VARIED FORMS OF IRRIGATION START OPERATING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22887, 5 March 1949, Page 8

VARIED FORMS OF IRRIGATION START OPERATING

Gisborne’s three known irrigation plants have been put into operation for the first time this season. They are widely varied in performance and have been used for two distinct purposes.

In the latter half of February ground moisture was in a state requiring its replenishment by artificial means. The Waipaoa River, which has been carrying much more water than usual throughout the summer, was noticed to fall to its normally low summer level about two weeks ago. This week Mr. L. Grey completed the first irrigation of his citrus orchard at Ormond this season- The water was pumped by his low-pressure unit through pipes to his trees some distance from the Waipaoa River. He finished off his irrigation programme by allowing the water to run for seven hours .on his cow paddock. It covered only about a third of an acre, he said. There was a lot of young growth on his trees and it seemed likely that if the present weather held the blossom would come late. Research Station Trial On the facial eczema field research station at Manutuke, Mr. J. E. V. Simpson started irrigating for a different purpose. In an attempt to stimulate conditions which produce toxic grass, he put 30 ewes and 10 lambs into a one-acre paddock and they have eaten it down fairly bare in the past six weeks. He started on Monday to give it the equivalent of Sin. of rain with his low-pressure sprinkling equipment to produce a flush of grass and closely follow the results.’ It was on Tuesday that another form of irrigation was commenced at Manutuke to water the trees in a citrus nursery. The method was by open furrows, the least costly because it dispenses with long lengths of piping and, for that reason, the mostly widely used form of irrigation in the United States.

The only length of piping required is that to convey the water from the pump to the top of the bank, where it is run into a head ditch with leads running off into the several open furrows. With a motor pumping about 1600 to 1800 gallons per hour and a hundred-yard ditch conveying the water to the first of the rows of trees to be watered it was possible only to irrigate one row at a time. However, good progress was being made and the young tr'ees were getting a good soaking.