes incurred be- 

 cause the farmer has not prepared himself to supply water when 

 needed. The water, which he could often provide for a mere frac- 

 tion of his expenditure for fertilizers, often for less annual cost than 

 the interest on his investment in underdrainage, he has neglected to 

 have ready for use, and he sees the hope of return for his year's 

 labor and expenditure fade away during a few weeks of drought. 

 There have been cases where water has been stored at considerable 

 expense as a protection against fire in barns and has remained un- 

 used while some valuable crop was burning up in the garden. Such 

 losses are largely due to two things : First, the notion that irrigation 

 is of importance only in arid regions; and, second, ignorance of the 

 ease and cheapness with which a farm water supply can be stored 

 and distributed. It is very important that the value and availability 

 of water for irrigation should be recognized and a supply provided 

 on each farm. 



Under our present modes of cultivation the farmer can do little 

 for the crop during the time of actual drought. Ordinary cultiva- 

 tion is of comparatively little benefit during a prolonged dry season. 

 Its most effective work is before the dry spell sets in. No matter 

 what the value of the crop, and no matter how much this value is 

 concentrated on small areas of land, there is practically but little to 

 be done to save the crop. Irrigation should be used as an insurance 

 against the loss of crops. A small pond fed by a windmill would 

 often save a garden or a small area of a valuable crop from destruc- 

 tion or great injury 7 during a dry season. A small portable farm 

 engine, which would be available at other times for cutting feed, 

 thrashing grain, and other farm purposes, could be used to drive an 

 irrigating pump during the dry seasons. This would be particularly 

 valuable for tobacco, truck, and other crops which are grown under 

 a very intensive system of cultivation. 



