104 — How to Make the Garden Pay. 



flood-gates at the head of the cross-ditches the water is turned 

 into the latter, allowed to rise to the top at the next set of flood- 

 gates, and by overflow and soaking in, well distributed over 

 another strip parallel with the head ditch. Then these flood- 

 gates are raised and the water allowed to flow into the next sec- 

 tion of the ditches, etc, until the whole tract of land has had a 

 thorough soaking. Just as soon as the surface has become again 

 dry enough for cultivation, horse cultivators and hand-wheel 

 hoes are at once brought into action. 



There are other tracts of sandy muck or other porous soils 

 in various parts of the country offering just or nearly as favor- 

 able opportunities for a similar method of sub-earth flooding as 

 this tract near Mount Morris, New York, and wherever found 

 they can easily and with little expense be made to produce large 

 crops of celery, onions, cabbage, cauliflower, and other garden 

 crops. Such land, properly arranged, is easily worth, for these 

 purposes, a clean ^i,ooo per acre. 



^^ 3 



mil .^ ., 



Celery Irrigated by Tile Line. 



SuBiRRiGATiON BY TiLE. — Another system often mentioned 

 but rarely employed, is that of placing tiles in close, parallel, 

 shallow ditches all through the field, so the tiles are just out of 

 reach of the plow. The water introduced into these tiles, one 

 line after another, from some source, soaks up the land from 

 below the surface, otherwise in the same fashion as by surface 

 irrigation. This method is especially suited to stiffer soils, on 

 which surface soaking would be liable to do more harm than 

 good, in consequence of leaving them, after drying, hard and 

 baked as a brick. On such soils, however, the tile lines should 

 be just about on a dead level. The water escaping at the joints 

 soaks in rather slowly, and should be given all the chance re- 

 quired to do so, otherwise the greater bulk would run off to the 

 lower end of the tile line and leave only little for the upper end. 

 The exercise of good judgment will be necessary in arranging 

 each particular spot for this style of subirrigation. 



