CHAPTER XVII. 



IRRIGATION. 



SURFACE-SOAKING AND SUB-EARTH FLOODING. 

 " More powerful than art is Nature." 



RRIGATION, while a necessary and common practice 

 under the rainless skies near the Pacific coast, is 

 hardly ever thought of at the east. I have made a 

 few trials on a somewhat limited scale, and the 

 results fully convinced me that the chances are not 

 rare where the eastern gardener might employ some 

 system of irrigation with as telling effect. The first 

 requisite, of course, is a sufficient water supply, one 

 which can be controlled or made available without great 

 expense. The amount of liquid needed for thorough work — and 

 this alone gives satisfactory results — is so immensely large, that 

 I have little respect for any source of supply of less "magnitude 

 than a pond or small stream. I cannot do better than quote 

 from a paper read before the American Horticultural Society, 

 by Mr. J. M. Smith, Wisconsin's noted and successful gardener, 

 and President of the Wisconsin State Horticultural Society: 

 "A few things should be remembered by those who contemplate 

 artificial watering. Suppose that you have one acre of cabbage 

 that you wish to water. To do this fairly well requires at least 

 30,000 gallons of water, and this will need to be repeated at least 

 once a week until rain comes. To make strawberries do their 

 best in dry weather, requires considerably more than for 

 cabbages, and to be put on oftener. To merely sprinkle the 

 ground when it is very dry, is, in my opinion, a damage rather 

 than a benefit. It has a tendency to form a thin, hard crust, 

 both air- and water-tight. Neither the damp air nor the rains 

 will pass through it, neither will a light shower. It requires a 

 heavy rain to dissolve it. Thus you shut out the benefits to be 

 derived from the cool, damp night air, the heavy dews that we 

 often have, also the little sprinkles of rain that are almost sure to 

 come occasionally. For a couple of years after my water-works 

 were put up, I was at a loss to understand why our watering had 

 so little effect. I had a piece of early cabbage that was suffering 

 for want of rain. The men were told to put on water until the 

 ground was thoroughly soaked for at least six inches deep. They 

 (100) 



