32 BULLETIN 462, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



some years, and the disastrous droughts of 1907-1910 were the direct 

 cause of the installation of most of the plants. Some farmers have 

 not used their systems for irrigation for two or three years, but most 

 of the growers found water of great benefit in the spring of 1914. 

 In case of a protracted drought water may be turned on nearly 

 every day and run only a few hours, or a good wetting may be given 

 at intervals of a week to 10 days. The quantity of water applied is 

 not difficult to estimate, most of the plants delivering 40 to 50 gal- 

 lons per minute per acre, which is equivalent to about 0.1 inch of 

 rainfall per hour. Thus, if a man operates his plant 8 to 10 hours 

 he probably will apply about an inch of water. 



It is a peculiar circumstance that the irrigators in this section 

 should have adopted overhead methods so readily when most of the 

 soil conditions are well fitted for surface methods. Some farmers 

 believe that watering by surface methods will increase blight, but 

 there seems to be little proof of this. At present about 75 acres are 

 watered by the surface or furrow methods, apparently with excellent 

 results. The method of distributing the water is crude and much 

 labor might be saved by better methods. 



The question of methods will be taken up under a discussion of 

 furrow irrigation. There is no doubt that it is worth much study, 

 for if results can be obtained by irrigation plants of low cost it is 

 quite certain that many farmers who now hesitate to pay an average 

 of $250 per acre for a plant would be willing to expend $50 per acre. 



The trucking section in Sumter County is considerably larger than 

 that in Levy County. The largest acreage of irrigated lands is 

 around the town of Bushnell, about 50 miles south of Williston. 

 Some irrigation is practiced near Center Hill and Webster, each 

 within 11 or 12 miles of Bushnell. This district comprises 250 to 

 300 acres of irrigated crop, nearly half being located around Bush- 

 nell. Practically all of this tract is irrigated by the overhead-pipe 

 system, but a few acres are irrigated by other spray systems and a 

 few by surface methods. The soil conditions are not favorable here 

 for surface irrigation under the ordinary methods of applying water, 

 because of the flat ground surface and the sandy character of the soil. 



The water supply is from wells, which average about 125 feet in 

 depth, the water rising to within 50 feet of the surface. Most of the 

 irrigated farms are small, few being over 10 acres in extent, while 

 many contain only about 3 acres. For this reason gasoline engines 

 are in favor, few steam plants being in use. 



Cucumbers are the principal irrigated crop, as in the Williston sec- 

 tion. There is a large acreage of beans and tomatoes near Webster 

 and Center Hill, but irrigation of these crops is not a common prac- 

 tice, the farmers believing that the increase in yield due to irrigation 

 will not warrant the outlay for installation. 



