Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1897-06-16
ARTIFICIAL IRRIGATION.
Isaac Collins Successful Expert.
ment with Water.

ment with Water.
The first attempt at artificial irriga-
ton in Atlantic County for farming or
gardening purposes on large scale is
pronounced success. A few months ago
ex-Sheriff Isaac Collins determined to try
the experiment as a means of perfectiDg
his strawberry crop, and it has beer
watched by those who knew of it with
much interest. Mr.. Collins has six-acre
patch of wberries-prObably the
finest in the County. and the crop is now
being gathered at the rate Of thousands
of boxes daily. Plenty of water, or a
lack of, it means large crop or no crop
of the luscious berries. Determined, if
possible, that his expected crop sh Ould not
be wholly dependent upon an uncertain
rainfall Mr.. Collins prepared to be inde-
pendent oft. He dug a large well forty
feet deep from which twenty-five hun
dred gallons an hour is pumped by steam
into a large fat tank holding eight
thousand gallons. From this tank open
wooden cutters conduct the water to
different sections OF the field. A furrow
is ploughed on each side of every row
of straw berries, and water is let into
them from holes bored in the sides of the
cutters. The holes are plugged with
corks fastened to wires and the flow of
the water in any direction is easily con-
trolled by simply removing or replacing
the cOrks. Thus any part of the field
can be wet in a short time and the fur
rows filled with water at the pleasure of
the operator. Mr.. Collins experiment is
so successful, and is so simple, we pre-
diet that it will be repeated by others
who grow small fruits. While artificial
irrigation is new here, it is largely de-
pended upon in other and more arid
sections of the country-notably in
CalifOrnia-where it is employed to
bring to maturity the immense crops of
peaches, grapes. and other kinds of
fruit. This season there has been rather
more moisture than usual, and more
evenly distributed, but last year the
excessive heat and drOuth ruined the
strawberry crop in many. parts of South
Jersey. 1t will be a great blessing to
our large growers to know that their
anticipated crops need not be cut off at a
critical time by a lack of rain, for a
reasonable outlay will enable the grower
to control the water supply and thereby
save his crop. Mr.. Collins informs us
that the entire cost of the plant includ-
irg the well, the steam pump, boiler,
tank, piping, lumber and labor, is inside
of five-hundred dollars, and the cost OF
running is very moderate. The crop of
berries upon the SIX acres is something
enormous, and hundreds of people have
been to see it. Long wide rows of large
dark-gr plants stretch away across
the field, dotted everywhere with thous-
ands and tens of thousands of brilliant
red Strawberries. Scores of men and
women go over the plants every day
and gather the ripe fruit into the little
baskets that are packed in crates and
sent to the markets of Philadelphia and
New York. The bulk of the Jersey crop
has already been marketed, and Mr..
Collins will profit by having his crop
late. Thousands of plants were still in
bloom as late as Saturday which means
that they will not all be ripe before the
first of July or later. The amount of
the crop upon Mr.. Collins six acres can
not yet be estimated, but it will pro-
badly be more than thirty thousand
boxes,