302 [Assembly 



Drouth injures plants in many ways. It deprives them of the 

 water necessary to form the sap and act as a means for carrying 

 food to the various parts. The moisture of the leaf, which is ne- 

 cessary to cause an absorption of carbonic acid from the air, is re- 

 moved. The cooling of the plant, by the evaporation of water, is 

 not allowed to proceed, and it becomes injured by an excess of 

 heat. The soil becomes so thoroughly dried that there is not 

 moisture enough left to act as a solvent and carry food into roots. 

 The cracking of stiff soils, also, break and otherwise injure the 

 roots. While the constant evaporation of water from the surface 

 of the soil cools it and renders it still more uncongenial to early 

 growth. 



This deficiency of water may be supplied by rains, by dew de- 

 posited on the surface of the soil, by irrigation, or by thorough 

 subsoil plowing, and under draining where necessary. Over rain 

 and surface dew we can, of course, exercise no control, and for 

 artificial improvement we must look entirely to irrigation and the 

 thorough mechanical disintegration of the subsoil. 



Irrigation, or the flooding of land by water, may be adopted on 

 every farm with much success, though in some locations it is 

 more feasible than in others. For instance, where springs are 

 frequent on the summits of hills, the water from the springs may 

 be conducted by channels over their sides, in such a manner as to 

 water every part. On level, or comparatively level lands, irriga- 

 tion is attended with more expense, but is productive of equally 

 good results. In many instances it will be necessary to conduct 

 water in pipes to reservoirs located in different parts of the field. 

 The great difficulty has hitherto been to procure a sufficient sup- 

 ply of water at a point high enough to distribute it over an entire 

 farm. That difficulty has been finally overcome by the Ellington 

 windmill, which, as far as I have been able to ascertain, may be 

 constructed for about $50, and will pump water enough to irri- 

 gate a large amount of land. It is so constructed that it furls its 

 own sails, and is never liable to become disordered by strong 

 winds, so that it runs the slowest when the wind blows the hard- 

 est, though it does not carry out the same principle and run the 

 fastest during a calm. 



