Tumbledown Farm .9 Acres (give or take an acre or two)

CHAPTER IV
Water

AN abundant supply of good water is one of the most essential things in a French garden. Very few cultivated plants attain their fullest development owing to insufficiency of water. Where the growth is unusually rapid--as under the French system of culture--a copious supply must be given throughout the growing season.

The enormous yields of sewage farms and irrigated lands owe more to the plentiful and regular supplies of water they receive than to any other cause. In this respect the English gardener has much to learn from the maraîcher. During the summer months the plants in the Paris gardens are watered regularly and sys­tematically. Men may be seen with hose-pipes busy the day through watering the plants--not in driblets, just to keep them alive during a drought, but in daily soaking showers, unless the weather has set in wet. Occasional rain is taken little notice of. The plants get an allowance of water just as animals get their meals. This is one of the secrets of heavy crops. But great care must be taken to provide good drainage, particularly on heavy soil. No plants will thrive when the roots are water-

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logged; they need air at the roots just as much as they need water.

The result of this treatment is steady and rapid growth from seed to mature plant. It is practically a system of forcing on the open­ air beds just as much as on the hot-beds, and with proper care the results may be reckoned on with comparative certainty.

Rain-water is by far the best; but, unless the garden is very small, it is unlikely that enough of this can be obtained. Water from rivers or streams will generally be found next best to rain-water. Water from deep wells often contains harmful salts, and should be analyzed before dependence is placed upon it. If good water from public mains can be obtained, it will probably be the most con­venient source of supply, but should, as a rule, be exposed to the atmosphere for some time before it is used. Whatever is the source of supply, it will generally be found necessary to raise the water into a tank, with sufficient eleva­tion to give a good pressure in any part of the garden.

The tank should be raised twenty feet above ground level, and, for a garden of this size, it should be at least of 5,000 gallons capacity. If the motor employed in raising the water is driven by wind, a tank double this size had better be used; and there should be some alternative means for pumping during calms. On some of the hot days of summer as much as 20,000 gallons might be needed;


Carrying Manure to the Hot-Beds


Making the Hot-Bed for Melons

Water 17

and this quantity should be available if required.

The water supply is so important that there should be no stinting in the provision made for it. The diameter of the pipes should not be too small. It will save a little outlay at first to put in pipes of small bore, but it will very soon be found to be mistaken economy. The free flow of water will be restricted and the plants will not get as much as they need; inferior crops and heavier labor bills will follow.

The flow-pipe from the tank to the earth should be 4 inches in diameter, the main 3 inches, sub-mains or branches 2 inches, and the stand-pipes or hydrants 1 1/2 inches, with 1 1/4-inch taps and hose-pipe.

In the Paris gardens, hydrants are fixed directly to the pipes, the screw for the hose being inside a box level with the ground. Ordinary stand-pipes will, however, answer very well, though they are somewhat in the way and may sometimes get broken.

Reference to the plan will show clearly the method of distributing the water and the posi­tion of the hydrants. Great accuracy is required in fixing these in the proper positions, which are, for frames of the size given, sixty­ nine feet from branch to branch, and twenty­ seven feet between the hydrants on each branch, except where there intervenes a broad path, for which allowance must be made.

Every station should be carefully measured
C

18 French Gardening

and marked before the work begins. The pipe fitter should be watched, for he is apt to imagine that a trifle of six inches or so in either direction is not a matter of importance, whereas the measurements given should be strictly adhered to. If the stand-pipes are fixed inaccurately in either direction, they will either hinder the proper arrangement of the frames or obstruct the paths.

By the above arrangement, water can be easily supplied to every part of the garden. In using the hose-pipe a reel is fixed at the corner of any bed or path. The pipe is pulled over or round this, when it moves easily and without injury to anything in the beds. (See illustration.)