26 



FORESTATION, SAND HILLS NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. 



cultivation and the need for irrigation clearly shown, it has been 

 necessary to pump directly from the river. A 5-horsepower gasoline 

 engine does the work, and most of the water is pumped direct into 

 ditches, with only a small reserve supply for emergencies. This 

 river water, especially in the spring when it carries considerable 

 silt, as compared with clean well water, has a value in maintaining 

 the fertility of the nursery soil. It is also warmer than the well 

 water. With irrigating a great deal of leveling had to be done, 

 and this, together with deep plowing, has in most places mixed the 

 soil and subsoil to a depth of 20 or 30 inches. 



While the need of watering depends on the weather, it is greatly 

 increased by the extremely porous nature of the subsoil. Frequent 

 applications are necessary, especially at midsummer and in crowded 

 beds, where seedlings are badly blighted as soon as the moisture 

 runs low. In dry, hot weather as much as 2 inches per week may 

 be used. 



Originally all watering was done with hose and spray; later the 

 beds of larger trees were irrigated by flooding; now even the seed 

 beds are usually flooded before the seeds germinate. Water will 

 not stand on the surface for an appreciable length of tune, so there is 

 no danger of drowning young plants, and it is unnecessary to elevate 

 the beds for drainage. 



There is a danger of excessive watering, which consists in developing 

 plants which, when set out, will not be able to withstand the drought 

 conditions of the sand hills. It is true that the proportion of loss 

 in the field does increase with the quantity of water given the trees 

 in the nursery, 1 but, on the other hand, watering greatly reduces 

 losses in the nursery. Hence it can not be said, without further 

 experimentation, that it should be abandoned or materially decreased. 

 This matter is now the subject of careful investigation. 



1 The results of an experiment begun in 1910, when 1,000 transplants were watered in different manners 

 and continued in 1911, when 500 survivors of each lot were planted in the field, are as follows: 



The "final survival " is the product of the percentages of survival in field and nursery. This test, which 

 appears conclusive, ought to be repeated before it can be said that the disadvantages of watering are 

 thoroughly proved. 



