The Florida agriculturist., 1908-02-01


It does seem almost useless 70 write
any more on irrigation at present, with
rain in er-abundance. In about two
hours recently 2 3-S inches Of water fell
at Winter Haven, with the ground
already soaked and lakes higher than
they were last summer at any time.
But what about April, May and June? !?
An overabundance now may mean a
shall go ahead with my irrigation
schemes just the same, and some day
[ shall want them and want them bad
ly, as I have almost every season that
I have been in Florida. AS | said in
the beginning Of these articles, there
have been long periods Of dry seasons
in Florida in the past and likely will be
III the future; one never knows. But
it is we'll to be prepared to meet them.
In my last article [ endeavored to
show that irrigation paid well in
Colorado in sections where it was
thought not to be needed at all, yet
it paid and paid big, and it will here,
too, more so than there. For instance,
I am setting out new grove on new
land; in other words, am starting a
new home in Florida, as the saying is,
from the stump up.
Now, under the old hap-hazard way
of catch as catch can, [ set the trees
from 25x25 to 25x3o feet apart and
then they suffered for lack Of moisture
almost every season. Early in the
spring, oftentimes too much fruit drop
ped thus giving but light crop, where
a full crop was promised early in the
season before the long dry spell got in
it's work. The Red Spider and other
inbred friends, probably greatly aided,
and presently your profits vanished like
the mist before the summer sun. But
the work had to go on. Fertilizer must
he paid for, let the crop be large OF
small
Then, again. you can all call TO mind
seasons that were too dry during the
month Of August, thus causing the
fruit to about halfway mature, the
rind beginning to show color, although
not fully grown, followed by prolong
ed wet spell and there was a shrinkage
again in your prospective yield, cause1
bv the tree taking up an Overabundance
Of sap; more than was needed, at
least more than the toughened rind
could endure, and your fruit split
galore. Once more your prospective
income shrunk, and this time TOO late
for the trees to set a new crop, SO IN
stead of having 1000 boxes, as appear
ances indicated in the spring, the
quantity was reduced to only 500 boxes
in the fall The difference in the one
crop alone would have paid for small
irrigating plant.
But it is not only once in while
that such things happen, but year after
year, and [ shall try to show that it
does not take such a great amount OF
water or such a big plant to prevent
all this shrinkage in your prospective
values.
Of course you have gotten along
after fashion, just as l have, and find,
as they did in Colorado in the early
days, that in order to do SO without
irrigation, you must give your trees
plenty Of room. To enable you to
put out as manv trees as you wished, it
was often the case that you had to
have cheap land, and to get this, found
it necessary to go back from transport
tation ten to twenty miles, or more,
thus laying up trouble and expense for
yourself in the future.
But you wanted grove Of, say, 600
trees, which required ten acres Of
land to set them on under the no-irri
cation rule, this land must be
cleared, fenced and cultivated. For the
same money, you could have bought
five acres right near a station on the
railroad, on which you could have put
YOUR 600 trees, and the difference in