THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 4 
i54 
honest in our statements about ourfgcods, and in the 
preparation and sale of these goods. Permanent suc¬ 
cess of the Nation or the locality is impossible unless 
we gain the confidence of the market so that it will 
go without saying that we are offering true measure 
of pure goods. Dr. Jordan hails from Maine, but he 
did not hesitate to say that there is too much 
of what he calls “cussed Yankee smartness ’’ in busi¬ 
ness. He spoke of the efforts made by the California 
Borax Company to defeat the bill which prohibits 
the use of poisons in butter. He was thankful that 
all through the Capitol there is an idea and sense of 
reform and better things which is due to Gov. 
Roosevelt’s firm position. 
Three excellent papers, which we cannot print this 
week, were those by Prof. Beal on How Birds Affect 
the Orchard, by Prof. Bailey on Landscape Gardening, 
and W. H. Jenkins on Vegetables for Family and 
Market. We shall give the valuable parts of these 
papers later. Prof. Bailey gave some excellent hints 
about ornamenting the home grounds at moderate 
cost. The people never seem to tire of Prof. Bailey. 
He always brings them new thoughts. Prof. Beal 
made the striking point that the savage looks upon 
the animal world as enemies to be overcome or a 
source of food in time of need. As man becomes civil¬ 
ized, he begins to believe that, like other blind forces 
of Nature, the lower animals have an indirect value 
of far higher importance than as mere food. 
PRACTICAL METHODS OF IRRIGATION. 
OBTAINING AND APPLYING WATKB. 
BY FBANKLYN A. TABEB, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 
Need of Moisture —When you come to see your 
strawberries, the plants filled with the promise of a 
bountiful and paying harvest, under the influence of 
the pitiless scorching sun of a hot June day, turn 
brown, the stems grow slack and wilt, and the foliage 
lie fiat on the ground, without even a dew to refresh 
them during the night, looking as though a fire had 
run over them, it is enough to discourage the most 
enthusiastic fruit grower that ever lived. Is there 
any way in which we can supply this needed moisture, 
and supply it iust at the right time in quantities to be 
of practical benefit ? 
There are some things in reference to the cultiva¬ 
tion of the strawberry that preclude the possi¬ 
bility of our treating it as we can many of the 
tree and bush fruits. After the buds are formed, 
or even after they begin to blossom, it is usually 
not practicable to follow up any cultivation, because 
the stirring of the soil in the paths between the 
rows makes the berries liable to become dirty or 
sandy from the soil spattering under a heavy shower. 
This is more especially true of sandy soils. Few cul¬ 
tivators in our section follow any system of cultivation 
in the Spring previous to fruiting, although we have 
always done so to a certain extent. Daring the three 
or four weeks of the picking season, cultivation is 
absolutely prohibited, while it is, probably, needed 
more then than at any other time. 
The average evaporation from the soil in a dry sea¬ 
son, through the months of June and July (as shown 
by actual experiment at the New Jersey Experiment 
Station) amounts to 330 tons of water per acre per 
month, about 11 tons per day, or in other words, 
nearly 3,000 gallons. Prof. King, of the Wisconsin 
Experiment Station, has found that, even in favorable 
seasons, the rainfall does not supply sufficient mois¬ 
ture to produce maximum crops. During the season 
of 1896, in which the rainfall was normal, a variety of 
crops were irrigated with profit. On corn these profits 
amounted to $2 16 per acre ; potatoes, $11.70 ; cabbage 
planted thin, $2.43 ; planted thick, $29. I believe I 
am safe in saying that, on an acre of strawberries, 
with its immense amount of foliage, representing 
many times the surface area of the acre of soil, and 
from which there is a constant exhalation of moisture 
through every leaf, the figures given above must be 
considerably increased. These are a few of the rea¬ 
sons which led to our putting in an irrigation plant 
in the Spring of 1897. A large lake covering 15 
or 20 acres, lying contiguous to our land, furnished an 
ample supplyiiof water. 
How to Raise Water. —The question was how to 
raise and distribute the water economically. A care¬ 
ful study of pumping apparatus of various kinds, in¬ 
cluding steam pumps, windmills and pumps driven by 
power, was concluded at last by the selection of a 
rotary fire pump capable of handling 300 gallons of 
water per minute when run to its full capacity. A 
gasoline engine of 14-horse power (actual) was pur¬ 
chased to run it. This was selected because of its 
economical method of producing power, it costing 
only from $1 to $1.50 per day to run it, according to 
the price at which gasoline can be purchased, ranging 
from 7 to 12 cents per gallon, by the barrel. The 
engine uses one gallon per horse power per day, when 
running at its full capacity, and less under lighter 
work. It requires practically no attention after once 
started, and is at once ready to do its full amount of 
work. A well was sunk about 18 feet deep and 10 feet 
in diameter, front), which an iron pipe four inches in 
diameter runs 160 feet out into the lake, the water in 
the well standing within four to five feet of the pump. 
It is always policy to get the pump as close to the 
water as possible, to avoid long suction. The water 
can be forced much easier than it can be lifted by 
suction. A survey of the grounds to be irrigated, with 
a leveling instrument, showed that the average height 
to which it would be necessary to force the water, 
that is, the head against which we would have to 
pump, was about 15 feet. This gives a pressure of 
only 7% pounds to the square inch. A few places on 
the farm went up to 25 feet. 
Distributing Water. —One thousand feet of 2%- 
inch wrought iron pipe were purchased and laid on the 
ground to such places as it was desired to irrigate. 
This is simply screwed together, and can be changed 
for different crops, from the strawberry to the rasp¬ 
berry plantations, as it is not generally needed on 
both at the same time, and is taken up at the end of 
the season and stored inside. Large gate valves open¬ 
ing the full size of the pipe, so as not to retard the 
flow of water, with hose connections, were attached 
at such places as to make it most convenient to use 
the two-inch linen hose 100 feet in length in two sec¬ 
tions. The watering of the strawberries was mostly 
done with this nozzle which, at a distance of 1,000 feet 
from the pump, would throve the water in a solid 
stream from 80 to 100 feet, breaking into a fine spray 
like rain before touching the ground. At shorter dis¬ 
tances, it was broken up by closing the fan-shaped 
nozzle, which made a flat stream 15 to 20 feet wide 
WM. D. BARNS. Fig. 52. 
where it struck the ground. Placing the thumb over 
the end of the pipe would accomplish the same result, 
and in fact, I used it that way myself most of the 
season. 
Why Such Power ?—What was the necessity for 
so much power and so much capacity in the pump ? 
First, it is more economical not to be compelled to 
force the engine to the limit of its power, but to have 
a little reserve force. Second, it is necessary to apply 
large quantities of water in a short space of time in 
order to save labor cost in application. Third, and 
perhaps most important of all, the frictional resist¬ 
ance of water passing at high velocity through the 
pipes is no small factor to be reckoned with, as the 
following figures will show : 
The loss in pounds pressure per square inch for each 
100 feet of 2%-inch pipe, delivering at the rate of 100 
gallons per minute, will be 3.2 pounds. For a 1%- 
inch pipe, it would be 39 pounds ; for 200 gallons per 
minute, 2%-ineh pipe, 12% pounds; for 300 gallons 
per minute, 2% inch pipe, 28 pounds. Therefore, if 
we deliver 300 gallons per minute at the end of the 
1,000 feet of 2%-inch pipe, we shall have a frictional 
resistance of 280 pounds, plus the pressure of the head 
against which we are pumping. This we will have 
to work against all the time, so you will see the need 
at onee of plenty of power. 
Where Windmills Answer. —These are matters 
that must be taken into consideration by any one who 
contemplates irrigation. Where the water is merely 
allowed to flow over the ground, by means of furrows 
and ditches, being delivered at the highest point, 
slower delivery is practicable, and the use of storage 
reservoirs can then be commended. But the idea of 
windmills and tanks, except for a very limited area, 
is a most impracticable one, on account of the large 
quantities of water needed to do effective work. Any 
tank that would be large enough for storage purposes 
would be altogether too expensive. This will at once 
be seen when I tell you that it takes about 27,000 gal¬ 
lons or over 1 100 tons of water to cover one acre of 
land one inch deep. 
Gas engines as now made will produce, at present 
prices of gasoline, one applied horse-power at a cost 
of from 1 to 1% cent per hour for fuel. At the higher 
figure, the water necessary to irrigate one acre to a 
depth of four inches could be lifted 20 feet high at a 
fuel cost of 14 cents, and if the irrigation were re¬ 
peated six times, the total cost would be only S4 
cents. At the Wisconsin Station, with an eight-horse 
power steam engine, water was lifted to a height of 
26 feet at a fuel cost of 72 cents for four acre-inches, 
which makes six such irrigations cost $4 32, or upon 
a basis of a 20-foot lift, $3 03. This was figuring coal 
at $4 per ton. _ 
FUNGOUS DISEASES OF PLANTS AND THEIR 
REMEDIES. 
[Synopsis of the lecture by Prof. B. M. Duggar, of Cornell.] 
The fungi causing diseases of plants are grouped 
into three divisions: First, those growing on the 
surface of foliage and twigs, such as the powdery 
mildews of the strawberry, grape, cherry, gooseberry, 
apple, lilac and rose. Second, those growing princi¬ 
pally within the tissues of leaf, stem or fruit, and 
gaining entrance above ground, such as those causing 
most of the diseases commonly known as rusts, leaf- 
spots, leaf-blights, curl, rots, knots, etc. Third, those 
entering through the soil by means of seed and other 
propagative parts, such as most of the cereal smuts 
and potato scab. In general, the remedy to be ap¬ 
plied is largely determined by this grouping. 
Two matters of structural interest should be con¬ 
stantly borne in mind. The fungi are very low in 
organization, but whatever may be the disease under 
consideration, they always possess a vegetative stage 
and a spore or reproductive stage. The vegetative 
stage is composed of minute threads or filaments, so 
small as to be visible to the unaided eye only when 
they grow in mass, or in a web-like manner. Of the 
fungi causing diseases of plants, these filaments either 
grow entirely within the tissues, or grow upon the 
surface, sending very delicate branches into the tissues. 
When a fungus has established itself on its host, or 
plant attacked, it soon begins to form its reproductive 
bodies, or spores, which are to disseminate the dis¬ 
ease from plant to plant. These spores are usually 
produced by filaments which have grown out to the 
surface or near the surface, and these surface fila¬ 
ments may be simple filaments, or they may form 
fruit bodies varying in form and size from minute 
bodies not to be seen by the eye alone, to the enor¬ 
mous sizes of some of the tree toadstools. The spores 
themselves, or the germs, are extremely simple and 
minute. The dusty and unsightly mass which we 
know as corn smut, for instance, is made up of count¬ 
less millions of them. Every mature spore of what¬ 
ever fungus may germinate and eventually produce a 
filament or thread which is capable of entering its 
host, and there producing anew the original disease. 
Fungous diseases of plants, like diseases of animals, 
may become epidemic in a locality, or in an entire 
region, due entirely to the fact that the spores are 
readily carried great distances by the wind. 
As types of the popular grouping of the fungi pre¬ 
viously mentioned, the gooseberry mildew, the rasp¬ 
berry rust, and wheat smut were briefly described, 
and an explanation of the remedies given. 
As a disease of great economic importance in the 
State during the past year, peach leaf-curl was de¬ 
scribed in detail. Tae life history of the fungus caus¬ 
ing the disease was also outlined. It would seem that 
the spores produced one Summer pass the Winter 
hidden away on the twigs and buds, and when the 
leaf-buds begin to open the following Spring, they 
perhaps infect the tender young growth. Leaves 
badly infested with this curl fungus usually drop 
early in June, causing the entire loss of whatever 
fruit might have been set. The results of precise ex¬ 
periments indicate that the remedy consists in spray¬ 
ing with Bordeaux Mixture, or with copper sulphate, 
before the buds open, this spraying being during the 
last days of March or early April, in this latitude. 
This is the all-important spraying ; yet two subse¬ 
quent sprayings may be advantageously given with 
dilute Bordeaux Mixture. Stereopticon views were 
shown giving an exposition of the effect of the disease, 
the benefit from spraying, etc. 
Several growers stated that the San Jose scale is in their 
orchards, but they are watching it carefully, and giving the best 
of treatment. It was not thought that the State should have 
power to enter the orchard to destroy trees unless the orchard 
has no commercial value. 
The State has issued 409 certificates of inspection to nursery 
men in the State. Certificates should not be issued to mere deal¬ 
ers to buy and sell indiscriminately. It was clearly shown how 
impossible it would be for an entomologist to give anything like 
a careful examination of a large nursery. Fumigation of the 
nursery stock before it is sent out* eems by far the best way of 
protecting customers. 
