bloom, and is continued till near the end of the fruiting season if 

 needed. 



J. C. Eddy of Simsbury, Conn., is making a specialty of small 

 fruits and vegetables, and severe droughts, which have been quite 

 frequent, have caused much damage to his crops. The farm is 

 located near the western limits of the Connecticut valley, and is 

 composed mainly of a light, porous, rather sandy soil, that requires 

 large quantities of water to grow crops successfully. A small 

 stream, within a narrow valley, passes through the farm, and the 

 tillage lands lie mainly upon the slopes outside this valley. As 

 the brook was below most of the cultivated fields some form of 

 pumping appliance seemed to be the only feasible means of making 

 the water available, and a ram was adopted as the most practical. 

 For the first two or three years only one large ram was used, but 

 the advantages of irrigation became so apparent that another of 

 equal capacity was added. In order to get the necessary fall for 

 forcing the ram a canal about 40 rods in length was dug along the 

 outer edge of the valley. From the lower end of this canal the 

 water makes a fall of about 7 feet, through 6-inch drive pipes, and 

 thus operates the two large rams located near the centre of the 

 valley. 



At quite an elevation above the cultivated fields, on a heavy, 

 clayey soil, was a small pond that usually became dry in sum- 

 mer. This pond was enlarged by dredging and by building an 

 earth dam on two sides. A storage pond was thus formed with an 

 area of about one-half acre and with an average depth of about 4 

 feet. This pond is located about 80 rods from the ram and at a 

 height of 70 feet above it, and there is a good fall from the pond 

 to most of the cultivated areas. Connections can be made with 

 the pipe leading from the ram, at various points between the ram 

 and the storage pond, and the direct flow of water can thus be 

 used for irrigating certain areas. 



Most of the irrigated fields on this farm are watered from lines 

 of pipe extending from the storage pond. The fall from the pond 

 is sufficient so that strawberries have been watered by sprinkling 

 from 2-inch condemned fire hose, a flow of about 30 gallons per 

 minute being obtained in this way. A more common method of 

 distributing the water has been to use a series of troughs along 

 one end of the rows of crops. The water was conducted into 

 these by means of gates, and was allowed to flow down between 

 the rows in little rills. 



Mr. Eddy has made a specialty of strawberries, generally grow- 

 ing from four to six acres. The first year after his irrigation plant 



