GERMANY UNDER THE WATER-WAGON.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13275, 2 September 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

GERMANY UNDER THE WATER-WAGON.

Germany's water-wagon i s not tho ~ symbolic vehicle celebrated in American j s ' an Ss it is the real article, somewhat % akm to the sprinkling-carts of our city , streets, but employed instead in agricultural districts to abolish drought by j purveying artificial rain. On June '2O, _ 101.1, the Lokal Anzeiger (Berlin) an- , nounced that the prevailing drought tad increased to such an extent that the drought of 1911, locally celebrated, , bid fair to be eclipsed, that journal called on "German inventiveness" to f come to the rescue and suggested that i, some .system of watering carts might I prove effective. A week later it was 1 able to announce that the use of such vehicles for irrigation, in connection ! with an underground pipe system for i water supply, had already been in operation for some time. The Berlin daily . says:— I he 'German inventiveness' appealed to has already bestirred itself in this uiieetion, and has provided a method for furnishing refreshing artificial rains, to the languishing fields. The procedure is, in brief, as follows:—At some watering-place, such as a river, brook, lake, or even a generous well, the water is pumped into a conrse-nioshod network of pipes underlying the piece of land to be watered. From these fixed main pipe lines the water is led through flying-pipes or movable conduits coupicri to them at convenient | ]xiinis into flexible hose, which is eon filed to peculiarly designed 'rain-wagons.' I hose 'rain-wagons.' made up into trains which may bo as much as '2OO metres long, are drawn about the fields as they pour out needed 'rain' in the desired amounts. "This device does not come from I'topia: it is actually in use in our dry eastern districts, where it, has proved its value to large-scale agriculture over farms of about 6000 acres. Four (lerman factories aro now putting out these installations, file only essential differences being in the execution, flic design of tho 'ram-wagons,' and the manner ot operation. The first installation, tor large scale, artificial raining was set up in 1910, and it, was followed bv fifteen to twenty additional outfits. It. is really very strange that this field, sprinkling has not been mole extensively adopted, for the method lus proved out splendidly, and the droughtcf 1911 has emphasised the need for i'. i Perhaps it is because 'artificial rain' sounds too Utopian, and also because [ of an exaggerated idea as to the first cost and the running expenses. It mav be hero stated that the first cost is tot greater than than of other usual improvement, such as drains, etc . while the total current expense (including interest, deterioration, maintenance, and actual operation) is quite offset by the increased yield obtain'd even io the drv years. In Urn < dry years, on rho other hand, artificial sprinkling so increased the neb gains- . that tho. cost of installation mav be < wiped out the first year U though 1 such an increase in yield is not to bo < expected in large scale farming, never- ( theless the satisfaction is expressed by ] those planters who own such an artifi- | cial sprinkling-plant proves that there j also the improvement is a paving one. i <ii± i* -u„ i..1 xi-fl j.IN-