428 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



advisable. The amount of water and the frequency of 

 application would depend upon soil condition and the 

 chara(5ler of the season, but ordinarily the application 

 of 800 or 1,000 barrels of water to the acre at intervals 

 of six or seven days in spring and two or three days 

 during the hot, dry weather of summer, would prob- 

 ably suffice. 



The Gravel Trench. — This plan is very simple 

 and quite cheap. Trenches may be dug six or eight 

 inches wide and two feet deep, running with the slope 

 of the land, and forty or fifty feet apart, connedling at 

 the upper end with a head ditch somewhat wider than 

 the others. Into these trenches put six to eight inches 

 of gravel or crushed stone and then fill with earth. If 

 for orchards, the trenches could be dug so as to go 

 under each row of trees if the slope permitted. We 

 believe this plan will work as well as tiling, and to 

 many who are near gravel beds it will be much cheaper. 

 Any blossom rock or detached shale often found on 

 plowed ground can be used for this purpose, and 

 cobblestones or kidney rock would be just the thing. 

 We believe a trench plow has been invented for open- 

 ing the trenches, and the work ought to be done late 

 in the fall or during the mild days of winter, when 

 nothing more urgent is pressing. Brickbats, such as 

 are found around the kilns in a brickyard, could be 

 placed in the trenches and would answer admirably. 

 The only expense connecfled with the work would be 

 that of labor, and the experiment ought to pay well. 



Father Cole's Plan.— The late Honorable A. N. 

 Cole, of Wellsville, New York, inaugurated a system 

 of trench irrigation which proved quite a success and 



