WATER IN COMMERCIAL GARDENING. 29 



The mains should be along roads, drives, or headlands, and the 

 laterals run off fifty to sixty feet apart for hose watering. If you 

 can run the laterals at right angles to the prevailing winds it will 

 enable you to have the water put on to much better advantage. 

 Have numerous flange unions on your mains to enable you to make 

 repairs or changes in fittings and to drain out the system in the fall. 



I prefer to have all pipes for field work on top of the ground. 



Put in good valves and do not spoil them in fitting or careless use. 

 It is easy enough to spoil a valve by letting it fill with dirt and then 

 trying to screw it down, or by allowing it to freeze, or by taking hold 

 of a valve on the wrong side when screwing it on or off; it should be 

 gripped on the side where the thread is being made up. When 

 setting down a valve set it down hard and then turn back just 

 enough to loosen the spindle. 



Put hose bibbs or lever nozzle on all laterals where hose watering 

 is to be done, and have them not over fifty feet from either end. 

 Then divide up the remaining distance so that no space between 

 nozzles will be over one hundred feet. Never have a hose bibb 

 or lever nozzle on the extreme end of a line as it is almost sure to be 

 injured and give poor service. 



The best hose you can buy will be found most economical; 

 three-quarter inch costing about 16cts. a foot and one and one- 

 quarter inch costing about 30ets. Get that hose with a coupling 

 having the full size inside diameter of the hose. 



In care of the hose keep it coiled when not in use; attach to the 

 hose bibb and roll out in one direction as wanted. Have washers 

 to fit the hose and when through using make one roll of hose from 

 bibb of good size, tie this roll and continue to roll till all is coiled, 

 then couple with washer inside and tie the coil and place in shade 

 till wanted again. 



It takes 27,154 gallons of water to cover an acre one inch deep. 

 At a cost of 30cts. per 1000 gallons as applied, each application of 

 an acre inch will amount to $8.15. July and August and parts of 

 June and September are the times when water is liable to be needed 

 in excess of the rainfall. 



The water may be put on any time of day or night with a prefer- 

 ence for the night or early morning where the spraying method of 

 application is used. If the water is put on with a three-quarter inch 



