The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1900-11-07
Irrigation ID :he Eastern
States.

the United States Department OF
Agriculture is the irrigation OF ar;d
lands, an undertaking which is being
carried cat by the Office Of Expert
mens Stations in various regions Of
tie United States Owing to the
great Importance OF the subject to
the farmers Of the Western States.
for whose success irrigation is q
positive necessity, The greater part
OF tie experimental work CT this
Office is being done on the arid laads
which we're formerly known as the
Great American Desert, but which
under the influence of irrigation have
proved to be remarkably productive.
1t must not be supposed, however,
that the need of irrigation exists only
in the region west of the Mississippi
River; for the macy crop failures
which have occurred in the Eastern
States have drawn attention to the
necessity 10 this region also for stor-
ing the food waters of the rainy
season, or if that be not practicable,
of erecting pumping plants to make
good the shortage in seasons of
drought
Although the losses due to drought
are not anything like so serious in
the East as in the West, they are still
sufficiently large to justify the install
lation of irrigation plants Professor
E B. VOORHEES,. of the New jersey
Experiment Station, estimates that as
the result of his observations and
experiments in 1899 he found the
loss to the hay crop of New Jersey
from drought during May and early
June of lsst year to be $1,000, 600,
while vegetables and email fruits suf-
fered even more seriously. That
damaging droughts are not infrequent
is shown by the rainfall records in
Philadelphia during the 70 years from
1925 to 1895, which prove that in SO
per cent of these years there was a
deficiency of more than one inch for
one month that is to say. in 62
years out of 10, there was one month
in the growing season in which there
was so marked decrease of rainfall
that serious shortage of crops result
ed For the same period there were
80 years in which the deficiency
extended throughout two months,
while in 81 years the Deficiency
extended throughout three months,
the average rainfall during this grow
iog period being deficient by one
inch or more
The investigation by Professor
Voorhees, was made for the purpose
Of determining whether the increased
yield resulting from irrigation during
these three months would be sufh
cient to pay for the necessary storage
or pumping plants Careful records
were kept Of the yields Of plots of
ground which received toe same
cultivation. except that some of these
were irrigated and others depended
upon natural supplies of moisture.
The increase in the yield of the
irrigated plots over the others varied
from 339 quarts of raspberries per
acre, worth s22 90, to 1,o3o quarts
of blackberries per acre, worth
S93 ~.
The cost of plants Of the size
necessary to supply 10 acres of>small
fruits and garden crops has varied in
the different experiments from $3.50
to $500 While returns have not
been made from ali of the plants
which were under observation, the
owners are in every case satisfied
that their outlay has been returned
with considerable profit while 10
nearly every case they state that they
paid for the plant with the receipts
of increased crops during the first
year it was in operation
The results obtained by Professor
Voorhees, are of uuquest;onab!e
value for the climatic conditions of
New Jersey are fairly typical of the