FLORIDA ( STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
143 
to be placed about each joint to overcome 
the difficulties encountered in the Califor¬ 
nia joint. 
OBJECTS OF THE EXPERIMENTS. 
The Drennen plant is being installed 
with the following experimental objects 
in view:, (i) To learn the possibilities of 
surface application of water in the irri¬ 
gation of citrus groves in Florida; (2) to 
study the effects, value, and disadvantages 
of irrigation; (3) to determine the cost 
of pumping and applying water in irriga¬ 
tion by the surface methods; (4) to gain 
data as to the quantity of water necessa¬ 
ry for the insurance of citrus groves 
against drouth, and to open a field of 
cheap pipe construction that will meet 
Florida requirements. 
The plant when completed therefore, 
will be so constructed that the different 
methods of surface application may be 
experimented with, on different plots of 
the orchard, and a study made of the fea¬ 
sibility of each method. An effort will 
be made to determine the proper size, 
depth, length, grade, and spacing of fur¬ 
rows to use in obtaining an even distri¬ 
bution of moisture through the root zone 
and give the least waste of water. The 
proper amount of water to apply per ir¬ 
rigation, and the length of time between 
applications, with respect to the amount 
of rainfall, cultivation, and soil moisture, 
will be investigated in the hope of obtain¬ 
ing data that will be of value to those 
who are developing water resources or 
designing irrigation plants. The system 
will be equipped with measuring devices, 
whereby a continuous record will be kept 
of the amount of water used, together 
with the time of application. A standard 
rain gage is placed in the orchard so that 
the exact record of. precipitation and its 
distribution as to time can be had and the 
total amount of water any one .plat of 
the orchard receives during a day, a 
month, or a growing season can be calcu¬ 
lated. 
M. E. Gillette. 
Mr. President , Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I am at a loss to know why I was se¬ 
lected as chairman of the Committee on 
Irrigation, as while I am generally on 
the water wagon, I know very little about 
irrigation. Fortunately, however, one of 
my associates is Mr. Campbell of Jack¬ 
sonville, who knows as much as anyone 
in the 'State about irrigation, and upon be¬ 
ing notified as having been appointed on 
this committee, I immediately wrote him 
and asked him to prepare a report on this 
subject. He replied that this was his busy 
season and that he was working twenty- 
four hours a day and didn’t have time to 
attend to it, but I have always found that 
the busy men are those who do things. 
He told me the other day he didn’t think 
he could be here, but he came into the 
room a little while ago and gave me this 
paper. He said he never read a paper 
before an audience in his life and said he 
was too modest and wouldn’t I read it. 
