The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-06-16
AGRICULTURAL.
Watering Gardens.

To successfully water even a small garden
requires very much more water than most
persons are aware of. When there is rain
water enough to make all vegetation thrive
in perfection, the rainfall is about six inches
per month or an inch every five DAYS. Of
course this amount is not inyariable. as light
and sandy soils need much more water than
heavy or peaty soils, and some crops, as Gu
cumDers, celery, and strawberries, require
much water, while others, as corn, beans
and grain, suffer seldom from drouth. But
the growth of thirsty and valuable crops is
most luxuriant when the above amount of
water is furnished.
Now the amount of actual monthly rain
fall in Boston, during the six years ending
in 1873, has been very variable, ranging from
go inch in June, 1873, to 104 inches in
August 1872 Taking the five growing
months, May to September, during these six
years twenty-one months had less rainfall
than SIX inches per month and therefore
more or less required irrigation, while only
nine exceeded the above estimated quantity
OF adequate supply.
scarcely year passes without some peri
Cd OF more or less pinching drouth, and we
often have six weeks of nearly rainless
weather, accompanied by hot and scorching
winds. 10 grow in perfection our best veg
etables and fruits in such a climate, we need
10 supplement- the natural supply by artificial
means.
To say, as a contemporary writer does in
one of our leading agricultural Journals.
that quart per square foot, OF about 2-5 of
an inch in depth over the entire surface, ap-
piled weekly, would be sufficient, is in my
opinion less than half enough for some of
our most valuable crops in long spell of
dry weather, and as at these times of pro-
tracted and excessive drought all springs and
wells are likely to be at their lowest, it is
hardly safe to rely upon them for anything
like the supply needed. If half an acre or
more is to be well watered in a dry time,
some lake, pond or never-failing stream, or
the public water-works, will be the only re-
liable and permanently satisfactory source of
supply.
How to apply the water is the next ques-
ton. The above-named amount, one inch
over the whole surface, is about 27,000 gal
Ions or l08 tons per acre. To cart it or even
pump it by hand would be too costly. To
raise it by steam or wind power to the re-
CURED level, and to distribute it by open
bitches, or by pipes and hose, are the only
pracucal methods. Where the land is near
~ level or mas nearly uniform slope, 1t may
be prepared for watering in beds by open
bitches. The advantage of this plan con-
water. no head being reonired mich above
the level of the land, and also in cheapness
of application, little labor being required to
turn the water on and let it run. The disad-
vantages are that considerable water is
wasted by soakage from the bitches into the
subsoil, and that it is not applicable to land
of rolling or uneven surface until suitably
graded; and that the tillage of garden crops
would often seriously interfere with the
bitches for distribution of water.
In general the system of underground
pipes provided with hydrants every 200 feet.
with 100 feet of hose attached will prove
most effectual. Where only an acre or two
is to be watered, windmill, with elevated
tanks twenty feet or more higher than the
land to be watered. furnished with 14incb
iron pipe and one-inch hose is recommended,
To keep the mill at work in windy weather
and supply storage for each acre to be wa
tered, tankage of about 100, 900 gallons will
be wanted. To provide this amount of eIe
waited tankage Tor large areas will probably
cost more than steam pumps. and where
these or the public water-works are used. it
may be found economy of labor to use larger
pipes and hose for distribution of the water.
Large streams of water, however. are often
liable to objection. as washing the surface
too much.-W. b. PhiIbricE in Amer;cnn
Culticator.
Raising Pigs.
The most important thing for the swine
breeder at this season of the year is to get
the greatest possible growth from his spring
pigs. There is no period in the life of the
hog when so great return for the food con-
sumed is possible as during the first six
months, and 1t is here that the advantages
OF skillful feeding is apparent. Unless great
care be taken the growth of the pig will be
five weeks old. The milk of the dam, which