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For most of my life, my family home in Bedford was dependant on a drilled artesian well, as there was no municipal water supply in our neighbourhood. This is no longer the case, but I am still acutely aware of how valuable water is, and curious about hydrology. I was in the Annapolis Valley last week and saw how very dry the fields and orchards were there. So last Saturday, at the Halifax Seaport Farmers' Market, I was asking some of the farmers how they were getting on in the present drought. I had an interesting chat with Greg Gerrits of Elmridge Farm. Since there was so little snow last winter, and since it was such a dry spring, his normal water supply is down at least 40% from normal levels. He doesn't have enough water to irrigate more than a few acres at a time. However, he went on to explain the influence of the Bay of Fundy tides on his water supply. He said that the weight of incoming water in the Bay was sufficient to exert pressure on water deep below the ground, even where he farms (near Sheffield Mills, I think). The flow of fresh water into his well improves significantly when the Bay is full of salt water. So he has learned to schedule his irrigation so that it begins three hours before high tide, and stops three hours after high tide. There are so many kinds of knowledge that a successful farmer needs to have, but it hadn't occurred to me that a knowledge of the tides was one of them. I may not be representing this very well, but I found it intriguing; perhaps someone could say more? Patricia L. Chalmers Halifax
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