172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



one-half inch cement-lined pipe placed in the ground, with 

 hydrants but a short distance apart ; that is, one line running 

 from the mill or pump, as the case may be, to each of the 

 buildings and hot-beds, and then pipe for the remainder on 

 top of the ground, with three-inch pipe, so that the ground 

 will be well covered with pipe enough, and then very little 

 hose will be required. The pipe on top of the ground must 

 be taken up in the fall and put down in the spring. All of 

 the pipes must be connected with the pump and wind-mill if 

 both are on the place. 



This may seem very expensive to some, but it will save 

 much time in the busy season by having the water carried to 

 all parts of the place. Upon a place often acres the expense 

 of furnishing pump, boiler, pipes and fittings would not be 

 over one thousand dollars. 



I had rather have a place of ten acres well fitted for irri- 

 gation than one of twenty acres without irrigation ; and I 

 venture the assertion that I could raise more vegetables, or 

 receive more money for my crops in a period of ten years 

 from the ten acres irrigated than from the twenty acres not 

 irrigated. 



The question of irrigation is not difiicult to understand. 

 One simply needs to know the rules of nature and to follow 

 them, and then it is very easy. 



An animal will not thrive though he may have plenty to 

 eat, if he has nothing to drink. Just so with plants ; but 

 plants require more water according to their bulk than does 

 an animal. 



If the. usual fall of rain, which is one inch, would be suffi- 

 cient to grow any crop, then the same quantity supplied by 

 irrigation should be sufficient ; and if the greater part of a 

 growing crop is moisture, then it is very evident that it must 

 be supplied, and if not by nature, then it must be by artifi- 

 cial means which we call irrigation. Many may say, I have 

 no water. To you I would reply, there is not a farm of 

 twenty acres in New England but has water enough upon it, 

 or running through it or under it, to irrigate it. This is a 

 very broad statement, but it has proved itself true. 



Any farm that is well arranged for irrigation, whether it 

 be of five, ten or twenty acres, will bring enough more at any 



