CHAPTER XXII. 

 IRRIGATION IN HUMID CLIMATES. 



tiT T is a well-established fadt in agricultural eco- 

 - *^ 1 nomics that no soil can produce large yields 

 ^^^1 if it is not in good tilth ; no soil can support 

 heavy crops that does not contain the requi- 

 site materials for conversion into available food ; no 

 abundance of available food and no degree of perfedlion 

 of tilth can take the place of the right amount of soil 

 moisture at just the right time. On the lighter soil, 

 of which there are many thousands of acres east of the 

 Mississippi river, the water capacity of which is small, 

 there is every reason to believe that supplementary 

 irrigation will give increased crops, especially under 

 high fertilization. When the influence of irrigation 

 on the yield of higher-priced crops like the small fruits 

 and market gardening is considered, there can be no 

 question of the commercial advantage of supplementary 

 irrigation where the water may be handled at a 

 moderate cost. 



It is not so much a deficiency of rainfall in the 

 eastern United States as it is the unfavorable distribu- 

 tion which so often gives too little soil moisture for 

 large yields. All crops when forming fruit buds and 

 developing the fruit require water at much more than 

 the average rate, and it is deficiency of moisture at 

 such times which so greatly cuts down the yields. In- 



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