200 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



May, 



and grasses, the accumulation of ages, and plant-growth more vigorous than 



in which much of the nitrogen which onthoseportions where no muck settles, 



would otherwise have been carried to It will be necessary to add potash and 



the sea has been rescued and stored up. phosphate fertilizers to make a well- 



The ri/er from which we pump is balanced soil, as muck contains com- 



f ringed by such a deposit, two feet deep paratively small amounts of these ele- 



and several acres in extent between our ments. Professor King had a measured 



pump and the river bed. It occurred 

 to me that it would be possible to stir 

 much of this muck (made soft by par- 

 tial overflow from a mill-pond below) 

 into the water and pump it up onto the 

 land, and thus add humus to the sand 



amount of muck added to a small area 

 of soil, analyzing samples of this soil 

 from time to time to determine how 

 much the development of nitrates was 

 affected by the addition of the muck. 

 One advantage of having muck stirred 



and upon which the upland bacteria into the water is that it silts up the bot- 

 tom of the furrows, check- 

 ing the downflow and forc- 

 ing more water out of the 

 sides toward the plants. 



I notice in the ' ' Water 

 Supply and Irrigation Pa- 

 pers ' ' of the United States 

 Geological Survey on irri- 

 gation in certain sections of 

 California the statement 

 that their irrigation fur- 

 rows ' ' are generally less 

 than 300 feet long. This 

 method gives particularly 

 good results on compara- 

 tively heavy soils, which do 

 not absorb w^ater rapidly. 

 When soils are porous and 

 take water from the fur- 

 rows freely the furrows are 

 kept shorter than in heavier 

 soils." Our experience 

 leads us to conclude that to 

 avoid leaching our furrows 

 should not be more than 

 200 to 250 feet long, the 

 furrows wide and fiat, and 

 filled as rapidly as possi- 

 ble, shutting off the water as soon as it 

 will run the length of the furrow three 

 or four minutes. Toward the close of 

 last season we were crowding the whole 

 flow from the pump 600 gallons per 

 minute into two or three furrows and 

 rushing it through as quickly as possi- 

 ble. Short furrows, wnth frequent ap- 

 we feared it might, nor in the furrows, plications of less than one surface inch 

 except the most level portions, where of water, must be the rule with us. 

 it gathered to a depth of one-fourth of The increase of yields due to irriga- 



an inch or more. This is then culti- tion this year will probably run from 

 vated into the soil. Strawberry ground 50 to 75 per cent. A number of fine 

 treated thus is becoming darker in color large photographs were taken for the 



HOME-MADE COTTON-DUCK HOSE FOR CONVEYING WATER, 

 SHOWING OUTI^ETS AT THE HEADS OF FURROWS. 



could work, gradually making the stored 

 nitrogen available for plant food. 



We fitted out our engineer with hip- 

 high rubber boots and a six-tined fork 

 and had him stir mud when not needed 

 at the engine. We found the mud 

 made the hose more nearly water-tight, 

 and that it did not settle in the hose, as 



