IKRIGATIOJ?". 



87 



J.J Thomas remarks; "From repeated experiments, 

 we are induced to draw tlie conclusion that, next to ma- 

 nure, nothing is more important in vegetable growth, in 

 /nany cases, than irrigation. Practical gardeners, in 

 countries more moist than our own, regard it as indis- 

 pensable, and a large share of their success depends upon 

 copious watering." 



Some interesting cases which have recently occurred 

 may be worth stating. Two rows of raspberries stand on 

 ground in every respect alike ; but one receives the drip 

 of the wood-house, and the other does not. The watered 

 row is fully four times as large as the other. Again, the 

 berries on the bushes of the Fastolf and Franconia rasp- 

 berries were at least twice as large when the soil was 

 kept well moistened as afterward, when allowed to be- 

 come dry. A repetition of watering again doubled the 

 size. Again, a near neighbor, who cultivates strawberries 

 for market, and who uses a water-cart for irrigating the 

 rows, raised at the rate of 120 bushels per acre of good 

 fruit on common soil by this means, and he noticed, where 

 the cart was left standing over night, so that the water 

 dripped gradually from it for some hours upon a portion of 

 the plants, the fruit had grown to double the size the rest in 

 twenty-four hours. In watering, several points are to be 

 attended to. One is (except while or after transplanting), 

 never saturate the soil. Frequent sprinklings are more 

 beneficial. The water should be of the temperature of the 

 atmosphere, or it will chill the ground and the plants. 

 Water that has stood in the sun all day is best for water- 

 ing plants in the open air, and in a green-house it should 

 \)e kept standing until the chill is removed. Do not pour 

 Tvater down close to the stem and collar of the plant, as it 

 will be likely to injure and rot that vital part ; apply it 



