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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



HELPING OUT THE RAINFALL 



By Dr. A. C. TRUE 



Director United States Office of Experiment Stations, 

 Department of Agriculture 



The severe drouths of the past two seasons over wide 

 areas in the states east of the Mississippi River have severely 

 curtailed crop production and brought serious losses upon 

 vegetable and fruit growers. There is, therefore, great 

 interest in that region in learning about irrigation and in 

 adapting the methods of applying water which have proved 



1 



so profitable in the West, to the agricultural conditions in the 

 eastern half of the United States. 



In Europe the value of irrigation as a supplement to 

 rainfall is well known, and extensive irrigation works have 

 been built for this purpose, beginning as far back as the 

 twelfth century. In Italy, for example, large sums of money 

 have been spent in the construction of permanent irrigation 

 reservoirs and canals, and irrigation has for a long time been 

 profitably employed in regions where the total annual rainfall 

 amounts to 40 inches, but where the rain often falls at 

 irregular intervals, so that the crops would suffer without 

 irrigation. 



In the United States irrigation is extensively used in 

 the humid region in connection with rice growing. This is 

 chiefly done in Louisiana and Texas, but more recently has 

 been extended to the low- . 

 lands of Arkansas. There fiv 

 the land had first to be 

 drained in order that the 

 wet and soggy prairie 

 might be prepared for cul- 

 tivation. Then wells were 

 sunk, pumping plants in- 

 stalled, and the water 

 spread out over the fields 

 through a regular system 

 of irrigation. Lands which 

 formerly had practically no 

 value, though their soils 

 are very fertile, are yield- 

 ing abundant crops by this 

 combination of drainage 

 and irrigation. The cran- 

 berry industry of Massa- 



chusetts and New Jersey is wholly dependent on irrigation. 

 The cranberry bogs must be leveled, covered with sand, 

 drained and irrigated in order that we may have cranberry 

 sauce with the Thanksgiving turkey. 



Aside from this, irrigation is at present used only here 

 and there in the humid region, but the practice is steadily 

 spreading. The rainfall of Florida is from 40 to 70 inches, 

 but practically all the water falls between April and October. 

 The growers of early vegetables and citrus fruits in that 

 state have, therefore, in many instances found irrigation 

 profitable. The celery growers at Sanford, Fla., are success- 

 fully practicing a system of subirrigation from drain tiles. 

 The water is obtained from flowing wells having their 

 origin in Lake Monroe, which is an enlargement of the St. 



Johns River. To install 

 such a subirrigation system 

 costs from $85 to $125 per 

 acre. But lands in this 

 region, which in their nat- 

 ural state are of no value, 

 when irrigated and drained 

 will produce celery worth 

 $2,000 per acre for a single 

 crop. Similar results have 

 been obtained from irrigat- 

 ing lands in other parts of 

 the state which are devoted 

 to the growing of citrus 

 fruits. 



At Albany, Ga., large 

 crops of alfalfa have been 

 grown with irrigation on 



A - orn-out cotton lands, and three times as much corn 

 las been produced with irrigation as was grown in 

 adjoining fields without irrigation. In the midst of 

 plantations desolated by the old-time system of continuous 

 cotton growing, there is now, near Selma, Ala., an irrigated 

 tract which is highly productive. In this region are many 

 flowing wells. The waters of one of these, which for nearly 

 half a century had been wasted, are today running in an 

 irrigation ditch and coining money for their owner. 



The desirability of irrigation in such a region is con- 

 clusively shown by the weather record kept at Selma. This 

 shows that in the growing season from March to November 

 during ten years (1900-1909) there were sixty drouths from 

 fifteen to over fifty days in duration. At Columbia, S. C., 

 the records for the same period show sixty-two similar 

 drouths, and those at Vineland, N: J., show forty-six drouths. 

 Speaking to the Farmers' Demonstration Society at 

 Vineland, Dr. Samuel Fortier. Chief of Irrigation Investi- 



Note. The illustrations for 

 this interesting and instructive 

 article have been furnishTl us 

 by "Popular Mechanics," which 

 today is, without a doubt, the 

 most widely read periodical on 

 practical mechanics, and thus is 

 fully deserving of its title of 

 "Popular Mechanics." It is 

 written so clear that anyone can 

 understand it and everybody 

 interested in mechanical arts 

 should read it 



View of Plot Irrigated by Sprinkler System from Porch of Residence of Granville Leeds, Rancocas, N. J., 

 Who Has Found Irrigation Profitable in Raising Vegetables and Strawberries. 



