mn CANADIAN HOIITICULTURIST. 83' 



IKRIGATIOK 



BY THOMAS BEALL, LINDSAY. 



While looking over some of the Annual Reports of the Fruit 

 Growers' Association lately, my attention was arrested by Mr. Bucke's 

 paper on irrigation, in the Report for 1877. I had never read this 

 paper before, and some of the statements therein surprised me not a 

 little. The second paragraph commences thus : " The average rainfall 

 of the last thirty-five years in Canada has been 28| inches per annum, 

 and the principal part of this falls in the months of May, September 

 and October. It will thus be seen that in the greater part of the hot 

 growing season, when water is most required to assist vegetation, it 

 is in a great measure wanting. This sentence contains three separate 

 statements : first, that the average annual rain fall is 28^- inches ; 

 second, that the principal part of this (the italics are mine) falls in 

 May, September and October; and third, that during the growing 

 oeason water is in a great measure wanting." By referring to the 

 Meteorological Reports, giving the average annual rainfall for the past 

 forty years, I find the first statement to be sufficiently correct, but the 

 average rainfall for the months named in the second statement is 

 8.994 inches, or less than one-third of the annual rainfall, aud for the 

 three months referred to as " the hot growing season," June, July and 

 August, when there is said to be but little rain, the average rainfall is 

 8; 869 inches, or one-eighth of an inch less than during the period 

 mentioned in the second statement, and described as the period of the 

 principal part of the rainfall of the year. 



A few lines further on the writer says : " The beneficial heat of 

 June and July is quite thrown away, . . . because there is no 

 water to moisten the ground." The past forty years the average rain- 

 fall for the two months mentioned was 5.98 inches, or .475 inches 

 greater than any two consecutive months except August aud September, 

 and only .464 inches less than these. Arguments in favor of irrigation 

 in Ontario based upon such premises can have but little weight. 



On page 14 Mr. Bucke says : " One would scarcely think it 

 necessary to show that irrigation is required in a dry, hot country with 

 only 28 inches of rainfiill, when England, with a comparative cool 

 temperature aud a rainfall of 40 inches, can double its grass crop by 



