Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1875 — Irrigating Grass Lands. [ARTICLE]

Irrigating Grass Lands.

The luxuriant pastures in which cattle aud sheep now revel and grow.fat and the abundant growth of aftermath on meadows, even those that produced a very light crop g£ hay, sufficiently demonstrates to the most superficial observer that an abundance of water is necessary to the best success in grass culture. We have not had such fall pastures for a great many years, simply because we have not had such a wet summer for a great many years. In many localities the hay crop was short because of insufficient rains in the spring. We have seen some meadows that would mow a better second crop than they did the first. These facts prove the advantages pf irrigation, as far as the. grass crop is concerned. —™ There are thousands ot farms in Ohio and adjoining States where irrigation is both practicable and economical, and where it is an absolute waste not to apply it. In dcterminmg whether it will pay or not it will be perfectly safe to estimate tlie grass crop at double what it would be without irrigation. According to the best information we can obtain it is really greater than this, and in some localities it would be four times as great as without irrigation. Then it must be remembered that with irrigation grass lands will produce these extra crops for an almost indefinite period, without manure or the trouble and expense of plowing up and reseeding. The extent of surface that can be irrigated must also be considered, as it might cost as much to irrigate ten acres as fifty, and of course the profits in the former case be only one-fifth as much as in the latter. Against all the advantages or profits place the cost of damming, trenching, manuring, reseeding, etc., and you can tell whether it will pay to attempt it or not. On one farm we know of it was shown that an abundance ot water could be conducted from a never-failing steam half a mile distant at a cost of SI,OOO, and fifty acres of dry, sandy soil could be irrigated thereby. If the grass crop could be doubled by this process how long would it take to pay the cost of constructing the ditch? Many farms are so favorably situated that irrigation is available with very little expense. Wherever a reservoir can be filled, on higher ground than that which is to be irrigated, either from springs, rains, swamp drainage or brooks, there irrigation is available and should not be neglected, for there is no other means that will produce so much profit at so little expense. We have said nothing about how irrigation increases the crops; this fact is taken for granted, as it has been demonstrated thousands of times in all ages the world, and in all countries. Our object is to simply call the attention of farmers to the subject. If additional information is desirea in regard to methods employed or results accomplished, it can be easily furnished. —Ohio Farmer.