32 
some years, and the disastrous droughts of 1907-1910 were the direct 
cause of the installation of most of the plants. Some farmers have 
not used their systems for irrigation for two or three years, but most 
of the growers found water of great benefit in the spring of 1911. 
In case of a protracted drought water may be turned on nearly 
every day and run only a few hours, or a good wetting may be given 
at intervals of a week to 10 days. The quantity of water applied is 
not difficult to estimate, most of the plants delivering 10 to 50 gal- 
lons per minute per acre, which is equivalent to about 0.1 inch of 
rainfall per hour. Thus, if a man operates his plant 8 to 10 hours 
he probably will apply about an inch of water. 
It is a peculiar circumstance that the irrigators in this section 
should have adopted overhead methods so readily when most of the 
soil conditions are well fitted for surface methods. Some farmers 
believe that watering by surface methods will increase blight, but 
there seems to be little proof of this. At present about 75 acres are 
watered by the surface or furrow methods, apparently with excellent 
results. The method of distributing the water is crude and much 
labor might be saved by better methods. 
The question of methods will be taken up under a discussion of 
furrow irrigation. There is no doubt that it is worth much study, 
for if results can be obtained by irrigation plants of low cost it is 
quite certain that many farmers who now hesitate to pay an average 
of $250 per acre for a plant would be willing to expend $50 per acre. 
The trucking section in Sumter County is considerably larger than 
that in Levy County. The largest acreage of irrigated lands is 
around the town of Bushnell, about 50 miles south of TTilliston. 
Some irrigation is practiced near Center Hill and Webster, each 
within 11 or 12 miles of Bushnell. This district comprises 250 to 
300 acres of irrigated crop, nearly half being located around Bush- 
nell. Practically all of this tract is irrigated by the overhead-pipe 
system, but a few acres are irrigated by other spray systems and a 
few by surface methods. The soil conditions are not favorable here 
for surface irrigation under the ordinary methods of applying water, 
because of the flat ground surface and the sandy character of the soil. 
The water supply is from wells, which average about 125 feet in 
depth, the water rising to within 50 feet of the surface. Most of the 
irrigated farms are small, few being over 10 acres in extent, while 
many contain only about 3 acres. For this reason gasoline engines 
are in favor, few steam plants being in use. 
Cucumbers are the principal irrigated crop, as in the Williston sec- 
tion. There is a large acreage of beans and tomatoes near Webster 
and Center Hill, but irrigation of these crops is not a common prac- 
tice, the farmers believing that the increase in yield due to irrigation 
will not warrant the outlay for installation. 
