120 



IRRIGATION ROUND TABLE 



WELL-DIGGING AT ROCHESTER 



Mr. Work: Rochester growers have a scherae of digging large 

 wells that I think is an unusually good one. The problem is this. 

 There may be underneath the soil abundant streams of water. 

 Certain layers of the subsoil are charged with water. But if you are 

 running a rather extensive irrigation plant, and drive an ordinary 

 small sized well, there is not sufficient gathering surface. The 

 well will not gather water rapidly enough for the pump. To remedy 

 this the idea of using large wells, all the way from ten or twelve feet 

 up to twenty or twenty-five feet in diameter has been worked out. 

 It is very difficult to dig wells there on account of caving. So they 

 dig a circular trench perhaps four feet deep and as wide as con- 

 venient, say two feet. In that trench they build a reinforced 

 concrete ring, perhaps four feet high, twenty feet in diameter and 

 about a foot thick. In it are set quite frequently inch pipes. The 

 ring is a unit and is substantial. They begin to remove the soil 

 from the inside, taking it evenly all the way around. As they re- 

 move the earth, the ring gradually sinks, and they begin building 

 upon it specially made concrete blocks. They go on until they have 

 reached a depth of twenty feet. They cut through layers of quick- 

 sand and gravel, and some tough layers of clay. With so large a 

 gathering surface, they have been able to get all the water they need. 



Question: Would it pay to irrigate for such a crop as potatoes, 

 cauliflower, beans, or anything of that kind.^ 



Mr. Work: I am told that Mr. Seabrook raised about six 

 hundred sixty bushels per acre. 



Mr. Rogers: On one acre a little more than that, and of pota- 

 toes over a thousand baskets an acre. 



Question: You used sixty tons of stable manure? 



Mr. Rogers: Yes, and grew lettuce after potatoes. We used 

 one thousand pounds commercial fertilizer besides. 



Question: W^hat is the yield without irrigation? 



Mr. Rogers: Two hundred eighteen bushels. 



Question: How much did you get with it? 



Mr. Rogers: Six hundred twenty bushels, with other condi- 

 tions almost exactly alike. Mr. Seabrook thinks he did not give 



