Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-26
ON IRRIGATING MELONS.

Mr. Grenier, the well-known contributor
to Farm and Fireside, and to various other
agricultural publications, says watermelons
stand drouth better than almost any crop
one can raise, still more water would aid
them vastly in very dry time. About the
same may be said of what irrigation, even
in a very small way, might be made to do
for cucumbers, squashes and other yining
plants. Mr.. w. H. Todd of Vermillion,
Ohio, has just told him of small way of
irrigating that proves wonderfully advan-
tageous to the melon crop. Mr.. Todd sets
a common three-inch drain tile upright in
the center of each hill, with the lower part
four to six inches in the ground, the outside
open and clear from end to end. Water
poured in at the top gradually passes out at
the bottom and saturates the soil in all di-
rections without soaking or crusting the
surface. A handful or two of fine dirt
thrown into the tile will stop the water
from running out too fast. He fills the tile
with dipper twice week, in time of
drouth, using soap suds or other liquids
carrying fertilizing properties, if he has
enough of such liquids to go round, if not
enough, then he applies simple water. He
finds the method a grand success, etc.
This theory advanced by Mr. Grenier is
now quite generally going the rounds of the
agricultural press, and we admit it here not
for the sake of being in the fashion, but for
the purpose of putting in our protest. To
many it will look entirely splendid at first
thought, and not few will probably put it
to practice next season under the impression
that they are irrigating their melons.
When, at the harvest, they find that very
little good has resulted, they will decide
that irrigation would not pay in their region
of country, and we shall have them for
opponents to one of the greatest movements
yet ihaugurated-general irrigation in gen.
eral agriculture.
The trouble with Mr.. Todd's irrigation,
as apparently Endorsed by Mr.. Grenier, lies
in the fact that the roots of watermelons do
not confine themselves to the hills. For a
week or so after appearing above the surface
as plants they may do so, and in this time
the tile set in the hill might be made of
advantage in case of drouth, but as soon as
the plants are established the roots strike
out for new pastures, keeping their feeders
at their eXtremities. 1t is now well
known to agricultural science that the
roots of watermelon in properly prepared
soil (and the melon should be planted in no
other,) extend as far as do the vines on the
surface. AS the roots run out the hill-feed-
ers promptly cease to be-they are renewed
at the outer ends of the roots as the roots
extend. What good, then. could come of
pouring water and plant-food into the hill,
when the only parts Of the plant capable of
taking it were ten or twelve feet away2 1t
would be exactly on par with attempting
to feed man by putting his bread and but
ter in his boots. Such irrigation is no irri-
CATION at all; it is simply doubled and
twisted nonsense, as any reasonable aud
will-informed person must see at glance.
The only way of irrigating to advantage is
to place water in the soil where the feeders
of the plant are located, no matter what the
species or character of the plant