102 — How to Make the Garden Pay. 



pipe and hose, or in other ways that may suggest themselves to 

 the intelligent gardener. 



Home-made Hose. — A method of surface irrigation prac- 

 ticed by Mr. H, A. March, a well-known gardener and grower of 

 cauliflower seed, of Washington State, deserves more than a 

 passing notice. The following are the details of his plant as 

 described by himself: 



" On the south side of our farm, we have a never-failing 

 spring of water that gives us about 45,000 gallons every 24 

 hours. It is situated about 20 feet higher than any of our tillable 

 land. This water is brought down in open troughs to the tanks 

 on the upper side of the field to be irrigated, holding 20,000 gal- 

 lons each. We turn the water into the tanks in the heat of the 

 day, and the sun warms it up to about 60°. 



'* To distribute the water, we use a hose made from 12-ounce 

 duck. We take a piece 30 feet long, and cut it lengthwise into 

 three pieces, which makes 90 feet of hose about 2^ inches in 

 diameter. We fetch the edges together, double once over, and 

 with a sewing-machine sew through the four thicknesses twice, 

 which makes a hose that will stand a six or eight-foot pressure. 

 To make it waterproof, we use five gallons of boiled linseed oil 

 with half a gallon of pine tar, melted together. Place the hose 

 in a washtub, turn on the oil hot (say 160°), and saturate the 

 cloth v/ell with the mixture. Now, with a clothes-wringer run 

 the hose through with the wringer screwed down rather tight, 

 and it is ready to be hung up to dry. A little pains must be 

 taken to blow through it to keep it from sticking together as it 

 dries. I use an elder-sprout about a foot long with the pith 

 punched out. Tie a string around one end of the hose and 

 gather the other end around the tube and fill it with wind, then 

 hang it on a line and it will, dry in a few days and be ready for 

 use. It will last five or six years. 



"To join the ends, we use a tin tube 2^/^ inches in diameter 

 by one foot long. It is kept tied to one end of the hose all the 

 time. To connect them, draw the open end of the hose over the 

 tube of the next joint and tie it securely. When ready to irri- 

 gate our celery we take the hose in sections convenient to carry, 

 lay it from our tanks to the third row from the outside and down 

 this row to the end of the field. Then the water is turned on. 



" To connect the hose with the tank, we take a hardwood 

 stick 15 inches long, bore a two-inch hole through it, and with a 

 hot iron burn it out smooth on the inside, work one end down 

 until it will fit into the end of the hose next the tank and tie it 

 securely ; then work the other end down so that it will fit tightly 

 into a 2j/-inch hole. With a 2}^-inch auger, bore a hole in the 

 tank on the side next the field you wish to water, two inches up 



