110 IRRIGATION ROUND TABLE 



SUB-IRRIGATION ON MUCK SOILS 



Mr. Bonney: I don't feel that I ought to say anything here 

 about sub-irrigation, because our experience hasn't extended over a 

 long enough time to give definite results. We have a piece of muck 

 we are draining, or preparing to drain, amounting to somewhere in 

 the neighborhood of sixty to seventy-five acres. We have been 

 using open ditches and find them expensive, and not satisfactory. 

 We are putting tile in those ditches, main tile 12 inches and laterals 

 4 inches in diameter. The laterals are probably on the average ten 

 rods apart. I realize that this is a little too far, but we are getting 

 fairly good results. We are putting these in, in the first place, for 

 draining, and we use the same for irrigation. Our water supply is 

 on the far side of the muck. The main line of tile is provided at 

 the junctions with cement boxes and gates to shut off the water. 

 When we wish to irrigate, we can close the gates and let the water 

 into the distant ends of the laterals. When we have too much water, 

 we pump it out. We have no natural drainage. We have perhaps 

 half the acreage under this system, and it has worked well for us so far. 



Mr. Work: Are there any questions about Mr. Bonney 's opera- 

 tions? 



Question : Are there any figures on the first cost of construction? 



Mr. Bonney: I couldn't give you any definite figures on this, 

 for the reason that the labor part of it has been done at odd times. 



Question : With the laterals so far apart, would you get enough 

 water on? 



Mr. Bonney: Year before last when the season was very dry 

 at the time for setting celery, we irrigated eight acres in this way, 

 so that the top of the soil was moist, and we lost no plants. 



Mr. Work: As I remember the situation on the place, the 

 stream is higher than the muck land. Under ordinary conditions, 

 the water flows right by ]\lr. Bonney 's fields. When you go there 

 in the spring, you ^^11 find that the whole area is a most delightful 

 little ocean. It doesn't look any more like growing lettuce than the 

 deep blue sea. But you will find the gasoline engine pumping away, 

 and they manage to get the water out in time to grow crops. 



Mr. Bonney: We have a twenty horse power gasoline engine. 

 Last year we had an unusual amount of water, and called into service 

 a six horse power engine and an extra pump, so that we were pump- 



