UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 462 
Contribution from the Office of Public Roads 
and Rural Engineering 
LOGAN WALLER PAGE, Director - 
Washington, D. C. 
February 16, 1917 
IRRIGATION IN FLORIDA. 
By F. W. Stanley, Irrigation Engineer. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
History 1 
Estimate of total irrigated crops 2 
The need of irrigation in Florida 3 
Relation of soil types to irrigation 10 
Soil-moisture tests 
Other factors determining the need of 
irrigation 
Water supply available for irrigation 
Description of irrigation systems in use in 
Florida 
Systems for the irrigation of truck crops. . 
Subirrigation as practiced at Sanford. 
Other forms of subirrigation in 
Florida 
Open-ditch subirrigation at Hast- 
ings 
Overhead-spray systems , 
The furrow method and other systems 
used for irrigating truck 
13 
38 
Description of irrigation systems in use in 
Florida— Continued . 
Irrigation of citrus groves 38 
Hose irrigation for citrus groves 39 
Irrigation by automatic-sprinkling 
systems 41 
Irrigation by surface methods 43 
Irrigation from flowing wells 45 
Summary of irrigation plants in use 46 
Experiments to determine methods for eco- 
nomical irrigation 
Soil-moisture tests made in connection with 
irrigation 
Experiments with low-pressure pipe systems . 
Some important points in the design and 
equipment of an irrigation plant 
47 
58 
HISTORY OF IRRIGATION IN FLORIDA. 
The first attempts at irrigation on an extensive scale in Florida 
seem to have been made during the droughts of 1890 to 1893. Before 
that time the production of citrus crops was not highly systematized 
and little attention was paid to the intensive methods of agriculture 
which have developed rapidly in recent years. 
Prior to the disastrous freeze of 1894-95 the center of the citrus 
industry was Marion County. The town of Citra was the largest 
shipping point in the State. Approximately 2,200 acres of orange 
groves had been planted in this section by 1894, of which about 500 
acres were irrigated. 
The freeze of February, 1895, followed a very severe one which 
occurred the preceding December. These two cold spells froze trees 
to the ground in nearly all the citrus sections of the State and were 
especially severe in Marion County. The blow to the citrus industry 
was so great that many of the farmers left the State, while the 
61867°— Bull. 462—17 1 
