THE IKEIGATION AGE. 



369 



and in this emergency I happened to remember that I had 

 at some time read an article somewhere that was credited 

 to IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago. IRRIGATION AGE was a strange 

 name to me, and I did not know whether it was the 

 peculiar name of a man, the title of a book or the 

 name of a magazine devoted, as the name would indicate, 

 to irrigation, but concluded that it was the latter, and, if 

 a magazine devoted to irrigation, reasoned that very likely 

 it would carry advertisements of centrifugal pumps. So 

 I wrote a letter and addressed it to this mysterious name, 

 IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago, asking for a sample copy and 

 inclosing a quarter with the request that they send me a 

 list of firms who might have advertised centrifugal pumps 

 in their magazines in times past, but whose advertisements 

 might not happen to appear in the current issue. 



My guess., proved correct. IRRIGATION- AGE was a maga- 

 zine. A sample copy arrived, but no letter, and I really 

 felt slighted. A couple of advertisements of centrifugal 

 pumps appeared in the magazine, but having determined to 

 investigate and find the very best centrifugal pump made, I 

 was not satisfied. A couple of days later, however, a couple 

 of letters arrived from manufacturers of centrifugal pumps, 

 telling me that IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago, had notified them 

 that I was in the field for a centrifugal pump and that cata- 

 logues were being mailed under separate covers. The next 

 day three or four catalogues of centrifugal pumps were 

 received, and more letters from dealers telling me that 

 IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago, had written them that I wanted 

 a centrifugal pump and that catalogues were being mailed 

 under separate covers. The next day there were some 

 more, and for a week or more nearly every mail brought 

 some catalogues of centrifugal pumps and letters from 

 jobbers and manufacturers telling me that IRRIGATION AGE 

 had notified them that I was in the field for a centrifugal 

 pump and that catalogues were being mailed under separate 

 covers. 



My curiosity was fully satisfied, and I doubt if there 

 was a centrifugal pump made or sold in the United States 

 of which I did not receive a catalogue at that time. My . 

 'suspicion proved correct, all these makes were really better 

 than the pump I had first .seen at the exposition. This 

 list of catalogues gave me a splendid opportunity to pick 

 out a pump for pumping muck. Some of the catalogues 

 also contained some very valuable and some rather startling 

 information. One item is of special importance. The pump 

 I selected was provided for connecting to a 3-inch discharge 

 pipe. Without knowing more, I would certainly not have 

 invested in more than 3-inch pipes. The friction of the 

 260 gallons per minute through 100 feet of 3-inch pipe 

 laying on the level would require as much power as to lift 

 the water seventeen feet straight up, and as there were 

 700 feet of pipe the total friction alone would have been 

 equal to raising the water 119 feet in addition to the actual 

 lift of about 20 feet had I not provided larger pipes. 



In adopting a new science it may be well for us to bear in 



Morris Centrifugal Pump. 



mind that there may be much about it for us to learn. In 

 the papers read on irrigation at the last annual meeting 

 I saw where one man failed to get results and even 

 damaged his pump because he had not made proper pro- 



Secretaries of the National Irrigation Congress. 



vision for friction and in using a piston pump had not 

 provided an air cushion, when a neighbor came along and 

 told him what was wrong. Had not that neighbor come 

 along at the right time with the right information one of 

 our leading horticulturists might have joined the list of 

 those who declare that irrigation is not practical. And had 

 it not been for selecting a pump from the great number of 

 catalogues with which IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago, caused me to 

 be flooded instead of buying the first centrifugal pump that 

 I had seen, and for some of the hydraulic information con- 

 tained in those catalogues, I should no doubt never have 

 succeeded in developing irrigation with muck. 



After selecting my pump I found some trouble with the 

 other dealers who had sent me catalogues, for they all 

 wanted to sell me a pump. My embarrassment was very 

 similar to that of a friend of mine -at Lake postoffice, Idaho. 

 Peter had reached the age and position where he naturally 

 did not like to "batch" it alone, but out there in the west 

 thtre were not girls enough to go around, except a couple 

 of old maids that nobody seemed to want, and Peter after 

 going to see them a couple of times decided that he did not 

 want them either. So he sent an advertisement to an eastern 

 paper : "Wanted lady correspondents." A number of girls 

 replied, and Peter enjoyed all their letters very much and 

 replied to them all the first time. But after a while he 

 neglected all the rest of the girls to correspond with just one. 

 However, the rest of the girls did not neglect to correspond 



