IRRIGATING VEGETABLES IN NEW YORK 
Paut Worx 
Superintendent and Instructor, Department of Vegetable Gardening, Cornell 
University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
PRACTICABILITY 
The casual observer in passing through the market gardening 
sections in the neighborhood of our cities cannot fail to notice 
lines of pipe supported on posts extending through many of the 
fields. Unless he happens along at just the right time he will 
wonder as to the uses of these lines. If he stops to inquire he will 
learn that each bears tiny nozzles spaced three or four feet apart, 
and that each is connected at the end with a water supply main. 
A conversation with the owner of the place will perhaps lead to a 
demonstration of the apparatus and he will see that these mina- 
ture nozzels are capable of applying water to a belt of twenty-five 
or thirty feet on each side, and that by means of a specially con- 
structed union the whole line can be turned to cast water to cover 
ground at a considerable distance, in the intermediate space, or 
directly under the line, the latter being accomplished by means 
of a vertical throw. The flow is controlled by means of an ordi- 
nary globe or gate valve. 
WATER SUPPLY 
The next question which naturally arises in the mind of the 
observer is that of the water supply. There are few places where 
water cannot be had under conditions which would make its use 
profitable. In some instances a small pumping plant is estab- 
lished by the side of a stream or pond. A _ three-horsepower 
engine and a duplex pump is able to furnish 100 gallons of water 
per minute at a pressure of 30 pounds and at a cost of about ten 
cents per hour. As different areas can be watered successively, 
this is sufficient to take care of several acres. Other gardeners 
sink wells to a deep water-bearing stratum lying below. Some 
use a number of driven wells connected together. Others use 
single wells of large diameter which have a great gathering surface. 
(1851] 
