SNES 
SS = SS 3S SS SESS SAS 
SAVES TIME AND WATER. There are three rows of strawberry plants to a 
bed, with beds spaced right for tractor wheels, making cultivation and 
spraying easy. Sprinkler line is moved about every 12 hours. 
After several trial plots and applications of the sprinkler system, 
it has been found that this way of irrigation far outstrips any other, 
according to the users of the system, and the objections voiced didn’t 
materialize. A lot of good solid saving was found by using the system. 
Economy in the use of water was the first thing apparent, time of a man 
in watching the rows was saved, as was waste of run-off water. In the 
overhead system the water is absorbed directly and the maximum amount 
of water gets to the plant and the root system. The use of a good mulch 
medium keeps the moisture around the plant longer. 
Evaporation was found to be little higher than with the surface me- 
thod but not enough to offset the savings of not having to have an ir- 
rigation ditch tender. Better application of available water is one of 
the chief advantages of the overhead system. It enable a piece of land 
that can’t be leveled easily or at great expense, to be irrigated with 
good results and good economy. 
The advantages include no flumes, thus saving material and making 
the cultivation easier. In strawberries, cultivation is rather hard to 
manage with flumes at ends of the field. To cultivate, the tractor has 
to first back up the rows and then come down to the center where they 
can turn, a space about six to eight feet being left in the middle of 
the patch for this purpose, and then back up the rows again before the 
cultivator can come down to do its work. With overhead sprinklers this 
can be eliminated, and the tractor can cultivate in the normal way. 
The beds are wider and flatter, only a tractor tire width between 
them. The normal bed in surface irrigation is 24 inches, and has two 
rows of plants. The sprinkler system has a bed of 36 inches with three: 
rows of plants. The tractor tire width ditch isn’t really needed and 
could be eliminated if it weren’t for somebody to pick the fruit and 
the cultivation. No water 1s carried in the ditch. 
Add to all this the fact that the plants can be sprayed by tractor 
and not the old orchard spray method used by some, and the future of 
overhead irrigation looks bright in the strawberry business. 
