398 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



IRRIGATION IN HUMID CLIMATES. 



BY PROF. C. S. PHELPS, STORKS (CONNECTICUT) AGRICULTURAL 



EXPERIMENT STATION. 



While irrigation is not a new subject, its importance in 

 those parts of the United States where the climate is natur- 

 ally humid has not been fully appreciated. In European 

 countries, even where the rainfall is quite large, the advan- 

 tages of irrigation are better known. In the older countries 



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of the world, where the population is relatively dense and 

 the value of lands is consequently high, every possible means 

 that will aid in assuring full crops must be adopted. For 

 several hundred years irrigation has been practised in the 

 naturally moist climates of Italy, Scotland and England. 

 The methods of artificial watering used in the old world 

 gradually found a place in New England, and to-day many 

 traces of old irrigation ditches may be found, especially 

 where small streams could be easily diverted and a natural 

 no wage be obtained. Several plain evidences of such irriga- 

 tion systems on old farms in Connecticut have come under 

 the observation of the writer. Most of these systems have 

 been abandoned ; in many cases because the farms were 

 abandoned, and in others because the streams did not con- 

 tinue to give sufficient flow when irrigation was most needed. 



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Within the last ten years there has been a new interest in 

 irrigation and a lively agitation of the subject through the 

 agricultural press of the east, and fruit and vegetable 

 growers are beginning to appreciate the value of artificial 

 watering to a greater extent than ever 'before. Its high 



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value has been demonstrated in a few striking instances by 

 some of our leading fruit growers, and these instances, to- 

 gether with the general interest manifested in the subject, 



