FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
67 
Miami. This grove is very rocky and is 
nearly flat. Water is obtained from a 
bored well about 40 to 60 feet deep, the 
water rising within 15 feet of the sur¬ 
face. The distributaries are to be vitri¬ 
fied clay sewer pipe, laid with tightly 
cemented joints. This has nothing what¬ 
ever to do with subirrigation, but the 
terra cotta or sewer pipe is used instead 
of iron pipe. In this grove 600 feet of 
6-inch terra cotta pipe is used instead of 
4-inch iron pipe. The 6-inch sewer pipe 
costs 15 cents a foot delivered and the 
4-inch iron 62 cents per foot. This 
sewer pipe is buried so that the top of 
the pipe is at least 6 inches below the 
surface of the ground. This means con¬ 
siderable work in excavation of trenches 
in rock, but competent engineers in this 
section tell me that ditching on this class 
of soil should be done for 10 cents per 
foot easily. This means a total of 25 
cents per foot for the sewer pipe against 
about 65 for the iron, or 'allowing 5 
cents for laying, a total of 30 cents laid 
against about 70 for the iron pipe or 
about 60 per cent saving. If a larger 
grove was to be irrigated the saving 
would be very much more. This sewer 
pipe main, is to be laid down the center of 
the grove. Special irrigation valves are 
connected to it at every other tree row, 
and water is taken from the valves and 
carried to the trees through 6-inch light¬ 
weight galvanized portable pipe. 
The detail of irrigation is as follows: 
One man connects up enough of this light, 
portable pipe to reach the edge of the 
grove. In the above case just 330 feet 
would be needed, or 33 10-ft. joints. The 
connections are simply made by pushing 
the joints together like joints of stove 
pipe. When all are connected the valve 
is turned on and water flooded at the 
roots of the trees, when two trees are 
flooded, two joints of pipe are discon¬ 
nected and carried over two rows and 
there connected, by the time'all of the 
joints are disconnected and carried over 
two rows the line is all connected and 
ready to connect to another valve. This 
operation is continued until irrigation is 
completed. It will be noticed the design 
is such that all the water is handled 
through one outlet, so that one man can 
do all the work. This plant uses 300 
gallons per minute, pumped by No, 3 
centrifugal pump and 5 h. p engine. The 
cost complete for 10 acres is $450 to 
$500 or about $50 per acre. The 
same pumping outfit would answer for 
20 acres, which would mean an outlay 
of only 35 dollars per acre for the com¬ 
plete irrigation outfit; except the cost of 
the well. I must say again what I have 
so often repeated at these meetings “that 
ordinary tera cotta pipe is to be used only 
under low heads, and in all cases suitable 
relief stands or air vent pipes must be 
provided, as it is not safe to pump into 
a closed pipe of this make. There should 
however, be no grove in this section that 
could not be easily irrigated by use of 
sewer pipe mains and portable pipe, if 
water is obtainable. In fact I think I 
am safe in saying that there are no groves 
along the East Coast that I could not 
guarantee to irrigate by using such a 
system as described above. 
I would like to state for the benefit of 
orange growers on the sandy soil of cen¬ 
tral Florida, that we now have six-inch 
