FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
63 
tells me I can only run one line of my 
laterals at a time unless I shut off the 
supply so that I only get a fine mist. Oth¬ 
ers claim I can run three or four laterals 
very satisfactorily. 
The cost of a plant of this kind de¬ 
pends very largely on conditions. In the 
first place, the distance from water must 
be considered. My land is located about 
300 feet from a large lake. I am going 
to use a 6 inch main and a 50 horse power 
gasoline engine with the best pump I can 
get for the purpose. There are 40 acres 
in this tract. I am starting on ten acres 
and the best figures I have had make the 
cost in the neighborhood of $5,000.00. 
The other 30 acres, however, will cost 
very much less as the engine and pump 
with the expensive mains have already 
been paid for, and I think the cost for the 
other 30 acres will not exceed the cost of 
the first five. Roughly speaking, I expect 
it will cost about $10,000.00 to irrigate 
the whole tract. When it is done, how¬ 
ever, I will be in absolute control of grow¬ 
ing conditions. It has happened this year 
in my nursery work that we had so little 
rain it is almost impossible to make buds 
live. The trees would start from some 
light shower which we had, but before 
the bud would take the drought would 
prevail again and most of them would 
die. With the system I have outlined I 
can fertilize my ground, cultivate it 
thoroughly, and every night give it an 
inch of rain, and within a week it will be 
getting the benefit of the fertilizer, as I 
can irrigate the ten acres in two nights at 
a cost of one man’s time and not over 
$5.00 worth of gasoline, and I can well 
afford to wet it down thoroughly every 
fifteen days; and you all know that with 
a good rain every two weeks our trees 
could not possibly suffer. 
Another great advantage which I 
would accomplish would be this: Hav¬ 
ing absolute control of the moisture I 
believe I can keep the fruit from splitting 
in the fall of the year It frequently hap¬ 
pens that after the rainy season comes to 
an end we have a dry spell lasting four to 
six weeks, followed by excessively heavy 
rains. The trees have become very thirs¬ 
ty and take up this excess of moisture 
greedily with the result that within three 
or four days a great many oranges split 
and fall to the ground'. Now, if the trees 
had been given a moderate amount of wa¬ 
ter during this dry spell they would not 
have been in this thirsty condition, and 
my opinion is that they would only have 
taken a normal amount of moisture which 
would not result in loss of fruit. 
For these and many other reasons I fa¬ 
vor overhead distribution if done thor¬ 
oughly, and while the first cost is great, 
when you consider that it will last prac¬ 
tically forever and cost very little to op¬ 
erate I believe it is economy to irrigate in 
this way. 
Mr. Temple—You speak of giving an 
inch of water in a very little time ; an 
hour or so. Do you contemplate giving 
that inch of water all over your ten acres 
at one time ? 
Mr. Gillett—Not at all. The main from 
whidli the laterals start, as I have before 
stated* runs through the center of the 
ten acres dividing it into two five acre 
tracts. There will be thirteen lines of 
pipe on each five acre tract. My engineer 
tells me I can distribute 350 gallons of 
water every minute from one of these 
lines, and that this will give over an inch 
