Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co, 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
The Rural New-Yorker 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies, Five Cents 
The Business Farmers Paper 
VoL. LXXVI. 
NEW YORK, .TUNE 10, li)17. 
No. 44.84. 
New Uses for an Irrigation System 
It Sprays, Fertilizes and Waters 
N INVENTIVE GARDENER.—C. W. Skinner 
lives clown in Sontliern New Jersey. He was or¬ 
iginally a market gardener, but being of an ingenious 
nature lie cjevelopecl a new system of irrigation 
which now bears his name. He still loves to mar¬ 
ket-garden on a few acres, and ds constantly trying 
new stunts with his irrigation sy.stem. 
WHAT THE SYSTEIM I.S.—This s.vstem con.sists 
essentially of rows of pipes placed on the gronnd, 
or usually on permanent posts. The rows are 54 
feet apart, and the pipes have in them tiny little 
nozzles four feet apart which are capable of throw¬ 
ing water in parallel lines for a di.stance of 27 feet 
when there is 40 pounds i)re.ssure at the nozzle. 
These tiny streams of water break up into a fine 
mist, and gently but surely .soak a space the entire 
length of the pipe and from four to 15 feet wide, 
depending upon the wind. Each entire line of jiipe 
is fixed so that it can easily be turned with a han¬ 
dle, so that the water will fall mi the next strip. 
This may be continued until the entire strip is 
Avell watered. Fig .‘100 shows ver.v clearly how the 
Avater comes out of the line of [lipe. By turning the 
pipe the least bit the water can be made to fall 
on another strip. 
INVISIBLE IRRIGATION.—I visited Mr. Skin¬ 
ner year before last, early in the Summer. When 
approaching his house. I noticed that the laAvn ap¬ 
peared to be vei’y green for such a dry time. As I 
Avalked doAvn the path to his house, gentle rain 
seemed to be falldng upon me. in spite of the per¬ 
fectly clear dry Aveather. Naturally I ciuickly sus¬ 
pected irrigation, but could see no pipes. After 
careful search I found that Mr. Skinner had im¬ 
bedded the irrigation pipes in little grooA^es in his 
laAvn just the .size of the pipes. They could not be 
seen, because the grass had grown over them, and 
the.v did not interfere with the lawn mower be¬ 
cause the line of nozzles could lie quickly turned to 
one side before the mowing begins. 
SPRAYING POTATOES.-That afternoon Mr. 
Skinner gaA’O a demonstration before seA'eral visitors 
on applying a Bordeaux-arsenate of lead siiray to 
his two-acre field of potatoes in less than 25 min¬ 
utes. He had prepared a barrelful of the concen¬ 
trated spray mixture and pumped this into the main 
feeder pipe just fast enough so that Avlieii it mixed 
with the irrigation water it made a spray solu¬ 
tion of the proper strength. This shot out of each 
little nozzle in a misty stream 27 feet long and l)y 
the aid of a jerky little breeze and by steadily turn¬ 
ing the main pipe, a strip 27 feet wide Avas effect¬ 
ively .spra.A'ed each side of the main pipes. Avhich 
are. as stated. 54 feet apart. The illustration. Fig. 
80S. shows the work in i)rogres.s. I'he Bordeanx-ar- 
senate of lead was very effective in preventing the 
blight and in destroying the potato bugs, proving 
that it must have been evenly and thoroughly ap¬ 
plied. 
APPLYING LIQT’ID MANURE.-Last Fall I 
again vi.sited the iri-igation factory for some first¬ 
hand information on nozzles, unions, tees, strain- 
er.s. cost of installation, etc. As usual. ^Ir. Skinner 
and I were soon talking market gardening. He 
took mo out and showed me Avhero he had jnst con¬ 
ducted an experiment on the use of liquid manure. 
The illustration. Fig. 810. shows the i)umping sta¬ 
tion for the irrigated garden.s. Alongside of it a 
large heap of manure can be seen. Ihuler this there 
is a concrete basin AA’hich slopes to a .settling pool 
under the pumping .station. Mr. Skinner bought a 
carload of city stable manure in the middle of the 
Summer, Avhen it Avas cheap and oa.sy to get. He 
had it unloaded upon this concrete basin and then 
sprayed fine streams of Avater upon this carload of 
manure for 12 hours. In a day’s time a large quan¬ 
tity of dark brown liquid had settled in the pool 
nnder the pumping station. Then as ilr. Skinner 
irrigated his celery and lettuce he had a little 
stream of this brown Ihiuid feeding into his 
l)umps. 
EFFECTS OF ADDED FERTILITY.—The re¬ 
sults obtained Averc remarkable. .Just as far as 
the irrigation Avater went which had -the liiiuid 
manure in it, the celery and lettuce grew faster, 
larger and more luxuriantl.v than Avhere just the 
l)laiu irrigation water Avent. This is no more th.an 
AA'onld be expected, l)ecanse agricultural chemists 
tell us that half of tlie plant food in manures can 
be quickly Avashed out. Ifesides that, the half Avhich 
AA'ashes out is the part, Avhich slioidd be most (luick- 
ly aA'ailable for our plant groAvth, because roots can 
use only that plant food which is in solution. The 
experiment not only emphasizes the truth of the as¬ 
sertion that .‘f54.(K)0,000 Avorth of manure is lost an¬ 
nually by leaching, but it brings out the advan¬ 
tageous use of manure bought in the Summer, and 
suggests a method of applying the aA’ailable plant 
foods immediately to force a crop and get quick re¬ 
turns from the mone.v iiiA'csted in manure. 
RAISED LETTUCE BEDS.—Another idea of Mr. 
Skinner Avas Avorking very nicely on late Fall let¬ 
tuce. He had ob.sei'A’cd that AA'here large flat beds 
are planted solid Avith lettuce it Avas quite unsatis¬ 
factory to work that soil after rain or irrigation, 
because the feet of the Avorkmen Avould sometimes 
puddle the .soil and often be.smear or break the 
leaves. Therefore he devised the scheme as shoAvn 
in the illustration. Fig. .811, of making raised beds 
al)out five feet six inches Avide, i.e., AA’ide enough to 
held six roAVS of lettuce plants set 12 inches apart 
each AA'a.A'. BetAveen each bed a path Avas made 12 
inches Avide and six inches deep. Besides providing 
a place for the man to Avalk. this path affords an 
opportunity for the excess Avater to drain off, and a 
del&per soil is formed under the gi-nAAdiig plants. 
B. W. DE BAUN. 
Applying Bordeaux-Arsenate of Lead to a Potato Field Through Irrigatton Pipes. Fig. 308 
