10 



VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



irrigating operations. Cultivation of the land or mulching 

 should always go with irrigation. 



Humus is rotten organic matter. In the soil it increases 

 its retentive qualities. On this account new land which con- 

 tains much organic matter does not suffer as seriously from 

 drought as that which has been cultivated for some time with- 

 out manure. Likewise, land, heavily manured with rotten ma- 

 nure, which is largely humus, has its drought resisting quali- 

 ties increased, while the application of undecayed manure to 

 the land has a directly opposite result until it has been in the 

 soil long enough to become thoroughly rotted. 



Amount of Water Required for Irrigating Different Crops.— 

 Sometimes a very small amount of water applied at the right 

 time will make the difference between a good crop and a total 

 failure, as, for instance, w^hen dry weather comes on just as 

 the strawberry crop is almost ripe, when it has happened that 

 so small a quantity as 600 barrels of water per acre has been 

 sufficient to ripen the crop. In western Kansas it is esti- 

 mated that a storage capacity of 5,000 barrels per acre in ad- 

 dition to the ordinary rain supply is needed to mature a crop 

 in dry seasons. In this section a storage capacity of 1,500 

 barrels per acre would probably be enough to insure against 

 serious injury from drought in any but very exceptionally dry 

 years. Enough water to cover an acre one inch deep is termed 

 an acre inch. About 900 barrels equal one acre inch. 



Pumping Water for Irrigation.—Where valuable crops are 

 grown, it will sometimes pay to pump water for them. There 

 are many localities in this section where a large amount of 

 water may be controlled by lifting it less than thirty feet. In 

 such places windmills may be successfully used for pumping 

 the water, providing reservoirs of large capacity can be cheaply 

 made into which water may be pumped the year around to be 

 used as needed. Thresher engines, which are seldom used 

 except in the late summer and fall, may sometimes be used 

 to advantage for pumping water and often at very low cost. 

 Gasoline engines are occasionally used in some irrigation works. 

 They are very desirable, but at present the price is too high 

 to warrant their general use. In putting in a pumping plant 

 the pump should be put as near the water supply as possible. 



