June, 1915 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
359 
gardener it is difficult not to make claims 
so great that the average reader will fight 
shy of the whole proposition. I have no 
desire to exaggerate, but I cannot imagine 
the gardener who would, if he could actually 
see the results to be obtained, rest content 
until he had equipped his own garden if it 
were by any means possible for him to ob- 
tain water — and right here it may be as 
well to emphasize the fact that all the water 
you need is the supply to be obtained 
through a f inch pipe at an ordinary pres- 
sure, 30 to 50 pounds. Perfect water con- 
trol, such as is supplied in a practical way 
by modern irrigation methods, is under 
almost all circumstances the most important 
factor in making for good crops every sea- 
son. And until you regulate this, all the 
time and money you spend on good seed, 
manures, fertilizers, cultivation, and in 
fighting bugs and diseases, must be in- 
vested as a gamble with the weather, in 
which you stand to lose practically all the 
results you had hoped for in spite of any- 
thing you can do yourself. 
This new method of irrigation, in general, 
is termed the “overhead” system because 
the water is applied from pipes running 
Head of nozzle line riser. Short nipple, elbow, long nipple, 
valve and turning union, with strainer inside 
above the ground instead of in ditches, or in 
tiles beneath the soil, as has been done here- 
tofore. The first great advantage of this 
system is that it can be used everywhere 
and anywhere; and in the very smallest 
units with as great advantage, compara- 
tively, as on large areas. In your own back- 
yard you can have your own irrigation plant 
and grow vegetables and flowers which, if 
you are a skillful enough gardener, will 
vie with any which you may have seen at 
agricultural and horticultural exhibitions 
or pictured in the seed catalogues. 
You know from your own garden experi- 
ence, even if it has been very limited, the 
importance of having plenty of water for 
your growing crops. Probably you have 
seldom had the chance to harvest a crop 
which had had all the water which it could 
make use of throughout the entire season. 
Many gardeners seem to have the idea that 
irrigation is necessary only during a drought 
to prevent entire crop failure. In almost 
all parts of the United States, even in good 
seasons, there are periods when growth has 
to slow up because the moisture supply in 
the soil is getting low. So that irrigation 
means not only crops saved in drought sea- 
sons but much larger crops in normal seasons. 
It is for this reason that you can go to the 
expense (which is not great), of putting in a 
watering system with the full assurance 
that you will get a satisfactory return on 
your money each season, no matter what the 
weather may be. The new or overhead 
system not only differs from any other 
method of applying water formerly in use, 
in being more available, but it also gets the 
water upon the ground in the ideal way — 
that is, in the form of a fine, gentle spray 
like a misty rain, which does not pack the 
surface nor form puddles, nor spatter foliage 
and flowers with mud, nor beat down the 
tender little plants and seedlings. More- 
over in operation it is practically automatic, 
as the only attention required is to turn the 
lines occasionally part way over so that the 
water will fall on a different strip of ground. 
F or large gardens even this minimum amount 
of attention is not necessary if one gets one 
of the several automatic turning devices 
which are now to be had. In spite of all 
these advantages the cost of a complete 
outfit, pipe, nozzles and all, is little or no 
more than you would pay for a length of 
good hose sufficient to water the same 
sized garden! 
The principle upon which this new system 
of watering is based is so simple that when 
you see it you will wonder why it had not 
been used years ago. Although there are 
now a number of concerns from which 
equipment for overhead irrigating can be 
obtained, it is only within the last four or 
five years that it has come into general use 
even commercially, but the results obtained 
have been so remarkable that it is revolu- 
tionizing the business of market gardening, 
and will undoubtedly do the same for the 
home garden as soon as it becomes more 
widely known. The whole equipment for 
overhead watering is extremely simple. A 
small sized pipe — § inch is large enough for 
gardens up to 150 feet long — is run the 
length of the garden, and from this the 
water is thrown to a distance of some 25 
feet in either direction. Therefore each 
“line,” covers a strip fifty feet wide the 
whole length of the garden. 
There are two general methods of apply- 
ing the water, from overhead. To dis- 
tinguish them they may be called the 
“nozzle-line” system and the “sprinkler” 
system. The several concerns manufac- 
turing irrigation equipment advocate one 
system or the other, and in addition, of 
course, their particular line of equipment. 
In the “nozzle-line” system the water is 
applied through a series of small nozzles, 
placed at intervals of three or four feet in 
the line which runs the length of the garden, 
and from which the water is thrown in a 
row of small streams which are broken up 
through the resistance of the air, into fine 
particles which give a real imitation rain. 
In the sprinkler system the water is applied 
through sprinklers which are a development 
of the lawn-sprink- 
ler but made so 
efficient that each 
one can water a 
circle some fifty 
feet in diameter. 
Each sprinkler is 
supported on an 
upright piece or 
‘‘standpipe.” 
These are placed 
about fifty feet 
apart on the pipe 
line, which is usu- 
ally put below the 
surface. 
With the sprink- 
ler system the wa- 
ter may be applied 
more rapidly; and 
is applied auto- 
matically; thepipe, 
except for the 
standpipes or 
“risers,” is out of 
the way beneath 
the ground. On 
the other hand, it 
costs more for the 
piping, which must 
be larger, requires 
more work to in- 
stall, and is not as 
perfectly under 
control as the noz- 
zle-line system, 
which can be 
turned from one 
side to the other; 
and when it is run parallel with the rows, 
can be used to water a few rows at a time, 
after planting or weeding, or to give some 
crops a heavier watering than others, which 
is, of course, an advantage. Moreover, 
when the water is applied in the form of 
circles, the points of the garden where they 
intersect get a double dose. 
With the various fittings made for the 
purpose it is perfectly feasible for any one 
who is at all handy with tools to install 
either system for his own garden. 
To take up the nozzle-line system, which 
is the more widely used, various things are 
required. First, a pipe line of sufficient 
size, from your water supply to the garden. 
Usually one inch is ample, and where the 
distance is short, and not over 150 feet of 
nozzle line is to be operated at one time, 
| inch will do. (Where the irrigating sys- 
tem is to be used only through the summer, 
this may be if you prefer, simply connected 
and laid over the ground to the garden, and 
taken up again in the fall. This should be 
connected with a union fitting so that it can 
be readily taken apart.) At the garden 
this should be connected by an “elbow” to 
an upright pipe of the desired height. The 
nozzle-line can be any convenient distance 
from six inches to six feet or more above 
the surface. Three to four feet is a con- 
venient height for a portable line, as de- 
scribed later, and six for a permanent one, 
as it is well out of the way. If you can run 
