METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 1 95 



the lower side only if the ground is comparatively 

 steep. The cost of preparing land for this method of 

 irrigation in permanent checks ranges from $2.50 to 

 $5.00 an acre, the cost of the necessary distributing 

 canals, ditches, and strudlures from $3.00 to $5.00 

 an acre. These figures, of course, may be greatly 

 exceeded if the ground has too great a slope or is very 

 much broken by hog-wallows, or swales and ridges. 

 The only work required of attendants is the opening 

 and closing of gates and the guarding of the check 

 levees. When ground is well prepared for this method 

 of irrigation and the supply of water is abundant, the 

 cost of each application of water will range from three 

 to thirty cents an acre. 



Sprinkling. — In Florida most of the irrigation is 

 of the sprinkling order and is best described by George 

 W. Adams, of Thonotosassa, who .says : "I have a 

 twenty-five horse-power horizontal boiler and a 

 12 X 7 X ID duplex pump, with six-inch main pipe and 

 three-inch laterals at the main and running down to 

 one and a half at extreme ends. My trees are twenty- 

 one feet apart each way. I have a hydrant in the 

 center of every sixteen trees. I use the McGowan 

 automatic sprinklers, conne(5ting the sprinkler with 

 hydrants by a one-inch wire- wound rubber hose fifty 

 feet long. I use twelve of the sprinklers at one time 

 and could use more just as well, each sprinkler staying 

 in place thirty minutes, each one covering a space of 

 from fifty to seventy feet, according to the amount of 

 pressure given them, and discharging about 1,000 gal- 

 lons. By this process I have a genuine rain, either a 

 light one or a powerful one, at pleasure. If I wish to 



