A B C OF FLORIDA TRUCKING 17 



CHAPTER IV. 



IRRIGATION. 



The expressi(jn, "You never miss the water until the well 

 goes dry," certainly applies here, even though we have an 

 average rainfall of over fifty inches. The Florida farmer 

 who has not put in irrigation does not know the value of it 

 until he has a fine crop of vegetables dying from the want of 

 water; then he realizes too late that he could more than have 

 paid for an irrigation plant with this one crop. 



It is onl\- ^\■hen crops are short that the growers reahze 

 extra high prices, and the dry weather we sometimes have 

 is one of the causes of vegetables being scarce and high. 

 If you have your land irrigated you profit by a drouth, if 

 not, you are the loser. So you can readily see it pays to 

 irrigate, for you are not only more certain of making a crop, 

 but you always get a larger yield and a better quality of 

 vegetables. 



There are three systems of irrigation in use in Florida. 

 One, the sub-irrigation, which consists of carrying the water 

 under the surface of the ground, in parallel rows of 3-inch 

 tile. This tiling is laid in narrow ditches, sixteen to eighteen 

 inches deep, with a fall of about two inches to the hundred 

 feet. A cut of this tiling is shown in figure number one. 

 After the tiling is laid in these ditches, with the ends pressed 

 together as closely as possible, cover with about six inches 

 of wood cinders or sawdust ; this will allow the water to 

 either come out of the joints, or go into them when the tile 

 acts as a drain, without the sand seeping in ; cover the 

 cinders or sawdust with dirt, packing it down well. The 

 distance between the rows of tile varies according to the soil ; 

 in sandy loam twenty-four foot rows give excellent results, 



