20 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897. 



Ladies and Oentlemen : Thanking you for your kind attention I 

 will close by reading a letter from one who has experimented with 

 water in this State : — 



Fitchburg, Mass., Feb. 2, 1897. 



Mr. Chamberlin, 



Dear Sir : — 



Yours at hand and would say my tests the past 

 year in irrigation were limited, as I did not get into line till a little 

 late, but what 1 did was very satisfactory. 



My supply is city water, price 10 cents per 1000 gallons. I con- 

 nected with the city main by 3-inch steam pipe, above ground ; from 

 this a 2-inch pipe runs the length of my fields on the upper side, 

 "across," so as to irrigate each and every alley. Rows are five feet 

 apart and I allow each row to mat three feet wide so you see I get a 

 two-foot allej', and in this alley make a gutter three inches deep in 

 which to irrigate "down hill." Now this two-inch distributing pipe 

 is drilled ami tapped every five feet and a common sink faucet screwed 

 in, through which I adjust the size of stream wanted to run to the end 

 of the rows continuously, and when once adjusted I do not change the 

 faucets, only shut off water or let it on at the connection with the 3- 

 inch supply by a valve. So you see it is only a minute's work to 

 start the plant to work ; then it takes care of itself. 



I have one field of five acres on which can be put 15,000 gallons 

 per hour as long as you want it aud with liardly any attention. Have 

 run these streams in tliis gutter over .500 feet, but do not like to do 

 it; rather have siiorter distances, which I easily arrange for if rows 

 are too long. On my five-acre field my 2-inch distributing pipe is 900 

 feet long, with a faucet every five feet, so you see it takes a lot of 

 water to supply it, but at my farm I get 250 feet head. In 1895 my 

 crop was 40 per cent. No. 1 and 60 per cent. No. 2, loithoiU irrigation ; 

 in 1896, 70 per cent. No. 1 and 30 per cent. No. 2, luith irrigation. 

 Am well satisfied with it so far. I noticed the irrigation kept the 

 fruit growing and did not allow it to ripen off early and small. 



Very truly, 



A. A. Marshall. 



