UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



JU9*«Wt. 



Contribution from the Office of Public Roads 



and Rural Engineering 



LOGAN WALLER PAGE, Director 



jn-^*^5L 



Washington, D. C. 



February 16, 1917 



IRRIGATION IN FLORIDA. 



By F. W. Stanley, Irrigation Engineer. 



CONTENTS. 



History 1 



Estimate of total irrigated crops 2 



The need of irrigation in Florida 3 



Relation of soil types to irrigation 10 



Soil-moisture tests 13 



Other factors determining the need of 



irrigation 17 



Water supply available for irrigation 18 



Description of irrigation systems in use in 



Florida 19 



Systems for the irrigation of truck crops . . 19 



Subirrigation as practiced at Sanford . 20 

 Other forms of subirrigation in 



Florida 26 



Open-ditch subirrigation at Hast- 

 ings 26 



Overhead-spray systems 28 



The furrow method and other systems 



used for irrigating truck 38 



Description of irrigation systems in use in 

 Florida— Continued. 



Irrigation of citrus groves 38 



Hose irrigation for citrus groves 39 



Irrigation by automatic-sprinkling 



systems 41 



Irrigation by surface methods 43 



Irrigation from flowing wells 45 



Summary of irrigation plants in use 46 



Experiments to determine methods for eco- 

 nomical irrigation 47 



Soil-moisture tests made in connection with 



irrigation 47 



Experiments with low-pressure pipe systems . 51 

 Some important points in the design and 

 equipment of an irrigation plant 58 



HISTORY OF IRRIGATION IN FLORIDA. 



The first attempts at irrigation on an extensive scale in Florida 

 seem to have been made during the droughts of 1890 to 1893. Before 

 that time the production of citrus crops was not highly systematized 

 and little attention was paid to the intensive methods of agriculture 

 which have developed rapidly in recent years. 



Prior to the disastrous freeze of 1894-95 the center of the citrus 

 industry was Marion County. The town of Citra was the largest 

 shipping point in the State. Approximately 2,200 acres of orange 

 groves had been planted in this section by 1894, of which about 500 

 acres were irrigated. 



The freeze of February, 1895, followed a very severe one which 

 occurred the preceding December. These two cold spells froze trees 

 to the ground in nearly all the citrus sections of the State and were 

 especially severe in Marion County. The blow to the citrus industry 

 was so great that many of the farmers left the State, while the 



61867°— Bull. 462—17 1 



