186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



average cost of $2 an acre. Here is a domain larger than 

 New England and New York combined, which, if reclaimed, 

 would support millions of people and add vastly to the wealth 

 of the United States, and it is seriously proposed that the 

 Government should loan its aid in forwardins: this orreat 

 work. 



It is not impossible that the subject of irrigation may 

 attract the attention of the Massachusetts farmer in the near 

 future. While we have in New England an excellent annual 

 rainfall, still, there are times when the farmer is exposed 

 to great loss from periods of protracted drought. Natural 

 water courses are numerous and well distributed, so that it 

 would be easy to provide reservoirs and methods of storing 

 water against the time when it is needed for use in such 

 exceptional periods. Take, for instance, strawberries and 

 others of the small fruits. An excessively dry May and 

 June practically destroys the crop ; but if our farmers 

 would familiarize themselves with the possibilities of irriga- 

 tion and the ease with which water could be introduced 

 in a country as broken as ours, many of the losses from 

 drought, to which they are now frequently subjected, might 

 be averted. Grass lands in some portions of the State might 

 be vastly improved in productive capacity by the applica- 

 tion of this system, and its introduction in many places and 

 on many farms could be accomplished with very little ex- 

 pense. But, if the farmers of the State are ever going to 

 interest themselves in this subject, they must do it before 

 all the water has been taken to supply the heedless waste of 

 the metropolis and our other large municipalities. 



It is an interesting fact that there may be found in differ- 

 ent localities in the State evidence that our grandfathers 

 and great-grandfathers were not blind to the advantages of 

 irrigation. Upon my father's farm in the town of Amherst 

 there are the remains of an irrio^atini? ditch which once con- 

 ducted water from the upper portions of a brook running 

 through the farm to some portions of the grass land, which, 

 from the light and porous character of the soil, are especially 

 liable to suffer in dry weather. Ancient trees are growing 

 in this abandoned artificial water course, which testify to 

 the antiquity of its construction. My grandfather used to 



