PRACTICAL IRRIGATION IN HUMID AREAS. 



METHODS EMPLOYED AND RESULTS OBTAINED 

 FROM THE APPLICATION OF WATER TO CROPS 

 IN REGIONS OF CONSIDERABLE RAINFALL. 



BY 



BRISTOW ADAMS. 



PART I. 



LEAVING out of consideration a 

 narrow strip of country along the 

 Pacific Coast from the Canadian border 

 to the northern boundary of California, 

 where the average annual rainfall ap- 

 proximates 100 inches, the humid areas 

 of the United States may be said to lie 

 wholly east of the looth meridian. In 

 this region the average precipitation 

 amounts to about 35 inches, the heaviest 

 rainfall, 60 inches, occurring in Florida 

 in the southeast, and gradually decreas- 

 ing toward the northwest to about 1 5 

 inches in the Dakotas. 



Irrigation has naturally attracted 

 more attention in the arid states, in the 

 region from the Cascade and Sierra 

 Ranges on the western border of the 

 continent eastward to the states border- 

 ing on the Mississippi River, than it 

 has elsewhere in the country. This is 

 so for the simple reason that that section 

 has needed irrigation in order to prop- 

 erly grow and mature crops. 



The humid area, conversely, has not 

 taken such an interest in developing ir- 

 rigation, depending, in the main, on 

 natural rainfall to mature crops and 

 provide for all needed moisture. Lately, 

 however, and particularly through the 

 greater interest in irrigation in the West, 

 eastern farmers have been looking into 

 the subject of irrigation as a means of 

 increasing the value of the natural re- 

 sources at hand. Also it has proved 

 distinctly advantageous to make use of 

 water artificially applied during the 

 periods of drouth which are apt to occur 

 in the eastern growing season. It can 

 be said that the East is learning from 

 the West, although the first irrigation 

 plants in the country, leaving out of 

 consideration those of the aboriginal 



nations in the Southwest, were on the 

 Atlantic seaboard, with Boston as claim- 

 ant for honors as having had the first 

 irrigation ditch in the country. 



As noted in an article on the general 

 practice of irrigation, published in the 

 May number of FORESTRY AND IRRI- 

 GATION, there is hardly a state in the 

 Union which does not make some use of 

 irrigation, but it is a remarkable fact 

 that the two states of the humid area 

 having the most copious rainfall Flor- 

 ida and Louisiana have the most ex- 

 tensive irrigation plants. In general it 

 may be said that the Southern States, 

 more favorably situated than the rest of 

 the country, are paying more attention 

 to applying water to crops than other 

 states in the humid regions where the 

 need would seem to be more urgent. 



Detailed descriptions of the various 

 plants used in the Eastern States will 

 give a general idea of how the work is 

 being done, and of the results which 

 follow. 



Massachusetts. Truck and fruit farms 

 in the neighborhood of Boston have made 

 use of irrigation for a long time, and 

 the success achieved led many farmers 

 to try the project. At first there was 

 not sufficient knowledge of methods to 

 be employed among those who recently 

 took up irrigation. A number of gard- 

 eners near Boston use the city water 

 supply, while others have independent 

 sources of water and use pumps, either 

 steam, gasoline, or wind-propelled. 



The Hittinger Fruit Company, of 

 Belmont, Massachusetts a suburb of 

 Boston is one of the best-known firms 

 which makes use of irrigation in that 

 neighborhood. Their business is fruit 

 culture in connection with greenhouses 



(285) 



