Irrigation. 1 43 



IRRIGATION. 



It has been long found necessary, in many parts of the Old as well as 

 the New World, to irrigate the land in order to secure a crop even of grain 

 or other essential produce ; and although we are favored with a more moist 

 climate than Lombard)', Egypt, or Colorado, where almost nothing can be 

 done without water, still we often have seasons so dry that many crops 

 suffer severely, and few seasons that are so wet that most soils and crops 

 would not be benefited by the judicious application of water at some por- 

 tion of the year. Some of the more enterprising of our market-gardeners 

 are so well aware of this fact, that they have provided themselves with a 

 supply of water at very considerable expense, and are generally well con- 

 vinced that they are paid for the trouble- 

 Thinking that some information in regard to the distribution of water 

 might prove useful, we propose to deal only at present with the details of 

 some of the more common means of watering the ground. Where only a 

 moderate quantity of water is needed at short distance from the supply, 

 a tight barrel with handles, carried between two men, answers well. A bet- 

 ter way, where there is room for the wheels, is to mount the barrel on a pair 

 of wheels, like a hand-cart ; bending the iron axletree under the barrel, which 

 should be mounted on the bilge. When, however, a larger quantity of water 

 is wanted, or the distance from the supply is more than a few rods, this is 

 quite too laborious, and we must resort to pipes under pressure, and hose. 

 One gardener, however, in West Cambridge, waters a large field of celery 

 by means of the watering-pot alone. His land is under-drained three feet 

 below the surface. Each drain has placed, at distances of about two rods 

 asunder along its length, a row of cisterns just below the level of the drain, 

 which are kept always full by the drainage : the men bale the water from 

 these cisterns by buckets. When we wish to water a large field, however, 

 we must use pipes and hose, if we wish to work with ease and despatch. 

 The pipes should be of burnetized pine-log, or, better, of cast-iron, or 

 perhaps tarred paper (if this latter should prove durable), two inches inter- 

 nal diameter, laid below the level of ploughing, though not necessarily be- 

 low frost, as they can be drained in winter. They should be not more than 



