AMERICAN INSTITUTE. J 97 



to say that the agriculturist of this country cannot alford to 

 water his land, which would not require one-tenth, nor one- 

 fiftieth the expense of under-draining ; that, too, with more than 

 an equal increase of products. 



•If several seasons be considered, it is well known that the ag- 

 gregate moisture is insuflQcient in most of our soils. If there 

 are some years when there is a sufficiency of natural irrigation, 

 so there ar6 others when there is a deficiency. And there is no 

 one year but that, in this country, there are some localities that 

 sufler for want of water. And to crown the evil, and give us a 

 kind of schoolmaster lesson there comes now and then an eighteen 

 hundred and fifty-four. Although in a given season, the aggre- 

 gate moisture may be sufiicient, still any farmer would consider 

 it an anomaly, if for owe season, each of his crops should receive 

 at just the right time., just the right araowit of rain to give the 

 greatest yield. Yet, by artificial means with the natural, he 

 could, with success and profit, accomplish just this result every 

 year. 



Every farmer will appreciate the necessity of having the proper 

 degree of moisture, at a particular stage in the growth of a crop, 

 and without which, the evil is greater than it would be for an 

 equal or greater lack of moisture at any other time ; which shows 

 the necessity and advantage of having water at our commaiid for 

 purposes of irrigation. 



Some will say, that to irrigate in time of any considerable 

 drouth, will cost all the crops will come to. This is not true if 

 the proper facilities be possessed ; but suppose it does cost all 

 the crop is worth, so that labor and all counted, the fiirmer comes 

 out just even — where he commenced in the spring — is this not 

 infinitely better than to 7iot irrigate, and allow the drouth to ruin 

 the crops, and thereby lose out of pocket — making a " dead" loss 

 of all he has done, l^esides coming short of m.anure in the spring 1 

 Theory and statistics — many experiments demonstrate heyond a 

 doubt., that irrigation is one of the most important matters in the 

 science and practice of farming — that its indispensability to the 

 greatest success has been too long neglected, and that it is still 

 too generally overlooked and but poorly appr ciated. 



The earth is full of water,three-fourths of its surface is flooded 

 with it ; it bursts from the rocks, and trickles down their ragged 

 sides, it rushes down the mountains, and flows along the hill- 

 sides, sweeps through the valleys and over the plains — it under- 

 lies the sui'face everywhere, forming an under-net work of rivu- 



