stream is flowing down each furrow, which is let run until the water has reached the lower end of the field and all is watered.

The furrow system is the one that must be used almost exclusively among growing crops in rows such as corn, cane, berries, vines, etc., except where the ground is almost a dead level then the basin system or a modification of it may be used with advantage when water is plenty and cheap. When the slope is too steep for straight furrows they may be carried back and forth in zig-zag lines to secure a sufficiently slight slope to prevent serious washing. Terraces may be successfully watered in this way, by providing suitable drops from one to another. The advantage of the furrow system is its cheapness and ease of appliance. You regulate the water and let it run night and day till done. The disadvantage is that the upper portion of the field receives much more water than the lower, and it is impossible it should be otherwise, still some localities can see no utility or beauty in any other system.

The basin method too has been developed from a very primitive way of irrigating. At first some ground was too sloping and the water turned on it from the furrow would run off too quickly or leave places not wet at all, to prevent this the ground was laid out in blocks with a plow and ridges thrown up by the furrows between them, and the water allowed to run into each block and stand till it settled away into the ground, following up this method has been developed the perfect basin system.

Take for instance an orchard, furrows or ridges are made on each side of a tree at the required distance away, depending on the size of the tree and the area necessary to wet, for trees one year old a distance of three feet is all that is necessary, and the intermediate ground need not be wet unless for other purposes than for the tree. As the tree grows older and larger, larger basins are needed until finally the ridges are midway between the trees and the entire ground is flooded with the required amount of water. When this is done a main distributing furrow is made between every other row, and each basin filled in rotation down one side and up the other, then the water turned into the next main and so on. When the basins are small a furrow is run alongside each row and every other basin filled going down, the others coming back or the water is

followed down and the lower basin filled first and each in turn to the upper end and the process repeated with each row. In this way each tree and each basin can receive the proper amount of water and only such portions watered as may be necessary, and is a great deal more economical method than the furrow. The basins are very easily and quickly made with a V or crowder which is made of plank and almost exactly like a small snow plow such as you clean the snow from the walks with in winter, except it is open 10 or 12 inches at the narrow end and goes like a crab, backward. In connection with the crowder a jumper is used, which is like a shovel plow with a wide light blade and is used to fill the corners of the basin, and a man and team will go over and prepare several acres in a day so as to need very little hand work to complete them.

Since writing the above I have been down in Sonora, Old Mexico, and find there in places the basin system used when the supply is wholly from the rainfall catchment, quite extensive fields are enclosed by dikes three feet high and the channels of storm water turned into these large basins and held until it soaks away. In this manner an irrigation is sometimes secured that will carry over to the second season and secure good crops with no rainfall. To the uninitiated the artificial watering of land seems quite a task, but when the methods are understood and the proper appliances are at hand it is very much superior in a great many ways to depending on rainfall. The time at my disposal will not allow a further amplification of the details but I think you will have no difficulty in understanding something of the methods used in practical work.

THE PRESIDENT: It has always seemed to me that the time is coming when in all this country, it will be necessary to resort, more or less, to irrigation, and I am inclined to think, that if our farmers would go to work and put in waterworks, tanks, etc., to supply water to irrigate their farms, they would pay for a plant in two year's time, in the amount they would

save.

MR. APPLETON: Many a man with a hill, could plan a reservoir there.

THE PRESIDENT: And these tanks can be gotten very cheap. One very dry season ruins a crop. I saw at the World's Fair,

in the Agricultural Department, an exhibit of potatoes from Idaho, where they have scarcely any rainfall and the statement was made that they raised 974 bushels to the acre. One crop of that kind would pay for the cost of the apparatus for irrigation. I saw one pumpkin that a man could crawl into.

MR. COATS: I met a man in North Carolina who claims to have raised 1,100 bushels to an acre.

REMARK: That was in North Carolina.

MR. STRONG: Kalamazoo is known as the celery town in this State. The bulk of this product comes from the north of Kalamazoo. The first man who went in there, bought ten acres, on a brook, quite a stream, and the bottom was quite deep, and his plan in going down there and buying that and paying a foolish price for it (quoting his words), was to dam up that stream and cut ditches, and whenever he wanted to, dam the stream and irrigate from the bottom.

This same man had a few acres of splendid land, well irrigated, and instead of harvesting his cabbages, he gave them away and attended to his celery, irrigating from the bottom, and never from the top again. That same thing is carried on to a considerable extent where it can be done, all over Kalamazoo county.

THE PRESIDENT: Did this man lay a tile drain?

MR. STRONG: The bottom of the ditch where the stream ran, was about three or four feet from the surface, but he put in a dam to raise it. He has put in a system of loose tile, starting from the ditch, and having everything covered. When he raises the water, it passes through all these little pipes. He lays this tile from the stream back.

THE PRESIDENT: That was what I was asking. Whether he let the water soak through the ground, or if he put these tiles in so it could work all through.

MR. STRONG: He first cut lateral ditches, sixteen inches from the bottom, and the water was way below. When he wanted any, he would shut down the gate to send the water up the laterals. That it seems, was not satisfactory, so he put in tiles, loose, and covered them up, so his field is an unbroken surface, but you go along the ditch and you will see these tiles sticking out. He probably raises the finest celery in Kalamazoo.

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MR. HODGMAN: This plan of irrigating simply by raising the water in the ditch, works only in that particular kind of soil. I have been informed that in California, where surface irrigation is used, sooner or later, they are obliged to lay tiled drain. The ground water gradually rises to such a height that a double system becomes necessary, a system of surface irrigation, and tiled drainage. Following that, has come this practice of using tiled drains for irrigating purposes.

MR. ALBERTSON: In dry time they run the water off, and in wet time, they run the water in these tiles.

THE PRESIDENT: In some places they lay a system of tiles, under loam or loose soil; the sewage from some establishment is carried into that and distributed all over the ground-works through the joints, becoming sub-irrigation.

RECLAMATION OF SWAMP LANDS.

BY O. H. TODD.

The swamps of Michigan were for many years regarded as a useless and dangerous encumbrance, the breeding place of deadly reptiles and not less deadly malaria. Within their borders lurked the rattlesnake, the wildcat and the panther, and in their almost inaccessible recesses, the counterfeiter and horse thief found concealment.

The productiveness of the virgin soil of the easily cultivated uplands left little inducement to the first settlers to undertake the laborious task of reclamation of swamps, and wherever any attempt was made the almost universal result was failure-failure from a lack of knowledge of the task undertaken and the proper course to be pursued to win success.

In the present article, I will endeavor to give the result of my experience and observation.

When entering upon the undertaking of reclaiming a swamp or marsh, the first thing to be considered is a proper system of drainage. No rigid rule can be given that will fit all cases and occasions, and the engineer in charge of the work should

possess cool discretion and common sense in addition to a knowledge of mathematics.

If the tract to be drained is flooded by the overflow of a lake lying higher, then, usually, the straightening and enlarging of the natural outlet of the lake-with an equalization of the fall the entire distance, when practicable, will be all that will be necessary for the main drain. Lateral drains should be run into the main drain at not more than eighty rods apart. This distance must be varied according to the circumstances. Black Ash swamp needs fewer and less expensive lateral drains than tamarack or soft open marsh.

Two things should always be borne in mind: First, drainage is for the purpose of getting rid of superfluous water; second, irrigation of the swamp is often as important a matter as its drainage.

In construction of the main drain, the banks should be cut at a slope of 1 to 1 or 45°. A careful estimate should be made of the capacity necessary to carry the usual flood water of spring —the drain being wide rather than deep. The surface of the water in the drain should never be more than two feet below the surface of the swamp. This is an important matter for it is essential that enough water be retained in the soil to promote the growth of vegetation.

When the land surrounding the swamp or marsh is springy, it is well to run a "belt-line" ditch near the line of the upland and marsh and extending from near the head of the marsh to the lower end with numerous laterals to the main drain. Springs occurring in the swamp or marsh should be conducted through tile to the main drain. These springs are often of great value for purposes of irrigation in August or September. Gates should be constructed in all the ditches to control the water in dry weather.

It often happens that obstructions are met with which forbid the construction of a drain in the usual manner. At the foot of the lake and head of the swamp, the remains of ancient beaver dams are often found. These are generally filled with quicksand and can usually be overcome by planking the sides of the drain. The plank are held in place by 2 x 4's driven deep into the ground inside the plank, and stayed by a cross