Making the Garden Safe for the Summer 
New York 
WHAT MODERN IRRIGATION MEANS AND HOW TO SELECT A SYSTEM THAT WILL MEET YOUR OWN REQUIRE- 
MENTS AND GIVE SATISFACTION 
The overhead system of irrigation is a great con- 
venience allowing for traffic underneath. The 
direction of the spray is controlled by turn- 
L,. ing the entire line by the lever handle 
man at the front? Whether you 
have studied the scientific side of 
gardening enough to know it or not, it is 
WATER Water is to the ranks of vegetables 
in your garden, what food is to the ranks of 
men in the trenches. Without it they perish, 
no matter how well they may be established 
otherwise. Without water they perish, no 
matter how well planned, or thoroughly fer- 
tilized, or carefully tended, your garden may 
have been; yet when the long hot days come, 
without abundant water it cannot 
make progress, nor yield the re- 
sults promised by the encouraging 
opening of the “spring drive. 
An adequate system for sup- 
plying water to your garden when- 
ever it needs it, and as much as 
it needs, is the best garden invest- 
ment you can make. Commer- 
cial growers, with soil as rich as 
it could possibly be made, and 
using the best methods of culture, 
have found that with irrigation 
they can, as a general thing, double 
their yields! To the home gar- 
dener, often working under some 
Show- 
ing de- 
tail of the 
sunk e n 
nozzle in 
a buried 
cup as 
adapted 
for lawn use 
“IRRIGATION FOR THE HOME PLOT 
The next question is, how to furnish irriga- 
tion for your garden? You may be somewhat 
confused by the term “irrigation’’ itself; 
not quite clear as to what to do, or just how 
to set about it; or what it is going to cost. 
There are two points to be settled upon 
right now, at the outset: 
The first is a conviction that modern 
irrigation for the home garden is not a com- 
plicated thing. Don’t feel for a minute that 
it is “beyond” you, because you are not an 
expert gardener. It is just as simple as using 
a watering can — and infinitely less work! 
There are no complicated rules which must 
be followed in using it; the few simple sugges- 
tions given later in this article— most of 
which common sense would have dictated to 
you anyway — are sufficient to set you right 
on that point. 
Secondly, an irrigation system for your 
home garden won’t cost a fortune. In fact, 
considering that irrigation supplies are a new 
thing, and as yet not in universal demand, the 
prices asked by most of the manufacturers 
are very moderate. You can get an outfit 
that, with such hose as you may have on hand, 
to convey the water from the house to the 
garden — if you have not an outlet near the 
garden — will enable you to sup- 
ply artificial rain for a small 
garden for five to ten dollars. 
That is first cost and practically 
the only cost. The expense of 
operation is nothing but the cost 
of the water; and with care the 
outfit will last indefinitely, as 
there is nothing to wear out. 
Two weeks of hot dry weather, 
even in a very moderate sized 
garden, often does more than ten 
dollars’ worth of injury. 
Now as to the details of the 
equipment, and how to install 
it. In the first place, one 
disadvantage in the way of soil, etc., it has 
meant even more; it has meant not only much 
larger crops, but the assurance of crops 
where otherwise there would have been failure. 
In practically every garden, even in the few 
seasons when we have no real “drouth,” irri- 
gation will be needed badly not once, but 
many times, between June first and October 
first. And whenever it is needed, and you 
can give it, it will help the growth of every 
vegetable in your garden. 
Not only that, but keeping crops in vigor- 
ous growth, materially protects them against 
injury from insects and disease. Further- 
more, your early crops, under irrigation, will 
mature on time, and your succession and late 
crops, which should supply you with materials 
for canning, and for winter use, can be planted 
the day the ground is ready, and be had up 
above ground and beginning vigorous growth 
under the most favorable circumstances, in a 
few days more, if you can command the rain 
over your own garden. 
In short, at from whatever angle you look 
at it, there is every reason for providing your 
garden with irrigation; and all these reasons 
are of double strength at this particular time, 
when every ounce of food that can be pro- 
duced will be needed. Keeping your garden 
supplied with water this year will be as patri- 
otic an investment as buying a war bond! 
Y OU will not have “done your bit” 
to the fullest extent this year, unless 
you leave no stone unturned to 
make your garden yield to its full 
capacity. It is by no means mere sentiment 
to say that your best efforts in that direction 
involve more than the personal gain you may 
make by so doing, and will contribute con- 
cretely, even if only on a small scale, to the 
national welfare and the national cause. 
WHAT WATER MEANS 
What is the most important factor in assur- 
ing the full success of the garden you have 
p 1 a nted this year— perhaps for the 
first time t, ■ — to help feed yourself, and 
the reby ftr make it possible for your 
brother, the farmer, to feed the 
should have a clear idea of the general prin- 
ciple of “spray” irrigation, as this type is 
called. It may be described most simply as 
“artificial rain.” The water is distributed, 
under considerable pressure, through “noz- 
zles” placed in a row along a pipe, or by sta- 
tionery or revolving “ sprinklers.” The water, 
thrown quite a distance by the nozzle or 
sprinkler, is broken up into small drops by the 
resistance of the air, and falls in a spray. The 
fineness of the spray is an important matter. 
Big drops of water tend to pack the soil, 
and unless it is very light, to wet it so rapidly 
that it will get muddy on the surface, or even 
run off, before it has wet clear down to the 
roots. It also spatters mud over the leaves, 
like a driving rain, which is objectionable in 
the case of many vegetables and most flowers. 
To get the best results from an irrigation 
system, you should make yourself sufficiently 
familiar with the various types on the market 
to choose intelligently according to your own 
watering problems. You may have a vegetable 
garden alone, or only flower beds, or lawns and 
shrubbery, or any of many combinations, to 
supply water to. Your soil may be very light 
and sandy, making it possible to apply the 
water very rapidly without flooding; or it 
may be of such a character that the water 
must be applied very slowly, to soak in as it 
falls. You may have a good water pressure, 
but not flow enough for very rapid irrigation; 
or a good flow, but low pressure. All these 
things must be considered. 
TYPES OF APPLIANCE 
Here are some of the points of distinction 
between the various types: The sprinkler 
systems apply the water more rapidly than 
the nozzle-line systems. But this may be, 
and frequently is, 
more of a drawback 
than an advantage. 
They do not, as a 
rule, break the water 
up into as fine a 
spray, which makes 
little difference in the 
case of lawns or 
shrubbery, but with 
delicate flowers, or 
even with many 
When hand cultivation is done, as in a small garden, the 
irrigation pipes may be kept low and the outfit is not then 
obtrusive 
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