402 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



striking results which are obtained from spring 

 water ilowing clear and limpid from the very bow- 

 els of the earth." 



In an excellent article on water meadows, in 

 the Cyclopcedla of Agriculture, the author says, 

 — "Another question then arises, — Is clean or tur- 

 bid water best ? One might suppose that the lat- 

 ter, as abounding more in organic and inorganic 

 manuring substances, but experience seems to de- 

 clare that for grass land, the clearer the water the 

 better." As a first proposition, we merely wish 

 to maintain that irrigation with pure water, such 

 as brooks or wells afford, is beneficial to grass, 

 and to some other crops. 



DO WE NEED IRKIGATIOX IN NEW ENGLAND? 



Our climate, although cold in winter, is tropi- 

 cal in summer. England, where the plow may 

 run, in many counties, every month in the year, 

 is too cold and damp in summer for Indian corn 

 to ripen. Irrigation is most profitable, and there- 

 fore most practical, in hot climates. We suppose 

 it can hardly be profitable in New England, ex- 

 cept for grass. Heat and the moisture of water 

 not stagnant, will ensure heavy crops of grass, 

 on any tolerable soil. Usually, two or three heavy 

 rains in May and June, or the want of them, de- 

 cide for us the question of a good crop of grass. 

 Stagnant water may produce a crop of swamp 

 grass, but never of good hay. Drainage, natural 

 or artificial, and abundant moisture, though seem- 

 ingly contradictor)', are essential conditions of a 

 good grass crop. We must get rid of surplus 

 stagnating water, and supply percolating water 

 with the air that always follows it downward, and 

 then we may cut not only one, but three or four 

 good crops of hay, as is done in other countries. 



The Craigintinny meadows, watered by the sew- 

 age fluid of the city of Edinburgh, produce an- 

 nually from 70 to 80 tons of green grass per acre, 

 which sells on the land for from $125 to $175. 

 The quantity applied, is said to be 10,000 tons 

 per acre in all, at eighteen different times. The 

 value of this liquid, has been heretofore stated to 

 be about four cents per ton, reckoning what ele- 

 ments of fertility it contains, compared with other 

 manm'e, but Prof. Voelcker has recently stated 

 that this is an over-estimate. But even this small 

 value of four cents per ton, makes $-100 per acre, 

 which is more than twice the value of the enor- 

 mous crop. The application of the sewage of 

 cities to land will not pay, as a mere agricultural 

 experiment, but connected with the necessity of 

 getting the filth of the large towns where it can 

 do no harm, and may do much good, the plan is 

 worthy of attention. The question whether the 

 people of London shall drain their sewers into 

 the Thames, and corrupt the air so that Parlia- 

 ment cannot continue its sessions, or conduct it 



ofl' upon the soil for cultivation, involves other 

 considerations than such as are pm-ely agricultural. 



But the point we desired to make, is this, that 

 the water alone is entitled to much of the credit of 

 these liquid manurings. Prof. Voelcker says that 

 on well drained clay soil, irrigation with the pur- 

 est water, even distilled water, if it were possible, 

 which would contain no foreign substance, will 

 produce very large crops of grass, and that in 

 many cases of liquid manuring which have at- 

 tracted attention, Avater is the most valuable con- 

 stituent. 



Now we do not mean to say that poor land will 

 ])roduce large crops with no manure but water, 

 but we do believe that almost any dry field which 

 produces one ton of hay may be made to produce 

 two tons at the first cutting, and at least as much 

 more at two subsequent cuttings, by irrigation 

 with water only. 



WnERE SHALL WE GET WATER? 



In reading recently of agriculture in Algeria, 

 now a French colony in the north of Africa, on the 

 Mediterranean, we observed an account of one 

 Jemmy Brown, a Jersey farmer, whom Mr. Caird 

 had found comfortably located there on 60 acres 

 of land, where he was cultivating wheat and mar- 

 ket vegetables. It was watered regularly yro;)! a 

 lodl worked by one horse, by means of which he 

 irrigated seven acres a day. He watered his lu- 

 cerne every six days, and cut it ten times a year. 

 His vineyard needed no irrigation. We chance, 

 also, to have before us "The Transactions of the 

 San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Society for 

 1861," and find that the Californians, like the 

 modern Algerines, have already learned the value 

 of irrigation. The committees on orchards, vine- 

 yards and nurseries, travelled extensively through 

 the valley, taking notes as they went. They give 

 no connected statement on the subject of irriga- 

 tion, but incidentally speak of it in many places. 

 Some of the orchards are spoken of as "partly ir- 

 rigated and partly not." One "ranch" is named, 

 and the remark is made that the trees and vines 

 are six years old, "irrigated with a horse-power 

 pump from a well eighteen feet deep." Andrew 

 Wolf's farm of 800 acres is named — 500 in culti- 

 vation. The wheat yielded 37^ bushels to the 

 acre, volunteer 20 bushels to the acre, raised 3,768 

 bushels of wheat and 2,800 of barley, cut 00 tons 

 of hay, and grazes 120 head of cattle, &c. "The 

 orchard and garden are irrigated by one of the 

 improved horse-power force pumps, manufactured 

 by Keep & Briggs, of Stockton ; the mcII (Arte- 

 sian) is 58 feet deep, throwing a continuous, full, 

 strong, six-inch stream, affording ample water in 

 a few hours' run each day, for irrigating the 

 ground and supplying the stock." 



On John Rich's farm, on the Sonora road, it 



