THE IRRIGATION PROBLEM. 



207 



deeply veined, a little longer than broad, and barely ses- 

 sile. On a peduncle two to three inches long is borne a 

 single nodding white flower, showy and handsome. The 

 petals are often two inches long, and change with age to 

 rose color. 



Three other white trilliums are sometimes found in our 

 woods — T. ceriiuum, another nodding wake-robin hid- 

 ing beneath its leaves, and T. album and declinatttm , 

 varieties of T. erect um. The last two are not clear and 

 snowy, like T. cernuum, nivale ^.-ad. grandijloruyn ,h\\'L 

 are somewhat clouded with pink or yellow. 



T. grandifloj-iim is somewhat given to sporting, and 

 besides its snowy white form with sessile leaves, it has 

 been found in various states with petioled leaves and 

 pink flowers, marbled with yellow and deep rose. 



The trilliums aretri;ly American plants, only one spe- 

 cies being known outside of America ; this is found in 



Japan. If we were obliged to import trilliums from 

 Japan or Holland or Asia, instead of merely digging them 

 in our own woods, we might appreciate them better and 

 plant them oftener in our gardens. English gardeners 

 import these American plants, and besides using them for 

 lawns and shaded walks, are trying to naturalize them in 

 half -open woods and moist, rich places. 



The trilliums adapt themselves readily to garden cul- 

 ture. The only special point to be observed in their 

 cultivation is that they need partial shade for full leaf- 

 development, without which large perfect flowers are an 

 impossibility. 7'. graudijiornm likes a drier soil than 

 most other varieties, and under cultivation gives flowers 

 as large as the white lily of our gardens. From this va- 

 riety, by sporting and cross-fertilizing, it would seem 

 easy to grow some fine garden forms. 



North Carolina. L. Greenlee. 



THE IRRIGATION PROBLEM. 



SUCCESSFULLY SOLVED BY A WESTERN CELERY-GARDENER. 



I HE judicious selection of soil 

 and fertilizers, and good 

 cultivation, will enable one 

 to raise satisfactory crops 

 of most garden vegetables 

 in a somewhat dry reason. 

 We give the preference to 

 a mellow loam resting on 

 porous subsoil, and apply 

 wood-ashes if we can get 

 them, as they seem to pre- 

 serve moisture. We further 

 aim to plant just close 

 enough, where practicable, to keep the ground pretty 

 well covered with vegetation, and what is not thus pro- 

 tected, with a layer or mulch of well-pulverized soil a few 

 inches in depth, in order to prevent rapid evaporation. 



All these means, however, are sometimes not sufficient 

 for best results in growing celery and cauliflower. The-.e 

 crops need a great deal and a constant supply of moisture, 

 and always suffer more or less during a drouth of even 

 moderate length. If we can arrange a system of irriga- 

 tion, and thus supply moisture to the growing crops during 

 a time when the fountains from above fail us, we have 

 at our command the means to insure the greatest yields, 

 superiority of product, and satisfactory financial returns. 



One mode of irrigation, in practical use and usefulness 

 on John F. White's celery farm in Livingston county, 

 N. Y., and practicable in many other places if growers 

 ■would only see their opportunities, was described in an 

 earlier issue of Popular Gardeni^ig. The tract is a piece 

 of muck land, with a ditch all along the upper side, and 

 a number of smaller ditches across the patch, ending in 

 a ditch that serves as outlet. All these ditches, except 

 the last, are provided with a number of flood-gates. The 

 main ditch along the upper side can be filled to overflowing 

 by turning a little mountain stream into it. By attention 



to the respective flood-gates, one section after another of 

 the cross-ditches may be filled to the very top ; and the 

 water allowed to soak into the loose earth, until the whole 

 20-acre patch is thoroughly saturated. 



Another and quite original method of utilizing a con- 

 venient water-supply for irrigating purposes is told in 

 Farm and Fireside, by H. A. March, of Washington, 

 who has made a name for himself as a grower of excellent 

 cauliflower-seed : 



" On the south side of our farm," he says, " we have a 

 never-failing spring of water that gives us about 45,000 

 gallons every 24 hours. It is situated about 20 feet 

 higher than any of our tillable land. This water is 

 brought down in open troughs to the tanks on the upper 

 side of the field to be irrigated, holding 20,000 gallons 

 each. We turn the water into the tanks in the heat of 

 the day, and the sun warms it up to about 60°. 



' ' To distribute the water, we use a hose made from 

 i2-ounce duck. We take a piece 30 feet long, and cut it 

 lengthwise into three pieces, which makes 90 feet of hose 

 about 2 '2 inches in diameter. We fetch the edges 

 together, double once over, and with a sewing-machine 

 sew through the four thicknesses twice, which makes a 

 hose that will stand a six or eight-foot pressure. To make 

 it waterproof, we use five gallons of boiled linseed-oil 

 with half a gallon of pine tar, melted together. Place 

 the hose in a wash-tub, turn on the oil hot (say 160°), and 

 saturate the cloth well with the mixture. Now, with a 

 clothes-wringer run the hose through with the wringer 

 screwed down rather tight, and it is ready to be hung up 

 to dry. A little pains must be taken to blow through it 

 to keep it from sticking together as it dries. I use an 

 elder-sprout about a foot long with the pith punched out. 

 Tie a string around one end of the hose and gather the 

 other end around the tube and fill it with wind, then hang 

 it on a line and it will dry in a few days and be ready 

 for use. It will last five or six years. 



