Milford chronicle., 1957-08-02

Practically the only bright spots
on the crop map at USDA-ASC
| headquarters in Newark are farms
| of irrigators, according to William
Brady, New Castle County manager
] for the group.
But in Delaware there are only
125 irrigated farms.
Yes, portable irrigation is ex-
pensive," says Mr. Brady. But
many would rather gamble against
one dry year in three or four. One
irrigator's bill for gas and oil alone
was $4,000 last year, plus labor
and other added costs. But the cues
tion, in the end, is: Does it pay?
Most of the 125 irrigatOrs grow
three and four crops a year from
the same soil. You can't find one
who ever would part with this
system. They laugh at dry spells
their neighbors fear The irrigator
even gets some bumper crops in
a drought because he's supplying
rain" while the sky supplies abb
normal growing heat. But he takes
the same licking others do on crops
that can't be irrigated, like field
corn.
Marion G. Amick's Red Lion
Farms are on the south bank of
the c. & d. Canal Long ago Mr.
Amick bulldozed a lake of his
own, below water table, near the
canal. He got water supply good
for about 1000 gallons a minute.
I'm spray-irrigating few hun
dred acres of Campbell's Soup to-
matoes right now," he says. Look
at these. Best crop | ever grew. |
give 'em a twO-inch rainfall with
six hours of nozzle"
His portable irrigation equip
ment is seven years old. Has 1t
paid for itself yet?
"Yet?" he reproves you. 1T did
that in three years!"
And that's what all the irriga-
tion farmers agree or, that three
years pays for it. Banks and deal
ers finance it like any other ma
chinery or new car.
In a tour of Delaware, on the
side roads, you pass shriveied field
in succession, until green field
startles you. Then you stop and
look-and there it is, back yOnder.
The irrigation spray!
Pete Zeitler at Glasgow, is irri-
eating not only vegetables but al
falfa hay, soybeans and pastures,
too. No signs of drought here.
Fred Haas and Fred, Jr., operate
the Broad View Farms below St.
Georges. Appealing for help from
Washington? Not at all. They're
| irrigating their 260 acres of toma-
toes and cucumbers. But they
couldn't irrigate their field of corn.
Yet it stands about eight feel tall,
Iowa size, like no corn in Della
war. How come. I'VE planted two
weeks too soon, by the crop cal
endars, and put the seeds 21x inch
es deep, so we'd get deep roots, .
explains Fred, Jr. 1T got it's main
growth before the hot spell"
For water supply the Haas sfmp-
ly damned a small stream from
which their Chrysler pump gets
900 gallons a minute They feel
their seven year old irrigation
equipment has paid for itself
twice"
An average small farmer can in
stall portable irrigation pipes and
pump for around $4,000 Water
supply is something else. Well
drilling is expensive.
But Walter Geib, near Smyrna,
doesn't regret the cost of driving
an 11-inch we'll from which he now
pumps 1,100 gallons a minute with
no reservoir. Just now he's irriga-
ting day and night.
This illustrates Delaware's two
extremes. The minority farmer ir-
rigates himself out of trouble. The
majority farmer takes it on the
chin.
Regardless of any rainfall that
may come into this area in the i'm
mediate future, it will not be of
any benefit to a number of crops
now being grown in this state.
This was the opinion expressed
by Ralph w Wine, Director of the
Bureau of Markets for the State
Board of Agriculture, after he was
in contact with conditions general
ly throughout the lower part of the
/ state.