September 14, 1995 - A Look Back: The Early Days of Irrigation1OA • The Suffolk Times September 14, 1995
A Look Back: The Early Days of Irrigation
By Paul Stoutenburgh
It's Sunday morning and because of
the coolness I have a nice crackling fire
going in the cottage on the bay. A brisk
north wind is blowing, telling us that fall
is trying to make itself known. Of
course, there are
Focus on the usual signs
that have moved
in during the past
Nature few weeks. The
most conspicu-
ous one of the
turning season here at the beach is the
brown tint to the once -lush, green marsh
to the back. We see a lot of brown leaves
on trees and some that have already fall-
en, but they are a sign of the dry weather
that has plagued us. The only term for
this is drought. It's hard to remember a
time when dryness persisted for so long.
Today most of the farmers have irri-
gation and with lots of long, hard hours
moving pipe and running motors through
the night, they can make a go of it, but
there's an added expense to all this.
Before irrigation they were at the mercy
of the weather. Even with the help of
man -made rain you can ask any farmer
and he'll tell you there's nothing like a
natural fall of rain to bring on a crop. I
can, and I'm sure many of you can,
remember when droughts and dry weath-
er would make or break the farmer.
I was fortunate to be a part of the be-
ginning of irrigation here on the East
End when just out of the service and
under the G.I. Bill I took a two -year
course in rural engineering. One of our
field trips took us to Riverhead to visit
the then - famous Long Island Produce
and Fertilizer Company (LIPCO). It was
there I met a farsighted man named
George Kaelin, who headed up their
farm - equipment division. He took us
around and showed us the latest in farm
equipment and then brought us to an
area that held the budding trappings of a
new field: portable irrigation.
I was fascinated by the possibilities of
this new and yet uncertain concept and
let Mr. Kaelin know of my interest. The
result was that he said, "When you grad-
uate, come see me and perhaps we'll
have a job for you."
Job on the East End
Needless to say, living out here and
having a job opportunity offered to me
spurred my enthusiasm and I took him
up on his offer. Sure enough, he was true
to his word and I soon found myself dri-
ving a sparkling new International pick-
up to contact farmers on Long Island. It
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
MAN -MADE RAIN— Irrigation is a must for the farmer today and it comes in many sizes and shapes: from shallow
to deep wells, from small to big pipe and from small sprinklers to giant bazookas.
was my job to get them to try out this
new idea, even though it involved a
large investment. It was at that time in
those vast, undeveloped reaches of our
East End that I became acquainted with
the wonderful variety of the flora and
fauna of both our North and South forks.
Back roads, "up lots," through woods
and along the fields I'd go in pursuit of
the farmer.
It was on one of these expeditions in
Eastport that I saw a man using a new
camera I had read about that had an en-
tirely different concept in picture- taking.
It was the concept of looking through the
lens, which is common today in most
cameras, that fascinated me. Previously
when taking closeups, I had to measure
the distance carefully to my subject with
a tape and then set the camera to get a
picture, a very cumbersome and restric-
tive procedure. Today they are called
SLR single -reflex cameras and it's all so
simple.
I had to have one and so my first dol-
lars earned selling irrigation bought my
Heating Oil • Diesel • Kerosene
C.O.D. Pricing • Automatic delivery
24 -hour service • Service contracts
Complete installations
LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED i McBumie Fuels
734 -6350
— \ o
734-6350 ■
SERVING THE ENTIRE NORTH FORK O 0
MeBurnie Fuels
DISCOUNT PRICES ■ A FULL SERVICE COMPANY
new Exakta that started me on the road
to taking pictures of the world around
us. Now with this new camera at my
side, the back roads with all their won-
der soon became subjects to photograph.
Of course, I was mainly selling irrigation
but every once in a while, along the side
of the road, I'd see something interesting
or new and just have to stop and quickly
take a picture.
Irrigation a Big Success
Needless to say, much irrigation was
sold and it became one of the main items
in the company's line. To help with our
sales we bought surplus Army firefight-
ing pumps called Chrysler Hales that
could be attached to shallow wells for
irrigation. This, coupled with the irriga-
tion pipe and sprinkl -rs, was the cheap-
est way to get into this rather expensive
addition to the farmer's equipment. But
this would only work in shallow wells.
The deeper wells of 30 to 100 feet or
more were expensive and usually re-
quired big diesel engines to run them,
but the cost was worth the investment.
Today few farmers operate without irri-
gation. We, and of course others, started
to supply the farmers with this much -
needed tool to supplement nature's lack
of rain during the dry months. These
pumps would put out 300 to 500 gallons
of water a minute and run from 30 to 50
sprinklers. It was an exciting time to be
selling this new product and it afforded
me the opportunity to visit the farmers
throughout Long Island.
Each of the sprinkler heads delivers 10
to 15 gallons of water every minute, so
you can get some idea of the amount of
water they are putting out. Each three -
hour setting covers the area with about
one inch of water.
I can remember one drought year when
we couldn't supply enough irrigation
pipe and sprinklers to meet the demand
so the company chartered a plane from
the west coast to
fly in the much- `It's hard to
needed irrigation
pipe and sprin- remember a
klers to save the
crops. Today no time when
big farm can be
without irrigation. dryness
Besides farm persisted
irrigation a whole
new industry has for so long.'
started up supply-
ing homeowners
with sprinkler irrigation for their lawns
and gardens. We see the results of this as
we drive along and look upon patches of
brown, burned -up grass and lush, green
lawns alongside of them. For those who
don't have irrigation, it's back to drag-
ging hoses and watering as best you can.
Fall, by the way, is the most important
time for trees to have moisture and so,
with this dry spell, it becomes im-
perative that your shade trees and bushes
be watered. The brown, curled -up leaves
on the ground and on the trees tell you
they are crying out for water and need
your help — water, water, water.
Long Island Consumer -AG, INC.
1241 OLD COUNTRY RD., ROUTE 58 • RIVERHEAD
727-8700
Call for service specials. r