August, 1917 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



13 



Work for the Red Cross Also 



/^ANNING work can be carried farther 

 ^ than in helping out individuals. Some 

 medium for exchange in canned garden prod- 

 ucts as well as for those fresh from the soil 

 may well be established. The local Woman's 

 Exchange would, in most cases, be the logical 

 agency for doing this work. But there is an- 

 other line of effort which would also be well 

 worth looking into. 



In working for the comfort of the men at the 

 front, we are t sometimes likely to forget the 

 distress of the women who stay behind. In 

 every Red Cross organization there are prob- 

 ably members who would rather can than sew. 

 Vegetables canned ordried now, and sold at cost 

 next winter where they will be sorely needed, 



will be just as much a contribution to the 

 cause as will be the making of bandages for 

 the front. In addition to this, there are the 

 things which will be needed for the Red Cross 

 Hospitals themselves, and which can be had 

 better and cheaper if supplied by the members 

 than if they were bought. 



Personal Pointers for Conservation 



TN ADDITION to these essential commun- 

 •"■ ity activities, each person should not for- 

 get to do his or her personal "bit" to help in 

 the general campaign for food conservation. 

 If you have a garden, remember to begin using 

 your vegetables early — and also to can or. 

 dry them before they get old and tough ! 



Make your preparations well in advance 

 for drying or de-hydrating all the vegetables 



that you can. For information as to methods 

 see last month's Garden Magazine. A 

 practical and economical "evaporator" of 

 family size may be had for a few dollars. 

 While small enough for one person, the small- 

 est size is large enough for several persons to 

 use together, as it will be require^ occasionally. 

 For society or club an outfit of larger size 

 can be bought. 



In addition to taking care of your personal 

 requirements, remember that the success of 

 the other suggestions contained in this article 

 depends upon each individual doing his or her 

 part for the common good. If it is necessary 

 for you to contribute, for instance, a couple 

 of hours a week to the Garden Club Vegetable 

 Exchange, in order to make it a success, don't 

 be a slacker! 



Water to Increase Garden Efficiency ^3; ™£ D 



IRRIGATION SYSTEMS THAT ENSURE THE GREATEST YIELD OF CROPS 



UNDER CONTROL 



WHEN Mr. Edgar McFarland in Ten- 

 nessee can produce enough vegeta- 

 bles to feed his entire family during 

 the year from a piece of ground 25 x 

 100 feet by the use of a $12 irrigation system; 

 and the Seabrook farms in New Jersey can raise 

 consistently 500 or more bushels of potatoes to 

 the acre; and Belden & Sons of Massachu- 

 setts can increase their onion yield from 300 to 

 800 bushels an acre by the aid of irrigation, the 

 rest of us can hardly ignore the thought that 

 water is the limiting factor in the production of 

 crops, not only in the semi-arid but in all 

 regions. The use of water to irrigate growing 

 plants is nothing more or less than a good in- 

 surance policy, and it is needed perhaps more 

 this year than ever, because with a possible 

 world's food shortage staring us in the face we 



Large and small standpipes ensure surface irrigation. The 

 larger one serves as a head. Water is distributed through 

 the openings in the smaller one 



cannot afford to have a crop failure. Every 

 one naturally feels that a greater acreage is 

 necessary. But though more acres make for 

 more food, yet without sufficient water more 

 acreage will be of little value. 



Within the last few years the manufacturing 

 industries have given to the tiller of the soil all 

 kinds of devices for the improvement and 

 betterment of the land. Efficiency of machin- 



ery is the keynote to success and to-day the 

 grower is better supplied with tools of high 

 quality than ever before in the history of the 

 civilized world. 



Yet, with the great development of all the 

 devices for the cultivation of the land, with all 

 the means at our disposal for the increased out- 

 put of our farms, there still remains the one 

 great limiting factor -water. The plant does not 

 always suffer for lack of water, but its growth 

 is checked, and the maximum yield is not re- 

 ceived. 



The point to which this need for water is felt 

 may or may not be entirely fatal. It may 

 not reach the acute stage of drought in which 

 growth is entirely checked and if continued 

 long enough fatally, but it ranges from 

 the slight need of the /plant for water up to 

 the acute need or absolute necessity for it 

 in order for the plant to live. 



It is generally known that there are certain 

 well-defined regions, of which vast areas are 

 found in many parts of the West, namely in 

 Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah, Cali- 

 fornia, and a few other places where extra 

 water supply is an absolute necessity for the 

 growth of plants. And it is taken as a matter 

 of course that some way of applying it is 

 installed. But seldom do people in the more 

 humid areas suspect that in their own com- 

 munity the yields could be materially in- 

 creased by the judicious application of water 

 at the proper time. Talk to any grower in 

 the eastern or Middle West where the rain- 

 fall varies from 40 to 60 inches of precipita- 

 tion for the year, and he will say, "we 

 don't need irrigation in our section, we are 

 especially blessed with plenty of natural rain- 

 fall. Our crops do well and produce abund- 

 antly." While we agree that certain regions 

 are especially blessed with 40 or 50 inches of 

 rainfall in a year, the question remains — does 

 this vast amount of precipitation come at the 

 proper time every year? 



It takes but little persuasion to convince the 

 grower in a semi-arid region where the rainfall 

 is 8 to 20 inches a year that water is necessary 

 for the production of a good crop. It is, how- 

 ever, more difficult to convince the grower in 

 a region with 40 inches of rainfall that artificial 

 watering may be necessary. 



Though the great problem of soil moisture 

 is in its evolutionary stage and each year sees 



IMPORTANCE OF APPLYING WATER 



different theories and ideas for the conserving 

 of the natural soil moisture, yet it can be said, 

 without a shadow of a doubt, that the applica- 

 tion of water to the land is beneficial in every 

 section of the country some of the time and in 

 some section of the country all of the time. 



Just what the early history of irrigation is I 

 am unable to say, but we read accounts of the 

 great crops that have been produced in the old 

 countries of Egypt and China where the most 

 primitive methods of applying water to the 

 soil still exist. If I am rightly informed the 

 early use of water in the form of irrigation be- 

 gan in this country in the early 'forties. If my 

 information is authentic Brigham Young, the 

 founder of irrigation in the United States when 

 he led a small band of 147 followers to the 

 region which is now known as Utah, and 

 encouraging his followers to be farmers said: 



There are several patterns of sprinklers. They may be at- 

 tached to moveable surface hose or to underground perma- 

 nent pipes 



"spread the water out upon the land and you 

 will have bountiful crops." To-day there are 

 many systems of irrigation in use and many 

 variations of each system to suit the different 

 sections of the country. 



The principal methods are: (1) open ditch; 

 (2) overhead system, divided into the sprinkler 

 system, the spray nozzle system, the spray 

 line; (3) the surface nozzle sprinkler and side 



