280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



applied just during or after a rain, or otherwise the dilution 

 must be still greater. Now at such times the surface is wet, 

 and the passage of the cart without injury is out of the ques- 

 tion. Tiie cart then cannot b? used for growing crops in the 

 season of their growth, nor is it suited for winter use. 



" Any attempt to distinguish between the use of concentrated 

 and diluted manures on the same farm, with a view to the use 

 of the cart in the former case,, must practically prove a failure ; 

 the mode of application will vary for different crops. 



" The importance which some of the opponents of the tubular 

 system attach to the use of gravitation as a motive power shows 

 that they are not very familiar with the subject. The great 

 cost of the system consists not in the power, but in the pipes. 

 Even in an unfavorable position where the boat to be unloaded 

 is from ten to sixteen yards below the level of the fields, the 

 cost of working the movable engine and pump comes to only 

 one-fifth of the total cost of the apparatus. With a fixed engine 

 it would be one-sixth, and with horse power only about one- 

 tenth of the whole charge. Notwithstanding this and the high 

 cost of coal at Paris, and also of the fact that our apparatus has 

 not been in full work, doing only half or one-third the work 

 which it will have to do in future, yet it costs us only S-l cents 

 to lift and spread a ton of liquid manure, and in this tlie cost 

 of coal, oil and attendance come in for over two cents, and the 

 interest and wear and tear of capital vested in the machine and 

 pump a trifle over 1|^ cents. And yet gravitation would save 

 about a cent and a half on a ton. 



"A considerable extent, not only of gardens, but also of 

 arable lands in the south of Prance, is irrigated by means of 

 machines driven by wind, steam and even by horses and mules, 

 and from many facts collected on the spot, M. Gasparin gave 

 the following estimate of cost : — 



" To raise 10,000 tons 13 feet, the amount required to irrigate 

 2h acres, the cost, by horse power, is . . . $25 60 ' 

 " wind, from $16.00 to 40 00 

 " steam, (5 horse-power,) 8 87 

 " steam, (45'liorse-power,) 7 80 



" Now apply, instead of ten thousand tons of water, a fertiliz- 

 ing manure, which, diluted with four times its bulk of water, 

 will not exceed 100 tons an acre, or at most 140 tons, and it is 



