176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



tile, because the water would go right through. For that 

 reason I would not recommend applying more than one inch 

 of water at a lime, because you would lose a great deal of 

 water. 



QuESTiox. Suppose you had a place forty rods long, in 

 how many places would you apply the water in that forty 

 rods? 



Mr. Rawson. Well, it would depend upon the decline of 

 the land. If the land was very level, I should apply it in 

 two or three places ; but if the land had quite a decline to it, 

 one place would be enough. I have a place where one of 

 my fields is something like between four hundred and five 

 hundred feet. The decline is, I think, about five feet. I 

 can run a stream the length of that in one minute, but you 

 have to have the stream, you have to have the water. 

 You want two two-and-a-half inch streams, and make a 

 regular brook of it. If you have only a little water, it will 

 soak in about as fast as you pump it on. I do not recommend 

 anything of that kind. I have a lot of steam fire-engine hose, 

 that is very easy to be obtained, which I connect with my 

 three-inch pipe, and then when the pump is running, I run 

 it into both furrows, and the water will soon go to the other 

 end, and the ground along the way will take what water 

 it requires, especially if a new furrow has been ploughed 

 recently. I would have the man at the upper end change 

 the hose before it got to the lower end. Those things have 

 to be looked after. There is no necessity of wasting any 

 water. A man can learn by practice just how far down that 

 row the water will be when it is necessary to take it up at 

 the upper end. If he does not know enough for that, I would 

 put on another man. 



Mr. Sage. Are there many men in Massachusetts who 

 have farms that they can arrange on the hill-side, where they 

 can catch water ? Would it not be more desirable to catch 

 it, and lay up a store of water for drought? 



Mr. Rawson. Yes, sir ; if that can be done. Any way 

 you can store up water and get it at the least expense is the 

 way to do it. 



Mr. Sage. How large should a reservoir be for five acres? 



Mr. Rawson. You would want one hundred and twenty- 



