Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-06-20
CHEAP IRRIGATION.


CHEAP IRRIGATION.
q Pant That Was Put In ae : Cost o.
sevsnty-Fivs Dollars.
visited yesterday . little irrigation
plant which will describe for your,
readers. 1t consists Of single-action
force pump costing $3.50. worked by 3.
little sweep power. such as is built and
used for drag saving. which cost Ga.
Whether 1t was new or secondhand At
this price neglected to inquire. The
pump was placed over an inexhaust-
ible well or spring (the water standing
near the top of ground), and forced
water through Pinch pipe IL rods to
the house. where it was 8 feet above
the water level of the spring. The
pipe was laid in the ground below
frost, and once in so feet had hydrant
or upright pipe protruding from the
ground three feet These pipes had,
places for attaching inch-hose, of which
the man had $50 feet, also rods Of
iron pipe which he could use besides.
so he was enabled to reach about IL
acres of garden-a beautiful level
bench or plateau of sandy loan. With.
one horse attached to the power he
can force through the pipe, he says q
barrel of water in minutes, or fifteen
barrels per hour. To irrigate an acre
an inch deep would require $50 barrels
of water. and this would take 500
hours labor, or So days of 10 hours
Allowing $3.50 per day for man, and
an equal sum for horse aud boy to
drive, the cost of labor would be $17.
However, some time would be wasted
in moving hose and resting, or chang
ing the horse, so at least another days
work should be added, bringing the
cost up to $40 for one thorough irriga-,
ton 1t is the opinion of competent
experimenters that an inch of water
will last three or four weeks when ap-
piled to strawberries or similar crops.
or long enough to bring a crop through
any ordinary dry spell.
Last season was not one in this lati-
tude that made irrigation necessary, so
the experiment has not been tried with
this outfit; but the owner has used it
to soak plot of ground after setting
strawberry plants this spring. with ex-
celent results, not losing a plant. every
one starting at once into vigorous
growth. The well or spring was dug
feet through sand, when a bed Of inn
pervious blue clay, feet thick, was
struck, through which 3-inch hole was
bored, when the water gushed up in q
steady stream. A box or frame plank,
8 by II feet, was sunk to the clay, and it
stands level full all the time. 1t is but
a few feet from the bank of reservoir
that supplies the village of Kent. O.,
with water, and the water stands at
the same level, so that water from the
reservoir could have been used if the
man had not preferred to do other
wise. Leaving out of the ac-
count the cost of we'll, which in this
case should have been dispensed with.
the total cost account stands as fol-
lows: Machinery, $50; hose and nozzle,
SO; iron pipe. $50; labor, $15; total,
$75.
Such an outfit could be used along
the banks of rivers. canals and lakes
in many places, and l think would
pay. In large plantations, where four
or more horses are kept, larger pow
err and pump could be used, and the
watering of an acre completed in a
single day or night. 1t would take
such crops as early vegetables, cauli-
flowers, celery and strawberries en-
tirely out of danger from drought. IF
it will pay to water celery and cab
bages by hand. as is done by German
gardeners along Mill Creek in Cincin-
natl, or on the Ohio below Pittsburgh,
it will certainly pay to do it in the
method described.
The man who owns the outfit spoken
of lost more than 500 by drought on
an acre of berries two years ago, and
another man in the same village esti-,
mated his shrinkage on three acres of
raspberries the same year at 80 BUSH
els per acre. In the early seventies
lost nearly an acre of fine-looking
strawberries from aprotracted drought,
and berries were worth that year 81 per
bushel. In 1877 had patch OF 225F
rods of straw rries, from which I
kAAAOA uO61IIy SOO UuoAOlS vi U0TTl6SS
and Melted over $500. On the 28th of
May the leaves rolled, and every thing
bid fair to dry up. but timely heavy
rains falling on the next two days. the
plants revived, and I picked fine
crop. 1t was so dry that ground fitted
for tomatoes showed no moisture for
four inches deep, and had it not been
for the rain, there would have been
very few straw berries in Northern
Ohio, and the price would have been
at least 81 per bushel higher than it
was. In this case the man who could
have irrigated would have made a
handsome sum-. B. Pierce, in Coun-
try Gentleman.
The Most Efficient Fertilizer
The experiments at stations and by