PHOTOGRAPH OF OUR IRRIGATING PLANT. 
My work is the devel(Ji>iiig of plants for the home garden, the propagating bed and fniitin)jr fields of 
fruit growers, and to bring them to the highest point of perfection they nnist have ideal soil conditions in- 
cluding tnoistnre. The water is mn into the ditches between the rows where it soaks down deei>. then per- 
colates ont under the plants and rises by capilarity so plants grow naturally without undulj' stimulating 
vegatative parts and gives them abundance of roots and crowns. 
Other roots will start from the crown, and here 
you would have a few exceedingly long roots, 
but like a cow's tail, the branch roots (hairs) 
are away down at the bottom where you don't 
want them. 
By our system large numbers start direct 
from the crown and the lateral roots start high 
up and there are many of them. .-Ml these 
laterals callus during the winter and when 
transplanted in the spring cjuickly sends out 
feeding roots so the plant rushes into a vigor- 
ous growth and maintains it all summer. In 
short, a nurseryman cannot furnish a perfect 
plant without irrigation, because nearly every 
summer we have a dry time in the fall and this 
is the critical time in rooting plants. 
This year we enlarged the pipes and hose of 
our irrigating plant and inade such other 
changes as would give us about six hundred 
and fifty thousand gallons of water per day 
which enables us to properly irrigate our en- 
tire 70 acres of propagating beds. 
A 25 h. p. engine and No. 6 Centrifugal 
pump lifts the water 30 feet from the mill 
pond and sends it through a 13-inch hose 
made of No. 4 sail duck canvas to the distribu- 
ting hose where small hose are attached to 
openings in the main hose for letting it out 
in the ditches as seen in the photograph. 
Two men regulate the flow of water and put 
about three thousand barrels into the subsoil 
at each watering which lasts about ten days. 
No mater if heavy rains intervene, all the 
water goes down deeper until saturation at the 
surface is relieved, the subsoil being porous, 
and then returns to the surface as it dries off 
and thus we keep a reservoir under the plants 
so their develojiment is never checked and 
our customers always get perfect plants. 
HORSE LEG IRRIGATION. 
Horse leg irrigation consists in holding the 
water from the snows of winter and spring 
rains in the ground for the use of the ])lants 
during the dry weather of summer. 
For the average fruit grower it can be done 
far cheaper and better than pumping water. 
I'low the ground as early as you can do it 
without mortaring and, if its subsoil needs it, 
break this up and pulverize it with a subsoil 
plow as explained in another chapter; then 
keep the capillary passages broken up by fre- 
quent cultivations so no crust will form and 
you can hold the moisture so plants will grow 
right along the first season. Then in the fall, 
when ground is frozen, put a mulch on heavily 
between the rows and lightly on the plants and 
the next spring this mulch will hold the water 
in the ground until after the berries are picked 
32 
