^--^^ LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Cliiss Digitized by the I nteriiet Archive in 2008 with funding fr^m IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/farmingirrigatioOOwilcrich OF THE '^ , WK IRRIGATION FARMING A HANDBOOK FOR THE PROPER APPLICATION OF WATER IN THE PRODUCTION OF CROPS ; / ; ^• BY LUCIUS M. WILCOX Editor of the ''Field and Farm " Revised and Enlarged Edition OP THE ILLUSTI,ATED-.^^o. NEW YORK ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 1902 // s(N? Copyright, 1902 BY ORANGB JUDD COMPANY GENERAL PREFACE. F"~^ OR many years the author of this work endeav- , ored to obtain specific information concerning ^^. the application of water for the producflion of crops on the edge of the Great American Desert, but was unable to secure any practical work bearing on the subjecfl. Realizing that there were a million or more other deserving people similarly situ- ated who desired just such instrudlion, the writer assumed the prerogative of inditing this simply com- piled volume in the hopes that it might be acceptably received. From the time of its first appearance, in 1895, the author's anticipation has been more than realized, and it is with considerable satisfac5lion that this revised edition of the work is offered. At this period in the grand enlightenment of the world through the medium of the printing-press all thoughtful readers have come to understand the im- portance of irrigation in the broadest sense of the term. Inasmuch as this science has become such an important factor in modern agricultural pursuits, and is becom- ing more or less essential in all parts of our vast domain, particularly in the western half of the United States, the author has considered it of such general interest as to justify the publication of the work sub- mitted herewith. The necessity of revision has natu- rally arisen with the flight of years, for progress is the 101944 VI IRRIGATION FARMING. order of the hour in all lines of industrial effort. In irrigation this fac5l is accentuated with each succeeding year, and to appreciate all the improvements of the times we must not hesitate to command all the best thought and experience of the men who have been successful in leading the waters captive to obey their will in developing the fullest fruition of the earth. In treating upon so wide and diversified a subjedl as universal irrigation, I have endeavored throughout to make all points touched upon as explicit and com- prehensive as possible, avoiding all useless verbiage, and handling the subjedl as understandingly as has come within the power of simple didlion. While the text of the work is based largely upon personal ex- perience, some of the dedudlions contained in these pages, especially regarding those in which the tech- nical features are most prominent, are adapted from the observations of others proficient in their respective lines. I have relied somewhat upon the valuable knowledge of hydraulic engineers and scientists, and have utilized the best authorities attainable whenever technical matters had to be considered. Upon careful perusal it will be seen that the strong position taken by the writer all through the work is the importance of consistent and scientific cultivation in connec5lion with all irrigation operations. The one is quite as essential as the other, and the two combined are indispensable in attaining the most perfedl results. * * Till and keep tilling ' ' is the most potent axiom of the twentieth century. I have deprecated shiftless methods as derogatory to the best success, and have condemned the practice as inexcusable as the wanton PREFACE. Vll waste of water itself. In all conclusions I have used the judgment afforded by twenty-five years' a(5lual experience in the field, and if these lessons prove of any benefit to the agricultural masses far and wide I shall feel that this work has not been in vain, and that the labor has been worthy of its hire. lyUCius M. WiivCOx. Denver, Colorado, 1902. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAQR The History of Irrigation i CHAPTER II. The Advantages of Irrigation 13 CHAPTER III. The Relation of Soils to Irrigation 22 CHAPTER IV. The Treatment of Alkali 36 CHAPTER V. Water-supply 47 CHAPTER VI. Canal Construction 57 CHAPTER VII. Reservoirs and Ponds 84 CHAPTER VIII. Pipes for Irrigation Purposes 109 CHAPTER IX. Flumes and Their Structure 123 CHAPTER X. Duty and Measurement of Water ..... 140 CHAPTER XI. Methods of Applying Water 166 CHAPTER XII. Irrigation of Field Crops 206 ix X IRRIGATION FARMING. PAGE. CHAPTER XIII. Irrigation of the Garden 250 CHAPTER XIV. Irrigation for the Orchard^ 277 CHAPTER XV. The Vineyard and Small Fruits 303 CHAPTER XVI. All About Alfalfa 324 CHAPTER XVII. Windmills and Pumps . 352 CHAPTER XVIII. Devices, Appliances and Contrivances . . . .394 CHAPTER XIX. Subirrigation and Subsoiling 4^9 CHAPTER XX. Seepage and Drainage 43^ CHAPTER XXI. Electricity in Irrigation 448 CHAPTER XXII. Irrigation in Humid Climates 455 CHAPTER XXIII. Winter Irrigation 4^3 CHAPTER XXIV. The Common Law of Irrigation 473 Glossary of Irrigation Terms .... 485 Index 49i ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGB. Portrait of Author Frontispiece, " A river went out of Eden to water the garden " . . xvi Irrigation 5,000 Years Ago 3 Irrigation Scene on the River Nile 5 Grecian Tympanum Wheel 8 Dividing Line Between Desert and Orchard ... 17 Capillary Tubes of Soil 31 The Newsom System of Water-supply .... 55 The Jackson Level 59 Target 60 Drop and Reduction Box 67 Curve of a Large Canal 69 Canal on a Hillside 7^ Headgate of a Canal 73 Top Sectional View of Land's Sand Gate ... 74 Side View of Sand Gate 74 Front View of Sand Gate .74 Automatic Waste Gate 76 Iron Outlet Gate 78 Bear Valley Dam 91 Sweetwater Dam . . '. 93 Diverting Dam 97 Cross-section of Hydraulic Reservoir .... 104 Riveted Iron Pipe 112 Spiral Iron Pipe . 113 XI Xll IRRIGATION FARMING. Vitrified Pipe Asbestine Pipe Machine Side View of Stave Pipe Cross-section of Stave Pipe Stave Pipe-line in Position Box Flume with Waste Gate Flume Across a Valley Truss Flume Across a Stream Method of Elevating a High-flume Trestle Bench Flume for a Large Canal The Great Flume Over the Pecos River Side View of Small Iron Flume End View of Small Iron Flume Cross-section of Large Iron Flume . Flume on a Rocky Ledge . Flume with Overhanging Support Divisor . . . . Foote's Measuring Flume Rectangular Weir .... The Current Meter .... Water Register The Stokes Measuring Gate Bird's-eye View of a Model Irrigated Farm Lateral Bulkhead * . '. Improved Steel Land Grader A Four-horse Grading Machine Diagonal Plow Furrows Across a Field Distributing Gates of Irrigation Canal Parallel Furrows for a Grown Orchard Double Furrow Orchard System Section of Vitrified Head Ditch The Basin System .... ILLUSTRATIONS. Contour of Border System Irrigating with a Hose Iirigating a Hillside A Plan for Watering Rough Land Irrigating a Grain Field Irrigating a Crop of Potatoes . Diagram of Garden Irrigated Garden . . . Section of Tiled Celery Bed Diagram of an Orchard Nursery Irrigation Trellised Vineyard Alfalfa Plant in Full Bloom Flooding a Field of Alfalfa Stacking Alfalfa with a Ricker Ventilator for Alfalfa Stack Dodder Seed, Flower, and Plant Trocar Used for Bloat An Ideal Windmill and Reservoir Plant A Windmill Plant in Operation Wind Rustler Battle-ax Windmill The Merry-Go-Round Gause Pump and Points Irrigation Pump Cylinder Berlin Oscillating Pump The Low-lift Vacuum Pump High-lift Vacuum Pump Centrifugal Pump Hydraulic Ram in Parts Hydraulic Engine in Operation Harvey Water-motor . XIV IRRIGATION FARMING. The Hurdy-Gurdy 382 Air Compressor 386 The Pneumatic System . 387 Inverted Sewer System 395 Artesian Well 398 Artesian Drilling Outfit 399 Bucket Elevator 403 The Apron Dam 405 Huntley Dam . 407 The Witcher Canvas Dam . 408 The Van Horn Tap Gate . 409 A Home-made Spirit-level 410 A Ditch Cleaner 411 A Garden Hitcher 411 Water-gate, Standing Position 412 Water-gate. While Water is High 412 Cistern and Liquid Manure Spreadei 414 The Corrugated Roller in Operation 417 Diagram of Subirrigated Field . 423 Father Cole's System . 429 Greenhouse Irrigation . 431 Subsoil Plow 435 Incorrect Drainage 443 Correct Drainage. 444 A Steam Ditcher at Work 446 ••a river went out of EDEN TO WATER THE GARDEN." —Book of Gaiesis. CHAPTER I. THE HISTORY OF IRRIGATION. ^TT^ HE magic science of irrigation is as old as civili- * , zation itself — in fa(5l, it was in vogue during Hiai the semi-barbaric days of prehistoric times. The use of irrigation for the production of crops probably antedates Noah's deluge by several thousand years. The earliest writer of agricultural lyrics was Hesiod, a Greek epic author who lived a thousand years before the Christian era. He often refers to irrigation as prac5liced for ages prior to his time by the Chinese people, of whom he seems to have had considerable knowledge. In Plato's Timseus is an account of the sunken island of Atlantis. This account Plato obtained from his ancestor Solon, thd lawgiver, who had visited Egypt, and in the city of Sais obtained the information from an Egyptian priest. Solon lived about 2,500 years ago, and, according to the story told him by the priest, there existed about 10,000 years before his time a large island in the Atlantic ocean opposite the Pillars of Hercules, other- wise the Strait' of Gibraltar, which was divided into ten kingdoms and ruled by the descendants of Posei- don. The description of the island i3 very minute, and among other things also is described a very ex- tensive and elaborate system of irrigating canals, con- structed in such manner as to utilize every natural stream and completely surround the island. While 2 IRRIGATION FARMING. the history of Atlantis is by many regarded as a myth, there are too many ladls adlually in existence to war- rant any such conclusion. According to this record, irrigation was in practical use fully 12,500. years ago. The English and French hydrographic engineers of the present age have found by the most careful sound- ings of the Atlantic ocean that the sunken continent of Atlantis has a physical existence, and that it also has the remains of great canals still defined upon its submerged surface. Twenty-seven centuries before the Star of Bethlehem shone so brightly by night a clever Egyptian ruler named Menes turned the course of the Nile so as to carry the turbid waters well out upon the higher ground, upon the very site of the present operations of the English engineer Wilcocks. Menes invented the nilometer, still in use to-day for gauging streams. The first artificial lake of which there is any reliable record is Lake Moeris. The historians Herodotus, Diodorus, and Pliny have described it, on the testimony of the inhabitants of the country, as one of the noblest works of the time from its enormous dimensions and its capacity for irrigation for the benefit of mankind. According to them, it was about 3,600 stadia, or 413 miles in circumference and 300 feet deep. Modern travelers have considerably reduced the circumference and depth of this lake, making it measure somewhat less than fifty miles in circumference, but even with this curtailment it must have been a magnificent engineering work, worthy of the admiration of all the ages. It was construd;ed, some historians say, by King Moeris ; others, by King Amenemhet in the THE HISTORY OF IRRIGATION. 1 2th dynasty, 2084 B.C. In the 20th dynasty Seti was the ruhng monarch, and is believed to have been the first man who acquired the knowledge of civil engineering and applied his learning particularly to hydraulics, for he introduced irrigation in the valley of the Nile by means of systemic engineering. He built a great reservoir in a natural catchment basin and construdled canals in one vast system. Seti was no doubt the first person to sink an artesian well, for the Greek histori- ans speak of this as ' ' the well from which water flowed over the top." He used the well in supplying water to the great temple of Karnak. Sesostris, one of the most il- lustrious kings of antiquity, who reigned in Egypt 1491 B.C., had a great number of canals cut for the purpose of trade and irrigation, and is said to have designed the first canal which established communication be- tween the Mediterranean and Red seas. The oldest monument at Thebes has a representation of a naked fellah under a dom palm tree drawing water from the Nile wnth a well-sweep or shadoof, a reprodudlion of which is shown in Fig. i, and the fellah of to-day does it the same way, except that two or more usually work together on a large turn beam. FIG. I — IRRIGATION 5,000 YEARS AGO. 4 IRRIGATION FARMING. By the time that Moses, the great leader and law- giver, appeared to lead the enslaved children out of Egyptian slavery, irrigation had made great progress in a general way, for in the book of Deuteronomy we are told something of their agricultural methods in these words : " For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs. But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and val- leys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. ' ' There are in Egypt sedlions of country that have been in con- stant use for over four thousand years, and still the soil shows no sign of wearing out, for such is the nature of the water of the Nile that the annual deposit of sedi- ment more than recompenses the drainage by the im- mense crops. An illustration of such a farm will be seen in Fig. 2. The plats are laid off in squares divided by the irrigation furrows. China is equally celebrated with Egypt for the great antiquity of its numerous canals. The Great or Imperial Canal is one of the most stupendous works of ancient or modern times. It is 650 miles long, and con- ne<5ls the Hoang-Ho and Yang-tse-Kiang rivers. It is available both for navigation and irrigation, and to- gether with its numerous branches irrigates an im- mense area of country, thus affording millions the means of livelihood and support. Immense tanks, reservoirs, and irrigating canals appear to have been con- stru<5led in India many centuries anterior to the advent of Christ, and some of them are probably equally as ancient as the Egyptian canals. The Assyrians were 6 IRRIGATION FARMING. equally renowned with the Egyptians from the most remote periods of history for their skill and ingenuity in the construdlion of hydraulic works. Through the foresight, enterprise, and energy of their rulers they converted the sterile country in the valleys of the Eu- phrates and Tigris into fertility, which was the theme of wonder and admiration of the ancient historians. The country below Hit on the Euphrates, andSamarra on the Tigris, was at one time intersedled with numer- ous canals, one of the most ancient and important of which, called the Nahr Malikah, conne(5ling the Eu- phrates with the Tigris, is attributed by tradition to Nimrod, King of Babel, 2204 B.C., while other histo- rians assert that Nebuchadnezzar construdled it. Among the ancient works at Babylon, with its fabled hanging gardens, was a lake 42 miles in circum- ference and 35 feet deep, to store the flood- waters of the Euphrates and distribute them for irrigation. The Nahrawn canal, taken from the Tigris river, was over 400 miles long, and varied in width from 250 to 400 feet, and from numerous branches on both sides it irri- gated a very extensive area of country, while at the same time it was also available for navigation. With the destrudlion of Babylon the glory of the Mesopo- tamian Empire departed, the canals were negle<5led, and the country described by Herodotus as being pro- Hfic before all other lands in its produ<5lion of rye, wheat, and barley has become so dry and barren that it cannot be cultivated, and is inhabited only by nomadic bands of Bedouins and the scurvy, wandering Arabians. In the book of Ecclesiastes we read of the hidden THK HISTORY OF IRRIGATION. 7 Springs and sealed fountains of Solomon, from which the water was piped to the plains below. The remains of reservoirs in the neighborhood of Hebron, which the Jews are supposed to have constructed in the days of Solomon for the supply of Jerusalem, show that their designers were equally alive with most engineers of the present age to the great importance of an ample and constant supply of water. The Phoenicians, in the zenith of their power, were celebrated for their canals, both for the supply of Carthage with drinking water and for the purposes of irrigation. They were a very diligent people, and so imbued were they in the cause of irrigation that they made aquedu(5ls through mountains of solid granite, hewing the way with hand chisels. Many of these prehistoric works still remain. The Greeks, judging from the ruins of large aquedudls scattered throughout the country, appear from a very remote period to have paid the greatest attention to hydraulic science. Herodotus describes an ancient conduit for supplying Samos, which had a channel three feet wide and which pierced a hill with a tunnel nearly a mile long. Another masonry aque- du<5l near Patara crossed a ravine 200 feet wide and 250 feet deep. Virgil, that most charming of Roman poets, in referring to irrigation in his First Georgic, says : *' What may I say of that industrious swain Who, like a soldier following spear with sword, The grain pursues just cast into its place. And rushes on it the adjoining heap Of soil that is illy rich, then leads the stream IRRIGATION FARMING. And following streams upon the planted grain ; And when the burnt-out field with dying growths Is hot, behold, he brings the saving wave headlong, Down through its slanting path; its falling calls From rounding rocks a murmur hoarse, and cools With scattering rills the parched and thirsty fields." The Grecians were an inventive people and to them FIG. 3 — GRECIAN TYMPANUM WHEEL. are ascribed great improvements in the way of mechan- ical contrivances for raising water. Principal among these is the tympanum wheel, afterward adopted by the Egyptians, as shown in Fig. 3. In the reign of Emperor Nero, Rome was supplied by no fewer than nine large conduits, having an aggre- gate length of 255 miles, which delivered over 173,- 000,000 gallons of water daily. Afterward the supply THE HISTORY OF IRRIGATION. 9 was increased to 312,500,000 gallons daily. Most of the Roman works were construdled for the supply of cities with drinking water, and such were built in all countries under Roman control. That of Claudia was 47 miles long and 100 feet high, so as to furnish the hills. Martia's was 41 miles, of which 37 were on 7,000 arches 70 feet high. These vast eredlions would never have been built had the Romans known that water always rises to its own level. Julius Caesar, in his efforts to conquer the world, carried the irrigation idea into Great Britain, and his subservient soldiery constru(5led many miles of artifi- cial watercourses, or, rather, superintended the work, which was done manually by the people whom they had enslaved by conquest. When Constantine was sent to the Bosphorus to found the great city which bears his name he detailed certain numbers of his army for canal work, and they built many permanent irri- gating works. The Spaniards are the best irrigators in the world ; they have been applying water artificially for over 3,000 years, and have thoroughly familiarized them- selves as to its uses, adaptability, application, etc. Modern travelers tell us they have the best-construdled works of any people, and many of these works were made prior to the Moorish occupancy. The solid masonry, the handiwork of men living before the advent of the Christian epoch, is still extant and in acftual use. What was done with irrigating science during the dark ages we know but little. Coming down to more modern times, and looking at the western hemisphere through the murky vista of lO IRRIGATION FARMING. the years, we find that irrigation has existed as an aid to agriculture for many centuries antedating the advent of the Caucasian. Arizona is full of the remains of ancient towns and irrigating canals, and in Taos, Santa F6, Valencia and Grant counties, New Mexico, the existing ruins of similar strucftures point to a dense population existing at some remote period under some form of organized government. The rem- nants of this nation or nations are found in the Pueblos of Acoma, Cochita, Isleta, Jemez, lyaguna, Moqui, Nambe, Picuris, Zuni, and others of New Mexico, and the Chihuahuas and Tequas and others along the Rio Grande in Texas. The writer has stood upon the ruins of I^a Gran Quivera and traced for miles with his eye the grade of a great irrigating ditch. Ruins of ancient towns have also been found along the Pecos river in Texas. There ^re few streams in Arizona and New Mexico where traces of ancient works cannot be found. Earthquakes and wars with savage neigh- bors brought about the destrudlion of most of these works. The Spanish marauders under Cabeza de Vaca, and later on under Coronado, helped to bring about further decay. In Peru, the land of the Incas, and throughout Mexico and Central America, the early Spanish explorers found such magnificent irri- gating works that their astonishment was very marked. The elaborate appliances for irrigation were negle(5led and allowed to go to ruin. The now existing works do not compare in magnitude to the ancient works. Parts of Arizona and New Mexico were at some remote period densely populated and then abandoned. Quite extensive systems of irrigating canals of prehistoric ^Hl^ HISI'ORY O^ IRRIGATION. II origin have been found on the Colorado river, and parts of them have been adapted to the modern canals. At the Casa Grande and in the Salt River valley of Southern Arizona these canals may still be seen. Thirty-five years ago an engineer at field work near Riverside, California, was running the level for a proposed ditch. He could not establish the grade satisfactorily, so he went again to the stream and reconnoitered for a new start. He was surprised to find an old acequia — so old, in fadl, that its banks were scarcely discernible — and by carefully following its course he was still more astonished to discover that it had brought him to his original objective point, and on these lines the new canal was laid. The grade was all that could have been wished for. Among the old irrigation works are those in the vicinity of San Antonio, Te:^as, begun under the direc- tion of the Spanish padres about 17 15. With the eredtion of the Spanish missions began the cultivation of the soil in Southwestern Texas. According to local tradition the worthy padres were expert in rounding up the unfortunate natives and getting an unlimited amount of work out of them in the construction of mission buildings and irrigating ditches. The pay for services rendered was usually bestowed in the form of religious instruc5lion, administered willy-nilly, and occasionally augmented by an extra inquisition, if the forced piety and humility did not agree well with the unwilling convert. The pioneer Mormons who settled in the fertile Salt Lake valley in 1847 saw the necessity of irriga- tion, and to their untiring efforts and attendant success 12 IRRIGATION FARMING. is due much of the credit for the impetus given our more modern methods of artificial crop-watering. It took them two years to get their first canal into work- ing order, and the work was done under the pressure of uncertainty and with many hardships and priva- tions. In 1870 the Greeley Union Colony was estab- lished in Northern Colorado on a barren plain, and an experimental system of ditching was begun in imita- tion of the irrigation fields existing in Utah. It was about this time that the California Arcadians took up the great art of supplying plant food with * ' the waters led captive," and at once irrigation sprang into new life and came seemingly in the nick of time to redeem America's arid wastes "and make the desert to blos- som as the rose. ' ' CHAPTER II. THE ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION. SOME one has spoken of irrigation as the ' ' wed- , ding of the sunshine and the rain. ' ' A great ^^^ many people hearing the word irrigation experience the same sensations that they do when Madagascar or Wiju is spoken of. They have a feeHng that it is something a great distance off — hard to reach — intangible. They read about it as they like to read * ' Arabian Nights " or * ' Hans Andersen's Fairy Stories, ' ' and it leaves on their minds about the same impressions of wonder, magnificence, and untruth as do the stories named. To them the very word "irriga- tion" puts their reasonings to flight, and they imagine that the art of applying water to cultivated lands is some complicated and wonderfully intricate process not easily understood or attained by mortal man. The fa<5l of the matter is, as the author proposes to show in the succeeding chapters, that irrigation is as simple as child's play, and may be accomplished by the most commonplace day laborer in the fields. In enumera- ting a few of the advantages attendant upon irrigating methods, we will cite the fa(5fs that irrigation reclaims arid wastes ; makes a prosperous country ; causes the desert to blossom and overcomes the destrucftive effe(5ls of the parching southern winds ; insures full crops every season ; improves land at each submergence, and 13 14 IRRIGATION FARMING, consequently does not wear out the soil; produces sup- port of dense population ; multiplies the produ(5live capacity of soils ; destroys inse<5ts and worms and pro- duces perfedl fruit ; creates wealth from water, sun- shine, and soil ; makes the farmer independent of the rainfall ; will redeem 100,000,000 acres of desert lands in the United States alone ; yields large returns to investors ; adds constantly to the security of invest- ments ; will yield support for 50,000,000 of increased population in America ; makes the produ(5lion of choicest fruits possible, and prolongs the harvest period of various crops if so desired ; affords a sure founda- tion for the creation of wealth ; lessens the danger of floods ; utilizes the virgin soil of the mountain regions ; is now employing more than $1,000, 000, 000 of capital ; insures two or more crops annually in the lower lati- tudes ; will increase threefold the value of lands hav- ing rainfall ; keeps off the early approach of Jack Frost ; improves the quality and increases fully one- eighth and oftentimes one-fourth the size of fruits, vegetables, and grains ; makes farming profitable in waste places and forever forestalls the inroads caused by the ghost of drouth ; and will finally solve the great labor question and fortify against the alarming increase of city populations. The farmer who has a soil containing an abundance of all the needed elements, in a proper state of fine- ness, cannot but deem himself happy if he have always ready at hand the means of readily and cheaply sup- plying all the water needed by his soil and growing crops, just when and in just such quantities as are needed. Happier still may he be if, besides fearing no THE ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION. 1 5 drouth, he has no rainfall to interrupt his labors or to injure his growing or harvested crops. And happier still may he be when he realizes that he need have no ' ' off years, ' ' and he knows that the waters he admits to his fields at will are freighted with rich fertilizing elements usually far more valuable to the growing crop than any that he can purchase and apply at a costly rate — a cost that makes serious inroads upon the profits of the majority of farmers cultivating the worn- out or deteriorated soils in the older states year by year. Fertilizers are already needed for the most profitable culture on many farms in Iowa, Minnesota, Eastern Kansas, and Nebraska, in Missouri, and in all states east of those named. In proof of this assertion the writer can best be qualified in his statement by mentioning the fac5l that there is an oat field in Saguache county, ^Colorado, that up to 1894 had produced twenty- three consecutive crops, each of which averaged forty bushels to the acre through all the years. The yield of the twenty- third crop averaged sixty bushels, which would indi- cate that the fertility of that field was keeping up remarkably well without rest or rotation. This unusual result was made possible by means of irrigation alone, and there is no doubt much truth in the theory that the irrigating waters from the mountains contain great quantities of mineral fertilizing elements in solution. Even by shallow plowing and the most shiftless methods of land preparation a Mexican farmer named E. Valdez, of Chromo, Colorado, produced twenty-five consecutive crops of wheat on the same soil, and with- out manure or change of seed in the interim. This 1 6 IRRIGATION FARMING. peculiar result wa.s made possible only by the use of irrigating waters, applied as they were regardless of scientific principles or any defined method whatever. The yield the last season was forty-five bushels to the acre, as heavy as any throughout the quarter of a century of constant croppage. Irrigation farming has peculiar charadleristics. It is a higher and more scientific industry than rain farming; it succeeds best by what is known as intensive culture, or what is better described as scientific culture. The soil to be at its best should be carefully prepared, and cultivation ought to be minute and thorough. To make such agriculture pay, such crops must be raised as will yield the greatest value to the acre. The irri- gated lands are better adapted to the growth of orchards, vineyards, gardens, potato fields, hop-yards, tobacco and cotton plantations, and whatever extra work may be required to cover the land with water will be repaid tenfold from the first crop that is taken off. In traveling in the far west, over long stretches of parched and dusty plains or through mountain gorges, the writer has often seen fields, orchards, vineyards, and gardens all dressed in living green. The life, vigor, and fruitfulness were in surpassing contrast to the general aspecfl. And why this contrast ? Because of the tapping of mountain streams, fed by crystal springs or banks of perpetual snow, and turnmg a portion of their waters upon the lands. From great eminences the course of these life-giving waterways made by the hands of man could be traced by the eye, until they were lost in the dimness of distance. There was no need being told where were the irrigating THE ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION. 17 ditches. The eye of a novice could mark them with accuracy as they wound about the foothill slopes, dotting the landscape with patches of emerald, where lone settlers and busy towns were located. An illus- tration of this condition is given in Fig. 4, showing the FIG. 4 — DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN DESERT AND ORCHARD. course of an irrigating ditch dividing the unbroken prairie and a newly set orchard. It is in the horticultural pursuits that the highest degree of perfedlion as the patrimony of modern irriga- tion is to be realized. Under any system of irrigation where a constant supply of water is to be had the hor- 1 8 IRRIGATION FARMING. ticulturist can plant with almost a certainty of gather- ing a crop. Untimely frosts, insedls, and fungous diseases are often to be contended with, but it is a great consolation to feel sure that drouth cannot prevent the starting of trees, plants, and seeds in springtime, or cut short a growing crop. Neither are floods likely to overflow, except on low bottoms, and these are not the best places for the most profitable orchards. One field or a small portion of it can be watered without the rest being deluged or even sprinkled, if desired. It is the writer's desire at this time to direcft the attention of horticulturists and farmers generally in the ' ' rain belt ' ' to the benefits to be derived from an arti- ficial supply of water to their crops. Some may scout the idea and say it is not pracfticable — that it will not pay to go to so much expense for the little use to be made of the water ; but in all seriousness it may be said that it will pay, and there are many places east of the arid regions where irrigation is now considered by those who have long tried it as almost indispensable. There is scarcely an acre of ground under cultivation in North America that would not produce more and better crops if there were at hand an abundant water- supply. There are seasons now and then in which the rains come just right and irrigation might not be needed even once, but they are rare. Usually there are several dry spells during each year that cause serious injury to the crops, and were irrigation possible all harm from this source might be prevented. A very little water at the right time would make all the differ- ence with the crop and turn into success what other- wise would have been a partial or total failure. The THE ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION. 1 9 work already put upon the land would be saved, as well as seeds and plants. Satisfadlion and plenty would take the place of disappointment and scarcity. If eastern pomologists would only adopt irrigation there would be no good cause for having weakly plants and trees, or for the premature dropping of leaves. The buds would develop early, and be plump and vig- orous. There would be no winter-killing of trees and plants because of their feeble condition. Many things are considered tender that are so in some places only because of their inability to make sufficient growth to fortify against the evaporating influences of the winter. It would not be reasonable to expecft that any of the many systems of irrigation can be applied to all secflions of our country, or to every farm in any secftion. Neither is it always pradlicable that all of a large farm should be placed under irrigation, except in rare cases. But where there is now, or may be created, a supply of water that can be drawn upon in time of need for at least a small part of the farm, it is a great mistake not to make use of its benefits. There are special crops, such as asparagus, celery, and the strawberry, which need an amount of water that is not required by most others, and which could be grown much more cheaply than at present if aided by irrigation. In this connec- tion it might be well to add that statistics show that in all rainy countries — that is, where the farmers depend upon the rains to make their crops — the seasons of drouth and the seasons of too much rain constitute three out of every five, giving the farmer three bad crops to two good ones. As a matter of fadl, the in- 20 IRRIGATION FARMING. trinsic advantages of irrigation concern and are within reach of the farmer of the humid region quite as much as his fellow in the arid climate; and in many, if not in most, cases his water supply will cost him less, and when once applied will never be given up. There can be no doubt that when the available waters of the humid region are examined in regard to the supplies of plant food they are capable of giving to lands irrigated with them, they will be found to be nearly, if not quite, as valuable in this respedl as those of the arid region. Another suggestion along this line presents itself right here : As there is no material diif erence in the cost of cultivation of an acre yielding ten bushels of wheat and another acre yielding sixty bushels, it must be evident that the man who gets only ten bushels pays six times as much as does the man who produces sixty bushels. The profits to be derived from ' ' the new agriculture," as irrigation has aptly been called, comes not alone from the annual return from the watered acres, but from the constantly increasing valuation of the land itself. Many individual instances could be cited, especially in regions devoted to fruit culture, where the returns are almost fabulous. I^ands which were worth from two to ten dollars an acre have by the expenditure of from ten to twenty dollars an acre in the constru(5lion of irrigation works become worth $300 an acre and upward. The same lands set out with suitable varieties of trees and vines have sold within five years of planting at|i,ooo or more an acre. So valuable are irrigated lands in Spain that they sell for $720 to $880 an acre, which is ten times the price of THK ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION. 21 the unirrigated, and the same ratio of values prevails elsewhere. In summarizing the manifold advantages that the irrigation blessing has brought to humanity through all the ages of persevering man, and anticipating those benefits that are to be commanded by ' ' the nations yet to be, " we may conclude that irrigation means better economic conditions ; means small farms, orchards, and vineyards; more homes and greater comfort for men of moderate means. It means more intelligence and knowledge applied to farming, more profit from crops, more freight and more commerce — because special produdls of higher grade and better market value will be enhanced. It means association in urban life instead of isolated farms. It means the occupa- tion of small holdings. It means more telephones, telegraphs, good roads, and swift motors ; fruit and garden growths everywhere ; schools in closer prox- imity; villages on every hand, and such general pros- perity as can hardly be dreamed of by those who are not familiar with the results of even the present in- fancy of irrigation in America. It can hardly be doubted that in time the lessons conveyed by history, as well as by the daily pradlice and results of irrigation in the arid region, will induce the dwellers in the regions of summer rains to procure for themselves at least a part of the advantages which are equally within their reach, putting an end to the dreadful seasons when ' ' the skies are as brass and the earth as a stone, ' ' and the labors of the husbandman are in vain. CHAPTER III. THE RELATION OF SOILS TO IRRIGATION. HjT T was the blind poet Milton who said, ** Fame is i no plant that grows on mortal soil." He 9ISas might have added that famous plants are to grow on irrigated soil. The nature, condition and situation of soils compose a most important fadlor in successful irrigation, and should especially be under- stood by every person who essays to apply water by artificial methods. In the first place, it may be well to understand that primarily soil is rock disintegrated, dissolved, or pulverized by the action of the air, water, and ice, aided chemically by the various salts and acids present in the soil, and fertilized by decayed vegeta- tion, animal excretions, and chemical agents. Classes of Soils. — Nominally there are two dis- tindl classes of soils — the sedentary and transported soils, which embrace the drift and alluvial soils. Specifically soils are distindtive according to their physical charadleristics, and may be classified as gravel, sand, clay, loam, marl, lime, salt, peat, muck, or humus. Pure sand consists almost entirely of small grains of silica or quartz, and is not a plant food. Plants cannot use it. It is insoluble in water and in acids, and has no adhesive tendency ; hence, adling as a divider in the soil, it makes the land easy to work and facilitates the passage of roots in search of food, and THE REIvATlON OE SOILS TO IRRIGATION. 23 also allows the assimilation of irrigating waters. The amount of sand in the soil varies from eight to more than ninety per cent. It absorbs very little moisture or other fertilizing material in the air, but retains heat much longer than does any other soil constituent. From these facts, then, it is evident that a sandy soil will be loose, easy to work, dry, warm, and free from baking, but peculiarly apt to suffer from drouth when irrigation is not available, and lose valuable plant food by leaching, especially if the subsoil be sandy or gravelly. Clay Soils. — Clay is a compound of silica and aluminum. It is very seldom found pure, but con- tains potash, lime, ammonia, etc., mixed with it, and some of these unite with it to form double silicates, which are exceedingly valuable on account of the pot- ash, lime, or ammonia which they furnish to plants. Clay is not a plant food. It is not taken up by plants except by a few of the lower orders, but the impurities in it — lime, potash, etc. — are absolutely essential to vegetable growth, and these at once become soluble under the influence of irrigating waters. Red clays always contain iron, and most clay soils are rich in potash, thus adding to their availability as plant food, and rendering them peculiarly adapted to such plants as require a liberal supply of compounds. Clay gives body to the soil and absorbs moisture readily. It absorbs heat much more readily than sand does, but has not the same power of retention. A clayey soil, then, is usually rich in phosphoric acid, potash, am- monia, etc., holds moisture well, and is adapted to withstand drouth, but is difficult to work and apt to 24 IRRIGATION FARMING. bake after having been irrigated in summer, and is cold and wet in spring and fall. The amount of clay in soil varies from ten to ninety per cent., but the quantity of pure clay in heavy soils rarely exceeds thirty per cent. The clay soils of the far west are locally called "adobe," because it is of such soil that the adobe bricks are made by the native Mexicans and used in their simple architecture. While adobe soils are more difficult to work they are well adapted to irri- gation, and it is on them that the best results are often obtained by western irrigators. Gumbo and Loam. — Gumbo soil is a term applied to a class of heavy soils prevalent in the south, having a greasy feeling and a soap}'^ or waxy appearance. The particles that compose the soil are very small, less than one one-hundredth of an inch in size, and there is but very little true sand present. These soils are always rich in alkali, particularly the potash compound. It is this potash that gives it the soapy appearance and greasy feeling. They fail to scour the plow because of the absence of sand and the extreme fineness of the particles. No cheap chemical can improve these soils, but continual cropping gradually causes an improved condition by the gradual removal of the excess of potash. They are especially adapted for grass and hay crops. Gumbo is more impervious to water than most soils are, and as a rule requires much less irriga- tion, lyoam soils comprise those molds ranging be- tween sand and clay and possessing more or less each of these two constituents. They constitute what may be termed the happy medium, and are really the most desirable kinds of earth on which to ply the irrigator's THE RELATION OF SOILS TO IRRIGATION. 25 art. The term loam is a most indefinite charadleriza- tion on account of the various constituents which it contains. For instance, a heavy clay loam has but from ten to twenty-five per cent, of sand; a clay loam is twenty-five to forty per cent, of sand, and the sandy loam is from sixty to seventy-five per cent, of sand, while the light sandy contains from seventy-five to ninety per cent. It has been demonstrated by pracftical experiments that one hundred pounds of sand will absorb twenty- five pounds of water ; one hundred pounds of loam, forty pounds; one hundred pounds of clay loam, fifty pounds; one hundred pounds of clay, seventy pounds. This explains why some soils always appear drier than others, why some soils will stand a drouth so much longer than others, and why, after an irrigation, some soils become like a thick paste while others are dry. Sandy soils usually break up loose and mellow when dug, forked, or worked in any way; black land is stiff, breaks up in hard clods when worked either too wet or too dry, and requires more cultivation both before and after plants are put in it than does sandy soil. Humus. — The humus is the organic portion of the soil, resulting from decayed vegetable matter. It is of a dark brown or black color, the blacker the better. A good example is well-rotted leaf mold. The chief constituent of humus is carbon, but it contains all the other compounds found in plants, and by its gradual decay these all become available as plant food in the most desirable form. Humus is the chief source of nitrogen in the soil. A black soil rich in humus is sure to be rich in nitrogen. The remarkable fertility 26 IRRIGATION FARMING. of virgin soils is largely due to the nitrogenous humus which they contain. Of all vSoil constituents, humus has the greatest power to absorb and retain moisture, and to draw moisture from the subsoil by capillary attraction, and it is in this power that is manifCvSted its valuable utility immediately on the application of irrigating waters. It also possesses in a high degree the power to absorb ammonia from the air, and by its dark color it adds warmth to the soil during the day, while by cooling quickly at night it assists in causing dew to be deposited upon the soil which contains it. Humus also improves the texture of the soils, by mak- ing clay soil more friable and sandy soil more compadl and retentive. The amount of humus in fertile soils is quite variable, but usually runs from three to seven or eight per cent. The Acids. — In all soils we find two essential, acids, known scientifically as humic and ulmic. The first is the acid in the humus, or vegetable and animal matter in the soil. As animal life is built by vegetable matter, it must eventually turn back to vegetable mat- ter. Ulmic acids are those that exude from the roots of some plants. We should remember that nitrogen is the costHest of all plant foods and the most difficult to retain in the soil, and plants must have it, for it corredls this humic acid in the plant as well as in 'the soil. The ulmic acids are seldom in sufficient quan- tity to do harm. But the humic acids when shut off from the proportions of nitrogen or potash — both alkalies— become too concentrated, or the dead microbes become poisonous to plant life, as the great French chemist Pasteur would have it. Now humic acid has THE RELATION OF SOII.S TO IRRIGATION. 27 the same effedl both in plant life and in the soil — for all nature was torn off the same bolt. If the soil is very wet for two or three weeks and is well filled with vegetable matter, although the plant is overgrown, it becomes sick just as much as a horse with colic. But keep the soil so the air can penetrate it and neutralize these acids, and the more of this vegetable matter the better and heavier the plant will fruit. One strong point in favor of irrigation is that it neutralizes these acids and brings them more surely under the control of the scientific cultivator, so that they niay be more fully utilized in the structural growth of the plant. Color and Texture. — The color of soil depends exclusively on its composition, humus forming nearly a black soil, while sand gives a light yellow, and iron oxide produces a red color. The darker soils, other things being equal, have the highest absorptive power toward solar heat. This is shown when muck is applied to the surface of snow in the spring. We have often found in the rich valleys of the Rocky Mountain region a dark, chocolate loam interspersed here and there by deposits of a lighter and more chalky nature, all being, however, extremely rich in gypsum and salts that are valuable in the produ(5lion of fruits, cereals, and vegetables. Investigation shows that one acre foot in depth of a fairly good agricultural soil contains four thousand pounds of phosphoric acid, eight thousand pounds of potash, sixteen thousand pounds of nitrogen and lime, magnesia, soda, chlorine, sulphur, and silica — all of which are more fully ren- dered available in maturing plant life when irrigation is brought into pradlice upon them. 28 IRRIGATION FARMING. It has long been recognized by praAical men, as well as by many of our scientific investigators, that the texture of the soil and the physical relation to moisture and heat have much to do with the distribution and development of crops. Years ago Johnson went so far as to say, in " How Crops Feed " : * * It is a well-recog- nized fadl that next to temperature the water-supply is the most influential facflor in the produdl of the crop. Poor soils give good crops in seasons of plentiful and well-distributed rain or when skilfully irrigated, but insufficient moisture in the soil is an evil that no supplies of plant food can neutralize." Recent investigations point to the conclusion that the mechanical arrangement of the soil grains determines its fertility more than the chemical properties it may pos- sess. Experiments show that the greater the number of soil grains in a given space the greater the amount of air space, because the small grains, being light, arrange themselves more loosely than the larger or heavier ones. In a good wheat soil, when dry, there is at least fifty per cent, of air space — that is, in a cubic foot of soil one-half of the space is occupied by the soil and one-half by the air. But during the process of irrigation the interstices become filled with water, and by too copious or too prolonged an irrigation the soil becomes saturated, which excludes the air from the soil — air so necessary to plant growth. A porous subsoil removes the water of saturation and assists in preserving the moisture adhering to the particles of soil. The latter is the most favorable to the growth of crops. In determining the condition of moisture in the soil in the prac5lical application of water, it is only THK REI.ATION OF SOILS TO IRRIGATION. 29 necessary to take out a handful of earth a few inches below the surface. If the earth is of sufficient moisture to ball in the hand irrigation at that time is not needed. This is a simple and inflexible rule. Temperature. — The relation of soil to heat is largely dependent upon the relation of soil to moisture and the amount of moisture contained in the soil. It takes more heat to raise the temperature of a pound of water one degree than to raise the temperature of a pound of soil the same amount; so that the more moisture there is in a soil the more material there is to be heated, and this added material is more difficult to heat than the substance of the soil itself. The tem- perature of the soil will depend also upon the amount of evaporation of the soil. It has been shown that from this cause alone the temperature of the sandy soil may be much cooler at midday than the temperature of the clay soil. If the soils had been dry this would have been just the reverse, and the substance of the clay is more difficult to heat than the substance of the sand. It has been shown that the mean temperature of a sandy soil is lower than that of an adjacent clay soil, while the sandy soil is drier than the clay soil. These are conditions of a lower temperature and a drier soil, which are used in greenhouse culture to force the ripening of a plant; while the higher tem- perature and the greater moisture content of the clay soil are conditions used in greenhouse culture to pro- duce a leafy development and to retard the ripening of the plant. Gravity. — The relation of soils to water resolves itself into two lines of investigation — the forces 30 IRRIGATION FARMING. which move the water and the conditions which determine the relative rate of flow. The forces which move the water within the soil are gravity and the tension or contracting power of the exposed water sur- face. The approximate extent of the water surface can be calculated from the mechanical analysis of the soil. The surface tension and effedl of manures and fertilizers on the surface tension can be found by the ordinary method of the rise of liquids in capillary tubes, using as a solvent pure water, or extracts of the soil, representing as nearly as possible the ordinary soil moisture. The different fertilizing materials have a very marked effedl on the pulling power of the water. The same class of substances may differ widely in their effe<5l. Kainit, for instance, increases the surface tension of pure water, but nitrate of potash lowers it very considerably. Nutritive Dissemination. — The absorption of nutritive matter by the soil is a phenomenon of uni- versal occurrence and widest significance as influencing the conditions of plant growth. Its manifestation is among the most common processes of nature; yet not till within the past half century was it fully recog- nized or appreciated in its bearings on plant nutrition. Solutions, as a result of our modern irrigating methods, are known to part with their solid constituents on passing through any considerable quantity of soil. They are thus disseminated more evenly throughout the top-soil, and are left there on deposit, as it were, to be drawn upon by the growing vegetation, and hence it is that irrigation improves the mechanical con- dition of soils and makes them the more readily sub- THK RKI.ATION OF SOILS TO IRRIGATION. 3 1 servient to the agriculturist. Some authorities claim that soils which have been cropped until the soluble ingredients, organic elements, and humus have been materially decreased retain less water and dry out more readily than when there is a larger amount of organic matter present in the soil. This depletion, however, may easily be obviated by the scientific application of fertilizers, the growing of nitrogenous plants, or by crop rotation. Capillary Action. — In concluding our observa- tions on this important topic of soils the matter of cul- tivation must not be overlooked. The success of irri- FIG. 5 — CAPILLARY TUBES OF SOIL. gation cannot be made complete without cultivation, and it is a fault too commonly observed among irriga- tors that they are inclined to depend too much upon irrigation and not nearly enough upon cultivation. The retention of the moisture when once supplied to the soil by means of irrigation may be largely controlled by keeping the topsoil well pulverized, so as to break up the capillary tubes, as shown in Fig. 5, a being the sur- face, b the capillary tubes, and c the subsoil. The more recent scientists all agree that the soil is full of small tubes, through which the moisture from below finds its way to the surface and escapes. If these tubes can be closed the water will not evaporate so readily. This 32 IRRIGATION FARMING. is done by loosening the topsoil, not by stirring it to such a depth as to injure the roots of the plants, but in a manner so as to break the tops of the tubes and throw a covering of loose soil over the ground, and at the same time destroy the robber weeds which not only use the moisture but take away plant food as well. This loose soil is a mulch — a blanket which prevents loss of moisture and protec5ls against the diredl rays of the sun. There are, of course, certain kinds of cereal crops, such as wheat and oats, which by ordinary planting do not admit of cultivation, and these from necessity naturally require a larger quantity of water than do the cultivated or hoed crops. This subjec5l of cultivation, as well as that pertaining to the fertilizing elements of irrigating waters, will be treated in succeed- ing chapters. Addition of Silt. — In most irrigated countries, and especially in the Rocky Mountain region, the principal irrigation of crops is done in the spring or early summer. At this time the water is usually filled with some sediment or silt, which is loosened through erosion by the rapid melting of snow at the higher ele- vations, and the rush of water to the various rivers from which canals for irrigation are taken out. This sediment is of especial value to land in most instances if the water is properly or evenly applied. When water is condu(5led to the surface by gentle flooding it runs slowly and allows the sediment to settle on the land in greater quantities and more evenly than by any other means, thus giving greater produdliveness to the land. This f a<5l is especially shown by the enormous and con- tinued produc5livity of the soil on the banks of the Nile, THE RELATION OF SOILS TO IRRIGATION. 33 which are flooded by the annual overflow, leaving a large deposit of sediment. If the soil is of such texture that it will bake when water is applied to the surface, or the slope should be too great, furrows are made with a roller or furrower at such an angle to the slope of the land as to give the water the proper fall to prevent erosion of the surface soil and to facilitate the deposition of the sediment. By these methods the soil is enriched annually with little or no additional expense, and the crops are in- creased accordingly. Care should be taken, however, lest the crop be irrigated too freely in the early spring while the water is cold. The soil is thus likely to become chilled, which at least retards the growth of crops. Under such circumstances a farmer may think the soil is thiii and poor, but this deduction results merely from lack of experience. I^arge amounts of fertilizing material thus natur- ally find their way to the soil in the water used, tending to counteradl the drain on the land due to the removal of crops. As a result of a five- month study of the water of the Rio Grande, a stream which carries exces- sive quantities of silt, it was estimated that in using one acre-foot of the muddy water in irrigating, 955 pounds of potassium sulphate, fifty-eight pounds of phosphoric acid, and fifty-three pounds of nitrogen were added to each acre. A thirty-bushel crop of wheat usually removes twenty-eight pounds of potash, twenty-three pounds of phosphoric acid, and forty-five pounds of nitrogen. It is also true that considerably more than one foot of water is generally applied to the land each year in irrigating. It would seem to be 34 IRRIGATION FARMING. Utterly impossible to exhaust the soil irrigated with such water. Aside from this there is the humus com- ing in the form of leaf mold and decayed vegetable matter, which is considered the most valuable element of all in improving the natural soils of the west. Manure on Irrigated Soil. — After being assured that a great surplus of fertilizing ingredients is yearly deposited on the land by the irrigating waters, the reader might conclude that the application of barn-yard manure would be quite superfluous. It has, however, been conclusively proven in pra<5lice that even in the case of wheat, which may remove only half the nitrogen yearly deposited by some rivers, the crop is very considerably increased when the land receives a moderate dressing of barn-yard manure every three or four years, while it is often impossible to successfully raise vegetables unless barn-yard manure is freely em- ployed. It is claimed by some that these good effec5ls are due to the improved mechanical condition of the soil and its increased power for holding moisture, and doubtless these fadls may have something to do with the result, but it is probable that the real explanation is to be found in the action of soil ferments. Nitrogen may exist in the soil even in excess and yet not be in a form available for plants to feed upon. The same may be said of other fertilizers. It has been demonstrated that nitrogen in the soil is reduced to nitric acid by meians of living bacteria, which are multiplied by fermentation, and this occurs most rapidly in decomposing barn-yard manure. How bacteria perform this useful work is not fully under- stood, but it has long been noticed that a dressing of THK RELATION OF SOILS TO IRRIGATION. 35 barn-yard manure produces fertilizing results much greater than could be expec5led from the quantity of plant food contained therein. Chemical analysis often discovers quantities of plant food in the soil which seem amply sufficient to produce remunerative crops and yet the soil is pradlically poor. It would thus seem that nitrogen may exist in the soil in an inert form in large quantities and not be available for plant food until subje(5l to the decomposing effec5ts of bac- teria. It has also been found that these ba(5leria mul- tiply and work most actively quite near the surface of irrigated soil. This accounts for a phenomenon fre- quently experienced in various irrigated distridls. Where it has been necessary to scrape off the surface of the soil in order to make it level enough to irrigate, the land so scraped remains comparatively infertile for a number of years. It is advisable to apply barn-yard manure to irrigated soils by means of a manure spreader so as to break up all large lumps. If these are placed in the dry soil in their entirety they become fang-burned and prove a great detriment to the suc- ceeding crop, and it may require several seasons of excessive irrigation to disintegrate and render them available. To secure best results from manure it must be well incorporated in the soil by plowing under or harrowing in. CHAPTER IV. THE TREATMENT OF ALKALI. 'TT^ o THE average western farmer alkali is the ^ * I greatest bugbear with which he has to con- ^^iil tend in his tillage operations. The soils of the older eastern states are not troubled in this way, and are too often deficient in alkaline salts, for no soil is productive when these ingredients are entirely lacking. Chemically considered, alkali is one of a class of caustic bases — soda, potash, ammonia, and lithia — the distinguishing peculiarities of which are solubility in alcohol and water, the power of uniting with oils and fats to form soap, neutralizing, reddening several yellows, and changing reddened litmus to blue. Fixed alkalies are potash and soda. Vegetable alka- lies are known as alkaloids, and volatile alkalies are composed largely of ammonia, so called in distindlion to fixed alkalies. The principal compounds or salts of the alkalies with which soil is impregnated are Glau- ber's salts or sulphate of soda, washing soda or car- bonate of soda, and common salt. In much smaller proportions are found sulphate of potash, phosphate of soda, nitrate of soda, saltpeter, and even carbonate of ammonia. A majority of the last five are recog- nized fertilizers. The most injurious of the three principal salts is the carbonate of soda. Its property of combining with vegetable mold, otherwise known 36 THE TREATMENT OF ALKALI. 37 as humus, and forming with it, when dry, a black compound, has given the name of black alkali lands to those of which it is the principal saline constituent. In time of drouth these can readily be distinguished by the dark rings left on the margin of the dried-up puddles. As Glauber's salt and common salt do not possess this property, the soils impregnated with them remain chiefly white and are known as white alkali lands. Formation of Alkali Salts. — Alkali is a natural element of the earth, the same as other minerals. When the rocks on the mountains pulverize and the sediments wash down on the plains, they bring the alkali along and deposit it in the soil. The same alkali salts are formed everywhere in the world, but in countries having abundant rainfall they currently wash through the soil into natural drainage, while in regions where rainfall is deficient, the scant moisture carries them down only a little way into the soil, from which they rise to the surface by the evaporation of water, and are thus accumulated at or near the top of the soil. It is right there that nearly all the damage is done. The water in the depths of the soil is rarely strongly enough impregnated to hurt the roots of plants diredlly. The alkali is all through the soil, but is usually worse within a few inches of the surface. It rises to the surface with each wetting of the ground, in the same manner as a wick. Different wicks will raise water or coal oil to different hights, according as they are closely woven or loose, like candle wicking. The close wick will raise the fluid higher in the end, but it will raise to the highest point more slowly than 38 IRRIGATION FARMING. with the loose wicking. Just so in the soils. The close ones will raise the soil water from a greater depth than will the loose, sandy ones, but the latter will bring it up quicker to the full hight to which it can rise. Soils Containing Alkali. — Alkali is always worse in clay soils than in sandy ones. This is because it rises to the surface from a greater depth. In the arid country the rains often wet the vSoil only a few inches deep, and the alkali forms at the bottom of the moist- ure and makes hard cakes called hard-pan — for hard- pan is only a soil full of alkali packed hard. We rarely come in contadl with alkali in sandy soil, and if it should prevail in such soils it would do no special harm. The adlion of the weather for ages has caused it to leach out as rapidly as it formed. The vineyards of the Hacienda de los Homos, in Cohahuila, Mexico, are planted in stiff adobe soil which by the alkaline efflorescence has become as white as paper. A vineyard which has existed for several years is marvelously vigorous, and there is no appear- ance that this condition will change. At Viesca, Co- hahuila, the clay soil of the public square seems as if it were covered with snow. It produces, nevertheless, magnificent trees and rose-bushes. From this it would seem that the relation of alkali to soils is often misun- derstood, and is considered more injurious than it really is to the growth of vines, shrubbery, and trees. Effects of Alkali. — There are, however, many tender garden and field crops that are badly injured even -by the white alkalies that we have seen under such peculiar conditions in Mexico. While the corro- THE TREATMENT OF ALKALI. 39 sive a(5lion exerted by the alkali salts upon the root crowns and upper roots of plants is the most common source of injury, there is another kind of damage which manifests itself, "mainly in the heavier class of soils thus affli(5led, when the soluble salts consist largely of carbonates of soda and potash. This is the great difficulty, or almost impossibility, of producing a condition of true tilth, in consequence of the now well- known tendency of alkaline solutions to maintain all true clay in the most impalpably divided or tamped condition, that of well- worked potter's clay, instead of the flocculent condition it assumes in a well-tilled soil. Waters Carrying Alkali. — There are some classes of water which it is not advisable to use for purposes of irrigation. Thus it was at one time pro- posed to use the waters of Kern and Tulare lakes in California for irrigation, but careful investigation showed that these waters were strongly alkaline and that their continued use would deposit on the surface a sufficient coating of salt to render the lands sterile. The beds of these lakes are coated with a deep stratum of alkali. Similarly some artesian waters, and even the waters from some flowing streams, like the Salt Creek in Southern Arizona, for instance, would result in the produdlion of alkali. Alkali is chiefly the result of defedlive irrigation by permitting evaporation of sub-surface water, thereby leaving alkali on the surface ; but the largest propor- tion of damage is brought about by the rise of the sub- surface water-level by lateral soaking from high-line canals, and the trouble is greatly aggravated and ex- tended by the extravagant use of water. 40 IRRIGATION FARMING. In irrigating light soils very small streams of water should be used ; otherwise, if the drainage is good there is danger of washing out the soluble fertilizing elements, leaving only the coarse mineral constituents, and rendering the soil less fertile and produc5live. This precaution is especially necessary when using the clear, pure water from springs or artesian wells, which car- ries ordinarily little of the rich fertilizing sediment characfleristic of streams which flow for long distances through alluvial regions. In the employment of the latter, if well charged with sediment, the use of a large irrigating head is frequently advantageous, as it gives an opportunity for a uniform settlement of the sedi- ment while the water is entering the soil. Remedies for Alkali. — The remedies for the im- provement of soils surcharged with the neutral alka- line salts, the texture of which is very compadl and ad- hesive, are thorough tillage, the leaching out of the alkali by irrigations combined with either natural or artificial drainage, and frequent irrigation of the soil, assuring the intermixture of the surface deposit of alkali with the lower strata of soil, and thus diluting it and partially neutralizing its injurious presence. As shown in the preceding chapter, cultivation also checks evaporation, and hence currently lessens the deposits of alkali on the surface. A loose, dry top soil adls as a cushion of earth and air, intercepting the continuity of the upward passage of moisture along the lower plane of cultivation. The writer has more recently been asked by a num- ber of correspondents to give an opinion regarding the suitability of stable manure and other fertilizers as I^HE TREATMENT OI^ ALKALI. 41 absorbents of the alkaline salts. Under the impression that alkali land is poor in plant-food, many farmers have tried such methods with varying degrees of suc- cess. As a rule, these applications are not only use- less but even harmful. From their very mode of formation, alkali soils are exceptionally rich in plant- food, so that the addition of more can do no good. In case stable manure is used on black alkali ground, a pungent odor of ammonia is given off whenever the sun shines, and plants otherwise doing well are thus injured or killed. When well plowed in, stable manure will often prevent to some extent the rise of alkali by diminishing evaporation, but its usefulness in that respe(5l is readily replaced by good tillage. The main benefit obtained is the addition of humus to soils that have been whitened by alkali adlion. Potash salts, especially kainit, are wholly useless and add to the alkali trouble. Potash is always abun- dantly present in alkali lands, even in the water-soluble condition. Nitrates also are always present in alkali soils in sufficient amounts for plant growth and some- times in excess. Phosphates may be useful, but will rarely be needed for some years. Green manuring, on the other hand, is a very desirable improvement on all alkali lands, and for this purpose such crops as alfalfa, alsike, pea-vines, salt-bush, and soy-beans, or even buckwheat, can be utilized. Of all grain crops for while or black alkali land there is nothing so good as barley, with rye next in order and then oats, wheat being most unsuited of all. We have never .tried the new Russian grain speltz, but believe from its habit of growth that it will stand close to barley as an alkali 42 IRRIGATION FARMING. tolerant. In the semi-tropic regions, where frosts are not severe, the imported Australian salt-bush, botani- cally known as A triplex semibaccata, has proven emi- nently satisfac5lory as a resistant, at the same time proving a desirable browsing forage for live stock. The Flooding System. — The most effe<5live means of getting rid of ordinary white alkali is by washing it out of the land. This can be accomplished by digging open ditches at a lower level than the sur- face of the land to be treated, and carrying them to the nearest natural outlet. Then by running water over the land into the drains without allowing it to stand long enough to soak into the ground and carry the dissolved alkali with it, most of the alkaH that has accumulated at the surface will be removed. By re- peating this treatment a few times land can be prac- tically freed from alkali, unless it is exceptionally bad. Another plan is to use the blind ditcher, a machine much like the old ox plows used in Illinois and Iowa thirty years ago to make blind ditches along the prairie sloughs. This implement is calculated to run ditches from four to six inches lower than the plowed ground, every sixty or eighty feet across the tilled ground, to serve as drains. Another plan, and to our notion the most practicable one suggested, as well as the most expensive, is to underlay alkali land with vitrified sewer pipe. This will last a lifetime and will certainly get away with the alkali. In many cases the over-irrigation of bench or slope lands has caused first the lower slopes and then the bottom lands to be overrun with alkali salts, although before irrigation was pra<5liced these lands were exempt THE TREATMENT OP ALKALI. 43 from them. In some portions of the San Luis valley, in Southern Colorado and elsewhere in the west, this trouble has become most serious, fertile lands long under successful cultivation being rendered useless by- thousands of acres, unless an expensive system of under drain age is undertaken. One plan which can be' operated early in the spring, before the regular irri- gating season, has been tried quite successfully and is described in a few words : An eighty-acre tra(5t is divided into plots or rooms 8 x 32 rods by means of dikes, such as described in the Mexican border system of applying water. This should be done in the fall so that they will be solid in the vSpring. The formation in the San Luis valley is first a surface soil of two feet over two feet of clay and gravel, then eight inches of quicksand overlying the hard-pan, which is from eight to eighteen inches thick. Below this is forty feet of dry sand. As soon as the frost is out, and while water is plenty, turn a large head into an upper corner border at the supply ditch. When it is filled, open a passage into the next border, and so on until it reaches the waste ditch at the lower end of the field. In the waste ditch drill an inch hole down to the hard-pan and put in a stick of giant powder which will blow out a hole as large as a barrel. A more simple and safer method in making these escapements would be to use a post- auger. When the water, black with alkali, reaches the waste ditch it immediately runs through these holes and is lost underneath in the sand. Keep the water running as long as it is discolored. Some of the worst land in the valley has been reclaimed in this 44 IRRIGATION FARMING. way. After flooding, good judgment must be used in working the ground before it bakes. Two floodings will cure the most obstinate case and a fortnight is usually required to thoroughly flood eighty acres. Chemical Antidotes. — When the quantity of alkali is small the evil effe(5ls resulting from its pres- ence may be mitigated by the application to the soil of chemical antidotes. A cheap antidote for most alka- line salts is lime. In some cases neutral calcareous marl will answer the purpose. When the alkali con- sists of carbonates and borates, the best antidote is gypsum or land plaster. These materials should be sown broadcast over the surface and harrowed in to a moderate depth prior to irrigating. The usual amount of gypsum to apply is from 400 to 500 pounds to the acre. A California professor once became so inocu- lated with the gypsum doctrine that he applied 3,600 pounds to the acre and was satisfied that the process proved to be altogether too expensive, although it re- moved 75 per cent, of the alkali by using the gypsum in connedlion with the flooding method. Gypsum is the only cure for the disastrous black alkali so fatal to plant life. Eradication by Vegetable Growth. — It may often happen that all of the foregoing recommendations will prove ineffedlive, and to many cultivators they may be inaccessible. The most simple and natural remedy to absorb the alkaliferous elements in the soil, as has been found from the writer's own experience, is by growing them out with certain neutralizing crops. If these do not entirely eradicate alkali in one season they should be continued year after year until the THE TREATMENT OF ALKALI. 45 desired result is obtained, and during this period a rotation of the specific crops may be resorted to if so desired. Sugar-beets are no doubt the best things for this purpose, although any of the long-rooted crops will do nearly •as well. Potatoes will not answer at all. Any of the sugar-canes are beneficial, but the more gross feeders or the leguminous plants are better. Nothing is better probably than alfalfa, the great nitro- genous forage plant of the west, or its cousin esparcet, as these shade the ground, and their deep roots absorb nearly all the water and dissolved salts, while on the whole they reduce evaporation to the minimum. Other recommended crops are carrots, turnips, cab- bages, hops, pea-vines, and sowed corn. In orchard planting such trees may be set as the peach, pear, quince, apple, and prune ; and small fruits and the grape — but for the latter cuttings must not be used, and the topsoil must not be too strong with alkali. It is said that the olive will grow in the black alkali. Planting Trees in Alkali Ground. — We are fre- quently asked if there is any way to plant trees on alkali soil so that they will live. As we have said before, alkali soil packs very closely, a great deal more so than soil not impregnated with this salt. If made wet it runs together like soft mortar. If a hole is dug in alkali soil the walls will be as smooth as it is possible to conceive earth to be, showing the disposition of this soil to pack too closely for young tree life, while the tree planter may lose his labor, not even saving the holes he dug. Our experience has been, after digging the hole for the tree the usual depth and the usual way, to take a quarter of a stick of giant powder and 46 IRRIGATION FARMING. put it down a foot deeper in the bottom of the tree hole and blow up the packed earth by exploding the same; and at the bottom of the hole put a layer of pure gypsum, place the tree roots on the gypsum, take clean chaff straw, soil and gypsum, about eight pounds of the latter and half soil, and half clean straw, and fill up the hole made for the tree. Do not in this case use the top-soil to fill the hole, as would be best to do if there were no alkali. When the tree is planted, take an old fruit can, put it in the fire to spring it apart, and then place it around the body of the tree above the crown roots and at the surface of the ground, the can to be so placed that the top may come even with the ground's surface, and should be filled with gypsum. The best kind of pear trees to plant in alkali soil are Beurre Hardy, Winter Nelis, and Trout. The Bartlett does not do so well. CHAPTER V. WATER-SUPPLY. Ml N CALCULATING on engaging in an irrigation ^1^ enterprise of any kind it is well to remember ^^^1 that we must first catch our rabbit before we can cook the stew. No one should attempt irrigation without first having determined the extent and continuity of the water-supply, and where a vast amount of money will be needful in carrying out the enterprise, as in the construdlion of large works, the services of a prac5lical hydraulic engineer should be secured by all means, and his report should be rendered before entering upon the scheme. To get at the source of all water-supply, we must accept the well- recognized scientific facfl that the waters upon the earth and the clouds in the air are forever in recipro- cal motion. The waters are lifted and ascend into the heavens, the clouds are drifted away over the land and discharge their moisture upon the land, and life is supported thereby. The amount of water which is taken'out of the ocean by evaporation each year is very great. About thirty-five or thirty-six inches of water rise by evaporation from the surface of the earth annually. This rainfall on the entire earth would make a sheet as large as the surface of the earth and about three feet in depth. It would fill Lake Superior six times every year. 47 48 IRRIGATION FARMING. Evaporation and Run-Off. — When the rain falls upon the surface of the earth, a part is evaporated and carried away in the clouds, a part sinks into the soil to be slowly evaporated, and a very large part is carried away by vegetation itself. Plants drink water and transpire it into the air in very large quantities. That which is not evaporated from the earth's surface sooner or later, or transpired by plants, is gathered into the rivers; we call that which ultimately flows out to sea the * ' run-off ' ' water; and that which is evaporated and which drifts away in the air we call * * fly-off ' ' water. These are two very common, simple terms. In cal- culating the requirements of modem irrigation, the best authorities hold that the water supply for a given acre should be sufficient to cover it twenty-one inches deep during the course of an irrigating season of lOO days. Some experts place the maximum as high as twenty-four inches, which is an estimate that is certainly liberal enough. Other conditions being equal, the drier the soil the greater its absorptive powers. An ordinary rain falling upon a dry, cultivated field will be almost entirely absorbed, but if the ground is already charged with moisture nearly all the rain will run off the surface and be carried away through the ordinary drainage channels. The per cent, of the total rainfall which joins the run-off in humid climates is therefore much greater than in arid regions unless other conditions modify the results. In general, therefore, the pro- portion of the total rainfall which may be depended upon for filling reservoirs in arid and semiarid climates is much less than in humid sedlions. The rapidity of WATER-SUPPLY. 49 precipitation is an important fadlor in the calculation of the relative percentages of rainfall and run-off. A mild rain continued through many hours will give but little run-off, while the same amount falling in one- fourth or an eighth the time will give a greatly increased run-off. Unfortunately the climatic condi- tions are such in nearly all the arid portions of the world that what little rain does fall comes in the form of hard, driving storms. On the great plains of America it is by no means unusual for a two-inch rain to fall in as many hours, while instances are of yearly occurrence in which four inches or more fall within one hour. Under such conditions almost all the water runs off, except in the most sandy places. The most important of all the conditions affedling the run-off is the charadler of the ground upon which the water falls. A loose, porous soil will absorb a large portion of a rainfall, as will also a sandy surface, while a close, compadl soil sheds the greater part of it. An area composed principally of a close-grained shale, and soil resulting therefrom, which generally has a coni- pa(5l clay subsoil, has inferior absorptive properties, while one composed principally of sandstone and sand will allow but little water to run away. The flood plains of rivers frequently have little power of absorp- tion. In times of overflow a thin layer of a fine- grained sediment is deposited, which is partially cemented by an organic mucilage produced by the decomposition of mineral matter of one kind or another. This material is almost entirely impervious to water, a thin layer of it being sufficient to prevent downward percolation, no matter how sandy the soil below may 50 IRRIGATION FARMING. be. Illustrations of such conditions are found in many places along the valleys of the Arkansas, the Rio Grande, and other western streams, particularly those which rise at great elevations and have a strong velocity throughout their upper courses and a low velocity farther down stream. The Surface Supply. — We are safe in claiming four distinctive sources of water-supply, which may in turn be divided into two classes. These are the streams, natural lakes and reservoirs, underflow or phreatic waters, and the deep subterranean or artesian bksins. Of these the most pracfticable and available are the living waters of the natural streams. In the older irrigated states, where the legislators have framed laws for the appropriation of running waters, the control thereof is usually placed with an executive officer, generally called the State Engineer, who virtually has under his charge and supervision the control of the running waters. He gauges the streams, keeps a record of their flow, and doles out the canal rights in accordance with the statutes. First come, first served is the rule, and ditch charters which are granted by him are issued in consecutive numerical order, until the full carrying capacity of the stream is allotted, when further issuance of charters ceases. In the most successful irrigating watercourses taken from the perennial streams, the headworks are almost invarialy located well up on the river, to command sufficient level in order, if possible, to tap the. stream where the water is clear and not laden with silt. By thus locating the intake it is usually possible, owing to the greater slope of the country, to reach the high . WATER-SUPPLY. 51 lands or watersheds of the area to be irrigated with the shortest possible diversion line, or that portion of the canal's course which is necessary to bring the line to the neighborhood of the irrigable lands. This is usually expensive and unprodudlive of immediate benefit, as it does not diredlly irrigate any land. The disadvantages of locating the canal headworks high up on the streams are serious. The country having an excessive fall requires rough hillside cuttings, per- haps in rock, and the line is, moreover, intersec5fed by hillside drainage, the crossing of which entails serious difficulties. But along the great Rocky Mountain foothills this objedlion has been entirely disregarded, and the English or High-line canal flows through the rock-ribbed South Platte canon a distance of over thirty miles before it reaches the open country, where the first water is delivered to patrons. When taking out a ditch in a flat country, as is often the case, the work is much more simple and not nearly so expensive. These conditions are often observed in the prairie districts at great distances from the mountains. The other classification of surface waters is that of the catchment area or reservoir order, and is a source of supply that maybe termed artificial. Holdings of water by this plan may be obtained without resorting to the streams, by providing dams at suitable places for catching the storm or run-off freshets coming from rainfall on a vast watershed lying back of and at an elevation above the reservoir site itself. In seledfing such sites, however, two or three cautions must be observed. In no case should the water be stored in main channels. Suppose there is a ravine running 52 IRRIGATION FARMING. down, with side ravines cutting into it and with many laterals, and with a tra<5l of five or ten square miles above, which a(5ls as a catchment area for waters which run down in flood or storm times. Now, if we attempt to catch the waters in the main channel, the works must be strong enough to hold and control all the water which may ever flow there. The great storms w;ll only come once in a while, say five, ten, twenty, thirty or forty years apart, but when they come they will sweep everything before them, unless enormous works are constru<5led which are unnecessary to hold the waters of ordinary years. In taking water from streams build cheap diverting dams, with a few sand-bags or something of that sort, to keep the water back and turn it out into a side channel. It is the result of experience in Mexico, Spain, and India that the storm waters, when stored, must be impounded in the lateral basins. Mud and Silt in Reservoirs. — There is another difficulty about the storage of storm waters which can be avoided by the plan suggested. Storm waters are always more or less impregnated with mud, and if these roily waters are stored in the main channels the reservoirs will soon fill up and destroy the catchment by the mud and silt, brought down from above, accu- mulating in the bed ; but if the water is diverted into a lateral or supply channel, the flow can be checked, by methods which are well known, so as to deposit the mud and silt largely, and carry the purer waters around into the reservoir. These conditions must be carefully observed if success is to be attained in the storage of storm waters. Experience shows that it is WAYER-SUPl>tY. 53 more economic, and that a greater area of the world is irrigated by the storage of storm waters than is irri- gated by well waters. Storm waters are very rich, carrying with them many elements of fertilization, and are very valuable. Underflow, Phreatic and Artesian.— These are all definitions of subterranean waters. Underflow waters may consist of either the phreatic — those waters underneath that have come from the surface — or the artesian, which are almost invariably deep- founded, and owe their depth to the earth's stratifications, through which they have percolated from higher sources, either open or hidden, and generally in either case at great distances from the artesian channel proper. These waters are necessarily not nearly so available as the more readily attained surface supplies, and are to be developed only in urgent cases and in the places where a surface supply is not accessible. Underflow waters are sometimes brought to the surface by the gravity process. This is possible in the sandy beds of many western streams a greater portion of the year. Phreatic waters usually abound within loo feet of the surface and are raised chiefly by pumps, while the deep artesians have an invisible power, which forces the water to the top in ever-flowing streams. I^ater chap- ters in this work will bear upon these subterranean waters more fully. Tunneling for Water. — In California where fruit crops form the main agricultural pursuits, the rather expensive plan of tunneling the high mountains for water supply has been successfully carried out in many places. The work has been done mostly by organized 54 IRRIGATION FARMING. companies with plenty of capital, the obje(5l being to make salable the adjacent tradls of foothill lands, which for several reasons are best adapted to fruit culture. These tunnels are opened by means of diamond drills operated with the power of compressed air supplied by an air-pump, at the opening of the drift. As a rule the tunnels are less than looo feet in length, and are run in vsuch way as to tap the various shelving strati- fications of formation, which carry more or less quanti- ties of pure water seeking its level from the higher mountains. The plan is pra(5licable in supplying a satisfactory head of water to fill an ordinary ditch, but before such a heavy undertaking is commenced the ser- vices of a geologist or hydraulic engineer should be called to determine the nature of the mountain's inte- rior, especially as to the amount of water it may con- tain. There is no use of going to the expense of run- ning an adit until the hidden water supply is fairly well approximated. All mountains do not contain water, and this fa<5l is very essential in undertaking such an enterprise as described. The Newsom System. — A simple gravity system for tapping the underflow of hillsides or dry streams with considerable pitch has been invented and patented by Prof. Eli Newsom, and a sample plant is in success- ful operation near Parker, Colorado, twenty miles south of Denver. This system gives a constant flow of water, much as described under the foregoing caption on tun- neling, but the plan is necessarily much cheaper, and with a sufficient supply of water it ought to be able to irrigate from twenty to forty acres quite readily. Pro- fessor Newsom 's device consists of an artificial reser- WATER-SUPPLY. 55 voir or fountainhead from which radiate a number of colle<5ling tubes. From the fountainhead outward through a trench or tunnel extends a discharge pipe to the surface of the ground below the normal water-level. This pipe has an enlarged head with a strainer, and the whole idea is quite clearly elucidated in Fig. 6, shown FIG. 6 — THE NEWSOM SYSTEM OF WATER-SUPPLY. herewith. By this plan underground waters gathered in a well within reasonable distance of the surface and situated higher than the land to be irrigated can be easily diverted and applied in a never-failing supply. In winter the water can be diverted through a waste way or can be reservoired wherever desired. Water Witchery. — Ever since the writer can remember he has been conversant with the methods of certain men who claim to possess the occult power of 56 IRRIGATION FARMING. locating a stratum or underflow of water by means of a forked stick, held in such a way that it is expec5led to dip at a point over the underlying waters as the operator passes along on the surface. This is called *' water witchery," and is at best a very problematical pradlice, scarcely worth the time that one might devote to it, and certainly not always worth the fees that may be charged. The way to put a water locator of this sort to a practical test is to place stakes at the points where his forked willow may show the downward ten- dency, indicative, as he will say, of the water under- neath. L,et several stakes be driven at different points. Then blindfold the water prospector, lead him around in a circle several times, and if his magic wand will repeat the dipping a<5lions as before, and the two sets of stakes agree, some dependence may then be placed in the operation, but the test will be more apt to fail and the deception will at once be apparent. CHAPTER VI. CANAL CONSTRUCTION. WATER is king, and the most important adjunc5l ._ to the greater requirements of irrigation is a ^^1 good canal system. The gravity supply of water is by all odds the best that can be employed, and the farmer who has a good ditch in per- fedl working order may consider that he has a fortune lying at his threshold. In laying out a system of ditches for a farm, use care and time. Think it over well, and it may be economy to employ a hydraulic engineer to run levels and determine grades. No large canal system should be undertaken without consulting an expert engineer. Each farm to a certain extent requires a ditch system adapted to its peculiar topog- raphy, soil, and crops. See to it that the water can get off the land as well as on it. Remember at all times that drainage is quite as necessary to successful irriga- tion as the water-supply itself. The matter of grade for a ditch is one which depends so much upon circum- stances as almost to preclude rules. It is safe, how- ever, to make the grades as light as possible to avoid ' ' silting up " or settling. Cutting may be called per- petual motion, for if once begun it seems never to stop. The ditch gradually gets lower and lower until the water cannot be got out of it at all, and it must either be abandoned or have falls built in it to keep the flow 57 58 IRRIGATION FARMING. near the surface. As far as possible keep the grade uniform, as changing the grade tends to cause both cutting and silting. A ditch for irrigation on a farm should always be much larger than the a<5lual demands require. In Spain their hundreds of years' experience has taught them to make their ditches very large. They could thus irrigate their lands quickly and be done with it. The ditches were far less likely to break and could be easily crossed by wagons or farm imple- ments. During sudden showers they could carry oif the drainage water from immediately above them and thus avoid many a washout. Laying Out.— The laying out of ditches is the province of the engineer or surveyor, although the more intelligent farmers may do much of their own work and thus save considerable expense. Something of a knowledge of leveling must be had in order to do the work, but sufficient may soon be acquired to per- mit of much home work being done. Every man who has much ditch building to do should have a cheap grade level and target, which should not exceed $25 in cost, while a very good outfit can be bought for $12. The writer has used the Jackson very satisfad:orily. This instrument is shown in Fig. 7, while the target or flag is given in Fig. 8. If but little work is to be done a carpenter's com- mon spirit-level fastened onto a sixteen-foot strip of board will answer very well. Instru(5lions for running grades are sent with each instrument. The first opera- tion is to begin at the selected head and take a series of long sight levels down the course of the river to ascertain its approximate fall. These levels should be CANAL CONSTRUCTION. 59 taken with two rods to save time, the locator making a sketch and estimating roughly his distance at the same time. Having gone down the river far enough to satisfy himself as to its fall, he turns at right angles as nearly as may be and continues to level hillward across the valley until he records the elevation assumed as the head of the works. He will now be able to fix FIG. 7 — THE JACKSON LEVEL. the location of any chosen grade upon the line of his cross levels according to his estimated distance, and is therefore also in a position to estimate approximately the rate of his grade. He knows from his sketch and estimated distance what area of the valley is behind him on the up-stream side bounded by the river, by the canal, and by the line of his cross levels. The next operation is to turn again at right angle and continue leveling down the valley more or less upon 6o IRRIGATION FARMING. the line of the canal, still approximating the distance and going up or down if he thinks it worth while or necessary to re<5lif y position from time to time, according to the distance estimated and the grade assumed. Having gone as far as it is intended to build the canal, he should turn at right angles across the valley back to the river and take his last line of levels. Throughout the operations described, as many good bench marks as possible should be established for future reference. The taking of these levels being done, he should finish his track survey j_. of the river-bank up the stream to the point at 3 which his first line of cross levels originated. ^^ Having established the objedlive point in this way, the matter of running the transit to the target and placing the grade stakes is very simple, and any schoolboy ought to be able to locate the grade line corredlly. In case a surveyor is not engaged and the spirit-level is to be employed the procedure is very simple. Take a pine plank two by six I inches by sixteen and a half feet, surfaced on all sides, the edges of which should be reduced to a true, straight edge. Exa(5lly midway of the stick, on one edge, fasten a carpenter's spirit-level with such accuracy that when the plank is set on edge on a level surface the in- =1 FIG. 8. TARGET. .,,.,. ^ 1 ATA 1 strument will mdicate a level. To locate a ditch with a fall of one-fourth of an inch to the rod, attach at the extreme end of the plank, on the opposite edge to the level, a block of wood one-fourth of an inch CANAL CONSTRUCTION. 6 1 thick. Beginning at the highest point on the land to which the water is to be condu(5led, drive a stake so that its top will be six inches above the surface of the earth. On the top of this stake place the end of the straight- edge to which the quarter-inch block is fastened, the block resting on the stake. Drive the next stake one rod from the first stake, toward the source of the stream, at such a point that the second stake is driven so as to project six inches above the surface of the earth. With the straight-edge resting on both stakes the spirit will thus indicate a true level. Obviously a ditch dug between these two stakes, at a uniform depth below the top of each stake, will be one- fourth of an inch deeper at the lower end. Proceed thus until the top of the last stake is six inches above the surface of the water in the stream. Be careful not to reverse ends of the straight-edge level, but keep the end to which the block is fastened down-stream. The line indicated by the stakes is the ditch line, and the bot- tom of the ditch should be at a uniform distance below the top of each stake. These instrucftions are only available in small work, such as an ordinary farmer might require in an individual way, and cannot apply to the work of excavating a great canal, which should be surveyed in the scientific manner. Ditching Methods. — With regard to excavation and costs, the smaller ditches may be constru(5led by hand shoveling, by plowing, and by scraping, or by plowing with a large double-mold-board plow ; the larger ditches by plowing and scraping, or by grading or ditching machines. Hand-work is of course most expensive, but it will be necessary in some places. 62 IRRIGATION FARMING. Some plowed ditches are the cheapest, but they are only temporary, and in the end more expensive. Scrapers will cover the greatest range of work and will fairly represent the average cost. The modern thing in scrapers is the wheeled affair. Work done with ditching machines is very satisfactory and far cheaper than any other work. Not every farmer can afford to buy a machine to do his own work alone, but when farmers become associated in the putting down of wells and the construdlion of reservoirs and ditches, then it will pay to buy machines, for on a large piece of work they will soon pay their cost. Cost of Construction. — Classifying irrigating canals and ditches according to their widths, it has been found that for those averaging less than five feet in width the expense of constru(5lion, includ- ing head works, flumes, etc., is $481 a mile ; for those five feet in width and under ten feet, $1,628 a mile, and for those ten feet or more in width $5,603 a mile. The greater number of the irrigating systems of the country have been construdled under such conditions that the owners cannot give even an approximate esti- mate as to what they really cost. Many of them have been built by the efforts of a few farmers a(5ling origi- nally in partnership, and have been enlarged from year to year as more land was brought under cultiva- tion and population increased. Farmers, as a rule, do not keep account of the amount of labor or money expended on such works, and in cases where they own the irrigating ditches they do not take into considera- tion the labor expended upon the ditches at times when the farm work is not pressing. When contra<5lors figure CANAL CONSTRUCTION. 63 on the cost of building a canal exclusive of the rock work they usually calculate the expense of excavating at from ten to fifteen cents a cubic yard of earth removed. The a<5lual cost of this work has of later years been reduced, by means of the big grading ma- chines, to the minimum of three or four cents a cubic yard. In arriving at the cost of canal construdlion in various parts of the west the government officials have compiled the following tabulated computation : average; cost per mii,e of constructing irrigating CANAI.S and ditches STATES AND TERRITORIES Under 5 feet in zvidth 5 to 10 feet in width 10 feet and over in width General average . . . Arizona California . Colorado Idaho Montana Nevada New Mexico $481 471 885 380 205 325 200 310 260 493 285 ■363' $1,628 1,674 5,957 1,131 810 800 1,150 581 1,060 1,025 1,236 837 447 $5,603 5,274 15,511 5,258 1,320 2,300 6,666 1,300 Utah Washington Wyoming Sub-humid region .... 3,072 2,571 3,884 1,884 Since the foregoing estimates were made up and following the publication of this book in 1895, the cost of ditch work has decreased very materially, so that future estimates must be on a much lower scale. For instance, on ordinary ditches the large-sized drag- scrapers will deliver one-sixth of a cubic yard in one load. With good teams and proper management, one yard every six minutes, or ninety yards a day, can be removed. In scraper work the cost of excavating 64 IRRIGATION FARMING. ninety cubic yards would be $4. 1 2, or 4.6 cents a cubic yard. In handling sod four-horse plows are necessary to break the surface. This material is very difficult to handle, and the increased expense and small output brings the cost up to five or more cents a cubic yard. In heavy gumbo or cemented gravel, if plowable at all, the cost of scraper work is generally increased to as high as eight or even ten cents a cubic yard. As before stated, in making canals the recently perfec5led graders are more desirable than scrapers. These machines consist of a plow which breaks up the surface, raises the soil and throws it on an elevator, which delivers it at the side of the ditch. The great amount of turn- ing is avoided and the work is more rapidly done. Dry sand is the most difficult material in operating thCvSe graders, for, lacking adhesion, it does not rise readily upon the mold-board of the plow and fall upon the carrier. Experts, however, handle large quantities in a day, and find the cost considerably less than removing the same amount with scrapers. Fine dis- integrated rock is equally as difficult to handle as sand. Wet sand is more readily removed, as it holds together better. These graders do good work in sod. In moist clay or loam additional horse-power is necessary. The same is true in adobe and gravel soils, but as the machines are strong enough to stand a strain of twenty- four horses, work can be done which is impossible un- der any other method. The foregoing estimates cover ditches ranging from 2 feet wide at bottom, 8 feet at top, and 2 feet deep, to 16 feet wide at bottom, 32 feet at top, and 4^ feet deep. I^arger ditches can be built with the graders at CANAL CONSTRUCTION. 65 slightly increased cost, for they can then be used as wagon loaders, and the earth hauled to any devsired point. A large ditch i8 feet wide at bottom, 30 feet at top, 4 feet in depth, with a four-foot additional em- bankment, with a capacity of 6 feet in depth, 36 feet at surface, and 18 feet at bottom, having a cross-sec- tion of 162 square feet, with a current of two miles an •hour, would, in twenty-four hours deliver sufficient water to cover 940 acres i foot deep. A mile of such a ditch could be built by three men with six teams in eighteen days at a cost of about $400. By ordinary methods such a ditch would cost several times this amount. A ditch 8 feet at bottom, 20 feet at top, and 3 feet deep would cost approximately $200 a mile. A lateral 4 feet at bottom, 12 feet at top, and 2^ feet deep, carrying 3^ feet in depth of water, can be built at from $75 to $100 a mile, and a small ditch 2 feet on bottom, 8 feet at top, and 2 feet deep, can be con- stru(5led with these graders for about $50 a mile. These figures have been calculated somewhat lower by the manufacturers of ditching machines, but we be- lieve the estimates made herein are more conservatively correal than those of the makers. Form and Capacity. — To get the greatest possi- ble velocity the ditch should be in the form of half a pipe or a pipe split in half lengthwise. This would re- quire the width of the ditch at the top to be exactly twice its depth in the center. In other words, it would be as wide at the top as the length of the diameter of the pipe, and one-half diameter deep from the center to any point of the sides or bottom. A ditch of this form offers less fri<5lion surface in proportion to its 66 IRRIGATION INARMING. cross-se<5lional area than any other form, and also keeps the depth of the water in the ditch nearly half its width. The diameter of a pipe we will say is 4 feet. Its circumference would be, therefore, 3. 14 16 multiplied by 4, equal to 12.5664 feet; when it is halved lengthwise half the circumference would equal 6.2832 feet. To get the greatest velocity and quantity of water to flow in a recftangular canal it should be of such form as to cause the water in it to flow exactly one-half as deep as wide, because the velocity of flow in such a canal is proportional to the square root of the hydraulic mean depth, and the hydraulic mean depth is at its maximum when the breadth of the water is just twice its depth. Fanning says that the variation of velocity, with varying depth, is nearly as the variation of the square root of the hydraulic mean depth. Grades and Slopes. — The grade is one of the important things to be considered in canal construc5lion. Ditches running from twenty to over one hundred miles have widths from twenty to eighty feet, some being built with and some without bermes — the grades rang- ing from one foot to seven feet a mile. The steeper grades are not common and are for short distances only. The average grades for main ditches, carrying from two to six feet of water, are from one and one-half to two and three-fourths feet a mile. Such low grades will answer only for the larger ditches carrying large volumes of water, and where the ratio of volume to resistance or fridlion on the sides is large. In smaller distributing ditches, where the volume is smaller and the resistance proportionately much greater, a steeper CANAL CONSTRUCTION. 67 grade must be allowed. The location of the well or reservoir on or near the highest point fixes the point of radiation of the ditches, their lines being located according to the grades secured and the lay of the land to be served. The aim will always be to keep the FIG 9 — DROP AND REDUCTION BOX. water up as high as possible, for it is useless to sacri- fice grade or make a ditch run at a greater grade than is necessary. It is an easy matter to let the water down, but a difficult thing to raise it. A method for dropping the grade of a ditch when the pitch becomes too great is shown in Fig. 9. This 68 IRRIGATION FARMING. is a drop box for the fall and is often made a reduction box as well. It is useful in places where the water- supply is lessened by serving customers farther up the line, or when the volume of water becomes less from any other cause. Another plan is the use of the inclined flume. By keeping the water grades up, a broader area is kept within the range of service. Grades of from two to five feet a mile will be ample to secure good delivery from the smaller main ditches, while the laterals will require steeper grades, which in many cases may be confined to the approximate level of the field, except on hillsides or quite abrupt slopes, in which case the grades will be carried around the slope as contours. As to side slopes, the usual ratio is one to one in cuts of common material, with sometimes one-half to one in harder material and one-fourth to one in rock. For outside slopes of embankments the usual ratio is one and one-half to one, and for inside slopes of banks usually two to one, except in crossing ravines with the bank, when the inner slope may be two and one-half or three to one, owing to the depth of bank below the grade line. In a flat country where the bottom of the canal is kept as near the natural surface as possible, • and embankments are built on both sides, the side slopes may be as flat as three to one from the bottom of the cut to the bank without any berme. Many fair- sized canals even up to twelve or sixteen feet wide, and carrying three or four feet of water, have been made without any berme and seem to have stood well. Curves and Friction. — The more earth surface and the greater number of bends the water comes in 70 IRRIGATION INARMING. contadl with in flowing in a ditch, the greater the fric- tion will be and the less the velocity and quantity of water. Therefore to obtain the greatest velocity and quantity of water the ditch should be as straight as possible. If bends are necessary they should not be abrupt, but as gradual as possible. A very good exam- ple of an easy curve is shown in Fig. lo. For a steady flow the grade should be the same the entire length of the ditch, or as nearly so as circum- stances will permit. The sides and bottom should be regular and smooth, and clear of stones, weeds, etc. The weak spot in every canal is most apt to be found at the curves and angles, and these must be prote<5led. Where, as is the case in some sedlions, there is plenty of stone, the water-line at the curves may be partially protedled by riprapping, but this involves a large amount of labor. Where there are no stones other means must be used. Willows are oftentimes planted to give bank protection . Where gravel may be had a shore line may be covered with it, thus forming a natural water-break. In some cases it may be best to constru(5l a breakwater of plank sharpened and driven into the bank, or laid to posts set in the bank. The steeper the bank the greater, of course, will be the dis- placement of the earth by water's adlion. In Fig. ii is seen a canal on the hillside. Headgates. — The best mechanical effort in build- ing a canal should be expended on the headgate. This should be located within a few hundred feet of the intake at the river with a fore bay of only moderate grade intervening. The old-fashioned headgates were built of lumber and were not usually sufficient to with- CANAL CONSTRUCTION. 71 stand the tearing force of freshets in the stream. Iron gates came later and were fairly successful in with- standing the attacks of storms, but they often caused more serious damage to the lower bank of the fore bay FIG. II — CANAL ON A HILLSIDE. and oftentimes led to its entire destrudlion. The gate should be placed at a point convenient to discharge water back to the river through the waste and sand gates. The use of piling is necessary in soft ground, although some builders continue to put in mudsills and depend upon stone anchorage to keep the stru6ture in place. The writer would advise wings to be put in on 72 IRRIGATION FARMING. each side of the gates, where there is no rock in place, and these wings should extend in either direcftion and especially on the lower side, if the surface of the land be flat for a distance of from fifty to one hundred feet. We have often seen headworks left standing alone in the middle of a torrent of water after a heavy storm, and have noted that the damage of the washout might have been averted had wings of piling or masonry been put in. The superstrudlure should be built of heavy timber and provided with a windlass. It is a good plan for large canals to have the gates arranged in stalls, each working independent of the other. A gate of modern constru<5lion is shown in Fig. 12, the lower end in view with water passing through. It fortu- nately is anchored in rock walls and is not supposed to wash out, nor does it need the protedlion of wing pilings. In Scott's Bluff county, Nebraska, the Nine Mile canal has its headgate 900 feet below the intake, which is at a seepage basin formed by damming up a channel in a river at the side of an island. The dam is located above the mouth of the canal, while the channel or basin is left open with the idea that the backwater from the river will flow in at the lower end of the island, and in this way there will be but little sand with which to contend. The plan has many features to recommend it, but it could be adopted only in the situations favorably located as to the island and with a moderate fall of the stream at the desired point. The Drop-Head. — The later pra(5lice with many of the best engineers in locating the intake of canals is to provide the drop-head instead of the old-fashioned CANAL CONSTRUCTION. 73 diversion dam. This system was worked out on the theory that it is useless to undertake the expense of raising water above its natural level in order to divert it from the bed of the stream, for it is more simple to FIG. 12 — HEADGATE OF A CANAL have it flow out by its own gravity and volition. To do this a gallery is opened alongside and parallel with the stream, and the water is thus allowed to flow over and into it. This gallery is the real intake of the canal and is built of heavy planking with double floor, laid on mudsills set in concrete, so as to remain firm and fast. The river side of the gallery is faced with an apron, over which the water flows into the gallery, the floor of which is a foot or so lower than the bed of the 74 IRRIGATION FARMING. stream. The head gate is located a short distance lower down the canal, as in the case of bulkheads. FIG. 13 — TOP SECTIONAL VIEW OF LAND S SAND GATE. m FIG. 14 — SIDE VIEW OF SAND GATE I „ H .. I 1 FIG. 15 — FRONT VIEW OF SAND GATE. Sand Gates. — Quite as essential as the main gate itself is the sand gate of a canal, by means of which silt, sand or detritus may be caught and drawn off CANAl. CONS'TRUC'riON. 75 at the headworks without flowing into and filHng up the bottom of the canal proper. Many devices have been invented in the hope of diverting sand from a ditch, and the best of these no doubt is Gordon Land's sand gate, se<5lional plans of which are presented in Figs. 13, 14, and 15. In the Land Invention, the flume contains both the headgates occupying the full width, and the sand gates, which are on the lower side of the canal. There are two floors above the headgates, and the flume is set so that the upper floor is on the proper grade of the canal. Just at the flume and for a short distance above, the bottom of the canal is about two feet below the grade. The sand gates, which may vary in number, according to the width of the canal, are on the lower side, and each of these gates is connedted with the canal by a separate channel until it reaches the side nearest to the discharge. These channels are curved and properly fitted. Each one of these forms a: sepa- rate funnel, and the gates are kept constantly raised because, as in the case of nearly all canals, the natural stream under riparian rights is entitled to the flow of some of its full tide at least. The sand is pulled from the far side of the canal, which is the chief advantage. The planks forming the sand funnels are set edgewise and thus support the floor of the main watercourse above. Waste Gates. — The safety-valve of a canal is its waste gate, and there are many styles in use. That which we will describe herewith is known as Nelson's automatic waste gate, and is described as follows, as well as shown by se is a level from the bottom of the notch {B) to the top of the stake (^), while the dotted line C represents the top of the water, and the distance between the lines from the top of stake gives the true depth or spill over the weir-board. The lines in the sketch have the appearance of running over the top of the board, when in fadl they pass behind it, but for the purpose of illus- tration the reader is supposed to look through the board and the post. The surface of the water below the board should not be nearer the notch {B) than ten inches, that the flow will not be impeded. Neither should the nature of the channel above the board be such as to force or hurry the water to the board, but should be of ample width and depth to allow the water to approach the board quietly. If the water passes the channel rapidly it will be forced over the weir and a larger quantity will pass than if allowed to spill from a large body moving slowly. Weir Table. — The table on the opposite page may be of service where the delivery is such that it can be measured over a re(5langular weir, as described under the foregoing caption. To use the table, measure the depth of water in inches over the weir. From the depth so measured find in the table the miner's inches flowing for each inch of width in the weir opening. The width of the weir opening in inches multiplied by miner's inches in the table gives the miner's inches flowing over the weir. Multiply the miner's inches by .02 to obtain the cubic DUTY AND MEASUREMENT OF WATER. 155 feet a second or .04 for the acre feet a day, or by 0.5 for the acre inches a day, or by 4 for the acre feet in 100 days, or by 9 for the gallons a minute. THE CAr,IFORNlA WEIR TABI,E Depth Miner's inches .01 .04 .07 .12 .17 .22 .27 .33 .39 .46 .54 .77 .86 .95 1.04 1.13 1 22 1.32 1.42 1.52 1.63 1.74 1.86 1.97 2 08 2.19 2.31 2.43 Depth Miner's inches 2.56 2.69 2.81 2 93 3.07 3.19 333 3.47 3.61 3.75 3.89 4.03 4.18 4.32 4.47 4.62 477 4 92 5 08 5.24 5.39 5.54 5.71 5 87 6.04 6.20 6.37 6.53 6 70 6.87 Depth Miner's inches 7.04 7.22 7.40 7.58 7.76 7.93 8.12 8.30 8.48 8.67 8.86 9.05 9.23 9.42 9.62 9 81 10.00 10.19 10.39 10.59 10.99 11.39 11.80 12.22 12.65 13.06 13.50 13.94 14.38 14.82 Depth 231^ Miner's inches 15.27 15.72 16.18 16.64 17.10 17.57 18.04 18.52 19.00 19.48 19.98 20.47 20.97 21.47 22.47 23.50 24.54 25.58 26.65 27.74 28.83 29.95 31.07 32.21 33 36 34.52 35.70 36.90 38.10 Gauging Large Streams. — Frequently it is im- possible to construdl even a temporary weir on account of the large quantity of water the stream carries. Measurement must therefoi^e be made by other methods, one of the simplest of which is to ascertain the mean velocity of the stream in feet per minute. Next ascer- tain the area or cross-sedlion of the stream in square feet. Having learned these two quantities their prod- 156 IRRIGATION FARMING. u<5l will give the required amount afforded by the stream. The velocity can be CvStimated by throwing floating bodies into the stream, these bodies having nearly the same specific gravity or weight as the water. The time of their passage can be accurately rated in passing a given distance ; it must be remembered, how- ever, that the velocity is the greatest in the center of the ■ stream and near the surface, and that it is least near the bottom and sides. It is usually best to ascer- tain the velocity at the center, and from this the mean velocity can be estimated, as it has been accurately and reliably avScertained by experiments that the a(5lual mean velocity will be 83 per cent., or about four-fifths of the velocity of the surface. The cross-sedlion may be estimated by measuring the depth of the stream at a number of points at equal distances apart, the depth being measured at each of these points and all of these added together, and multiplying their sum by the dis- tance in feet between any two of the points. In driv- ing these stakes or points, the first one on each side should be half the distance from the edge of the water to the stake that any one of the other spaces will measure, the two end or half spaces together amount- ing to one whole space. Having obtained the cross- secftion of the stream in square feet, and also the mean velocity of the stream in feet per minute, the produdl of these two gives the quantity of water that the stream affords in cubic feet per minute. The Current Meter.— The current meter now so generally used to ascertain with precision the veloc- ity of currents in rivers, irrigating canals, and smaller streams gives the mean velocity of a given filament of DUTY AND MEASUREMENT OF WATER. 157 the stream of any required length. A float observa- tion gives only the velocity of a given small volume of water which surrounds the float, and as different por- tions of the small filament have very different longi- tudinal velocities, it requires a great many float obser- vations to give as valuable information as may be obtained by running a cur- rent meter in the same filament for one minute. The cur- rent meter method is the most accurate for obtaining subsurface velocities ever de- vised. The river cur- rent meter used on the geological sur- veys in the west by the United States government surveyors is the invention of J. S. J. lyallie, who manufadtures them in Denver, and is shown in Fig. 43. In order to ascertain the velocity of a stream or ditch, lock the gears in the meter and note reading at the pointers, which will be the first reading. Place the meter in the stream or ditch, and at the same instant the gears are unlocked start a stop-watch. Then the meter should be slowly moved from the top to the bot- tom of the stream at least three times. At the end of these movements the gears are locked, the watch is FIG. 43 — THE CURRENT METER. 158 IRRIGATION FARMING. Stopped and the second reading is made, and these, together with the time, noted down. The difference between the first and second reading is divided by the time, which gives the revolutions per second. The revolutions per second multiplied by the ratio will give the velocity of the stream in feet per second. In the computations the following formula is used : Total number of revolutions divided by the time equals the revolutions per second. Total distance divided by the time equals the velocity in feet per second which the meter moves through the water. Velocity in feet per second divided by the number of revolutions per second equals the ratio. The Water Register. — This is a device used in measuring the water that flows in specified currents, such as rivers, canals, or flumes. Fig. 44 gives a very good idea of its mechanism. It consists of a dial divided circumferentially into spaces corresponding to the days of the week and the hours and minutes of the day. Beginning at the cir- cumference and going toward the center of the dial it is divided into a scale of feet and inches. The dial is turned by clockwork, making one revolution in seven days. Pressing against the dial is a pen filled with a specially prepared ink which does not dry in the pen. This pen is one of two arms attached to a revolvable shaft, the other arm being in the form of a segment of a gear. This segment meshes with a small pinion secured to a shaft carrying a grooved pulley. Over the grooved pulley a cord is passed, carrying at one end a float which rests upon the water to be measured and at the other end a weight which nearly counter- DUTY AND MEASUREMENT OF WATER. 159 balances the float, keeping the cord tight. As the water rises and falls the float rises and falls with it. This fluctuation causes the cord to revolve the grooved pulley over which it passes ; the small pinion being fixed on the same shaft as the pulley revolves with it, communicating its motion to the segmental gear, which FIG. 44 — WATER REGISTER. being attached to the same shaft as the pen, both will revolve together ; and the pen, being in contadl with the dial, will trace a mark upon it, leaving a graphical record showing the days, hours and minutes in one diredlion, and feet and inches in another. The Stokes Measuring Gate. — This is a newly patented device by Mr. Stokes, of Montrose county, Colorado, and is a really useful contrivance for deter- mining just how much water a consumer is receiving i6o IRRIGATION FARMING. from a ditch company. It is self-registering and is said to be absolutely accurate. The design is shown in Fig. 45. It is not a headgate, but is to be used as a meter, and is placed in the main ditch below the head- gate or in private laterals below the tap-gates. The gate is placed in a frame or box in the ditch, so that the water flows through the aperture created when the slide is raised. In measuring the flow the slide is FIG. 45 — THE STOKES MEASURING GATE. lowered into the water until the flange on the side is at the level of the surface. The amount of water is then indicated on the scales. The water must stand steadily at the flange and flow freely away below the gate. These conditions may be secured in a ditch of any grade by the use of a weir-board if necessary. In order to turn out a given quantity of water into a ditch or lateral all that is necessary is to raise the slide until the indicators point to the required amount and then DUTY AND MEASUREMENT OP WATER. l6l •raise the headgate until the water-level stands at the water-line on the slide. In a(5lual use the velocity of the water is not a fadlor in the measurement, the velocity of each ditch being brought, automatically to a constant by the slide, which creates a fixed pressure for all quantities of water. A Simple Method of Measuring Water. — Sele(5l a place in the stream with as even grade as pos- sible having uniform banks and free from rubbish, such as stones, grass or brush. It is desirable to have an even fall of the stream and a nearly uniform current throughout its entire width and depth. The stream should have a straight course for twenty to fifty feet. The cross-sedlion multiplied by the velocity or rate of movement will give the approximate amount of water flowing in the stream. The cross-sedtion is found by measuring the depth at regular intervals across the stream. The average of these is obtained by adding them together and dividing by the number of measure- ments taken. The average depth then multiplied by the width will give the cross-se(5lion. To find the velocity, measure off a convenient distance, say, twenty feet of the stream, where the channel is straight and its bed even. Throw a chip in the stream ten feet above the upper mark. The float will attain the velocity of the water by the time it reaches the first mark. When the float pavsses the upper point the time is noted by the second-hand of a watch. The float is followed down-stream until it passes the lower mark at the end of the twenty feet, when the time is again noted. Suppose it took ten seconds for the float to travel the twenty feet, then in one second the stream would l62 IRRIGATION FARMING. flow one-tenth of twenty feet, or two feet. Therefore, the velocity of the stream is two feet a second. This, multiplied by the cross-se(5lion, will give the approxi- mate discharge, or the amount of water, flowing in the stream. Suppose in the case given that the cross-sec- tion was eight square feet, then the discharge would be two, the velocity, multiplied by eight, the cross- sedlion, which equals sixteen cubic feet a second. This is not the exadl amount flowing in the stream because the water flows fastest near the surface and in the cen- ter. The float naturally takes the velocity of the swiftest portion of the current. The velocity is retarded at the sides and bottom by fridlion. If a more exac5l measurement is required the result if multiplied by between .80 and .90, according to the roughness of the bank and amount of obstru<5lion in the channel, will give the amount of water flowing in the stream near enough for ordinary purposes. For example : using .80 as a facflor in the previous case, we have .80 multiplied by 16 or 12.80 cubic feet as the acftual discharge. The judgment of the operator must be exercised in the use of this fac5lor. Ordinarily with common dirt banks a fa<5lor of .85 will be nearly cor- re(5l. By the use of this simple but efficient method any water consumer may ascertain for himself whether or not he is receiving the quantity of water to which he is entitled. A California Weir System. — It often happens that there is great trouble in the canal system in divid- ing the water equitably among a number of irrigators, patrons of the ditch. Consumers are expected to bear their proportion of loss by seepage and evaporation DUTY AND MEASUREMENT OF WATER. 1 63 between the head of the main canal and their respec5live gates. This loss is a varying one, being so great on a hot day that if each gate is set to take its quota with- out shrinkage, the man at the end of the system seldom has enough water to drink. The West Highlands water company in San Bernardino county put in a system of w^eirs which will completely avoid this diffi- culty. Their main ditch is one mile in length, with six lateral branches, each the same length. At the head of the first lateral the ditch expands into a large cemented basin having two outlets, one opening into the main, the other into the lateral. In each opening is set an iron gate of ample width and hight, and hav- ing a sliding door which may be opened sidewise to any given width and fastened at that point. Both gates are exadlly on a level. The weir at the head of each succeeding lateral is an exac5l duplicate. Five weirs suffice for the six branches, the fifth one serving for two, being at the last point of the division. The distribution of the water is so arranged that but one consumer has water in a certain lateral at a time. Under this arrangement the zanjero or ditch walker, starting at the head of the main line with, say, six hun- dred inches of water to be divided equally among the six laterals, goes to the first weir and sets the gates in the ratio of five for the main to one for the lateral, and so on, the gates in the last weir being set equally open. Measurements to ascertain the amount of water are made on the open weir basis. Under this arrangement it will be seen that any decrease and likewise any increase in the flow is equitably divided among all parties on the system. 1 64 IRRIGATION FARMING. Capacity of Pipes. — To give a comprehensible exhibit of pipe capacity and divscharge, the following table has been compiled : CARRYING CAPACITY— GAIyl^ONS PKR MINUTE -«; ^<=^ ^^ r-*s ^< «^ ^«; 8XSBOF PIPE <§ o Ov s N '^ 8 inch 18 Itt 28 82 40 46 «4 79 4 " 27 88 47 nn 81 98 181 168 6 " 75 1(« \M m 224 258 8(54 450 8 " 168 21(S 2(J5 875 4(iO 527 750 928 9 " 206 m) 855 508 617 712 1.00(5 1,240 10 " 207 878 4(58 (555 808 926 1.810 1,618 18 " 422 rm 780 1,088 1,278 1,4(58 2,016 2,554 16 " 74() 1,()21 1/482 1,818 2,224 2,4(51 8,617 4,467 18 " 1,1(58 \,(m 2,023 2,8(50 8.508 4,045 5,7(K4 7,017 24 " 2,3P« 8,887 1,155 5.H71 7,202 8,808 11.744 14,4(56 80 " 4,187 5,»2() 7,252 10,557 12,580 14,504 20,516 25,277 Some Simple Rules. — A miner's inch of water is equal to nine gallons a minute. Doubling the diameter of a pipe increases its capacity four times. A cubic foot flowing a .second of time is equal to fifty miner's inches, or 450 gallons a minute. A cubic foot of fresh water weighs 62.5 pounds and contains 1,728 inches, or 7.5 gallons. 27, 144 gallons of water will cover one acre one inch deep. 225 gallons a minute, or 25 miner's inches, will be sufficient to cover one acre one inch deep in two hours and one minute. A simple method to determine what a windmill ])unip is di.scharging is to measure the acflual deliver}- with a gallon measure for one minute and multiply by DUTY AND MEASUREMENT OF WATER. 1 65 sixty. Divide the gallons per hour by 38 to obtain the acre inches per month, or by 13 for the acre inches in three months. These results are not mathematically accurate, but will be found close enough for ordinary computations. They make no allowance for seepage and evaporation. A safe rule for finding the capacity of a cylindrical cistern is to take the dimensions in inches, square the diameter, multiply by the depth, and then by .0034, which will give the contents in United States standard gallons. Thus to find the capacity of a cistern twenty- five feet in diameter and one foot deep, multiply: 300 X 12 X .0034 = 3672 United States standard gallons. To measure flowing water in ditches, canals, and rivers multiply the area by the mean velocity of its flow in feet per second, and the produdl is the volume in cubic feet ; divide the number of cubic feet by 1.57, and the result will be the number of the miner's inches. CHAPTER XI. METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. ^T^ HK methods of irrigation in vogue are as varied ^ I as the topography of the country. So much ^g»l depends upon the proper appHcation of water that the pra(5lice of irrigation often results in failure unless it has received careful consideration and study. The amount of water a crop should receive, the time in its development to obtain the best results, the methods of applying water to different crops, together with that skill in accurate and economical manipulation which comes through pracft ice and experi- ence, are some of the important considerations. It has been found that pra<5fically a 70 per cent, saturation of the soil will give the best results. Speaking in a broad way, a soil will retain its own bulk — not its own weight — of water, some soils more and some soils less. Now if fully saturated, and wheat, rye, orchards and vineyards are planted, they will not grow. But if the soil is given 70 per cent, of the water which it can take up, so that there is circulation of water and air within the soil, then the plants can take their almost infinitesimal drinks of water and grow with the greatest rapidity. The soil carries this water up to the plant and the plant uses part of it and evap- orates it into the air. Evenness of distribution is important. For in- stance, if there is twice the amount of water on one 166 1 68 IRRIGATION FARMING. place that there is in another, the ground will dry un- evenly, and the dry patches will be too dry before the wet spots are dry enough to plow, for in irrigating orchards, or any crop that requires cultivation, the plow or cultivator must follow as soon as the ground is in good working order. A bird's-eye view of a well- planned irrigated farm is given in Fig. 46. It will be observ^ed that the land lies on a gentle slope, over which water nay be spread with easy gradient and in equal ratio to all portions. The various plats may or may not be fenced, according to the owner's judgment, and in most cases fences are obsolete except for pasturage. In the use of water it may be estimated that i ,000 gallons of water a minute will irrigate an acre an hour of row crops, such as potatoes, corn, etc. , and it requires two men to handle this amount of water properly, as it is equal to ninety miner's inches. An inch of water nominally will cover an acre of land. The cost of irrigating an acre will vary all the way from 75 cents to $1 . 50 for a season of 100 days. Water-rates in Colo- rado, where water is rented, are usually $1.50 an acre per annum, and this rate is fixed by the county com- missioners. It is a good rule, in the arid region at least, to have the water running constantly on some portion of the farm, although this is not an inflexible rule on account of the wastefulness which it entails. Old irrigators never shut off the water when a shower comes up. In all irrigating work it is well to imitate nature as nearly as we can. It will be well to remem- ber in this connecftion that the soil must be adapted to the way, which on the other hand is itself not adapted to all soils. METHODS OI^ APPLYINC^ WATKR. 169 Subsidiary Canals. — Where the supply canal is large and the banks thick, it is well to divert the water from it in only one place. A shallow subsidiary canal may be made parallel with it, into which sufficient water is allowed to flow to supply the laterals. It is very easy for a stream to get beyond the control of the FIG. 47 — LATERAL BULKHEAD. irrigator, and he must watch the aperture in the canal bank closely and take measures to prevent this. In the most primitive forms of irrigation the shovel is relied upon entirely for regulating the flow of water ; but a step in advance is made by putting in wooden boxes at such places, with a simple gate board sliding between upright cleats. In this way the exa6l quan- tity of water desired niay be diverted, without danger lyo IRRIGATION FARMING. that too much will force its way through. One advan- tage of these subsidiary canals is that it catches up the leakage of the main canal and utilizes it for immediate use, and at the same time avoids the discomfitures of seepage waters on the lands to be irrigated. Some- times these secondary canals are cemented, and they are useful in governing the water for the furrows by means of bulkheads. These bulkheads may best be fixed permanently in position, and if supplied with sluice- gates they are ready for use at all times, and will last for years. Fix these boxes in the lower bank of a subsidiary ditch at the head of the K laterals — and they FIG. 48 — IMPROVED STEEL LAND GRADER. ^^^Y ^ISO bC USCd in the laterals for the furrows just as well. A very good arrangement of this sort is described in Fig. 47. Preparation of Land. — Little inequalities in the surface of a field give the irrigator more trouble in the flooding system than do large hills. They are too small to have any provision made for them except such as may be extemporized with the shovel while the water is running. When the surface can all be brought to an even grade, work is greatly lessened, water is economized, and the spotted appearance of the crop is avoided. Grading fields on any large scale has hitherto been impracticable, because no machine was made METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 171 Specially adapted to it. One now invented and manu- fadlured by B. F. Shuart, of Oberlin, Ohio, solves the problem. A good idea of this land leveler is gained from Fig. 48. Hesper Farm, near Billings, Montana, on which this machine was first put to service, was graded by it so perfecftly that the water when turned from the ditch spreads over the surface by the mere force of gravity, with a uniformity of effec5t which reduces the task of irrigation almost to recreation. On this farm one man handles 250 inches of water and has time to spare. Grading land pradlically dispenses with the incessant and exhaustive use of the shovel, incident to irrigating under ordinary conditions. On a well-graded farm the irrigator in applying the water has little need of his shovel, except for opening . and closing again the banks of the ditches where he turns out the water. The even grade also makes it possible to run the water farther, and thus reduces the number of laterals neces- sary, and increases the head of water which can be used to advantage. Fifty inches is the head ordinarily used on Hesper Farm. With this machine one man with a team can grade from three to five acres a day on an average. There are now other levelers in use, such as illus- trated in Fig. 49, propelled by four horses, which will grade from twenty to twenty-five acres a day, and leave the surface in fine condition for seeding. In these the cutting blade is a 2x8 inch plank, twelve feet long, shod with a plate of steel six inches wide, one-half inch thick, and the length of the plank. This is sus- pended by coiled springs, is raised and lowered by 172 IRRIGATION FARMING. levers, can be adjusted at various angles, and loads and dumps automatically on uneven surfaces. The wheels on which the supporting platform rests are sixteen inches in diameter, fourteen feet apart, and the cutting blade occupies exacftly the same relation to the soil that the bit of a plane does to the wood. It shaves it off and sweeps the loose earth along until a low place is encountered, when it slides out from under the blade and fills the cavity. The very same reasons that make this valuable to the farmers of the arid regions commend it to the husbandman of the humid states, for his fields are just as uneven, they encounter more moisture in a year than the irrigator ever applies, and crops suffer exa<5lly in the same manner from the un- even application of moisture. Importance of Grading. — Leveling should be the first step toward cultivating by irrigation. If one is going to use water, common sense will suggest that provision should be made for using it properly, so as to get the full benefit. Thousands of acres have been pradlically ruined by overwatering, or, in other words, by watering without leveling. Days and weeks of time are spent by farmers struggling to put water on the high places, drowning the lower parts and skimp- ing the higher levels. A good watering should put on the ground enough to cover the whole surface at least three or four inches deep. It is evident that if one portion is over three inches higher than others, there is too little water covering the high spots and far too much flooding the sags. As soon as the earth fails to absorb the water it begins to dissolve the alkaline salts and bring them to the surface. 174 IRRIGATION FARMING. It is highly important to level all land so that the water will run freely across at uniform depth and velocity. Leave no low places anywhere, and espe- cially see that no water stands at the foot of the field to make mud holes. A farmer near Springville, Utah, who planted fifteen acres of sugar-beets, started to level the land, and had completed five acres of it when the seeder came along, and so it was planted just as it was — in the usual way. The fifteen acres had precisely the same treatment. The five leveled acres yielded twenty tons to the acre on an average. The ten other acres produced but twelve and a half tons an acre. If the ground is watered uniformly and is properly culti- vated it will make a fine seed-bed. If level and fine when the seeds are planted, they are all covered at the same depth, all will germinate under the same condi- tions, and the capillary attraction in the soil does its perfe(5l work. The tender rootlets find nourishment and moisture, and make rapid growth. The plant that is well started makes vigorous aftergrowth, and the harvest finally tells the interesting story of in- creased producft. The laterals should be carried to the highest van- tage-ground possible and should be opened at con- venient points to allow the water to pass out upon the ground, and in this way it covers the field in seeking its level. The method of making laterals, especially as to the necessity of having them raised above the natural level of the ground, is described in Chapter VI. Time to Irrigate. — Generally all ditches in the temperate zone should be ready to receive water by the METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 1 75 20th of May. The first water is turned upon the pas- ture,' meadow, or orchard, just as it may be required. One year in the thirty that we have farmed in Colo- rado we commenced on the 24th day of May to irri- gate, to germinate the grain that had been sown. We irrigated three times that season. We commence gen- erally from the loth to the 25th of June to irrigate the small grain crop. The matter of leaving water turned on is regulated largely by the condition of the soil. While some land will soak full of water in from ten to twenty minutes, another kind of soil may require as long again to soak. We turn the water on and let it stay until the ground is thoroughly wet and soft as deep as it was plowed — eight to ten inches — then the water is let out of the ditch a little further on, and so on until the field is all irrigated. Every crop tells when it wants water. The grasses, clovers, and small grains have a language that cannot be mistaken. Whenever their green color becomes very dark and sickly turn on the water. When corn wants water it tells the fadf by its leaves being curled up in the morning. Salsify needs but little if any water after it is well under way. Carrots cannot bear an irrigation by flooding after they are half grown. If covered with water the crowns decay. All species of the cabbage family require a good deal of water. In other words, they like wet feet, and are very particular how the water is applied. All plants in a dry climate should be pushed in their early stages of grow^th by a judicious application of the proper amount of water and frequent cultivations, at no time letting them stand, or go back from want of water and proper 176 IRRIGATION FARMING. attention. Plant.s in general need much less water than is usually applied by almost every one. They do far better and suffer much less with two inches on the surface applied two or three times during their growth than they do with twelve inches on the surface applied five or six times in a season. It is a sad mistake to put on too much water. The determination of the proper time to irrigate and the amount of water to apply must lie for the most part with the farmer himself. The humidity or dryness of the atmosphere, as well as the position and condition of the soil, are to be well considered, and common sense is a better guide than is philosophy. If trees are allowed to get too dry the sap of the stalk commences flowing back to the roots, accompanied by falling of the leaves, and water is often turned on too late to save them. On the other hand, if too much water is applied it stimulates a too rapid growth, and the probability is that if not cut back and thoroughly hardened in the fall, they will be found in the spring to be entirely dead, or standing simply an outside live shell with a black and dead heart. Any one can easily learn just about the degree of moisture in soil neces- sary for the healthy growth of a plant, and the nearer uniform the condition of the moisture the more vigor- ous and healthy will be the plant. The best time to irrigate is early in the morning before the sun acquires very great power, or in the evening when it is about to go below the horizon. A good time to water land is when a cloud comes up and a shower is expe<5led. In nine cases out of ten the shower does not give all the water needed, so the work METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 1 77 will not be uselessly expended. Irrigation should not be done in the open when the sun is shining hot, as there is great danger of scalding the plants. If we have a good head of water in the ditch we prefer to begin irrigating at four o'clock in the afternoon, and often keep up the work as late as midnight, especially on moonlight nights. At the Utah station the tem- perature of plats irrigated nights was slightly higher than those irrigated days. The yield of grain was slightly greater on the plat irrigated in the daytime, due probably to the checking of the growth of the foliage. The total yield, or the yield of straw and grain, was some fifteen per cent, greater on the plats irrigated at night, and the ratio of straw to wheat was therefore much greater on the plat irrigated at night. Straw to bushel of grain when irrigated nights, 120 pounds ; when irrigated days, eighty-nine pounds. The Flooding System. — As already mentioned, the land mast be prepared and made as near even as possible, by scraping down the knolls and filling up the low places so that the water will spread evenly. If it does not spread in this way the irrigator must follow it out with his shovel and condudl it to the negledted spots. The application of water to crops by the method of flooding is the quickest and cheapest, and hence is almost universally used for grass, meadows, and grain crops. On those soils which bake and crack badly flooding is injurious, unless the plants stand close enough together to shade the ground well. Water coming direcStly against the crown is unfavorable to the growth of many plants. It has often been noticed that millet, rye, oats, and other crops will be larger 178 IRRIGATION FARMING. and more thrifty a short distance from a ditch bank, where they receive all their moisture by seepage, than they will farther out in the field, where irrigated by flooding though kept sufficiently moist. Most gener- FIG. 50 — DIAGONAL PLOW FURROWS ACROSS A FIELD. ally in the spreading of water over farms — particu- larly those that have not been properly graded as described — plow furrows are run diagonally across fields, as outlined in Fig. 50. This system is the most practicable to use in flooding land. The furrows which distribute the water are run in such direction, METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 1 79 required by the lay of the land, as will give them only a slight descent. A hoef ul or shovelful of earth thrown in the furrows at the entrance keeps them closed. When the land needs water the little gate or sliding board at the canals is raised as far as needed to let in the required amount of water. This is raised or low- ered as may be necessary in the course of irrigating a field. The lateral being filled with water, the irrigator opens the upper ends of the plow furrows by taking out a shovelful of earth. The little furrows then be- come filled. The water seeping through or running over the sides gently trickles along over the surface and soaks into the ground. Flowing thus from each side the waters soon unite between the furrows, and thus the moisture becomes uniform and general. The farmer may remove all obstrudlions by clipping off a bit of dirt at intervals from the sides of the furrows, and flood his land till the water will everywhere cover the surface. In this way he can in an hour or two give an entire farm what would be equal to a heavy soaking rain. These floodings are often given about the heading-out time, and the result is the produdlion of heavier and more perfec5l grain. The water should be put on as rapidly as possible with no let-up — the quicker the better. It should not be allowed to stand in pools anywhere, because standing water stops all the pores in the soil, cutting off the air from the roots and, as it were, taking the life out of them for some time. Flooding requires more water than many other methods, but at the same time much less labor is needed, and it may be called the lazy man's system. l80 IRRIGATION FARMING. The Dammer. — An inexperienced farmer fre- quently attempts to force water over too great dis- tances in irrigating a grain field by the flooding system. The plow furrows or diagonal laterals, instead of being from 50 to 100 feet apart, may be three times the dis- tances, and in irrigating with a small flow it is diffcult to cover all the intervening space. When the laterals have been made in the grain fields with a ditch plow, it is customary in some localities to run over them with an implement called a dammer, usually drawn by one horse, although a spiked team is often employed. The dammer consists of a large shovel attached to handles resembling those of a plow. As the horse travels, the shovel collects the loose dirt in the bottom of the double furrow, and when the driver raises the handles it is deposited in a heap to form a dam. These dams are spaced from 40 to 75 feet apart, depending somewhat on the slope of the furrow. The obje(5l of these earth dams is to create a check, and, throwing out the water, permit it to overflow the lower bank. This being accomplished, the dam is broken and the unused portion of the water, together with the flow of the irrigation stream, is temporarily checked by the next lower earth dam. lyittle piles of manure or dirt may be placed in the furrows for the same purpose. These manure dams are not water- tight, but are made so for a short time by covering the up-stream face with two inches of earth. Much water is often allowed to run to waste by locating the field furrows on inclines too steep. In irrigating from steep furrows more dams are required and the water is all distributed from one point, whereas, on medium slopes. METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. iBt it may be distributed from several points between dams. Furrow or Rill System. — It is best to irrigate gardens and orchards by the furrow method. An even greater difference comparatively in the quantity of water used obtains in the furrow irrigation of fruit trees and vines than in the case of cereals. To such an extent does this prevail that not only do districfts differ, but, of two neighbors who cultivate the same fruits in con- tiguous orchards, having exadtly the same slope and soil , one will use twice or thrice as much water as the other. Judging as far as possible from confli<5ling tes- timonies, the cardinal principal appears to be just the same. As we have endeavored to show, it is desirable to have the lateral taken out of the main canal at a point higher than the grade of the ground to be irri- gated. A practical example of this diversion of water is to be seen in Fig. 51, where a distributing gate diverts the canal water through a lateral to the fur- rows of an orchard. In garden and orchard work the chara(5ler of the furrow is governed largely by circum- stances, and the kind of planting will largely govern one's adlions in laying out furrows. From a general head furrow smaller ones are run at right or obtuse angles into the plantation. A grade of one inch to the rod is usually sufficient, and an orchard should be set with this end in view. In the west we prefer to have the trees set closest together in the north and south rows, so that one tree shades another from the two o'clock sun, which in winter especially is very damaging to young trees. Always set orchard or small fruit rows to conform to the proper irrigating 1 82 IRRIGATION FARMING. grade, as this precaution will save much subsequent trouble. A new furrow in orchards or vineyards should be plowed every time an irrigation is to occur, for the closely following cultivation which is the most impor- FIG. 51 — DISTRIBUTING GATES OF IRRIGATION CANAL. tant part of this work will close over and obliterate the •furrows. Make a furrow on each side of the trees and give an irrigation that is calculated to carry the water well down into the soil — lower than the roots if possi- ble, and for this reason the writer advises sub-soiling before the planting is done. The first year after plant- m W^ 184 IRRIGATION FARMING. ing, the rill may be run within a foot of the trees, but the water should never be allowed to touch the trunks. Some horticulturists set out small fruits in rows four or five feet apart longitudinally with the trees, while others put such plants as raspberries and blackberries in the tree rows themselves. The advantage of the latter plan is that it affords more shade to the cane fruits, but at the same time they are more apt to re- ceive less water than they need, as cane fruits require more water than is given to trees. By planting in the open between the tree rows cane fruits may be irrigated more frequently, and this can be done independently of the trees themselves. As trees grow older year by year their furrows should be carried farther away from the trunks, a good rule being to keep them in a vertical line with the outer tips of the branches. With full-grown trees the irrigat- ing should be done with several parallel intermediary rills, as pictured in Fig. 52. This system is much in use in the citrus groves of Southern California. When the orchard is steep then plant — not in straight rows, but lay out ditches with a fall of one-quarter of an inch to every rod, and plant the trees along the ditches on the lower side. Pro- fessor Blount of New Mexico lays out his orchards on a grade of one inch to one hundred feet east and west, and on a level north and south. He admits water at the northwest corner of his quincunx plantation, and by double furrows his trees are irrigated on all sides, as displayed in Fig. 53, and by which means his root- lets are uniformly watered. In all furrow operations it is best to allow the water METHODS OP APPLYING WATER. 185 to trickle gently through them until the land is well moistened at a spade's depth between the furrows. Before allowing to dry, hoe back the earth into the furrows, and cultivate as soon as the land will admit. By irrigating in this way evaporation will be reduced. FIG. 53 — DOUBLE FURROW ORCHARD SYSTEM. water will be economized, the earth will be moistened to a depth of at least two feet, and one irrigation of this kind will last as long as two or three by flooding. A Caution Against Erosion. — If the water is allowed to rush down the furrows so rapidly as to be- come turbid by picking up the finer particles of soil, these particles will be deposited farther down the fur- rows as the volume of the stream becomes smaller and the current becomes less on account of the absorption 1 86 IRRIGATION FARMING. of a part of the water in the soil traversed. This de- posit of fine particles is apt to ac5l as a cement to the furrows and prevent proper absorption of the water. It is possible by the very rapid use of water to cause it to flow through the entire length of the furrows with- out effecftually irrigating the soil. Tht novice at irri- gation is almost sure to be surprised at the acflion of an irrigating stream in the furrows in a soft, plowed field. If the stream is very small, it may entirely disappear in the first rod or two of the furrow. If the stream is too large, it may carry away a considerable part of the soil from the first few feet or few rods of the furrow, and, as already stated, flow through without accom- plishing the purpose of effedtually moistening the land. A properly regulated stream should flow through a furrow without becoming very turbid at any point, and should progress continuously, though slowly, throughout the length of the furrow. After it has flowed for a time, varying with the nature of the soil from a few to many hours, the land should be so thoroughly irrigated as to make it, especially if newly plowed, too soft to walk over without miring. Where the soil is of open or porous stru(5lure and contains con- siderable vegetable material, this thorough irrigation may take place by the furrow system without greatly changing the loose and flocculent nature so desirable for the rapid growth of vegetation. This is the acme of irrigation. Not every soil will retain this open strudlure, even under the most skilful handling of water. With many soils it is found that the efFe(5l of the artificial application of water is much like that of an exceedingly heavy and dashing rain, solidifying the METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. I87 soil by breaking down the open structure. It may be said that, as generally applied, irrigation is apt to leave the soil compadt and in condition to become very hard as it dries. Underground Flumes and Stand-pipes. — In Southern California, where water is scarce and most economically applied, the preferred orchard system is that of the underground lateral to convey the water to the place of its application. The scheme is to have the water delivered by underground cement or iron pipes at the highest point of each ten-acre lot. This delivery is ordinarily made by a cement hydrant or pipe, opening into a flume made of wood, brick, or vit- rified pipe, extending entirely across the plot to be irrigated. If it 1)e trees or vines that are to be irri- gated, there will be from two to eight furrows plowed between the rows at right angles with the flume and extending in the same direc^tion with the grade of the land. Flumes made of redwood either V-shaped or square are largely used, and opposite each furrow and opening diredlly into it an auger-hole in the plank is bored, which is covered with a galvanized iron gate set in a slide, the whole thing being cheaply provided but very effedtive. The water having been turned into a flume from the hydrant, the slides over the apertures are adjusted so as to allow exadlly the amount to escape that is de- sired. Slow saturation is the desideratum rather than sudden flooding, and by using these gates the flow may be adjusted to a nicety and the water then left to itself, no watching being necessary, and no constant labor with the shovel, as when water is applied from 1 88 IRRIGATION FARMING. Open ditches. Sometimes a substantial flume of brick is laid in place of one of wood, and a square vitrified pipe with openings in the side is also highly thought of. A sedlion of this terra-cotta head ditch is pre- sented in Fig. 54. Into this flume is turned from the ditch an irrigat- ing head of 20, 25 or 30 inches of water, generally about 20 inches. This is divided by the holes into streams of from one-sixth to one- tenth of an inch, FIG. 54 — SECTION OF VITRIFIED HEAD DITCH. making from 120 to 200 .streams. These are run across the tradl in small furrows leading from each hole. From five to seven furrows are made between two rows of trees, two between rows of grapes, one furrow between rows of corn, potatoes, etc. It may take from fifteen to twenty hours for one stream to get across the trac5l. They are allowed to run from eighteen to seventy-two hours. The ground is thor- oughly wet in all diredlions and oftentimes three or four feet deep. As soon as the ground is dry enough, cultivation is begun and kept up from six to eight weeks before water is used again. For trees a year METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 189 old one furrow on each side of the row will do, for two years old two furrows, and so on. In many places the outlet from the underground head flume is through a series of stand-pipes. An im- proved measuring penstock consists of a four-inch iron stand-pipe resting on a six-inch vitrified service-pipe. At the summit of this measuring stand-pipe is a sliding gate on which is a scale so arranged that the amount of water flowing through it can be measured by sim- ply reading the scale. A valve inside the stand-pipe is operated by a screw attachment and admits the proper amount of water, while it can be locked by a simple device. Outside the stand-pipe is a pressure-gauge which shows the head of water on a measuring slot with a glass face. This contrivance is used in meas- uring the patron's apportionment of water, and in this fadl alone does it possess any advantage over the sim- ple opening in the head flume for the escape of water. The Basin System. — This method consists in making a small basin around trees, filling it two, three or more times with water as fast as it soaks away. These basins vary in size according to the amount of water one has. Where the supply is small they are often not more than two feet across, and even smaller for young trees. Where there is more water, many make them 10, 12, and even 15 feet across. Some make them square, others round, while others make them oval or rectangular. The plan is well shown up in Fig. 55. In many cases the formation of these basins is very stupid. That trees treated in this way do anything, only proves that they would do better in other ways. igo IRRIGATION FARMING. and does not prove that such is the corredl way to irrigate them. For instance, allowing the water to touch the trunk of a tree is radically wrong. In the center of the basin should be left a mound of dry soil around the trunk of the tree, at least two feet in diam- eter, and three or more would be better. Instead of iT^^^rpT'^^'-gir5-^-^^^f^=V=^r^ — ^ff— —"^^^^^ FIG. 55 — THE BASIN SYSTEM. heaving up earth on the lower side and making a pond of water, of which the pressure will puddle the bot- tom and prevent the access of air to the roots, by cov- ering it with a hard, tight crust, the basin should be made in the form of concentric rings ; or, where the hill is too steep in crescents, one above the other, and leading one into the other. The basins may be filled by hose, watering-carts, or by pipes, but the writer considers the plan scarcely worthy of adoption. Another plan to convey water to the roots of trees METHODS OP APPI.YING WATER. I9I is to set a length of sewer pipe, or a two-foot box six or eight inches square, into the ground two or three feet from the trunk. Into this box water is poured until it is filled, or it may be conveyed in a hose and allowed to run for some time, so as to give the roots a good soaking. It is better to have three or four of these boxes placed around a tree, so as to distribute the water more evenly in the ground. This contri- vance is seen along village streets where shade trees are grown. • Borders or Checks. — This is a cumbersome method of field irrigation in pradlice by Mexican farm- ers, but which is gradually going out of use. Each border includes a few rods only, and the borders are from six to twelve inches high, which would indeed interfere sadly with the use of machinery. The plats are filled with water, which is quickly run off from one to the other after a thorough saturation of the soil. If, however, the land is well leveled, five or ten acre patches instead of a few square rods may be enclosed with borders or ridges, which would be the improved American plan on a Mexican basis. These acres can be enclosed with borders made in such a way as not to interfere with implements. The borders can be made into gentle swells, eight, ten, or twelve inches in the center, and the base twenty feet. The objec5l is to secure quick and thorough irrigation. Some have called it the checkerboard system, but it is the only one that native farmers know, and those crops that they attempt to grow are indeed very prolific. The Contour System. — In California, where this plan is in vogue, it is in reality a modification of 192 IRRIGATION FARMING. the Mexican borders. The land to be irrigated is divided into compartments or checks, each of which is entirely surrounded by embankments of earth. The principal embankments follow contour hues, the ver- tical distance from one contour levee to the next being uniform, which is not always the case in the Mexican fields. The contour interval usually selecfted is six to nine inches, rarely so great as one foot. It depends in all cases upon the surface slope of the ground to be prepared fpr irrigation, and should be less than six inches if the ground is sufficiently flat to permit such an arrangement without making the individual checks too small. For ground on a slope that would require levees more than one foot apart in elevation some other method of irrigation should be adopted. The strips of land between the contour levees are subdivided by cross levees into compartments of convenient size, which are generally called checks. Their area should vary according to the volume of water, a good rule for porous soils being not to exceed one- fourth of an acre for each second-foot when a large head of water is available and to make half an acre a second- foot the limit for a small supply. As after the Mexican fashion, water is supplied to the several checks in turn from highest to lowest in each series between cross levees. The irrigating lateral which leads from the supply canal is usually carried in the direction of greatest slope, cutting the several contour levees nearly at right angles. Irrigation commences by turning a full head of water into the upper check upon one side of the irri- METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 193 gating ditch, as outlined in Fig. 56. This should be filled in from one to six hours. In the full check water should barely cover the highest portion of the ground, but stand six inches to one foot deep in the lowest portion of the check, according to the contour interval. The contour levee should have its top about FIG. 56 — CONTOUR OR BORDER SYSTEM. half a foot above the water surface of a full check. When the upper check is entirely submerged, gates are opened from the irrigating ditch into the next lower check, those admitting water to the upper check are closed, and one or more gates in the contour levee be- tween the two checks are opened to permit the surplus water from the first to drain into and assist in submerg- ing the second one. This will require less time to fill than the first, because the supply of water from the ditch 194 IRRIGATION FARMING. is augmented by the run-off from the upper check . The irrigating ditches frequently replace cross levees, so that water can be admitted to a check from both sides at once. When the average time required to fill checks on sandy soils exceeds three hours, it may generally be assumed that water is wasted. Either the checks are too large or there is not enough water turned in. Heavy soils, however, do not take up water rapidly, and, aside from requiring more time to absorb water, they do not permit its flow to subsoils so readily as do sandy soils, consequently more time may be allowed to fill a check in clayey soil without undue waste. Twenty-four hours should be regarded as the permissible limit. Checks are occasionally very large. One was seen in service having an area of sixty acres, but in this instance the land was exceptionally level. The water supplied to it was reported to have been as great as 250 second-feet. Such areas in one check are never advisable and are merely temporary features of a grow- ing system. Eight to ten acre checks are large, and those of two to five acres are generally preferred. Embankments around the checks may be either permanent or temporary. The latter are rare. Per- manent check levees are made of two types, either with very steep sides and narrow tops, so as to occupy as little space as possible, or very broad and flat, so as not to interfere with farming operations. The flat embank- ment becomes a part of the cultivated area and gen- erally is the most produdlive part of the irrigated field. It is construdled by scraping up material from a broad area on both sides if the ground is nearly level, or from METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 1 95 the lower side only if the ground is comparatively steep. The cost of preparing land for this method of irrigation in permanent checks ranges from $2.50 to $5.00 an acre, the cost of the necessary distributing canals, ditches, and strucftures from $3.00 to $5.00 an acre. These figures, of course, may be greatly exceeded if the ground has too great a slope or is very much broken by hog- wallows, or swales and ridges. The only work required of attendants is the opening and closing of gates and the guarding of the check levees. When ground is well prepared for this method of irrigation and the supply of water is abundant, the cost of each application of water will range from three to thirty cents an acre. Sprinkling. — In Florida most of the irrigation is of the sprinkling order and is best described by George W. Adams, of Thonotosassa, who says : "I have a twenty-five horse-power horizontal boiler and a 12 X 7 X 10 duplex pump, with six-inch main pipe and three-inch laterals at the main and running down to one and a half at extreme ends. My trees are twenty- one feet apart each way. I have a hydrant in the center of every sixteen trees. I use the McGowan automatic sprinklers, conne(5ting the sprinkler with hydrants by a one-inch wire-wound rubber hose fifty feet long. I use twelve of the sprinklers at one time and could use more just as well, each sprinkler staying in place thirty minutes, each one covering a space of from fifty to seventy feet, according to the amount of pressure given them, and discharging about 1,000 gal- lons. By this process I have a genuine rain, either a light one or a powerful one, at pleasure. If I wish to 196 IRRIGATION FARMING. throw water over the tops of the trees, I use the nozzle instead of sprinkler. I run the pump from 7 a.m. to 6 P.M. without stopping, using less than one-half cord of wood in eleven hours. I find no bad results from applying the water in the hottest sunshine, but would if I applied it through an open hose. I think the sprinkler method of applying water requires less help FIG. 57 — IRRIGATING WITH A HOSE. than any other I have seen, and is without any danger to fruit or trees. The fireman can manage the sprink- lers within reasonable distance of the pumping station. For other portions only one man is ever needed and it is light work for him." While using the hose in irrigating fields with an underground pipe system to supply the water costs- more at the beginning, it often proves less expensive and much more satisfacftory in the end. A field irri- gated in this way is illustrated in Fig. 57. Hillside Methods. — In irrigating hillsides great METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 197 care should be exercised lest much of the best soil as well as the manures applied be washed away. With slopes at all pronounced, great care should be taken to draw the irrigating furrows across the slopes in such h-. T' -r " ii.^.TT f^i. Tiffin m.. FIG. 58 — IRRIGATING A HILLSIDE. dire(5lion as may insure a proper flow without the dan- ger of washing. No definite rule can be given for this, but a little experience and training of the eye, to judge of the proper declivity to insure a safe flow of water, will soon tell the careful cultivator in what diredlion ^ to run his irrigating furrows, if the water be applied 198 IRRIGATION FARMING. in that manner. A study of Fig. 58 gives one a prac- tical idea as to how these furrows may be run and manipulated. Flooding from one furrow to another is a very simple matter and requires only a little experi- ence on the part of the irrigator. It is, of course, understood that the furrow must have some fall in order that the water will flow through it, but it should be very little. On an easy grade the ground washes less, and when a check is put in a ditch that is almost level the water will flow over its sides for considerable distance and so gently that it will scarcely wash the steepest hillside, whereas if the laterals run down the hill, as many farmers arrange them, the water when dammed flows over for a short distance only , and pours out all in a body, washing ver>' heavily. Some farmers persist in running their carry- ing ditches for steep lands around the hill, while the laterals run straight down the slope. It is the plan of some to run the main carrying ditch down the hill, as it may be protec5ted with boxes and gates at the places where the laterals turn off, but the latter should circle around the hill with just fall enough to carry the water. It is a foolish idea to lay off laterals with the fences. If more attention were given to this matter irrigation would be a simple and easy thing. Potato rows and other crops that are not flooded but irrigated in furrows should also be run with the laj' of the land. To raise a hoed crop on a steep field requires great pains and ingenuity. If the surface is not wavy as well as steep, the rows can be run diagonally, as de- scribed, across the slope, so as not to give too much fall, which would make the bottoms wash away and METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 199 lower the water surface, so that the rows are not moistened underneath. Some farmers run the rows diredlly down a steep slope, and in irrigating let a tiny stream trickle down the rills for a day or two, thus succeeding in having the moisture penetrate the rows. To make the water enter so many rows at once requires a very level head ditch, or the greatest pains and in- genuity in the way of checks to efFe(5l that end. The idea of tiny rills under these circumstances is best exploited by putting in lath funnels at the top of each row, as described elsewhere in this work. In an irri- gated country there is nat- ural prejudice to hillside farms. Still, if the soil is a stiff clay it may be irrigated by flooding without tearing to pieces, even if rather steep; but in this case it is next to impossible to spread the water so evenly and thinly that the soil can absorb all that is applied. Hence usually a large part of that used runs off into hollows and draws, and is lost to the user. Along the line of many irrigating canals, large tra(5ls of land are often found which have a decided fall or are rolling. Where this occurs in large tradls, the expense of terracing is generally too great for the average farmer, and a system whereby the distribution of water can be assured suited to the contour of the ground must be devised. On land sloping similarly, as 59 — A PLAN FOR WATER- ING ROUGH LAND. 200 IRRIGATION FARMING. shown by Fig. 59, the water enters the distributing ditches at the upper left-hand corner, and, dividing, flows through these into the still smaller ditches, from which it is turned laterally into furrows. lyittle dams or temporary obstrucflions of earth check its flow from point to point. After water flows out upon a field, any surplus can be caught by small trenches shown in the figure as trending diagonally toward the right-hand lower comer. From these trenches the water can be turned upon the lower fields, so that the excess or seepage is not wasted, but is employed on the less ele- vated tradls. In cases of inadvertent pitch, as some- times occurs in furrows for street irrigation, the danger of washing can be controverted by putting in perma- nent sunken sluices. When it is necessary to irrigate a tree along such a sluiceway the water can be led out in a sufiicient quantity by boring an auger-hole in the bottom of the sluice two feet or so above the tree. When water is not needed to irrigate the tree in this way the hole can be plugged. Backsetting. — In Western Kansas a primitive system of subirrigation by damming a stream in a flat country and .forcing the water through the adjacent lands by percolation is somewhat relied upon, but will not become generally adopted. The water is dammed and simply forced out through the banks into the ground, and in this way subterranean moisture is afforded the surface soil to produce good crops. The plan is rather too expensive in dam building to make it very popular, and the operator having no control over the seepage tide would soon find his ground water- logged and too wet for ordinary farm crops. METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 20I Fall and Winter Irrigation. — In many sec5lions of the west the system of fall irrigation has been prac- ticed with good success. After the crops are all har- vested the water is turned on and the soil is given a thorough soaking. Subsoiling greatly enhances the value of winter irrigation, which furnishes moisture for the starting of plant life in the early spring, and causes the weeds and other remnants of the cropping season to more easily decay and adl as a top-dressing or fertilizer. The land is also put in good condition for plowing early in the spring. But very few crops should be irrigated from the time of planting till after the plants have had several days' growth. Fall irriga- tion supplies moisture sufficient to start the crops and gives them a vigorous growth of a few weeks before irrigation is necessary. It is better for young plants to have the moisture come from beneath than from the surface, especially in the early spring, when water for irrigation is several degrees colder than that stored in the soil by irrigating late in the fall. We have found in Colorado that irrigation may be applied advantageously before the regular cold days of winter set in, and this practice is adopted generally by successful cultivators where water can be had at that time of the year. The late irrigation is useful after a dry fall, and is especially to be commended in the prep- aration for crops which require the maximum amount of moisture, and for orchards, or where the water-sup- ply is likely to be short the coming season. It places the land in the condition of a storage reservoir for the succeeding season, and experience has shown that the soil that has received a thorough irrigation in the fall 202 IRRIGATION FARMING. or early winter has great advantage over ground that has not. This is true when land is fall-plowed, and the water may be applied either by rills or by flooding. Let it be a good deep soaking. Orchardists are gen- erally adopting this plan for their trees, and thus the evil effedls of winter drying are circumvented. Foreign Methods. — In China a very primitive way of irrigating is in use. A Chinese farmer's estate is usually a sandy plain with slopes from one end to the other. His first step is to divide it into counter- parts by raising low walls or partitions of clay. They are usually a foot and a half thick and two feet high. Where it is difi&cult to get clay he construc5ls the wall of the stones he finds in the soil, or of broken bricks and tiles, and stops up the crevices with clay or even mud. Any form of soil excepting sand is used in this manner. He even gathers the ooze bared by the low tide with which to build the walls. In each little com- partment he builds a ditch in front of the lower wall, and at the corner of the compartment he lowers the wall somewhat for the water to flow from one check to the next adjoining, very much as is done by the Mex- icans. When it rains the compartments fill, and the entire field looks like a lot of panes of glass ; the water soaks slowly into the soil and keeps the ground moist enough for agricultural and horticultural purposes for several months. For the irrigation of rice lands, which have to be submerged, the lands are divided into small patches at large levees, so that the appearance is that of a beautiful system of terraces, near a bountiful sup- ply of water, which is raised to the upper level by chain-pump and treadmill process with coolie power. METHODS OP APPI.YING WATER. 203 In places where there is a scarcity of water the men and women carry, suspended from a yoke across their shoulders, two large buckets with long spouts, and sprinkle rows of vegetables copiously. Sometimes the water for this purpose is carried in buckets a con- siderable distance. I^iquid manure is applied in the same way. The irrigation of Egypt is now conduc5led on a sci- entific basis. The whole country is cut up into canals, and there are immense irrigating works in the delta which, during the inundations of the Nile, require hun- dreds of thousands of men to manage them. An im- mense dam extends across the Nile near Cairo, which raises its waters into a vast canal through which they are allowed to flow out into subordinate canals over the great delta. There are some steam-pumps used in Egyptian irrigation, but by far the greater part of the country is irrigated now as it was in the days of the Pharaohs. This is by means of the shadoof and sak- iyeh. All over Egypt may be seen men naked to the waist standing knee-deep in water with a basket-work bucket hung by ropes between them. With a swing- ing motion they scoop the water from the river into this bucket and swing it up to a canal on a higher level, whence it runs off into the fields. The water is often drawn from this canal .into a higher ditch in the same way, and thus by a series of planes it is con- ducfted so that none is lost. After the water is taken out of the great canals it is spread over the fields in little ponds, and the flat fields are often divided into small squares by means of embankments of earth one foot in hight which run around them like fences, and 204 IRRIGATION FARMING. which can be opened or closed to regulate the hight of the water within them. The rising of the Nile begins in June, and during the summer much of Egypt is one vast lake. It remains so through September, and sub- sides toward the latter part of Ocflober. It is at this time that the water is conducted into this vast network of canals, and is carefully carried over the cultivable lands. In Spain the system for irrigation of meadow lands most commonly applied in the northern provinces is by inclined channels or the system of spiked channels. The distribution channels are devised nearly in the vSense of the greatest slopeness of the grounds. The irrigation channels connedl with them and spread out from right to left. A rapid sedlional change takes place in the distribution channels at the point where they separate into branches with the irrigating chan- nels, which by having a gradually narrowing sedlion from their parting point down to the end, pour out the water by getting inundated. Another contrivance is also combined with this dis- tributive system, which consists in coUedling channels, called azarbes, dug on the natural lines of junction on the meadow ground, terminating in an outlet channel. Sometimes when the extent of the meadow is not con- siderable, or when the quantity of water available is but small, the colle(5ling channels are changed into new feeding channels for the supply of other lands situ- ated farther down. They level ofF the ground so that the water can flow over it easily, without leaving standing pools and mud, or washing out the ground and forming gullies. They prepare their lands so that METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 205 the water will flow over them easily and safely. They also constru(5l their lateral ditches very well, and when they are through with the water the supply is turned off. They never waste it. They have only a few small reservoirs. In Australia much of the interior land is irrigated mostly through the medium of billabongs or lagoons that are oftentimes supplied from natural streams dur- ing the rainy season. The water is applied to the lands much the same as we apply it. In other coun- tries along seashores a system known as warping is customary. By this mode the tides are received through an embankment or dike and retained until the sediment or warp is deposited. Subirrigation is a syvStem that is pra(5liced in all countries, including our own, and as it is of much importance as to detail the writer will treat it in a special chapter later on. CHAPTER XII. IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. ^T^ HE application of water is the one thing impor- *• , tant in all irrigating operations, and must Be»I receive the most careful study and considera- tion. Every man must be his own preceptor to a great degree, and it is only the general rules that will be useful to him. The mechanical part of the science of irrigation is easily learned and quickly understood by the novice. There is a branch of the science, however, not so quickly mastered, because not fully understood by practical farmers — the quan- tity of water which any given grain or vegetable re- quires. No fixed rule as to quantity can be given because the nature of the soil, lay of the land and the season all tend to modify the amount required. The relative amount, however, can be ascertained with a fair degree of certainty. Experience shows that it is easy to exceed the quantity required by the crop, and that every excess is injurious. Extravagance is the common fault, so much so that the most successful irrigators are invariably those who use the least water. Cultivation, too, is a primary factor to the attainment of the fullest success in the magic art, and on this account the writer is constrained from time to time to digress from what may seem to be the real text of the subjeift. 206 IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 207 The irrigator will find that new land requires more water the first year than the second. Grain is irri- gated two, three, or four times, according to circum- stances. As we have said before, the best results are secured by using a moderate quantity of water. A Mexican irrigates four times and gets twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre. An American irrigates three times and gets thirty-five to forty bushels. Another farmer irrigates twice and gets fifty-five bush- els to the acre. An ordinary laborer irrigates fifteen to twenty-five acres in a day, though much more can and is often done, while thirty to fifty acres are irri- gated by some farmers. Wheat.— This crop should never be sown on low land — not even second bottom — but always on high land, plateaus, or mesas. Where drainage is naturally good a deeply mellow soil is not the best, as some ad- vocate. A good seed-bed is absolutely essential, but the surface in rainy sec5lions should be left quite rough for winter wheat, because it prevents the roots from being broken and dried out when the heaving of the soil in the early spring takes place; and the ground should never be rolled where spring wheat is sown, in arid climates especially, because the heavy west winds will cut the crop entirely off. It is always best to germinate sown wheat if possi- ble without resorting to the expedient of irrigating it up, as is sometimes done by careless farmers. The ground should be in good moist tilth before the seed- ing is done, and if the rains have not been of sufficient quantity to supply the necessary moisture the field should be given a good flooding of from six to ten 208 IRRIGATION FARMING. inches in depth. After a good harrowing the seed may be planted with a press drill, using from 60 to 75 pounds to the acre. The use of the press drill obvi- ates the employment of a roller, which is really super- fluous where the crop is to be irrigated. It is an obje(5l to have the grain germinate as quickly as pos- sible in order to outstrip the weeds. Here in Colorado we plant wheat early in April and it comes up inside of thirty days. If there is good moisture in the soil no water is needed until the last week in May, and some men make it a rule not to irrigate the first time until the grain is five or six inches high. One good reason for not irrigating a grain crop earlier than the twentieth of May is because early in the season the water is cold and consequently chills the crop. Another objedlion to irrigating before the plants cover the ground is that flooding bakes the soil and prevents a free circulation of air. There is still another im- portant reason. When the soil is moist near the sur- face the plant does not send its roots down as deeply as it would if the supply were stinted, and hence has not abundant supplies from which to draw. A month after the first irrigation the crop may need water again, if there have been no rains in the interim, but this matter can be determined by an examination of the soil. The second irrigation will require not more than half the water given in the first application. It is a great advantage to keep the plants growing stead- ily during the early period of growth. Some irrigators are in favor of giving a third wet- ting — not a very heavy one, however — just as the grain is heading, claiming that this prac5lice makes larger IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 209 berries and a grain yield of more specific gravity. Overwatering at this time may cause i^t, and great discretion must be used as to the water at this period. FIG. 60 — IRRIGATING A GRAIN FIELD. If the ground is moist it is not necessary to give the heading irrigation. Fig. 60 shows the process of flooding a wheat crop from a field furrow, the irriga- tor throwing in a diverting check of earth to flood the field laterally. 2IO IRRIGATION FARMING. If the first irrigation is late and there is a good deep compact subsoil, one irrigation will usually make a crop, and we would rather have one twelve-inch irri- gation than two six-inch ones. The surface can be covered with six inches if the incline is steep, and on such a surface it is best to irrigate light and often, as by running heavy heads for a considerable time the plants may be washed out. On the upper bench lands of the west, when fairly level, two irrigations are all that is needed, and with only one after three years of cultivation there is no danger of a complete failure of the crop. Professor Blount, who is the best authority in the world on wheat growing by irrigation, advocates the cultivation of wheat by the ridge system. He says : * * Wheat in ridges with furrows between will pay many times over all the extra cultivation and expense. The ridges should be twenty inches apart, running north and south, so that the sun may get in upon the roots during the later growth. On these ridges, which are two and one-half inches high, choice selecfted grain should be planted by hand — if planted early there is generally enough moisture in the soil to germinate every grain. Winter wheat wants but little water after November. Spring wheat- needs the first irriga- tion about the time it is undergoing the process of stooling. The cultivation may be done with one horse and a small plow with guards to keep the dirt from covering the growing grain, or it can be done with a hoe. The furrows between should be kept open and clean so that the water when applied may run below the top of the ridges all the time and do its work IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 211 among the roots, and never on the surface. This plan requires only nine or ten pounds of seed to the acre and the yield will be just as great. It must be under- stood that wheat planted in this way will tiller in such manner as to increase the yield. ' ' Before passing the subjedl the author desires to again express the caution about irrigating a seed-bed too prematurely in the season. It must not be for- gotten that the first watering should not be given until the young grain covers the ground fairly well. Flood- ing the land while the wheat is very young and tender has a tendency to bake the ground, especially with the adobe soils, of which so much of our western land is composed. When the grain covers the land properly, the sun's rays do not strike the surface and it remains moist for a considerable length of time. Then again the last application should be given when the grain is in the dough. If applied later than this, it does little or no good. To facilitate irrigation it is well when the grain is sown in the spring to use a corrugated roller, so that the rims of the machine will make parallel irrigating trends five or six inches deep in the field at the one operation of rolling to firm the seed-bed. These rollers are much used in Western Colorado, but for the reason that they are difficult to manufadture from wood in a home-made way they are not employed nearly so generally as they would be if cast in iron so as to be more weather-proof. These rollers should be weighted from 500 to 750 pounds, and it will usually require a spiked team to operate them. A description of this valuable implement will be found in the chapter 212 IRRIGATION FARMING. on * * Devices and Appliances, ' ' with an illustration showing the machine at work. In lieu of one of these implements it is advan- tageous to use a horse marker, something after the style of the old corn marker. Take a straight log some six or eight inches in diameter and twelve feet long. With a two- inch auger bore holes for the teeth two feet apart. Make the teeth a foot long, having them flat and about as broad as a man's hand. Turn the flat side forward. Be sure to set the teeth so that they slope backward. This will prevent the seed being torn out of the ground. The extra labor in going over a field with such a marker will save a vast amount of work when irrigating time comes, as the water will follow the small furrows made by the teeth and at the same time seep from one to the other, so that the ground will all be watered and there will be no sun-baking at the surface. The Depth of Soaking. — In the absence of some methods of surface corrugation we will presume that the irrigator knows how to make the old-fashioned ditches through the grain fields. The water being turned into these ditches, all that is necessary to do is to put checks in them in succession so that the later check will make the water overlap at least ten feet the land wet by the flow from the preceding dam. Dams are now nearly always made by means of canvas nailed to a pole or board wide enough to rest well on each bank, and which is fully described in this work under the chapter on " Devices and Appliances." If the cur- rent is not very rapid, but little earth is needed on the canvas, as the weight of the water on the lower up- IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 213 Stream edge will hold it against the down-stream press- ure. Some use two of these canvas dams alternately for each ditch that may be running, and an acflive man with a sufficient head of water can run three ditches abreast, while others are using only one for each ditch, as the check can be put into a running ditch by cut- ting the bank, placing the pole between the cut and stepping with the edge of the canvas up-stream, hold- ing it there until some dirt can be shoveled on the lower edge in the water. It might be said that such ditches as we use in wheat- fields of fair or usual fall will run about a cubic foot a second, or, in other words, full water rights for 160 acres will supply three ditches which will water six acres. This will be about eleven inches deep. This is more depth than is usually needed for one irrigation. If the land is plowed deep, say ten inches, the land cannot be covered evenly with less head. It will take at least six inches to wet the top soil, as it has first to be wet in order to have the water flow over it readily. When water is put on a loose, dry surface it creates a wet mush, and the water will immediately penetrate as deep as the soil is loose. Such soil will contain a much greater per cent, of water than a compac5l, moist- ened subsoil. Assuming that the water is allowed to run for two hours, as it ought to to reach any considerable distance from the dam on comparatively level land, and all the time it is settling into the sub- soil, which we will say is to the depth of two feet, this soil will take another six inches of water, making about a foot in all to wet the land three feet. All this will be supersaturated, and in a few days it will reach 214 IRRIGATION FARMING. the depth of four feet. In this way it will be seen that it will take about two weeks to get over eighty acres. Generally speaking, the best growth is ob- tained when the grain appears to suffer before it is irri- gated the first time. In clay soil the largest yield of both wheat and straw was once obtained in an experimental way by saturating the ground with nearly twenty-seven inches of water during the season. On this soil there was a decrease of crop when either a greater or less amount of water was UvSed. This maximum yield was brought about by the use of nearly twenty-seven acre-inches, which is equivalent to a cubic foot a second for nearly twenty-seven hours. On clay soil containing more sand the yield of wheat increased as the water in- creased up to forty inches. The largest yield of straw was produced with sixteen inches of water, and in adlual usage no pradlical irrigator would think of re- quiring more water than this. It seems preposterous in adlual prac5lice to apply such a needless quantity as forty acre-inches in one season, and even twenty - seven inches seems entirely beyond the requirements of common sense. When much moisture — rain or irrigation — is ap- plied to the growing crop the bran of the grain is made thicker and the flouring elements inferior. The least possible amount of moisture necessary to mature wheat makes the grain superior for milling purposes. This applies not to wheat alone, but all grain and forage plants as well. Too much water invariably dilutes or diminishes the feeding value of all plants. In arid climates all kinds of wheat become hard and flinty, so IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 21 5 much so that the miller finds it necessary to thoroughly wet the grain before grinding. This wetting process makes the bran tough, so that it is removed by means of the rollers almost entire. Wheat by Subirrigation. — The preparation of the soil for a crop of subirrigated wheat should begin ten months before sowing the seed. If peas were raised as a hay crop on ordinary far- western mineral- ized land the year previous, the grower would secure the double benefit of a large amount of cheap forage and an increased yield of wheat. In the subirrigated districft of the San I^uis valley, in Southern Colorado, where this system prevails more extensively, perhaps, than any other place in the world, the land is flooded in the early spring while water is abundant and carries sediment for enriching and settling the soil and germi- nating weed seeds. When the weeds are three to six inches high, plowing is begun with four horses abreast and a double plow, turning the soil from four to seven inches deep. No harrowing is necessary and very lit- tle is done except where weeds spring up on the sum- mer fallow, which is seldom the case. The land is left without further care until the following fall or spring, when vitrioled wheat is drilled in at the rate of sixty pounds an acre. The drill is set to run three inches deep, or as deep as is necessary to put the seed in moist soil. As soon as convenient after drilling the field is ditched for the subbing. If not previously done, a head ditch is made along the highest side of the field to receive the water from the supply lateral and distribute it to the irrigation trenches. These latter are made in parallel lines from 2l6 IRRIGATION FARMING. the head ditch to the extremity of the field and at such distances apart and of such size as the condition of the land determines. Generally, however, they are made from five to sixteen rods apart, leaving an equal number of acres in each land. Having made all the ditches necessary and received a supply of water, a small stream is turned from the head ditch into each irrigation trench, and regulated from time to time until the supply just equals the amount of seepage, leaving no water to overflow on the field or to waste at the ends. The flow of water is continued in the trenches from one to four weeks, or until every part of the field shows moisture at the surface. Water may then be shut out of the field entirely. Should the season bring a few showers no further application may be required. The need of water may be tested at any time by brushing away the surface soil in any part of the field that looks suspicious. Reasonably moist soil should be found at two inches depth. Oats. — The secret of raising oats successfully — as with almost all spring-sown crops — is found to consist in the quick germination of the seed, a rapid and healthy growth during the first stages, allowing no backset, and careful attention to the cultivation and irrigation. Oats require more water than does any other grain crop, and in very dry spells they may be irrigated in the earlier stage of growth every two weeks. The general treatment is the same as for wheat, only that greater quantities of water are usually needed. It is well to plant early, so as to get the bene- fit of snows and rain, that the seed may germinate of its own accord. When six inches high the principal IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 217 wetting should be given, and an acre foot is not too much water to apply at this time in the arid region, especially on sandy soil. Some people irrigate almost continuously from the time the crop commences to head until the grain begins to turn. The claim made is that the pracftice checks the first stand and forces the grain to root, stool and head more abundantly. The only objedlion to such copious irrigation is that it conduces to the smut or ergot evil. Barley. — Barley is an easy crop to raise, yet a little disagreeable on account of its beards. It grows quickly and matures early, and requires but half the water for irrigation usually given to oats, and con- siderably less than wheat. On an average it will pro- duce many more bushels to the acre than will wheat, and brings a better price. For the best success the land should be plowed moderately deep in the fall, then pul- verized thoroughly in the spring, and the seed put in early with a drill. Spring plowing will do, but not quite so well as fall plowing. Irrigation is quite essen- tial while the grain is filHng and during the early ripen- ing period. One and a qur.rter bushels of seed on rich land is a sufficiency to sow, and a good seed-bed is quite as necessary as any irrigation that may be given it. Black barley is said to have many advantages. It yields more to the acre than any other barley. But this is not its only good feature. It can be grown with less irrigation than can wheat, other barley, or oats. If sown early and watered plentifully until the first of July it will then head out and yield a fair crop without further irrigation. This has at least been our experi- 2l8 IRRIGATION FARMING. ence with this grain. The straw does not grow as long as other grain, but notwithstanding dry weather the heads will usually fill. We have noticed that farmers are often inclined to slight the barley crop, and when water is short give it to other fields. One peculiarity of barley is that it does not show to the eye the need of water until it may have suffered beyond redemption. When barley grows with a shortage of water it retains its natural color, but fails to grow long straws and stools but little. It throws all its strength into forming heads, and these begin to show at scarcely eight inches above ground. Water applied at this stage will carry these heads on to ripeness, but will not produce much more growth of straw, no more stooling, and the heads will have but few full kernels. Barley prefers an open, warm soil, tending to clay rather than sand, with good drainage. The Calif or- nians of later years have come to the conclusion that barley is best of all the grain crops as tolerant of alkali. Professor Hilgard has maintained that while sugar-beets and wheat will resist from 18,000 to 20,000 pounds of alkali to an acre, barley will withstand 32,000 pounds within a depth of three feet. Barley does better on rich soil and thrives well on land the first year after treating with stable manure, but, of course, in this latter case the crops require much more care in the irrigating and considerably more water. When well fed and watered the growth is enormous, and the probability is that some of it will lodge. Still, lodging does but little damage. The heaviest yields we have ever seen were from stands badly lodged. IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 219 One in particular lodged quite badly and went down flat, but the last few inches of the stalk turned up enough to keep the heads off the ground, and though difficult to cut and bind, the grains were plump, well filled out, and the yield was enormous. Rye. — Of all the cereal crops rye will need a lesser quantity of water and will take care of itself where other things will fail. With a reasonable amount of moisture for germination rye will often get along with but one light soaking any time during its half growth, but if the plants are lagging and seem inclined to dwindle they may be irrigated at any time, and once a month with a medium wetting would do no harm. We have found that in the absence of adequate rains land to be sown to winter rye should be flooded with five inches of water before plowing the ground preparatory to seeding. As soon thereafter as the ground is in order, plow and follow with a harrow or other suitable implement to pulverize all clods. The ground will then be in excellent condition to seed, which should be done with a press drill, preferably run northeast and southwest. No more water is required until just before freezing- up time, when a flooding equal to three or four inches of water should be given the rye fields. Generally this is done about the last week in November in Colorado. Again in the spring, as soon as frost is out of the ground, give another flooding of three or four inches. Once more only, and just when the first indication of heading is seen, give the last flooding of three inches, which completes the irrigation. These rules will apply to winter wheat as well. 220 IRRIGATION FARMING. Corn. — The preparation of the soil before planting has more to do with the outcome of the crop than any other operation. Com roots have the habit of grow- ing downward as well as branching. They are deep and broad feeders, in consequence of which the soil must be made loose and mellow to a considerable depth to secure full development. I^and for corn should be plowed to an average depth of ten inches or more for this and another very important reason. Those familiar with the conditions of irrigation know with what rapidity a compa<5l soil looses moisture. Land should always be well irrigated before* plowing, if not sufiS- ciently moist. As irrigation restores the soil to its for- mer compac5lness, it should never be applied upon soils freshly plowed and prepared for planting, unless required to germinate the seed. There are advantages claimed for spring plowing. It enables the farmer to control moisture in making the operations of irrigating, plowing and planting continuous. Irrigating to ger- minate seed after planting should never be practiced, as much of the seed becomes ruined, and feeble growth takes place, which can seldom if ever be overcome by cultivation. Usually two waterings are sufficient dur- ing the growth of a crop, and often one irrigation is preferable. If the soil contains sufficient moisture in the spring to start the crop to a thrifty growing con- dition, and growth seems not to be retarded for want of moisture, watering can be delayed until the tassels begin to appear, at which time drouth would cause great injury to the crop. The mistake is often made in the use of a large head of water while irrigating corn and in attempting IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 221 to get it properly distributed over large areas and through long rows. Much of the land thus watered becomes too wet, while other portions receive an in- sufficient supply. In neither case can the best results be expedled. Another very serious objedlion to irri- gating with a large head of water is that the water generally contains much insoluble earthy matter, which is ever being deposited as sediment. Waterways become coated and moisture fails to penetrate to the roots of plants along their course. To irrigate properly the furrows must be well made and as nearly free of obstrucftions as careful methods will permit. The slope of the land will determine the distance it is prac- ticable to run water for uniform results. No greater quantity should be turned into each furrow than will flow with uniform rate. Seepage is slow at best and it usuallj^ takes many hours to secure the proper amount of moisture to the soil to prove of lasting benefit. In irrigating corn no great quantities of water are neces- sary, as is the case with root crops. While irrigation at the proper time is often essential to the right develop- ment of the corn produdl, the crop is impaired by excessive watering, and hence there is no more certain way of retarding growth and maturity than by the careless application of water. Better not irrigate at all than to use water lavishly. After the grain glazes there is no further need of water to mature the crop. Caution is advised in irrigating corn on sandy land that the stalks are not washed out at the roots and thus tumble over. One of the most successful methods of growing corn by irrigation is to plow irrigating-furrows three 222 IRRIGATION FARMING. feet eight inches apart, using a single shovel-plow for the purpose and plant the com in the small ridge left on the side of the furrow, using an ordinary hand corn-planter for small trails. Always plant on the same side of the furrow in the cross of the mark and ridge. Never plant com in drills if it is to be culti- vated. It is a waste of time and labor, as the hoe will surely have to be used in order to keep the weeds down. On the other hand, if the corn is check-rowed nothing but a two-horse cultivator will be needed to keep the field perfectly clean. Before the corn comes up, harrow thoroughly, twice being usually sufficient. This is better than cultivating, and leaves the ground smooth and in excellent condition. In planting large areas the two-horse planter may be used, and should it be necessary to irrigate the crop up, a small furrow may be made at one side of the row for that purpose. Corn ground should not be allowed to become so dry as to cause the leaves to curl, as some farmers persist in doing and advise others to do. Keep the ground moist. The matter of thorough cultivation should not be over- looked, as is too often the case. As a rule corn should be cultivated four times during the season. It should be borne in mind the more thorough the cultivation the more satisfactory will be the result. Care should be taken not to disturb the roots during the last culti- vation or after the spur roots begin to form. It has been said that a handful of salt placed around the hills at the time of tasseling will prevent the ravages of the boll worm in the end of the ears. Egyptian Corn. — Plow the ground into ridges IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 223 three or four feet apart, run the water through deep furrows, then level the ridges down and with a disc harrow stir the soil perfedlly and cut it fine. Then when it is completely level plant with a double-row corn planter. A single one will answer, of course, but the better is the double-row planter with the check- row attachment, letting a boy work the handles as fast as he can conveniently, so as to drop four or five seeds in a place, and not more than eighteen or twenty inches apart in the rows. The planters make the rows three feet eight inches apart, which is convenient for culti- vation. The disc harrow which is used for ridging and cultivating is perhaps one of the best cultivators, although any cultivator which can be used for corn will serve the purpose. The ground being well watered before planting, the seed should germinate and make a growth of at least eight or ten inches before any cul- tivation is needed. Then throw a slight ridge, or, with the disc set to leave a good center furrow, throw a ridge on either side of the corn, but not letting it bury the corn. Leave it with this cultivation until it is eighteen inches high, without further watering. Then in the furrows which have been made by the cul- tivator give the ground a thorough soaking, and as soon as possible afterward go through with the culti- vators. Then there is no objecftion to hilling the plant somewhat. This will be the only cultivation necessary to complete the growth of the crop. If planted before the first of May, it ought to be ready for harvesting in August. After the corn has been removed, another thorough watering between the rows will put the ground in excellent condition for another cultivation. 224 IRRIGATION FARMING. which will insure a rapid growth of suckers from the root of the plant. It will throw up a mass of new growth, which will not mature grain, but which will make from two to four tons of fine forage to the acre. Kindred crops such as Jerusalem com, Kafir corn, sorghum, dhourra, Milo maize, imphees, teosinte, and other non-saccharine forage crops which have become quite popular of late years in the arid region, may be irrigated and cultivated substantially the same as Egyptian corn. When sorghum is grown for syrup it needs a good deal of irrigation up to a certain point — that is, when it has commenced its adlive growth, after which water should be applied sparingly; other- wise the sap will be diluted and impaired in quality. No water should be given within a month of cutting. Broom corn needs but little water if the cultivation is conscientiously done. At the time of the heading out of the panicle, however, water should be given plenti- fully to force a good growth of brush and produce a smooth, long, and straight fiber. Of course when ex- cessive drouth is prevalent all these crops must be irri- gated more frequently, say once a month, in order to induce a steady growth. The various millets should receive the same treatment virtually as prescribed for broom corn. In raising millet at the higher altitudes in the Rocky Mountain region, care must be taken not to irri- gate more than is absoluely necessary to keep the crop from drying out. Beans. — The ground should be plowed at least eight inches deep. A sandy loam is much preferable to a heavier soil. After the ground is plowed it should be IRRIGATION OP FIELD CROPS. 225 thoroughly irrigated. When sufficiently dry plant the beans in rows twenty-eight inches apart, three or four beans to every foot. Irrigate as soon as three or four leaves appear, which will be within a week after they come up. As soon as dry thoroughly cultivate. Irri- gate again about the time that they are in bloom, and give one or two light irrigations afterw^ard, thoroughly cultivating the ground after each irrigation. We have found that the best method of irrigating is by ditching with a single-shovel plow and irrigating in every other row alternately. The water should not be permitted to come in contadl with the plants. Beans should be planted as soon as danger of frost is past. The prepa- rations for irrigation may be made with the first culti- vation, and the space between the rows should be util- ized for the watercourse. Irrigation should take place in ordinary dry weather at least once every ten days, and the crop needs plenty of moisture, especially while the plants are in blossom. If after the blossom is com- plete the weeds show a preponderance of growth, threatening to choke the progress of the crop, a shallow cultivation should be given, and this will terminate the work for the season. After the pod has fully formed there will be less necessity for water, and as a rule the bean requires no irrigation after the legumes are half grown, for the crop is then made and the harvest cer- tain. The best way to harvest is with a machine working something like a horse-rake. Threshing se- cures the beans. For field varieties we prefer such sorts as the Mexican, Red and White Kidney, Lima and the Marrow, rather than the Navy, which, how- ever, is largely produced by some growers. 226 IRRIGATION FARMING. Peas. — This crop may be planted for either grain or forage, and in a general way the handling of the crop is not materially different from that for beans. Planting should be done by the first of April, and un- less the season is an exceptionally dry one, irrigation about the first of July, or just at the blossoming period, is all that is demanded. For grain the peas may be sown in drills, or broadcast. Forty pounds to the acre in the former case and sixty-five in the latter are about right. If broadcasted the seed should be lightly plowed under. For forage growth alone it is best to sow broadcast two and one-half bushels an acre of the smaller Canadian field pea, and three to three and one- half bushels of the Marrowfat. Then cross-plow the seed under not less than four inches deep. Add to these one bushel of oats an acre, and after the seed is well put in mark out the field furrows about the same as for grain. It is always best to irrigate when the peas are in blossom, and then, when they are past the boiling stage and the pods are green enough to dry and hold the grain, cut them with a mowing-machine, throwing each swath out of the way. For hay do not allow the ground to dry, as prolific growth of vine is what is desired. Some years it will take four or five irrigations, while other years three will be found suffi- cient. The great secret in raising pea hay is in curing it. For small crops the best way is to cut the vines with a hand scythe, and let them lay as cut for twenty- four hours; then take a fork and make them into large cocks, which should remain undisturbed for a period of two weeks, by which time they are well cured. Never open them. When they are ready to stack simply turn IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 227 the cocks over one day before drawing them in, as the bottom of the cock will be found to contain enough moisture to make them mold in the stack if not dried before hauling. Peas put up in this way will be as green in January and February as they were in the previous June and July. Rice. — In growing this crop by irrigation in the south it is best to selecfl a tradl of level land, which should lie so that it may be surrounded by a low levee, for the purpose of retaining the water on the field. It is plowed into beds fifty feet in width, thoroughly pul- verized, and put into condition to receive the seed. Eighty to ninety pounds of rice to the acre is sown with a seeder in the latter part of March, or in April, sometimes as late as June, though the late-sown rice is not so apt to make a good crop as the earlier sown. After seeding, the ground is thoroughly harrowed, that all the seed may be well covered ; then the harrow is followed with a roller, in many instances, to crush down clods and lumps, and make a good, smooth seed- bed. When the young rice has grown to four or five inches in hight irrigating is begun, usually by pumps, putting on an average of two inches of depth of water over the whole field, but not enough to cover the young plants. As the rice grows the water is increased in depth, following the growth of the rice with the water, until there is a depth of six to ten inches over the whole field. This depth is maintained until the rice is headed out, and the grain formed and grown well out of the milk ; in fadl, until the dough stage, as it would be called in wheat. At this time the water is drawn off the land, and by the time it has dried out so 228 IRRIGATION FARMING. the binder can be run, the rice is ripe and ready to cut. It is cut with the ordinary self-binding harvester, is shocked up in shocks of twenty-five to thirty bundles each, these shocks well capped with four bundles broken down at the band, and then left until well cured and ready for the separator. Flax. — This is one of the negle(5led crops of the United States, but it is coming into favor more com- monly here in the west. The crop requires but little moisture, and if furnished early in the season insures a yield. Flax may be sown any time in May, for good results, though as late as the middle of June is not ob- jedlionable if the ground at that time is found to con- tain enough moisture to germinate the seed and pro- mote plant growth. Not less than forty-five pounds of seed should be sown on an acre, while fifty pounds will give better results in most cases. The yield of flaxseed varies all the way from eight to twenty-five bushels to the acre. It should be sown in drills nine inches apart, or if broadcast the corrugated roller may be profitably employed. As the crop is grown mostly for fiber, the value of which depends greatly upon the length and fineness of the stems, it should be kept growing steadily, and may be irrigated every three or four weeks with light heads calculated to sink deep into the soil, so as not to coax the roots toward the top. After the plants are three-quarters grown with- hold the w^ater and thus give the fiber a chance to ripen properly before cutting. The plant while growing is very tender, and ex- treme care must be used in irrigating. Water must not be allowed to stand on the land after an irrigation IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 229 or the plants will scald. Use the smallest amount of water possible for irrigation. The plants will stand fully as much dry weather as oats, and a few showers of rain at the right period might make a full crop without irrigation even in the arid regions. It should be cut as soon as the majority of the bolls show a light brown color and the seed itself the same color, not waiting for the straw to turn, for the seed will shell if left until the straw ripens. Almost any harvester can be used, but do not use the binding attachment. It is better to have a man follow the machine, putting about a half dozen gavels in a shock with the heads up, and if the work is properly done these small shocks will soon settle and withstand any amount of rain without heating or sprouting. Leave the bunches in the field until ready to thresh and then haul diredtly to the machine without stack- ing, using a hay-rack upon which is placed a wagon or stack cover to catch the loose seed. A good yield of flaxseed under irrigation should be fifteen bushels an acre, although here in Colorado we have produced crops averaging twenty-eight bushels an acre. The ground should be left level and smooth after sowing, so that the straw may be cut as low as possible. If the land could be watered diredlly after cutting it would make a quick second growth and excellent fall feed. Some people have thought that flax culture could not be successfully practiced on the high plateaus of the arid region for the reason that the woody substance of the straw could not be rotted so as to make the fiber in condition to hetchel, but quite to the contrary this is the country to perfedlly put the straw in condition 230 IRRIGATION FARMING. to work the fiber out of it. A ditch can bemade lead- ing to a bed in which to place the straw so as to turn on water, and when at the right stage the water may be drawn off and the fiber worked at the will of the grower. The climate is such that the fiber can be air- dried in the open. Hemp. — Irrigation very much improves this crop as it does flax. The land is laid off into beds three feet wide, with spaces of a foot between each plat. The seed is sown on these beds after the entire field has re- ceived a good preparatory soaking. The spaces be- tween the beds are reserved for cultivating and irrigat- ing. After the seed has germinated a good irrigation is given through the furrows, and the water is best applied when run slowly, so that it will seep through the beds from each side. Every ten days the field should be irrigated until within a fortnight of the flow- ering period, when watering should cease. If irri- gated during the flowering the pistillate flowers are weakened in fertilization and there will be a decreased seed crop. As soon as the pollen has been shed the stamina te stalks should be pulled out, so as to give more room for the ripening of the seed. It is quite necessary through all hemp culture to keep the soil well moistened, but not so saturated as to be classed as too wet. Cotton. — But few crops need so little water as does cotton, the only essential point being to keep the soil in a moist condition. Plow high ridges or beds four and one-half feet wide, much the same as for hemp, but provide the irrigating furrow lengthwise in the middle, using a small shovel-plow for this purpose. IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 23! Give the beds a good preparatory irrigation. Sow the seed an inch deep in opened drills and press down firmly after depositing the seed. If the bed has had a liberal soaking, as described, but one more irrigation usually is required, and this should be given as the plants begin to boll. The plowing is done in Febru- ary and the sowing takes place in March. Hops. — This crop will grow on a great variety of soils, but the deep alluvial river bottom mixed with clay will produce the best quality and greatest quan- tity. While hop roots must have moisture, and in friable lands will go deep in search of it, wet lands are not the best and are even unsuitable. Hops are per- ennial, and when set in kindly soil the roots will go down several feet and will draw moisture from very great depths in any weather, unless prevented by a hard subsoil. To secure the best results it is abso- lutely necessary to seledl soil that is naturally drained, or that which is thoroughly underdrained before planting. A yard set 6x6 feet will give 1,031 hills to the acre. Take the sets from the pruned runners and cut them in pieces so as to have three pairs of eyes to each piece. Plant these pieces at the proper dis- tances, being careful to place them three or four inches deep. Thus when the land washes level the crown will be under the ground. The first move toward cul- tivating a crop is the pruning. This should be done early. All runners should be removed and the crown cut back, when found growing above the surface. Heavy pruning is not desirable, especially on light soil. Neither is it well to omit pruning altogether in any year. Irrigation can be done by flooding, or by 232 IRRIGATION FARMING. furrows, the latter being the better plan, and once every three or four weeks will suffice. The water should run for twelve hours at a time, and a good wetting just as the buds are forming is very beneficial. No water should be put on after the 1 5th of August, as the crop is then guaranteed. Tobacco. — The soil should be carefully prepared before time to transplant from the frames. Irrigation furrows between the three-foot rows should be made deep and must be in readiness so that the water may follow closely upon the setting out. If the soil is moist the plants may be set and the damp earth firmed. If the soil is dry a puddle should be made for the roots, and a small irrigating stream should be allowed to trickle past until the plants take new root. Trans- planting is done the same as with cabbages or toma- toes, and the modern plan, where the acreage is large, is to use the transplanting machine drawn by a team. This machine has an automatic jet of water for each hill as the plant is set, and is a great labor-saving device. Frequent cultivation is necessary, but water should be applied very cautiously. Too much water causes the tobacco to * * f rench ' ' and become worthless. If not enough water is used the plants will soon wither and parch, thus becoming of no use as a crop. The tops should be pinched out after the plants reach a hight of thirty inches. This topping process will be followed by a crop of suckers equal in number to the leaves on each plant. These must be removed twice, at least, before the tobacco is ready for cutting. One irrigation during the middle period of growth is usu- ally sufficient for tobacco, providing the cultivation IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 233 has been carefully attended to. If the soil is excep- tionally dry and warm, however, irrigation may occur every ten days after a month from the transplanting, but no moisture to the root is needed after the plants are topped. In arid America the leaves need artificial sprinkling to produce salable fiber. The ordinary fruit tree sprayers may be used and the plants given two or three light showers in the early evening after the plants begin to ripen. This will supply the defi- ciency in air moisture and cause the fibers to thicken and become more solid. Potatoes. — Here is something that requires scien- tific irrigation. The ground intended for an irrigated crop should be a smooth piece, having sufi&cient slope to make the water run freely between the rows. It should be plowed eight inches deep, or more, and then harrowed and dragged until the soil is firm through- out and thoroughly pulverized on the surface. Lay off the ground in rows three and one-half feet apart with a corn marker, or a small shovel which will make a .shallow furrow, the rows running the same way the ground slopes, if it is not too steep. A slope of seven to ten feet to the mile gives good results. The distance apart in the rows depends upon the variety. If the Early Ohio, which grows the smallest vines of any variety , be used I would advise planting ten inches apart in the row. If the Peach Blow, which grows the largest vines of any variety, be used, I would advise a distance of twenty-one inches apart. The rows should be from three feet to three feet six inches apart. The closer you have the rows, and yet be able to work with horses conveniently, the better, 234 IRRIGATION FARMING. because the more compa<5l the mat of tops of the vines the better the ground will be prote<5led from the dire(5l rays of the sun — so that, after irrigation, the moisture may be retained in the ground, as the potato delights in a cool, moist soil. Cover by throwing up from each side a good slice with a two-horse stirring plow. This will cover the potatoes to a good depth and leave them in ridges for irrigation. We always make it a point to give the prepared ground a good flooding before planting unless the heavens have wept copiously to moisten the ground. We plant in Colorado from May 2oth to June loth. For seed we prefer the half-cut tuber, although this is a matter of one's own judgment. When the sprouts appear above ground we go over the patch with a slant-tooth drag to loosen the soil. There is no danger of injuring the plant in this way. We are not able to say just when potatoes should be irrigated. In that, as in size of seed, no rule will hold good. Some varieties require more water than do others, and some soils require more than others. .Water applied too soon will often turn the vines yellow and permanently check their growth. On the other hand, if the ground is very dry at the period when potatoes are setting, as we term the formation of the young tubers, it often happens that no after application of the water will remedy the matter, and a short crop is the result. As a general rule, it is much better for the crop that the vines should attain a good degree of growth and be well in blossom before water is applied, but there is no fixed rule as to this. When the ground gets very dry and hot, and the vines turn dark-colored IRRIGATION OF FIEI.D CROPS. 235 and cease to grow, water becomes a necessity at no matter what season, unless the crop has already or nearly matured. If the spring has been cold and very backward, and the subsoil is still lacking in warmth, it will be found fatal to the potato plant to apply water, even if the soil is very dry. It has been found that soils that are heavily manured will take water at an earlier date in the spring without injury to the plant than will poor, thin soils; also by reason of the undecayed manure applied, it is necessary to use water sooner than on unmanured soil. One good watering will often mature a crop of pota- toes, but if the growth of vines is heavy and shades the ground well, two, or even three, waterings will in- crease the yield, and can in no ordinary case injure it. Each application of water should be followed im- mediately with thorough cultivation until the vines are too large or the tubers too near grown to permit of it. Nothing is so damaging to a growing crop as to leave the furrow or gutter in which the water has run to bake and dry in the sun. Even when the advanced growth of the vines and tubers will not permit it near the base of the hill, cultivation may still continue with profit as long as the furrow is in sight in the middle of the row. In watering, it is best not to try to run water "'through too long rows. As a rule it is best not to have the rows over 40 rods in length. If the ground is very steep, of course, the water will run quickly through, but it will have to run longer than in a row with less fall, to give it time to soak in ; and if the rows are too long, by the time the water is through and the lower 236 IRRIGATION FARMING. end is wet enough, the upper end will have had too much. If the ground has too little fall, the least clod will clog up the rows and flood the surface. See that there is a free opening at the lower end of each row, or the water will back up in row after row for rods, and flood and ruin the crop. In sandy soils water should not continue to run more than three or four hours, while in tenacious soils the irrigation may continue eight or ten hours at a time. After once irrigating it is very important that the ground should never be allowed to become dry, thus stopping the growth of the potato. For if we permit the growth of a potato to stop, and by irrigation it again starts to grow, it will either increase irregularly in size or set a second crop, thus giving a large number of small potatoes or a crop of ill-shaped ones. The irrigation is usually discontinued about the first of September, although if it is a dry fall a later irrigation may be needed. A potato field under irrigation is the subjedl of Fig. 61. Around Greeley, Colorado, where potatoes are so successfully raised, though they may appear to need water, the farmers are careful not to irrigate them until after the young tubers are set. The reason for this is obvious. When irrigated immediately before setting, a greater number of potatoes will be formed than the plant can properly support, few of them becoming large enough for market. When the tubers are allowed to form first and are irrigated afterwards, fewer potatoes will form in each hill, but a large crop of marketable tubers is the result. Keeping the ground mellow by thorough and deep cultivation is important. If the IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 237 ground is dry, irrigate some time before beginning to set. If kept too wet, a large amount of tops and few potatoes will be produced. Never flood the potato field nor allow the water to reach the crown or stem of the plants. Always bear in mind that it is the roots and not the tubers that are to be watered. By the time the plants are four or five inches high the roots are several times that long and no FIG. 61 — IRRIGATING A CROP OF POTATOES. more deep cultivation should be given them. Use some form of cultivator that will keep about two inches of the surface thoroughly pulverized. As said before, it is advisable on sandy loam as soon as planting is done to harrow with the row, using bull-tongues set to run as deep as possible next to the row, the outside ones being set shallow. As the potatoes begin to grow reverse the shovels, running the outside deep and the inside ones shallow, so as not to disturb the roots. The 238 IRRIGATION FARMING. more recently invented weeders are considered better than the harrow, as they are hghter, the teeth are finer or closer, do not injure the tops, and as they require but one horse much tramping on the ground is prevented. They destroy all weeds in the rows, thereby saving considerable hand-work. It is better to avoid irrigat- ing during hot sultry weather, for if the soil is allowed to become too dry the potato plants are weakened. When irrigated at such time the conditions conducive to fungous diseases, such as blight and rust, are bound to prevail. Since the first appearance of ' ' Irrigation Farming ' ' some of the older and more experienced spud growers in the famous district around Greeley, Colorado, where as many as 20,000 carloads of marketable potatoes are grown in one season, have changed their views regard- ing the proprieties of irrigation. Experience and prac- tice are entirely different now. As the growers began 'jK^to apply manure in quantities to the land in order, primarily, to increase the fertility and the resulting yield, they made some discoveries : First, that the plants needed more water or the manure would bum them, and, further, that with richer soil and more plant- food, rendered soluble and available by water and cul- tivation, potatoes could stand more irrigation and earlier in the season, not only without injury but with material and perceptible benefit. Now they apply twice the amount of water they formerly thought either safe or necessary. At one time in the history of potato farming near Greeley the growers calculated that if it became necessary to irrigate potatoes to bring them up the chances were about even between total failure if IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 239 they did not put on the water and a pradlically com- plete failure if they did so. The moment the growers get done planting nowa- days, if the ground is too dry to germinate the seed, and if the prospe(5l of copious rainfall is not extremely favorable, no one fears and very few hesitate to furrow out the ground and turn on the water at once. If the seed is in fair condition it is the uniform experience that the young plants will push themselves through the earth in an astonishingly short time and grow vig- orously after they come up. Two irrigations were formerly considered sufficient under ordinary circum- stances as to the rainfall to mature an average crop and three irrigations under the conditions of extreme drouth. As the country grows older and improved methods of cultivation supersede the first primitive efforts, as the soil increases in humus by liberal coatings of manure, or by the turning under of masses of green alfelfa, rich in nitrogen and other plant-foods, more and more water is necessarily required to produce the best results. In many instances the potatoes are irrigated from four to eight times, and when there is sufficient supply of water the growers do not hesitate to run water down the potato rows once every week from the time it first becomes necessary or advisable to irrigate until the growth of tubers and vines is completed. It must be understood, however, that this condition prevails only when the soil is well drained, thoroughly enriched with manure or alfalfa, and cultivation is thorough. The strong point in the whole business is to keep the ground at an even, moist temperature. In very dry 240 IRRIGATION FARMING. seasons this subjedl of moisture becomes a good deal of a worry and water has to be doled out sparingly. In certain localities around Greeley large reservoirs have been construdled to supply sufficient irrigation, and farmers living under these reservoirs are fortunate in being so advantageously situated. With short water the need of cultivation becomes more imperative and must be conscientiously carried out. Sweet Potatoes. — The most successful growers find it best to plant the seed in hotbeds about the last of March. The seed will yield two and three sets of plants, which are transplanted in the open ground from the first of May to the first of July. Seed potatoes weigh from two ounces to one pound, and the trans- planting is done when the plants are eight to twelve inches long. The field is plowed twelve inches deep and the rows are thrown up three and one-half feet apart, and the plants are set eighteen inches apart in the row. This requires 8,500 plants to an acre. The irrigating water follows closely upon the work of trans- planting, and in ten days another irrigation may be given with a good head of water, which is let on for five or six hours. Irrigations continue at intervals of two weeks or oftener, according to the condition of the weather, until the tubers are half grown, when irriga- tion is discontinued. Do not put on too much water, and it should not come up more than two-thirds the hight of the ridges, if it can be helped. The ground is not disturbed during the growing season by cultiva- tion, but the weeds are hoed off close to the ground once or twice during the season. In harvesting, a furrow is plowed on one side and IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 24I close Up to a row of potatoes, then the return furrow on the other side throws the tubers out and they are picked up by hand. After the transplanting is done the roots go directly down to the hard surface of the under soil, and the potato grows in an upright position from that point. The Bermudas are the largest variety, and the Nansemonds are the smaller ones, while a most popular market variety is the Jersey Sweet. Sugar-Beets. — The seed-bed should be thoroughly pulverized, to kill the young weeds, just before plant- ing. As soon as tlie ground is warm the seed should be planted two inches deep, in drills from sixteen to twenty-four inches apart. If hand-planted, ten to fif- teen pounds of seed to the acre is sufficient. If drilled in, use fifteen to twenty pounds of seed. Any good garden drill will di:), and grain drills can be used by closing some of the openings. The earth should be pressed close to the seed by a following wheel with a two-inch tire, on the principle of the press drills. The depressed seed row a(5ls as a catch-basin for any slight rainfall, and at the same time shelters the seed from drying winds. Rolling the whole ground has proved injurious, as it brings all the soil moisture to the sur- face to be swept away by the dry wind. Seed drilled on ridges remains dry in the arid climate until the fur- rows between are filled with irrigation water. Culti- vation tends to uncover the tops of beets growing on these ridges, and the uncovered portion is unfit for sugar. If the ground be so dry that the seed must be irrigated it should not be flooded, for thereby many seeds will be washed away and the sprouting seeds 242 IRRIGATION FARMING. force their way with difficulty through the resulting caked surface. Shallow irrigating furrows should be made midway between the rows, and the water will reach the seeds by seepage. These furrows can be made at the time of drilling by an attachment like a corn- row marker, which could also be used separately after drilling. If the ground is moist enough to bring up the seed, the irrigating furrows need not be made until the operation will kill many sprouting weed seeds. Further cultivation can be done with a hand hoe or the many forms of garden and horse cultivators. The soil should be kept mellow. The more cultivation the more sugar. Hilling is not necessary, as good varieties of sugar-beets grow very little root above ground. When the beets have from four to six leaves they should be thinned to single plants four to eight inches apart in the row. Thin to four inches in very rich ground and to more than eight inches in very poor ground. The long roots of the beets gather so much moisture from the subsoil that they require less irriga- tion water than do the shallow-rooted grains and grasses. During the fall the beet requires a dry sur- face soil to increase its saccharine content, and will thrive, getting all the moisture it needs from the sum- mer irrigated subsoil. Stop the irrigation early. Guard against seepage from surrounding land, and, above all, avoid such an excess of water as to flood the ground or accumulate in pools on any portion of it. Irrigators of sugar-beets learn to use less water each year. The foregoing instrudtions apply to beets grown for the sugar fadlories. Producing them for live stock IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 243 demands more frequent wetting and a forced habit of growth throughout. We have reHed upon from four to seven irrigations in a season of subsoiled land, and have had the most flattering success when the water was applied at least every fortnight from the first of June. Turnips, Beets, and Carrots. — These may be irrigated at any time, the only care necessary being to keep the ground mellow and in good tilth. Field tur- nips for live-stock feeding should be sown broadcast about the first of August. Set out the irrigating fur- rows every six or ten feet, according to the porosity of the soil, and have them run at an easy grade. Wait long and patiently for the seed to germinate before irrigating for that purpose. Never flood turnip, pars- nip, or carrot ground, as the water would rot the crowns ; undersoaking is the thing. Give frequent irrigations until the root has fully formed. After the plants are large enough to shade the ground irrigation is scarcely necessary, and it might prove an injury and cause decay. Such roots do best on black, loamy soil, containing much decomposed vegetable mold, but like most crops will grow anywhere and yield in proportion to land, cultivation, and general conditions. The soil should be thoroughly pulverized, leveled, and rolled before sowing. Deep plowing is not necessary, and some successful growers merely loosen the surface with garden cultivators. Seed may be sown broadcast or drilled in rows about fifteen inches apart. Two or three pounds of seed will plant an acre. A slight covering is sufficient, and some growers cultivate lightly 244 IRRIGATION FARMING. after sowing and marking out irrigating ditches for turnips as closely as twenty inches apart if sown broad- cast. When sown in drills clean cultivation by shallow plowing or harrowing will increase the yield and make more uniform roots. Weeds must be kept down to insure good results. Irrigation by the furrow system is no doubt best unless there is some method of sub- surface water in use. Small plants require moisture but will not stand much water, and therefore should be irrigated very sparingly. It is a good idea to run the water through the small ditches just long enough to moisten the surface on each side. Too much water will cause the soil to bake or become soggy, and shorten the yield in proportion to the excess of irriga- tion. The writer believes that in field culture of turnips better results will be realized by the use of the corrugating roller instead of plowing out the furrows in the old-fashioned way. Canaigre. — This is a species of dock- weed coming into great popularity in the southwest on account of the tannic acid contained in the roots. The tubers must be planted in the early fall, much the same as potatoes. With rain or irrigation in the fall the leaves appear and a new crop of roots is formed. The irriga- tion should begin by Ocftober ist, and the soil should be kept moist through the winter and up to May ist, after which no more water is needed until August ist, the harvest taking place late in September. Deep cul- tivation should be pra(5licied after each irrigation, and between times if the land • requires it. With most lands five irrigations should be given the year's crop and at least as many cultivations. An average yield IRRIGATION OF FIELD CROPS. 245 is anywhere from fifteen to twenty tons to the acre, and the crop is gathered with a potato digger. Meadows. — Grasses may be irrigated at almost any time during the season. The best native hay grasses, the blue stems, poas, timothy, fescues, grama, etc., produce stems just underneath or at the surface of the ground. Wherever these underground stems or rootstalks are broken, other stems and leaves will grow. If these grasses are not thick enough, a thorough harrowing in the spring before the water is turned on answers the double purpose of breaking up the rootstalks, causing the sod to thicken, increasing the yield and leaving the ground in the best condition for absorbing water. Native meadows should be sup- plied with comparatively large amounts of water in the spring before the stalks begin to shoot, if the rainfall has been insufficient. No water should be given any hay crop for some length of time before it is to be cut. This allows the plant to store up larger amounts of nutrition, and the ground is firm and in good condition for cutting and curing the hay. Alfalfa and other clovers, where more than one crop is to be harvested in the season, .should be quickly and thoroughly irri- gated soon after the previous crop has been removed. One irrigation is usually sufficient for each crop. The same treatment should be given native meadows which are to be used for pasture. The stubble is easy to irrigate, and in this condition the plants need moisture to enable them to put forth a new growth. In England meadow irrigation is quite commonly pracfliced. In many places a tide of rainwater is turned into stockyards having descending surfaces, the 246 IRRIGATION FARMING. water running through the manure and carrying the fertilizing material into a large pond at the lower side of the yard. The pond thus serves as a reservoir for the water, which has gathered the best elements of the manure it passed through in flowing to the pond. At the farther side of the pond a plug of wood four to six inches thick and four feet long is inserted in a pipe under the water, the pipe extending four to six feet into a small watercourse in an adjoining pasture. This watercourse has only a little descent, sufficient to let water flow along it. After heavy showers the plug is drawn, and the water and manure it contains let through the pipe into the pasture, where it is ap- plied both in irrigating and fertilizing. The result is a very large crop of grass. There is no crop grown in the Rocky Mountain region in which the use of water becomes an abuse as in t!ie irrigation of hay meadows or vegas. The ex- travagant application of water in such irrigation has become an evil, the extent of which has become almost proverbial. Over a large part of the country where meadows are irrigated for the produc5lion of hay, it is the common pra&' s> « f ^ ^ ^' ®p «^ 4 ^ '^ ^ * g> % -^ ^ 4 «' s -B^ ^ ■^ # ^ s*^ % 4 %. ^ ® t -^ ^ ^ ^ ^ &# -*«? % -^ ■«55fc- FIG. 62 — DIAGRAM OF GARDEN. 252 IRRIGATION FARMING. to plant. Set the roots down four to six inches below the even surface of the garden and draw the soil back into the furrow. One or two rows across the garden will be all that is needed for family use. If more than one row, make them four feet apart and set a foot to eighteen inches in the row. Set early in the bpringi To irrigate, run a furrow with a light plow a FIG. 63 — IRRIGATED GARDEN. foot or so from the row, and water well without per- mitting the water to leave the furrow. As soon as the soil is dry enough, run the cultivator down the rows to fill the furrow and keep the soil from baking. Repeat the process as often as water is needed and cultivate frequently. The writer sets two-year-old roots, using the Colossal and Palmetto varieties. We find it IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 253 advisable to hoe the soil gradually up to fomi a ridge two feet wide over the plants, thus leaving a fur- row of equal width between the ridges. In this way the roots of the plants are covered by a great depth of soil, and as the surface of the ridge to the depth of twelve inches is loose and dry, no attempt is made by the roots to push their way upward. When the young shoots start to grow they have to push through a con- siderable space of loose soil on the ridges, and they can be cut at a point seven or eight inches below the sur- face as soon as the tips appear above ground and be- fore they begin to get green. Asparagus is rather partial to water, and irrigation may go on every ten days or two weeks during the cutting season, wi.\ile once a month thereafter will suffice. Celery. — The writer never had knowledge of a garden crop that needs more water than does celery. It does best in a soil that is naturally moist and is sup- plied with an abundance of vegetable matter. The market gardener generally raises two crops of celery — early and late. The early crop is usually disposed of during the late summer and fall months, while a late crop is stored for winter and spring use. For an early crop the seed is sown about the first of March in a moderate hotbed, in drills two inches apart. The soil should be made very rich and the bed well watered, to give the plants a good start. When the plants have grown to a fair size, they are usually transplanted into a cold frame. However, this practice of transplanting celery is rapidly disappearing. Experience has proven beyond a doubt that celery so treated will produce a larger per cent, of plants that go 254 IRRIGATION FARMING. to seed, and therefore become worthless. The plants, while in the seed-bed; should be shorn off at least twice, in order to make them stocky and form a quantity of fibrous roots. When the plants have attained the propel size — that is, from three to four inches — they should be transplanted into their permanent bed, which must be well fertilized with short and well-rotted manure, in rows five feet apart, and the plants set eight inches apart in the row. After transplanting the plants they should be given a good soaking by running the water down the rows, and if the weather is dry they must be irrigated at least once every week or ten days and cultivated after each irrigation. Some grow- ers are more extravagant than this and irrigate as fre- quently as three times a week. In six weeks from set- ting, the plants will be large enough to be handled or banked. This is best done by throwing up a furrow on each side of the row, and pulling the earth close to the plants with a hoe. Then commence at one end of the row and gather up all the leaves, holding them with one hand and pushing the soil close to the plants with the other. This operation must be repeated several times. When the plants are desired to be bleached they must be banked up to the tips of the leaves. Late celery is handled in much the same man- ner as the early, differing from it only in three or four points. The seed is sown six weeks later in a well- prepared bed out of doors, and as it is intended for winter and spring use, it must not be banked up as much as the early crop, for if it is bleached when stored away it will not keep. The Sabula Celery Company, of Iowa, has been IRRIGATION OF THB GARDEN. 255 trying a novel experiment for the irrigation of its celery field, which is proving a big success in every way. The irrigating is done by means of rows of til- ing laid in the ground about a foot below the surface. The tiling cannot be placed together snug enough to be water-tight, and at every coupling the water forces itself through the joints. Rows of tiling are laid every twelve feet, and these are supplied by a long ditch fur- nished with a number of gates which regulate the water - supply, the ditch being filled by a large pump, and a piece of land that would ordinarily take three or four men three days to irrigate may now be ^^^' 64— section of tiled J • ^-L . CELERY BED. done in that many hours with the help of these men. A drop of two feet on two acres is given the tiling, and the lower end is securely closed, which gives the water considerable back pressure. A se(5lion of this tiling is given in Fig. 64. Of late years some gardeners are adopting what is known as the new celery culture. By this method the crop is planted closely, and no carting or handling is required, for as the plants struggle for light they nat- urally assume an upright position. The light is excluded below and the self-blanching kinds become white and tender. With so heavy a crop on the ground a great deal of water is necessary. One gardener plants 6x6 inches each way, which gives ^ hundred and seventy thousand plants to the 256 IRRIGATION FARMING. acre, and the irrigation given is two or three times a week. Beets. — These need rich garden soil with plenty of humus. Sow from March 15th to April 15th. For first early the Egyptian is all right, the Eclipse coming next in order, the Blood Turnip variety still later, while the mangel-wurzel, for stock feeding, comes last in planting order. We do not believe in the pra(5lice of irrigating the seeds before they germinate. Table beets may be given more irrigation than is allotted to the sugar-beet, and for early growth they may be irri- gated every fortnight during rainless seasons. Culti- vation the second day after irrigation is quite as essential as the irrigation itself. The soil should be kept as mellow as possible, and it is well to have the rills located six or eight inches away from the plants, so that water may not come in contadl with them, as flooding is considered injurious. Radishes. — This popular relish crop may be pro- duced in greatest perfecflion by irrigation. Light sandy loams well enriched are best. The first crop should be planted by March 15th, and others at fre- quent interv^als thereafter. Long scarlet varieties are preferable for this planting. For general summer use the early, round, dark red are good, and for fall and winter we sow the Chinese Rose. It is best to plant the seed in rows from sixteen to eighteen inches apart, and give an abundant amount of water at all stages of growth. No root crop requires more water than does the radish, and once a week during dry periods is not too often to irrigate. Cultivate the same as for beets. Carrots and Parsnips. — Sow the seed a half IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 257 inch deep, or even deeper on very light, sandy soils. The rows should be from sixteen to eighteen inches apart. Give frequent irrigation until the roots are fully formed. These wettings may be from four to seven days apart, according to the natural condition of the soil. Stop the irrigation as soon as the plants are large enough to shade the ground, as there is then danger of rotting the roots in the ground and thus ruining the crop. In no instance allow the plants to become flooded after they are half grown, as this would surely so injure the crowns as to spoil the crop. This rule must also be observed in irrigating salsify, the general conditions of which are the same as those of carrots. With the oyster-plant, cultivation is of more value than is irrigation, and in any event make it a rule not to irrigate after the plant is half grown or well under way. Turnips. — The seed of the turnip may be sown as early in the spring as the ground can be worked. For fall and early winter use grow the White Dutch, for winter use and early spring the White Egg. The seed and turnips can be grown the same season. Finely pulverized new soil is the best. Sow broadcast the first of August, drag the ground with a light harrow, then make irrigating furrows every six feet. Wait long and patiently for the seed to germinate before irrigating for that purpose. Never flood the turnip ground — undersoaking is much the better. The best success is the result of careful preparation and close attention. Horseradish. — This root flourishes in deep, rich, moist soil which can be kept so by an irrigation every 258 IRRIGATION FARMING. few days. It is grown or propagated from sets or pieces of small roots cut at least four inches long, with the upper end square and the lower end slanting. The ground is well manured, deeply plowed, and thoroughly harrowed or otherwise put in good condition, then marked out in rows from two to three feet apart. In these the root pieces are planted, fifteen or eighteen inches apart. The planting is done by making a hole with a long, slim dibble or planting-stick, or with a small, light iron bar, and dropping the set, square end down, into it, so that the top end is left a little below the surface. Then press the soil firmly against the set. Keep the cultivator or wheel hoe going till the top growth renders further working unnecessary. The sets should be planted out in May or June. Catch crops of beets, lettuce, and spinach can be planted along with the horseradish and harvested before the horseradish has made much headway. Irrigation every week until the sets take new root is advisable, and the growth may be pushed. After the plants are well established they will require less water. When its roots once get into the soil they live and thrive until forcibly exterminated by being rooted up. But if allowed to grow at its own free will without cultiva- tion, the plant degenerates rapidly and becomes, in a few years, scarcely fit for table purposes, for which it is now used. Onions. — There are two methods of applying water to onions — by flooding and by furrows. Some men objec5l to flooding, but the writer has no objection to charge against it so long as it is done in the right manner. For flooding, the ground may be laid off in IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 259 beds from ten to fifteen or even twenty feet in width and ten rods long. The size of the beds will be gov- erned somewhat by the water-supply. The beds should be level, and it is better to have them level lengthwise, and they may have a slight incline. If the beds are level lengthwise the soil can be wet to any desired depth. Water may be turned on until it stands an inch deep all over the bed, which would be equivalent to a rainfall of one and one-half to two inches, or it may be turned on to a depth of six inches, according to the requirements of the case. If the bed has an incline the lower end should be left open, allowing the water to pass off, else that end will re- ceive a great deal more water and the ground will become packed. The soil should have moisture enough at the time of planting to germinate the seed. If the ground con- tains an abundance of moisture when the seed is sown it may not be necessary to irrigate for a month after the plants are up, but the proper time to apply the water must be determined by each individual case. The first application of water in the spring should be light, as the soil is then loose and absorbs water much more rapidly than it does later in the season. As soon after irrigating as the soil begins to dry, and before it has had time to bake, it is run over with the wheel hoe, just skimming the surface, followed with the cul- tivator teeth. It then lies in this condition until dry enough to require another irrigation, and so on through the season. This leaves the soil loose and mellow after each irrigation, and thoroughly exposed to the chemi- cal adlion of the atmosphere. During the heat of the 26o IRRIGATION FARMING. season the crop will need irrigating once a week, and sometimes twice, depending a great deal upon the character of the soil. Toward the latter part of the season it is unnecessary to be so particular about stir- ring the soil after each irrigation. When the first tops begin to fall down irrigation should cease. For furrow irrigation the onions are planted on level ground, the same as when irrigation is not prac- ticed. The rows should be about fourteen inches apart. Run a Planet Junior cultivator between each row, and the peculiar shape of the teeth will leave a small furrow, at the same time not throwing enough soil on either side to interfere with the plants. Through each one of these furrows run a very small stream of water, just sufficient to keep running but not large enough to overflow the banks. This water passes off and must have an outlet, and should run in the furrows until it has soaked the soil to the center of the rows for about six hours. After the ground is sufficiently dried it is cultivated in the same manner as described in flooding. We are rather in favor of the furrow system, which is the only one to use in * ' the new onion culture, ' ' or the transplanting method. In doing this transplanting the water should follow in the furrow, and a slight ridge for the sets is prefer- able. It might be well to know that onions grown with too much water are apt to yield scullions, and the bulbs will be of inferior quality and prove poor keepers. In no case would we advise irrigation oftener than once a week. One of the best onion growers in the Arkansas val- ley of Southern Colorado gives the following as his IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 261 method of raising onions : Prepare the land by fer- tilizing with forty or fifty loads of well-rotted manure to the acre, then disk and cross-disk until the manure is well pulverized and worked into the surface of the soil. Then plow moderately deep and harrow until the soil is in fine tilth. Use a marker consisting of pieces 2x6 and eight feet long cut into six pieces six- teen inches long, each beveled on one end. When the two are put together m the shape of letter V, so the opposite ends will be ten inches apart, the six pieces will make three Vs. Take a plank 2 x 10, fifty-six inches long, and nail the first V in the center. Then nail the second one twenty- two inches from point to point; then on the opposite side nail the third, mak- ing the three V's abreast. Take a pole suitable for a tongue fifteen feet long, beveled slightly at the large end, and bolt in the center of the middle V. Do not bolt too tight, but leave a little play. Put braces on each side of the tongue, extending three feet up the pole. Six inches from the front end of the tongue put in a pin for the neck-yoke to rest upon. Eleven feet from the neck-yoke pin bore a hole for the doubletrees. For the first time through set stakes, so as to make a straight furrow. When ready to start, the driver stands on the marker, so as to weight it down. If the man's weight is not enough, put on extra weight until the plank is level with the surface of the ground. It will then make perfedl ridges. The next time through let one horse walk in the outside furrow. One marker will follow in the same furrow, and will be a gauge so that all will be alike. 262 IRRIGATION FARMING. Use a one-wheel seed-drill and run it on top and in the middle of the ridge. This will leave rows twenty- two inches apart and will require three pounds of seed to an acre. To cultivate use a single-shovel plow with a six-inch shovel. Nail a block on the under side of the beam, so as to use the fenders of a com cultivator to keep dirt and clods from covering the young onions. Bolt the fenders so that they will cover one-half of the shovel. This will cultivate and leave the furrows open for the next irrigation. Cultivate after each irri- gation to obtain best results. Hoe the plants as often as grass and weeds may appear on the top of the ridge. To use the marker the soil should be a little drier than for vegetation. After drilling in sufficient rows follow with irrigation. Do not fill the rows so that water will run over the top of the ridges. Let the water run long enough to sub to the seed. In six to eight days irrigate again. In fourteen to eighteen days the onions should be peeping out of the ground. The marker can also be used for beets, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and carrots. String Beans. — A sandy loam is better than a heavier soil for this crop. The garden beans should be planted in rows twenty-eight or thirty inches apart, and they are to be drilled in on ground that has been previously well irrigated if not damp enough already. By this we mean when the earth will ball in the hand. The first irrigation will be proper when three or four leaves appear on the young plants. An irrigation of three or four hours' duration once a week throughout the season will not be too frequent, and especially a good one at blossoming time should be given. Cultivate IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 263 thoroughly after each irrigation. The harvest period may be prolonged by planting at stated intervals. Peas. — As a matter of fadl, this crop requires about the same treatment as do beans. The rows should, however, be three feet apart, and the writer prefers to plant on the north side of the ridge, half-way between the bottom and top. The pea will require plenty of moisture during the growing season, particularly at the period of bloom, which is a good rule for all the legumes. Mellow soil is quite a consideration, and this is a natural sequence with irrigation where culti- vation follows. Peas may receive moisture every six or seven days, and will flourish under such care. Tomatoes. — This great crop of commerce re- sponds profitably to careful irrigation. Seledl a sandy soil and make it fertile by working in from twenty to thirty loads of well-rotted manure, which is necessary if large and smooth fruit is desired. Poor soil will produce a large percentage of rough and deformed fruit. Plow the ground ten inches deep and work it down smooth with an Acme pulverizing harrow. Shallow furrows should be plowed with an eight-inch plow four feet apart. Take up the plants by running a sharp spade under them, cutting out in blocks. Having made the bed quite wet, no difficulty will be experienced in handling the plants, as the soil will readily adhere to the roots. For very large tra(5ls it will pay to use a transplanting machine. The plants are placed in the bottom of the furrows four feet apart, and soil pulled around them with a hoe and well firmed with the foot. Plants treated in this way will grow right along, as if they never had been 264 IRRIGATION FARMING. moved. The remainder of the furrow may be filled up by running a one-horse plow the opposite way along- side the plants, which will also leave a furrow for irri- gating. Water should then be turned on and allowed to run until the ground is well soaked up to the plants. The ground must be kept free from weeds by a narrow- bladed cultivator. When plants begin to set fruit use the one-horse plow again, this time running on each side of the row, which forms a ridge and keeps the fruit out of the water. We have found three irrigations on the very driest soil sufficient up to the fruiting period. Too much water will raise a heavy growth of vines and interfere with the ripening of the fruit. When the plants need water they will turn dark in color. They need water oftener after the fruit begins to ripen, to keep up the size and weight. One drawback to the culture of tomatoes under irri- gation is a disease known scientifically as oedema , which is a swelling of certain parts of the plant, brought about by an excess of water stretching the cell walls, making them very thin and the cells very large. The excess of water may be so great that the cell walls break down, and that part of the plant dying, exerts an injurious influence in adjacent parts. In an ordinary rainy season the irrigation of the tomato plant should be a secondary consideration. In ordinary moist land a good wetting just after transplanting and again in ten days, with subsequent cultivation, are usually quite sufficient. Too much water is a bad thing for tomatoes. Peppers require exa<5lly the same methods. Cucumbers. — For this crop a warm location is IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 265 best. All vines that belong to the Cucurbita family must not be irrigated much while the plants are small, or serious damage may be done to the crop. The ground should be laid off by running shallow furrows about five feet apart. It is best to irrigate the ground before the seed is planted if there seems to be a deficiency of moisture rather than to apply water after the seed is sown, and unless the soil is naturally a dry one it will not require any more water until the second or rough leaf is formed, when another light watering will be necessary. This will push the plants along a great deal faster than if the ground is kept very wet. When the plants begin to run and set fruit an irrigation should be given every ten days or two weeks. While fruit is forming the irrigating can hardly be overdone. The water must never run so as to come in dire<5l contadt with the plants, or the ground will bake around the stems, and may possibly injure the plants by stopping up the pores and excluding the air. Cultivation is not in good form after the vines begin to interlock. The following plan for growing cucumbers for the f a<5lory is given by a grower near Denver : ' * We plant in rows about eight feet apart. We first prepare the ground making it as fine as possible. Then it is laid off in rows, and furrows about eight inches deep are plowed and filled half full of well-rotted manure. The soil is then raked back and fined again. Then we draw a line and drop the seed about two inches apart, pressing them into the earth about an inch. If it rains before the seed comes up we go over the rows with a rake to prevent a crust from forming. After 266 IRRIGATION FARMING. they have put out the second leaves they are thinned to eight inches apart in the rows and then irrigated. If the bugs bother we use tobacco dust. The tillage is all done with a plow and no hand-work is given except to pull the weeds out of the rows. From the time when the plants begin to run and set fruit we give an irrigation every ten days or two weeks, and after the picking season opens we irrigate every other day. The cucumbers are always gathered early in the morn- ing or late in the evening. We have never failed to have a good crop. ' ' Cabbage. — Plant early varieties in rows two feet apart and eighteen inches in the row. Late kinds should be set three feet apart in two-foot rows. Manuring is quite essential, and if neglecfted in the preparation of the ground, liquid manure may easily be supplied through the furrows and the plants will re- spond readily by putting on a healthy growth. In transplanting, the water should follow the work, and another irrigation should be given the succeeding day ; then lapse a day and irrigate again. Allow two more days to go by and give still another but lighter irriga- tion. All this is done to assist the plants to put forth new roots and also to prevent wilting down. In irri- gating cabbage it is essential not to allow the water to flood the plants under any circumstances. If the work of preparation and planting is properly done the water will run through the furrows between the ridges, and from their termination will run from one furrow to another, until all the field is finally covered. It is the small running stream long drawn out that counts, and after a cabbage patch once receives a good wetting IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 267 subsequent irrigations need not be so prolonged or copious. After the heads of the cabbage plants are half formed no water whatever should be given, on account of the excessive use of water having a ten- dency to cause the growing heads to burst. After the heads are fully formed the stalks may be split partially down the side three or four inches, which retards further expansion. Cauliflower. — Set out and treat the same as cab- bages and the work is done. Irrigation is carried on exadlly the same as for the cabbage crop, and liquid manuring may be applied in the same way. We have found Henderson's Snowball the best early variety. Then in order of maturity come Extra Early Dwarf Erfurt and Long Island Beauty . with the World Beater coming last. If there is any deviation from the cabbage pradlice of irrigation, more water than that ascribed for the cabbage may be given. Watermelons. — In Colorado this is often a field crop. The best soil for the meldn patch is a sandy loam. This should be heavily manured. Melons of all kinds need an abundance of humus in order to thrive best, and this should be supplied in the form of stable manure. If manure is plentiful, scatter it thickly over the whole field ; if rather scarce, economize by manuring in the hills. Usually the ground is plowed, pulverized, then furrowed eight feet each way and the seeds planted about half-way up the sides of the ridges. It is better for the starting of the crop if rains afford moisture enough to germinate the seeds; but in case of severe drouth, water is sometimes run in the rows before planting, and perhaps more frequently after 268 IRRIGATION FARMING. planting. Sod ground has advantages in the matter of irrigation, as the soil is full of grass roots and ex- ceedingly porous, thus taking up water readily from the bottom of the furrow, and the moisture finds its way to the plant from below by capillarity. Cultiva- tion should be commenced as soon as the plants show above the ground, and continued at frequent intervals until the growth of the vines makes it impracticable. Three irrigations usually suffice if the soil be well cul- tivated, but many growers irrigate four to six times, making the water take the place of cultivation. The best melons are produced with two or three irrigations and frequent stirring of the soil so long as possible. As long as the vines show a frosty appearance in the sunlight they are thrifty and are not suffering for water. In no instance should irrigation be given to the melon crop after the fruit is half grown, as the last days of the melon's existence in the field are needed for the chemical a<5lion that is going on in changing the juices into saccharine by the crystalizing process of the sun and the adlion of the air. Flooding is for- bidden, as it bakes the ground around the younger plants and induces decay in the older ones. Cantaloupes. — Lay out the rows the first week in May and plant the hills eight by eight feet, putting in long hills longitudinally with the irrigating furrows. Some growers turn the water right on, having given no irrigation before the seeds are planted. The plants should be irrigated very thoroughly for half a day, when two leaves are formed, then with a shovel-plow cover the water in the original furrow so as to retain the moisture in the soil. Then take a one-horse five- IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 269 shovel cultivator and tear up the middle ground both ways across the field, so as to get the best of the weeds. Take a hand hoe and loosen the soil around the hills. Irrigate again in two weeks, beginning the work at four o'clock in the afternoon and allowing the water to run until nine or ten o'clock at night. The young plants are very tender, and cold water is likely to clieck their growth, but if applied late in the afternoon the chill of the water is greatly overcome by the heat of the ground. It is best to furrow on one side only so as not to give too much water, and plant on the northern slope of the hill. When the plants go to vin- ing the hilling-up is done, care being taken not to allow the plow to run deep, as there is thus danger of cut- ting the roots, in which event the vines would suffer severely. Irrigation should continue at intervals of every nine or ten days throughout the season, and more water is given after the blossoming period than before, so as to continue the formation and encourage- ment of the fruit buds — thus making the vines more prolific by continuing the bearing season. The vines require more water during the fruiting period, and larger and better crops will be the rule when plenty of water is applied at this time. In recent years it has been found best to cultivate more and irrigate less. A small stream should be used in irrigating and should be allowed to run down the furrows about six hours. The stream should be regu- lated according to the fall of the land, so that the water will soak out each way a sufficient distance by the time it reaches the end of the furrows, thus avoiding waste of water. An inch of water is enough for each ayO IRRIGATION FARMING. furrow of forty rods. The cantaloupe may be given too much water, but the plants should be kept growing rapidly by a moderate application and a great deal of cultivation until the vines cover the ground. When the fruit is ripening the supply should be limited in order to make the fruit of the best quality and to have it ripen quickly. Irrigations may be given during the picking season when necessary, and should not cease when the melons begin to ripen, as some have said. The most important work of growing cantaloupes comes after the crop begins to ripen, and experience alone will teach growers the proper condition at which the melons should be picked, the best way of packing, and the easiest and best method of getting them to the cars and loaded in good condition. Cantaloupes thrive best on sandy loam, although clay loam with some sand will grow melons of good quality. The virgin soil of our western prairies will produce the best qual- ity, providing the ground is well worked and thoroughly soaked. It takes more water, however, than older land. Three years is long enough to plant melons on the same ground. It should then be planted to some fertilizing crop, and alfalfa is splendid for this purpose. Pumpkins. — For a pumpkin patch choose a light soil. A sandy piece of bottom is jUvSt the thing, the richer the better, though comparatively poor soil will do. After plowing and harrowing lay off in check rows ten feet each way. At each check dig a small hole and put in one or two forkfuls of manure, or throw out a double furrow with the plow and then put the manure in the checks. The pumpkin is a IRRIGATION. OF THE GARDEN. 27I coarse feeder and does not need the manure to be thoroughly rotted. Cover the manure with three or four inches of earth, making a perceptible hill. Sow- four or five seeds in each hill as soon as danger of frost is over. When in second or third leaf, thin to two plants in a hill; and if the ground is rich they may, with advantage, be again thinned to one, when danger from the striped bug is over, about the time the plants begin to run. They should be cultivated alternate ways every two weeks immediately following irriga- tion; thus they will very soon completely cover the ground, and so keep the weeds down themselves. No irrigation is needed after the pumpkin is half grown unless the season is unusually drouthy. Squashes, eggplants, and gourds are handled pradlically in the same manner. It is a good rule to recoUedl that these vines require but comparatively little water until in blossom, and the greater amount of irrigation should be applied from that time until the fruit has grown to half size or over. Sweet Corn. — Sweet corn should be cultivated and kept free of weeds, but irrigation must be delayed if possible until the corn is in tassel. As soon as the tassel begins to appear on the most forward stalks the water should be turned in and irrigation made thorough. The best method of irrigation is the furrow system. This should be carefully arranged so as to prevent the water running direc5lly around the roots or stalks. A healthy, well-developed tassel makes a good crop of corn, hence care should be taken to prevent it from becoming stunted or killed from lack of water, also to keep the water from running around the stalks. 272 IRRIGATION FARMING. Quick growth will prevent this and also adl as a guard against the invasion of worms in the ears. The com- mon rule is not to irrigate corn until the leaves appear wilted in the morning. Though the leaves may curl during the day, as long as they come out bright and fresh in the morning it is best not to supply more water. Corn roots lie near the surface, so deep irriga- tion is not necessary. The water should be run through the rows quickly and turned off. As soon as in a condition to work, the surface should be culti- vated to prevent rapid evaporation. If irrigated too early the corn will turn yellow, g^ow up in small, sickly stalks, and bear poor ears. Again, if watered in the heat of summer the tassels may die and no com can form. When too frequently irrigated the roots will not spread and collecfl nourish- ment from the soil. Healthy stalks will withstand drouth, resist worms, and produce abundantly. The only way to raise good stalks is to plant the best seed on well-plowed and thoroughly pulverized soil. A new and very good method is to plant corn along the sides of previously irrigated furrows. The seed should be planted as soon after irrigation as the soil will permit, and ordinarily need not be watered again until well up. Keep down the weeds by constant cultivation. Many growers do not allow the headgates of the ditches open before the corn comes to the tassel. There are others, however, who do not believe that such precau- tion is necessary. They hold that water may be run down the furrows whenever it seems to be required. The best corn growers in the west have harvested ninety bushels an acre from fields irrigated but once in IRRIGATION OF THE GARDBN. ^jCALI^ a season. If a farmer or gardener expedls big crops of corn he must conform to the nature of the plant and bear in mind that with this crop cultivation is superior to irrigation. Peanuts. — These require a warm, sandy soil. They are planted in rows two and one-half feet apart and fourteen inches in the rows. The nuts are shelled and planted two or three in a hill. Cultivation is about the same as for potatoes. The Spanish nuts grow upright, similar to potato vines, while the large Virginia nuts have vines running upon the ground, similar to sweet potatoes. The upright vines should be hilled slightly with a small garden plow, while the others require flat cultivation. They will need to be irrigated about once every ten days and kept clean^of weeds until they commence to bloom, when they will need to be kept pretty well hilled up; and if the vines grow upward too much to take root, it would be well to put a shovelful of soil in the center of each vine, that is, on top of the center, so as to hold it down to the ground. The peanut does not need to have its blossoms covered, as many people suppose. The crop can be allowed to remain in the ground until the first hard frost without inj ury . There are different varieties, but the most profitable is the Virginia nut. They are both red and white, and the latter is the nut to grow for profit. The Spanish nut is very prolific and the best for eating. It is very small and never sold on the market except for confedlioners' use. Lettuce, Spinach, and Parsley. — These relishes are subjedl to the same general methods of cultivation and irrigation. The writer has been growing them 274 IRRIGATION FARMING. by the border system. The beds within the borders should be recflangular, and flooding is the only method of irrigation in such cases. It is well to have a wet- ting given preliminary to sowing the seed. Irrigation is not needed again thereafter unless the plants show signs of wilting from drouth. Then on a dark day or late in the afternoon give a quick flooding of an inch or so and run the water off as quickly as possible, as no great depth of moisture is required by such crops, which are mostly surface feeders. If lettuce is to be grown for seed occasional irrigations may be applied throughout the summer. Rhubarb. — To have rhubarb or pie-plant do its best, a rich, medium heavy, sandy loam is required not less than two feet deep. It must be heavily fertilized previous to setting the roots with well-rotted manure thoroughly incorporated with the soil. If one desires to set a large patch, it is perhaps cheapest and best to raise the plants, but where only 50 or 100 roots are wanted they can be bought. Early spring is the best time to plant. For commercial purposes it should be planted so as to admit of horse cultivation each way, but when wanted for private use or where ground is limited the roots can be set as close as two feet apart each way and worked by hand or wheel hoe. In set- ting, the crown of the plants should be three inches below the level of the surface, so that when the ground becomes settled after irrigation, which should follow immediately, it will be just right. To give the roots a good start, no stalks should be picked the first year, and only a few of the strongest the second, and none after the first of August in any IRRIGATION OF THE GARDEN. 275 year. This is to allow the roots to form new buds for another season's crop. Generally the plants will start in spring after raking off the mulch without irrigating, but as soon as the ground becomes well warmed the water should be applied in rills for three or four hours and continued weekly thereafter throughout the cut- ting season, with a good terminating wetting shortly after the first of August to aid in the formation of buds. When the ground is frozen a coat of coarse stable manure should be applied to prevent frost from penetrating too deeply, thereby securing somewhat earlier cutting in spring. The roots should be divided every three or four years. Rhubarb pays best in early spring, and accordingly many gardeners are forcing it under glass. Some dig up the roots in fall and plant under greenhouse benches, while others plant roots in hotbeds or cold frames, but perhaps the best method is to plant roots eighteen inches apart each way, and in strips of four rows, so as to allow of a six-foot frame being placed over them. These beds must be heavily mulched to keep from freezing, when on or about the middle of February hotbed sash can be placed over the frame and the bed handled as a cold frame. Roses. — A rosebush needs water. Watering once a month will never produce an abundant crop of rose petals. The bushes seldom get more water than is good for their digestion. A garden hose thrust near a bush and the water allowed to flow freely for an hour or two every day will furnish enough moisture for the roots. Of course, when the delicate young plant is first set out this generous way of giving the 276 IRRIGATION FARMING. bush a foot-bath must not be attempted. Young plants require some protection at night until their tissue stems have changed to woody fiber. On occasional days they may need some shelter from a too ardent sun. The soil about the rosebush needs occasional loosening. Virgin soil needs but little fertilizing aid, as a general thing, but a bucketful of barnyard man- ure spread over the ground and often flooded with water never harms a 'growing plant. It does rose- bushes but little harm to cut off the tops of the more thrifty growing stems, and this plan generally results in a better crop of roses, but too much trimming and pruning is bad. We would not advise irrigation of the rose or any other bush, tree or shrub after the middle of August, or the first of September at the very latest. CHAPTER XIV. IRRIGATION FOR THE ORCHARD. S IN garden irrigation, it is advisable lo so ar- range or lay out the trac5l that those crops which require the least water will receive the least, and vice versa. In other words, do not mix everything in planting, so that the trees will have to be irrigated every time the small fruits are watered. We regard this an important precaution. However commendable impartiality may be as a maxim of irri- gation, it will be found unsafe when applied to the details of water distribution. Plant the cherry trees, for example, where they will get the least irrigation. Next to them the pears and apples, although the latter will need considerable water the first season after planting. It is safe to say that a well-established orchard would not ordinarily require more than three good irrigations during the year. Some would do with less, but this would be about the average. As to the manner of running water, we would say that our experience leads us to prefer a head of water just sufficient to send a moderate stream gradually along the rows. This enables the moisture to pene- trate the soil more thoroughly than a rapid current would do. If pradlicable, water should be run on both sides of the row. This is especially desirable in the case of forest or other trees on land that receives little or no cultivation. On most grounds water is usually 277^ 278 IRRIGATION FARMING. run along several rows at the same time. Now and then soil is found that will admit of rapid irrigation, or, as it is sometimes called, vSending the water along with a rush. But this is the exception. Of course, where water is scarce and one is limited to a certain time in its use, the best that can be done is to use it as circumstances will permit. When the water has run its course turn it off. Do not let it soak and flood the ground. In orchard irrigation it is a good rule never to apply water so long as the subsurface soil — say at a depth of six or eight inches — will ball in the hand ; and this is a test that should often be resorted to during the growing season. The yield may be largely increased by the judicious application of water. That the fruit may also be increased in size and made more attrad;ive is equally certain. At the same time judgment is re- quired for the best results. Indeed, positive harm may be done by untimely irrigation, not only to tree and plant, but to the land as well. Incessant watering without regard to the condition of the soil or the needs of the plant will often force a growth of wood at the expense of the fruit producft and the fruit flavor. It may likewise cause a growth to be made which the succeeding winter finds immature and unable to with- stand its tests. This will almost certainly be the result with any tree or plant that has a tendency to make a strong or succulent growth. Whenever late frosts are feared turn on the irrigation water in the orchard, and unless the frost is very heavy no damage will be done to the fruit. Irrigate not later than the latter part of August or the first days of September, so as to give the IRRIGATION FOR THE ORCHARD. 279 wood a chance to ripen. When water can be had irri- gate once more in November or December, for the winters in irrigating countries are generally very dry, but never use more water than is needed to keep the soil moderately moist during winter. It has been observed in adlual experience that water should not be required ordinarily to run in the furrows more than sixty rods, although eighty rods may do under certain conditions of soil, slope, and supply. Any greater length of flow might cause the first or upper part of the furrow to become cold, a condition to be avoided by all means, as the growth of any tree, shrub or vine is naturally checked when the ground becomes chilled, a condition found to ensue when cold water is allowed to run over the roots. In warm weather the water will evaporate quickly. We have noticed during hot days in irrigating that it would take water in a good even furrow about sixteen to eighteen hours to cover a distance of sixty to eighty rods, and in that time the ground at the head of the row would be very cold and growth much checked before the last part of the row was thoroughly irrigated. The length of time that water should be allowed to run in orchard furrows must of course be governed by the nature of the soil and lay of the land. We usually let a small stream run twelve hours. Water is regu- lated by small boxes made of lath, which are cut in pieces two feet long, nailed so as to make a funnel one inch square. A box is put in the head ditch at each furrow. If the soil is very dry or loose two boxes may be used for each furrow. It is necessary to put the boxes at the bottom of the lateral on account of floating 28o IRRIGATION FARMING. trash and to get pressure. As the trees grow older and larger the soil must be soaked deeper, and when loaded with fruit they need irrigation at least every two weeks until the fruit is gathered. Do not be afraid that a NORTH' ^ ^ ^ % f t ^ f t ^ f s5 ;q 3,660 2,580 1,320 7,500 6,300 2,700 1,320 10,620 7.260 4,620 2,940 1,680 1,700 87,840 61,920 31,680 180,000 151,200 64,800 31,680 254,880 174,240 100,880 71,560 40,320 47,680 ;^s-«e %. s 'J 1U3 acres 86 acres 37 acres 18 acres 146 acres 100 acres 6S acres 40 acres 23 acres 25 acres to 90 by 75 feet 90 by 60 feet 60 by 40 feet 50 by 30 feet 125 byTBO feet 90 by 75 feet 75 by 50 feet 65 by 40 feet 50 by 30 feet 50 by 35 feet acre sizes, holding from 8 to 16 acre feet of water. I^arge reservoirs of one and two acre sizes, 8 feet deep; banks 9 feet high, base 45 feet. A square acre is 209 feet on each side. A two-acre reservoir would be 209 X418 feet. The Wind Rustler. — A queer arid simple con- trivance this, and quite common in Western Kansas. One of these odd arrangements to attradl the curiosity of the modern Don Quixotes of the plains is but poorly illustrated in Fig. 77. In this machine the fans are eight feet long and three feet wide, with their broad- sides placed so as to catch the prevailing north and south winds. The box is a trifle over eight feet square, with the axle of the wheel resting on the top and sides. The lumber had to be hauled fifty miles, and yet the whole plant cost the maker but fifty dollars. The WINDMILLS AND PUMPS. 365 water was raised forty-five feet and irrigated five acres. Such a mill may give good service where only a small quantity of water is required, or where the mill is not surrounded — nor likely to be — by trees or other obstrudtions which shut off the winds; but for irri- FIG. 77 — WIND RUSTLER. gating considerable tra(5fs, or if trees or buildings are near by north or south, results will scarcely be satis- factory . Another plan for a wind rustler is used in Nebraska, Four tall posts are set in the ground at proper dis- tances apart. A wooden windlass revolves in boxings attached to the top of each pair of posts. The fans are made of boards set into auger-holes in the middle of the windlass. A small iron crank at one end of the wind- lass operates the pump. 366 IRRIGATION FARMING. Battle-Ax Windmills.— In its simpler form this is a home-made contrivance which consists of a tower for the support of a horizontal axis and crank, to which arms are attached bearing fanlike blades at the extremities, which have a real or fancied resemblance ''■ ■ ®^v ^^^ FIG. 78 — BATTLE-AX WINDMILL. to a battle-ax, and which is shown in Fig. 78. When viewed from the side an optical illusion is pro- duced, and these revolving blades seem to be slashing wildly at space in opposite diredlions. However, they fight their way through, and are vic5lorious mills, worthy of praise. Like the Jumbo wind rustler, the Battle- Ax mill has its axis set in the direcftion of the prevailing wind — that is, north and south. The axis may be made of wood, rounded to fit in wooden bear- WINDMII.I.S AND PUMPS. 367 ings, or it may be of wood, but with metal ends or bearings. It may be gas-pipe shafting, or, as is not uncommon, the axis of a buggy or wagon. This is the fundamental part, and to it are attached the four, also six, eight, or many fans, as the case may be. The Jumbo itself cannot exceed the Battle- Ax in simplicity, cheapness, or power, but the Battle-Ax is presumably the superior in all respedls. These mills are simple, cheap, of easy construdlion, and are quite efficient. In size they run from 8 to 10 feet, the more common sizes, up to more powerful mills, 16 feet in diameter. The Merry- Go-Round.— The Merry-Go-Round is a realization of an attempt to devise home-made mills of unlimited size and strength. The larger ones are of rare occurrence, but are seen in several parts of the far west. The smaller ones are mounted on towers, the larger ones on the ground, as shown in Fig. 79. The former are the more common and look like ele- vated water- tanks, for which they are often mistaken. The fans revolve around a vertical axis, and surround- ing all is a series of movable shutters, which come to- gether and form a sort of closed cylinder when the mill is out of gear. When in adlion they are partly opened, admitting air to the fan on one side and ex- cluding it from the other. We have in mind one Merry-Go-Round which is 24 feet in diameter, and carries numerous swinging door- like fans of light wood, 6 feet high by 4 feet wide. The fans are free at one edge, and, like a flag floating from the mast, they swing edgewise against the wind, this being the line of least resistance. The moment the center is past each fan in turn swings back against 368 IRRIGATION FARMING. the immovable arms and exposes its 24 square feet of surface to the impa(5l of the wind. Half the fans are thus continually in the wind and half out of it. Such a mill, well made, might be an engine of strength, but dEiref ul work and well-considered plans are necessary k FKi. 79 — THK MEkRY-(iO-ROirND. to avoid resistance and loss of power. This is proba- bly the cheapest and most efficient mill for its weight that can be built. This mill costs $4.75, exclusive of home labor, pumps an 8-inch stream, and irrigates 10 acres. The mill shown in Fig. 79 is a more elaborate mechanism, as it is 40 feet in diameter and 12 to 14 feet high. It runs on a circular steel-rail track, and is connedled by cog-wheels to a tumbling shaft, which drives the pumping machinery. WINDMII,I.S AND PUMPS. 369 Pumps. — There are four distinct types of pumps — , the plunger or piston pump, which includes the wind- mill, steam, and many devices of power pumps ; the vacuum, the rotary, and the centrifugal, besides ele- vators which raise water by means of flights attached to an endless chain. The plunger pump, of necessity, moves the water more slowly, as it only travels at the speed of the piston. The plunger pump also is de- signed especially for handling clear water — grit, sand, and foreign material cut the pistons and barrel of the pump. While these pumps will move the water slowly, they will move it a long distance, or against heavy pressure when properly designed. The pumps of next greatest capacity are the rotary pumps. Of these there are many designs. They handle water much faster than do plunger pumps, but as it is essen- tial that the working parts of these pumps should fit closely, there is necessarily great fridlion and corre- sponding loss of efiiciency, and hence they are short- lived, especially when pumping water that is muddy or gritty. The pumps of greatest utility for low lifts are the centrifugal pumps. These are built with no close-fitting parts and no valves ; consequently there is no fridlion on the parts of the machinery, and they are not affected by sand, mud, or gritty water. Hence, for irrigation, where the lift does not exceed fifty feet, centrifugal pumps are recognized by all hydraulic en- gineers as the most efficient and durable, the cheapest and best. The vacuum pump is an entirely different principle, having no movable parts, except a small automatic shifting-bar in the yoke to operate the valves. These pumps are made with a pair of cylin- 370 IRRIGATION FARMING. ders working alternately as the atmospheric pressure is removed from them, thus allowing the water to rush in and discharge itself. They are useful only for small lifts, and theoretically are not calculated to raise water more than twenty feet. Some are suomerged, while others are placed on the Surface over the well. Various Pumps. — One of the best piston pumps for windmills is the Gause, which is very effedlive when FIG. 80 — GAUSE PUMP AND POINTS. FIG. 81 — IRRIGATION PUMP CYLINDER. Operated in conne(5lion with the point system, as snown in Fig. 80. This pump is largely used in Western Kan- sas. In many of the piston pumps for wind power it is advisable to use an irrigation cylinder in the well. WINDMILLS AND PUMPS. 371 The Buckeye is porcelain lined, and it is said to be very efficient. The simplicity of this barrel is to be seen by a glance at Fig. 81. Another piston pump is the Frizell, and there are many more of equal merit and efficiency. One of the best pumps is the Allweiler — known to the trade as the Berlin — and for very deep wells and the wind engine it is to be commended. It is an oscillating force-pump, and is illustrated in Fig. 82. These pumps will draw water from twenty to twenty-eight feet, and will force it up from one hundred to three hundred feet, according to the size of the pumps. These pumps are worked by a lever which may be placed in either a vertical or hori- zontal position by hand as well as by steam or windmill power. They were awarded the highest diploma and medal at the Columbian Exposi- tion. One of these pumps was put in as a public experiment at Good- land, Kansas, and raised a four-inch stream one hundred and eighty feet, furnishing enough water to irrigate fifteen acres. The whole plant cost three hundred and eighty dollars, including forty dol- lars for the reservoir. In rotary pumps there are several good styles. The Wonder pump is quite popular when worked with a gasoline engine and belt power. It is very simple in construdlion and operation, having no valves. It does FIG. 82 — BERLIN OSCILLATING PUMP. 372 IRRIGATION FARMING. well with tubular wells and will readily lift three hun- dred gallons a minute. The Lambing pump, made in Denver, is rapidly coming to the front. It is a rotary force-pump and has a capacity of from two hundred to six thousand gallons a minute, according to the size. The writer FIG. 83 — THE LOW-LIFT VACUUM PUMP. has seen the smallest Lambing run by a water-wheel raising two hundred and fifty gallons a minute forty feet above the stream. The water-wheel was supplied from a power ditch and the pump took up the water that was discharged from the wheel. A water motor or a turbine would have answered in the same way. Vacuum-Pumps. — These clever contrivances are used quite extensively in the west and in the rice-fields WINDMILI^ AND PUMPS. 373 of the south. There are two kinds shown in Figs. 83 and 84. The one shown in Fig. 83 is the Huffer patent and is calculated to lift water twenty feet or less and discharge it at the pump on the surface of the ground. The other is the Rogers patent and is made for deep wells — not to exceed one hundred feet, however. It has a stand-pipe for taking the water at the pump, which is set in the well just above the water-line, and carrying to the surface, where it is dis- charged. The mechanism is simple, consisting of two ver-, tical cylinders attached to a single sudlion-pipe below and conne(5led above by a sliding steam-valve contrived for au- tomatic movement, allowing steam to enter the cylinders alternately, where it is con- densed, creating a vacuum into which the water rises by the pressure of the atmosphere, escaping from one cylinder while the other is filling, thus giving a continuous flow varying from fifty to three thousand gallons a minute, or a three hundred and thirty inch stream under a four- inch head for the largest sized pump. Other forms of vacuum pumps are the Pulsometer, Nye and Swan, the latter, however, working by steam and hot air com- bined, requiring high-pressure boilers and an air con- denser, and making in all a rather expensive plant. We are not exadlly satisfied thus far with the operation FIG. 84 — HIGH-LIFT VACUUM PUMP. 374 IRRIGATION FARMING. of these vacuum-pumps, and would rather place de- pendence upon the duplex compound pumps with condensers. In these pumps the steam works ex- pansively, first in the high-pressure cylinders, and then, by exhaust, into the opposite low-pressure cylinders, the high and low pressure cylinders be- ing tandem on the cylinder, and the condensers re- turning hot water to the boiler and saving valuable fuel. Centrifugals. — These pumps are worked by sta- tionary engines and are quite generally used by sewer contractors. They are good for low lifts, and will throw sand and gravel readily. On a twenty-foot lift a No. i^ Van Wie pump will irrigate ten acres of land and require a two horse-power en- gine. A No. 2 pump will supply twenty acres, requiring three horse-power. No. 3 pump, forty acres, with six horse-power engine. No. 4 pump, eighty acres, with ten horse-power engine. No. 6 pump, 160 acres, with twenty horse-power engine. No. 8 pump, 320 acres, with forty horse-power engine. The writer once saw an ordinary ten horse-power threshing engine drive a No. 8 pump, raising water enough — 4,500 gallons a minute — to irrigate 320 acres of land easily. The exterior view of a centrifugal pump is shown in Fig. 85. FIG. 85 — CENTRIFUGAL PUMP. WINDMILLS AND PUMPS. 375 The Propeller Pump. — The basic principle of this pump is that the water is lifted by screws, some- what similar to propeller screws, termed ' ' runners, ' ' each consisting of two half-circular inclined blades fastened to a shaft at intervals of three to five feet, and of slightly less diameter than the casing, so as to revolve freely within the well-casing, with a boxing for the shaft placed immediately underneath each of the runners. The boxing is held in position by a set of spring blades, termed * * guides, ' ' set lengthwise of and engaging the well-casing, and thereby held firmly in position, and so arranged as to interrupt the whirling motion imparted to the water as it is thrown upward by the spiral ac5lion of the runners, and to turn the water back in the opposite dire<5lion, thereby deliver- ing it into the revolving blades of the runners in a dire(5lion opposite to that in which the runners are rotating. By this method the whirling motion of the water is utilized and the capacity of the pump largely augmented without increase of power. With this pump water may be raised from several hundred feet below the surface by extending the shaft and runners down the well-casing the desired depth, it being necessary, however, to always have the lower runner submerged in water. As the shaft rotates the lower runner lifts the water up to the runner above it, and that one to the next, and so on until the water is delivered to the surface, or above the surface if desired, the distance depending upon the size and pitch of the runners, the number of runners, and the speed at which they are run. No increase of speed is required for additional depth. 376 IRRIGATION FARMING. because more runners are added as the depth is increased. This compounding of the runners increases the efficiency of the pump, for whatever number of pounds pressure is exerted on the water by one runner in lifting it at a given rate of speed is repeated by each of the runners. For example, if one runner running at a given rate of speed gives ten pounds pressure to a square inch, then two runners would give twenty pounds; three, thirty pounds, and so on. For this reason water may be elevated higher above the dis- charge with this pump than can be done with a centri- fugal. These pumps are provided with ball-bearings so arranged as to hold the shaft and runners suspended in the well, and to carry the entire weight of all the movable parts of the pump, . and also the entire weight of the column of water, thereby making a great saving of power. For extreme deep lifts, cone roller-bearings are used in place of the ball-bearings. One of these pumps in fourteen hours raised 1,190,000 gallons of water, 100 feet through a lo-inch casing with a thirty horse-power engine. Another pump raised 190 miner's inches 50 feet with twenty horse- power. Hydraulic Rams. — These machines have been very much improved of late years, and are now quite extensively depended upon for domestic and irrigating water-supply in the west and south. The principle on which the hydraulic ram works is simple and easily understood. A hydraulic ram consists of three parts — two valves and an air-chamber. In Fig. 86 will be seen the working parts of a ram exposed to view. / is the air-chamber; P, delivery pipe; JV, overflow; A, WINDMILLS AND PUMPS. 377 drive pipe connecftion;^^, base; M, spring supply pipe; (9, check- valve. The chamber is bolted onto a frame which forms, at one end, an entrance into the ram for the supply of water, and connecfled at the other end with the outside, or impetus, valve. This frame also contains, placed at FIG. 86 — HYDRAULIC RAM IN PARIS. right angles with the supply passage, outlets for the water discharged to the reservoir. There is an open- ing just above the supply-water passage into the air- chamber through its valve. The outside, or impetus, valve is so arranged — by bending upward the end of the supply passage — that when it is closed, by being forced or held up against its seat, no water can escape; 378 IRRIGATION FARMING. and when it falls down of its own weight, or is held down, the water can flow freely from the ram. This is all there is to a hydraulic ram, and as there are but two valves to wear it will last a lifetime. The operation in forcing the water is as simple as the means. The water is brought to the ram through a supply pipe laid on an incline. Through this the water flows downward and out at the impetus valve until it has acquired power, by its velocity, to throw the valve up and close it. The momentum, or fcjrce, of this falling stream of water continues, and it finds an outlet through the valve in the air-chamber, which opens. The water continues to pour into the air- chamber until the pressure of the air is equal to that of the head of water. This closes the air-chamber valve and confines the water which has been let in. At the same time the impetus-valve opens of its own weight, as the pressure of the water in the supply pipe has been overcome by the pressure of the air in the air- chamber, and the water commences to waste as before. While the water is wasting at the impetus-valve, the expansion of the air in the air-chamber forces the water out through the discharge pipe. This operation will continue as long as the working parts keep in good condition and the water supply lasts. The supply must be from four to twelve feet higher than the location of the ram, and from twelve to one hundred and fifty feet distant from it. In locating a ram, not only the fall and distance must be taken into consideration, but some means of draining the waste water from the ram must be provided. If the ram must be located in a pit to get the desired fall, a drain must WINDMILLS AND PUMPS. 379 be provided, starting from the bottom of the pit. If it is not pradlicable to locate the ram the desired distance from the supply, a number of coils may be made in the pipe. In this manner a ram may be located dire(5lly under the supply, and will work equally well. The supply must determine the size of the pipe to be used. Never use a ram that is too large for the sup- ply. If the supply pipe is not kept full the ram will U^a^7^~ FIG. 87 — HYDRAULIC ENGINE IN OPERATION. not work to advantage, and will eventually stop and give trouble. Fig. 87 illustrates a ram operating under very favorable circumstances. The water can be discharged to an elevation several times the fall of the water from the reservoir to the ram, the greatest fall causing the discharge of the greatest amount of water at a given hight, or a given amount of water to a greater hight. Or, in other words, about one-seventh of the water furnished to the ram may be raised to a hight of four times the hight of the supply, one-fourteenth to eight times the hight of 38o IRRIGATION FAKMING. the supply, one-twenty-eighth to sixteen times the hight of the supply, and so on. The manufa<5lurer of Rife's ram gives the following rule for ascertaining how many gallons may be delivered in an hour: Mul- tiply the number of gallons the ram will receive through the supply pipe a minute by the feet in fall. Multiply the produ(5l by forty, then divide by the num- ber of feet the water is to be elevated above the ram. The result will be the number of gallons delivered in an hour. Water-Motors. — In large streams of vSteady cur- rent the Harvey water-motor, an outline of which is *ek»^ >. J(-lleTj»r/*J < FIG. 88 — HARVEY WATER-MOTOR. T-JlLB^-L^^ given in Fig. 88, is considered quite a success in lifting water for irrigation. By the use of wing dams in the stream the force of the current operates diredlly upon the wheel at the lower point of the dams, and in this way power is created for running a centrifugal pump. The wheel is a combination of an undershot and breast wheel hung on a swinging frame, and is balanced by a counterweight. Its gearing is a sprocket-wheel, so that it can be raised or lowered with the varying rise or fall of the river without any readjustment of gear- WINDMII,!^ AND PUMPS. 38 1 ing. Mr. F. H. Harvey's wheel at Douglas, Wyoming, is ten feet in diameter, fourteen feet long, and secures sixty horse-power, operating a 3)^ -inch pump, which delivers one hundred gallons of water a minute to a hight of sixteen feet. The same power is sufficient to operate a five-inch pump, which would raise seven thousand gallons a minute. The cost of the wheel compared with what it accomplishes is but a trifle. I^abor and material, including the pump on the Harvey plant, amounted to $1,200. As much of the work was experimental, it was necessarily slow. A like plant can be put in for $800, and most of the work can be done by the farmer. The daily expense of operation is merely nominal, and it requires no attend- dance except to oil the machinery occasionally. The Hurdy-Gurdy. — This is a late improvement which is best illustrated in Fig. 89, which shows the runner only and does not include the gearing. This wheel is of the impulse and reacflion class especially adapted to high heads and mountain streams. This cascade wheel has been placed under heads as high as seven hundred feet, and is capable of utilizing head pressures as high as 2,000 to 2,500 feet. The water is admitted to the wheel by means of nozzles projedling one or more jets, which strike the circular ridge divid- ing the water into equal portions, passing into the buckets, the buckets alternating to the jet, the arrange- ment giving ninety per cent, of efficiency. The gear- ing of this wheel is easily applied to rotary or centrif- ugal pumps, and water is raised in this way. The turbine class of water-wheels operates upon a different principle. Turbines are submerged entirely under the 382 IRRIGATION FARMING. water, which gives them their power upon a different place, they receiving this power from the pressure and reacflion of the water. A more primitive affair having the same obje(5l in view is the common water-wheel often seen in the west. Every one knows of the stem- wheel steamboats that navigate shallow streams. These afford an instance of the kind of wheel to be used — simply a large one with paddles or floats on the end of the arms, by which the cur- rent of the stream turns the wheel; and by means of proper gearing the motion is conveyed to a pump, by which the water of the stream may be raised through pipes to reasonable hight and distance. A stream nine feet deep and one hundred feet wide flowing four miles an hour will exert a very great power. A common float or paddle-wheel twenty feet in diam- eter working in a stream of this kind will make four revolutions in a minute, which by cheap gearing may operate a pump with sixty strokes a minute, this being more than ample to raise water sixty feet in sufficient quan- tity to irrigate twenty to forty acres of land. The cost of such a wheel would be quite small, not over $50. The wheel should be submerged over eighteen inches in the water, which will be the width of the floats. If more power is desired, the floats may be increased in FIG. 89. THE HURDY-GURDY WINDMIIvLS AND PUMPS. 383 width. It will be the square feet of area of each float submerged at one time that will be the measure of the power in a uniform current. The current, or bucket, wheel is quite an institution in many large streams, and it is a good thing where the current is steady and strong. By attaching buck- ets to its arms or vSweeps, sufficient water can be raised to irrigate small tracts close to the stream. The turn- ing of the wheel by the current at the same time fills the buckets, which are emptied at a certain hight into a trough or flume, and in this way the water is carried to the land. Gasoline Engines. — Very effe<5live pump power can be gained by the use of the portable gasoline engine, which consists of base, cylinder, piston, con- nec5ling-rod, crank-shaft, and fly-wheels. The modus operandi and the development of power is as follows : In starting up, on the first outstroke of the piston a mixture of air impregnated with the proper amount of gasoline is drawn into the cylinder, passing through the valve chambers. On the instroke of the piston, this mixture in the cylinder is compressed into space between the cylinder-head and the piston. The com- bustible mixture is then ignited by the most reliable, safe, and simple device possible — a short iron tube closed at the outer end and connec5led to the interior of the cylinder, enclosed in a chimney and heated by a burner ; and the air being expanded by the heat in- volved, an impulse is given to the piston. When the piston has reached the second outstroke the exhaust- valve is opened and remains open during the second instroke of the piston, and the produdls of combustion 384 IRRIGATION FARMING. are expelled through the exhaust-pipe, which is con- dudled to the outer air. It has been found that the cost of a twenty horse- power gasoline engine is about $1,450, and a thirty horse-power about $2,000. The cost of running the first will be about forty cents an hour, and the second sixty cents. The amount of water raised will depend upon the lift, the kind of pump used, and the general arrangement of the plant. Assuming a lift of ten feet, a twenty horse-power engine should lift about five hundred inches, and a thirty horse-power about seven hundred and fifty inches. For engines to raise one or two inches continuous flow the expense would be somewhat greater in proportion. The cost of oper- ating these engines in localities where seventy-four degree gasoline can be obtained in quantities at ten cents a gallon, is one cent for each exerted horse- power per minute. Hot-Air Engines.— These are construaed almost wholly for pumping purposes, the motive power and pumping apparatus being combined in one machine inseparably connected in one frame. As its name im- plies, the power is furnished by the heating of air, which being forced into a cylinder when cold, expands with the application of heat, and the alternate heating and cooling of the air as it passes in and out of the cylinders furnishes the motive power. The hot-air engine is not adapted to heavy work, such as the steam-engine. After fire has been applied for a short time, and the air in the chamber has expanded, it is neces.sary before the engine will start to turn the bal- ance-wheel. This requires the strength of a man, but WINDMII.LS AND PUMPS. 385 after turning the wheel once around the engine can take care of itself, and any child old enough to place a shovelful of coal in the fire-box of a stove, and who can be trusted to handle a fire can then operate the engine an entire day. The cost of operating is small, and wood, coal, or cobs can be utilized. A kerosene oil attachment is always furnished. When oil is used the flow is self- regulating, and after starting the engine it requires no further attention for eight or ten hours. A special pump is necessary, which is furnished with the engine. The hot-air engine makes from 80 to 160 strokes a minute, and its capacity ranges from a few gallons to one- tenth of a second foot a minute, equivalent to two- tenths of an acre foot a day of twenty-four hours, lim- ited by the hight of lift which varies from a few yards to 500 feet. The price of the hot-air engine, including pump, etc. , is from $300 to $600, according to size of cylinder, the former price being for a six-inch and the latter for a ten-inch cylinder. As the six-inch cylinder is as small as should be used for deep well pumping, it is readily seen that the cost has prevented more general introdudtion of this device for pumping water on the farms of the west. Compressed Air. — Modern science is ac5tively at work endeavoring to employ air in raising water from wells, and two or three feasible plans have already been devised. One is the Chapman process, illustrated in Fig. 90, which shows the apparatus as devised for a well. By means of the proper machinery the injedted air causes the well to flow. Air is forced down the small pipe, comes up in a cone shape, filling the well- 386 IRRIGATION FARMING. pipe and carrying the water with its force. It also lightens the water column and causes the water to flow through the pipes in torrents. It is suitable to be used in wells of any depth, and any number of wells at any distance apart can be operated from one en- gine. It is claimed that by this system more water can be raised than by any other, but to the writer's mind this claim is not wholly clear. Another scheme is Merrill's pneumatic system, by which water may be elevated from as many sources as may be desired. Fig. 91 represents two sources, with wind and gasoline engine power, arranged to use separately or in combina- tion. The plan is said to be entirely practicable. In the cut, A is the compressor ; B, the air-pipe leading to the well; C, the injedtor in the bottom of the well ; Z?, a similar arrange- ment in the other well ; E is the discharge pipe, and F\s the bank or reservoir. The same power can be utilized, by gear- ing and belts, in doing a great amount of work, such as churning, grinding, etc. One man can attend to the whole outfit, and if the FIG. 90. AIR COMPRESSOR. WINDMILLS AND PUMPS. 387 water-lifting arrangement is not as yet wholly com- plete, Yankee ingenuity will soon make it so, as the principle is all right. Repairs of Windmills. — At least once a year a windmill pumping plant should be overhauled and put in repair. First the pump should be repacked, if the valves leak. The check-valve must be absolutely THE PNEUMATIC SYSTEM. water-tight. Not a particle of water must run through when the valve is shut. If it does the pump-pipe will become empty and the water will not start for a time, nor will it start at all without priming if the check- valve is above the water-level in the well. The piston- valve must be renewed when worn, otherwise but part of the water is raised with the stroke, and when the wind is light the windmill will run without raising any water; this would be dangerous, for at a certain speed 388 IRRIGATION FARMING. the mill will pump just fast enough to freeze water in the pump, when an increased wind will smash things. Put both valves in perfect order. As for the windmill, if a solid wheel, see that the brake is adjusted so that it will hold the wheel motionless when out of wind. If the brake has too light pressure, a change of wind, if the wind is light, will turn the wheel slowly with- out acfting on the vane, and it will pump slowly and freeze the water. The main things are tight valves, so that water will be pumped when the windmill turns, no matter how slowly ; a small vent to let the water back after pumping ceases — small enough so it will not allow water to run out fast enough, when pumping slowly, to cut oif the flow from the spout — and a tight brake to hold the wheel perfedlly motionless when turned out of wind. If wooden tanks leak from shrinkage the evil can soon be remedied by throwing in a quart or so of bran, which will soon fill the crevices and stop leakage. Cost of Lifting Water. — The cost of furnishing the power by means of steam varies according to the amount to be furnished and the cost of fuel. It requires the same labor to attend a five horse-power boiler and engine as it would require for a fifty horse- power outfit. It will probably average twenty-five to thirty-five cents for each horse-power for the operation of any plant of ten to twenty-five horse-power capacity. Say it costs thirty cents; then the cost of putting one inch of water on twenty-four acres a day would be three dollars for a twenty-five foot elevation, or twelve and one-half cents an acre. Or, in other words, a two- inch flow on each acre could be obtained for twenty- WINDMII.I.S AND PUMPS. 389 five cents if produced by steam. A centrifugal pump, driven by a gasoline engine, would accomplish the same result at an expenditure not to exceed eight or nine cents. This engine needs no attention. It uses but one gallon of gasoline for each horse-power in a day of ten hours. Wind engine power costs so little that the total annual expense of operation is merely nominal. A good windmill plant with a reservoir large enough to irrigate ten or fifteen acres need not cost to exceed three hundred dollars originally, and such an installation would last for years. Capacity of Pumps. — The quantity of water a windmill will lift into a reservoir during an average of eight hours' run a day depends entirely on conditions. If a mill of a given capacity has to lift the water from a considerable depth, it cannot raise as much as if the water is lifted only a few feet. For this reason, in the latter case a larger sized pump may be operated by the same force exerted on a smaller size, when the water is taken from a considerable depth. Theoretically, one horse-power will raise a five- inch column of water one hundred feet, a six-inch column seventy feet, and an eight-inch column forty feet; additional horse-power will elevate the water in direcft proportion. A ten- foot mill will develop one-half of one horse-power; a twelve-foot mill three-fourths horse-power; a fourteen-foot mill one horse-power, and each additional two feet in diameter of wheel develops pradlically one additional horse-power up to a thirty- foot mill, which develops eight horse-power. The cost of the mill ranges from forty dollars for the smallest size, up to four hundred dollars for the largest. 390 IRRIGATION FARMING. A five-inch pump geared to run forty-eight eight- inch strokes a minute will discharge i,86o gallons of water an hour; a six-inch pump geared in the same way will discharge 2,760 gallons an hour, and an eight-inch pump will discharge 4,860 gallons an hour, A reser- voir one hundred feet square by four feet will contain 40,000 cubic feet, or about 300,000 gallons of water. A five-inch pump discharging 1,860 gallons an hour will in one-third of a day, or eight hours, discharge 14,880 gallons. In twenty days of eight hours each — this is assuming that the windmill runs one-third of the time — 297,600 gallons of water will be secured, practically filling the 300,000 gallon reservoir. Dur- ing the six months from April to September, inclusive, there are nine periods of twenty days each. There- fore, the reservoir can be emptied and refilled nine times during the six months, resulting in an aggregate of 2,700,000 gallons of water for irrigation purposes, equal to 360,000 cubic feet. This is sufficient water- supply to irrigate ten or eleven acres of ordinary soil nine times during the season, which would be the maximum number of wettings. A steam-pumping plant with a fifty horse-power engine will raise 7,500,000 gallons of water to a hight of ten feet every ten hours. This amount of water will cover twenty- three acres to the depth of a foot in the period men- tioned. The cost of the plant will approximate $3,000. It will require one man to operate it, and about one ton of coal daily to keep it in operation. In many places wood is so abundant and cheap that coal is not needed to be used, while in numerous localities straw or cobs may be burned, thereby reducing the cost of WINDMILLS AND PUMPS. 391 fuel to a minimum. A four-inch centrifugal pump, with a gasoline engine of two and one-half net horse- power, will raise 9,000 gallons of water an hour twenty -five feet vertically, and it can be operated twenty-four hours a day, or less, as desired. Pumping from Quicksand. — It is easy and eco- nomical to secure a supply of water by means of pumps placed along the banks of our ordinary prairie streams. A well can be sumped to give a moderate amount of water at comparatively small expense, but an attempt to pump enough water to cover 300 acres or so a day would be undertaking a very difficult task. A trough, or long well, seems to be quite feasible, and would be pradlical if it could be secured to a sufficient depth; but it is quite difficult to dig a well in the quicksand over five or six feet deep made in this shape. There are, however, three different kinds of wells which can be placed in quicksands. The most substantial and costly is the sinking of a rock wall. This is a very expensive job. The next best is a circular well of sufficient diameter to give a required amount of water, which may be termed an open brick wall. It should be built of vitrified brick, with the back filled with gravel. No cement or mortar whatever is needed, but an opening of from one-fourth to one-half inch should be left between the ends of the bricks. This space will allow the water at all stages to come in through the sides of the wall, as well as up from the bottom. In sinking a solid rock wall all water is necessarily shut out from the sides, leaving only the bottom from which water can come in. If a well can be secured with four feet of lift with 392 IRRIGATION FARMING. which to start, by the time the pump has been running a short time the water will have been lowered to a level of twelve to fifteen feet, and if the bottom of the well is located in gravel strata, as it should be, chances are good that a well ten feet in diameter will supply two twelve-inch pumps. One four-horse gasoline engine costing about $250 will operate these two pumps. The two pumps would cost $100, the pump-jack and walking-beams $100 more, making $450, or, for a safe estimate, $500 for the plant after the well and water- supply have been secured. It is a difficult matter to estimate the cost of the material for such a well. "With hard brick at $10 a thousand, a well ten feet in diameter and twenty feet deep can be put in for $500, making a complete plant capable of supplying two twelve-inch pumps, or 422,640 gallons in twenty-four hours. It is estimated that this would cover from six- teen to twenty acres of ground every twenty-four hours, with a first cost of from $1,000 to $1,200. These plants could be duplicated about 1,000 feet apart until the necessary amount has been secured to supply the land under the ditch. This is one of the most pradlical ways of securing water along insufficient streams, although a cheaper well can be made with what is called perforated cast- ing. This casting, made of galvanized sheet steel and thoroughly riveted together, is pressed down into the sand and the -sand subsequently baled out from the inside. After it has been carried down to the desired depth the bottom is filled with gravel or rock to pre- vent the sand from rising. The pump can be lowered into these tubes, leaving them in an almost open body WINDMILLS AND PUMPS. 393 of water, as the castings are perforated with inch slots the entire length. The greatest difficulty in putting them in would be the encountering of boulders or rock in the sand, which would cause loss of labor on a well, as the pipe would have to be pulled up and removed to another point. Another satisfadlory well which is very substantial and will last a lifetime is that which is known as the Cook tubular well. This is made by sinking a series of pipes, eight or ten inches in diameter, down to a gravel stratum through the quicksand. This gravel affords good pressure, which will raise the water up to or a little above the original water-level. When these points are put down into the gravel and four or five of them are connected to one powerful pump, about i,ooo gallons a minute can be pumped from them from one year's end to another. Many portions of our western territory must sooner or later depend on pump-water for irrigation along its valleys and rivers during the middle of the summer. Owners should put installa- tions at their places sufficient to supply their farms without the use of the river. ' CHAPTER XVIII. DEVICES, APPLIANCES AND CONTRIVANCES. HHERE are innumerable devices in use in irri- gating operations, some of which may be of home-made construction, and these the author will describe but briefly, after having given the details for a city sewerage system as applied to irrigation operations near several western cities. We include this reference to sewage in this chapter not because it properly belongs herein, but from the fadl that space forbids a separate chapter devoted to it and there is no other place in which it might properly appear. In irrigation work the operator needs first of all things a pair of heavy rubber boots and a long-handled, round-pointed vshovel. These might well constitute his entire working outfit, and with a simple knowledge of irrigation, as we have endeavored to present in the preceding pages, he is ready to do a day's work in any field requiring the magic touch of the vivifying waters. A Sewage System. — The rich fertihzing elements of the city sewers may often be carried out upon garden tra(5ls, and there applied to the best possible advantage. The writer will describe the system in vogue at Trinidad, Colorado, which may answer for all. This sewer is construdled of eighteen-inch vitri- fied pipe laid to a grade of two-tenths of a foot in one 394 DEVICES, APPI^IANCES AND CONTRIVANCES. 395 hundred feet to the mile, the sewer having a velocity of 2.58 feet a second of time when running full. The sewer, unfortunately, had to cross the Las Animas river, which was accomplished by the means of an inverted siphon made of sixteen-inch cast-iron pipe having a masonry catch-basin at either end, as shown in Fig. 92. The siphon carries a current having a velocity of 4.68 feet a second when running full, a rather high velocity being necessary to keep it from choking. A masonry chamber is built at the mouth of the outlet, from which the sewer is condudled to various reservoirs. There are automatic flushers at FIG. 92 — INVERTED SEWER SYSTEM. the head of each lateral, so that the sewage is well diluted by the time it reaches the final outlet, very little solid matter remaining. The sewage might just as well be delivered into open ditches from the siphon catchment, and these could serve as head ditches at the land to be irrigated, provided, of course, the grade would be sufficient. In winter the surplus sewage might be condudled to various reservoirs, where it could be stored or allowed to seep away as desired. In selecfting ground for a sewage farm account must be taken of the relative elevation of the land, and of the town, manufacfturing establishment, or residence from which the material comes. Whenever possible, as a matter of economy, the farm should be seledled 396 IRRIGATION FARMING. with reference to the sewage reaching it by gravity. If, however, the location does not admit of such pro- cedure, pumps may be utilized, although this fre- quently will entail considerable additional expense in first cost of plant as well as in the annual outlay for operation and maintenance. In some cases, where land can be reached by gravity by going considerable distance or can be covered by pumping within a short distance, carefully prepared estimates, taking into account all the elements of first cost, as well as the annual cost of maintenance and operation, may show that it is cheaper to deliver the sewage a long distance by gravity than a shorter distance by pumping. Formerly it was also considered important to seledl a sewage farm with reference to the surrounding in- habitation, because there was prejudice against such farms on account of the assumed liability to efiluvium nuisance. This objedlion has much less weight now than it formerly had, because experience has fully de- monstrated that with proper management a sewage farm is no more objedlionable on account of bad smells than any other form of farming. For best results the top-soil of a sewage farm should be of permeable charadler, with a gravelly or sandy subsoil. If it is compadl clay the sewage cannot enter, and the only purification attained will be that due to coming in contacft with the soil by flowing over it. It is possible to so treat sewage and prepare a farm as to attain a very high degree of purification even with clay soils, but the chance of doing this at commercial profit is exceedingly small. If not naturally level or of very uniforni slope, a sewage farm for best results DEVICES, APPLIANCES AND CONTRIVANCES. 397 should be leveled, so that the sewage may flow equally over every portion. It should also be laid out with distributing channels having a proper inclination, in order to deliver the sewage readily to all parts of the farm. Formerly it was considered necessary that the carriers be lined with earthenware, concrete, or other impervious material, to prevent the sewage sink- ing into the ground during its passage along them, but now the more ordinary pracftice is simply to make earth ditches with flat slopes. As to the best size of the field for irrigation, everything depends upon the quan- tity of sewage to be disposed of and the chara(5ler of the soil. Any ordinary crop can be grown by this system. Artesian Well Machinery. — The success of ar- tesian wells in some sedtions is phenomenal, and they prove a valuable acquisition in irrigation advancement where artesian basins exist not too far from the sur- face. A very good well, suitable for irrigation pur- poses, is to be seen in Fig. 93. The cost of an artesian well not over five hundred feet deep ought not to exceed one dollar a foot, includ- ing casing, and contradlors will do the work for this sum. The cost of sinking generally increases more rapidly than the depth, so that except in cases of easy boring, or great supplies of water, it will not pay to attempt deep wells for irrigation purposes. The tem- perature increases with the depth, which is an advan- tage if the water is to be immediately applied, but the water is also more mineralized, which is. a disadvan- tage, or not, according to the charadler of the solids present. 398 IRRIGATION FARMING. There are three systems of well-boring employed in artesian work. For shallow wells the spring-pole is the cheapest means as well as the slowest, and is often resorted to by a farmer desiring to dig his own well at small expense. A more pretentious outfit is such an one FIG. 93 — ARTESIAN WELL. as is shown in Fig. 94. In this machine the band- wheel is turned by a belt from the engine. When drilling elliptic gears revolve, which raise and lower the drill as the hole is deepened. A hand-wheel hav- ing a worm is turned to unwind a rope on the drum that lowers the drill. The elliptic gears are engaged FIG. 94 — ARTESIAN DRILLING OUTFIT. 399 400 IRRIGATION FARMING. to the machinery by a fricftion clutch, which can be engaged or disengaged while the machinery is running or the tube is being rotated. A pump is operated by steam, which forces water down the tubing to wash out the cuttings. Expansion drills are, without doubt, the best thing that can possibly be used for sinking wells, as they cut a large hole below the casing, so that the casing can be inserted more easily than can be done by any other means. The most substantial outfit, and one that must be used in very deep borings, is the old-fashioned Penn- sylvania oil derrick. This rig is of a more permanent character than the portable machine, and in setting it up the posts must be well anchored. A walking-beam is necessary, and this is operated by crank power. A bull-wheel must be set in position to raise and lower the tools, a sand-pump is necessary, and the drilling is done by a man who attends to the temper-screw, which rotates the drill-bit and prevents it from striking twice in exadlly the same place. The Uphill Siphon. — Sometimes farmers owning water in reservoirs are desirous of using the water in places which would necessitate what would be called * * draining uphill. ' ' Provided the land to be irrigated lies lower than the surface of the water in the reser- voir, this can be performed without any great effort by using the principle of the siphon. A tile-layer once agreed to drain a pond which at that time was full of water, by laying the tile-drain from the pond over the hill, no attention being given to the grade of the drain, nor to the fa<5l that the hill was three feet higher than the water in the pond. He laid his line of tile about DEVICKS, APPLIANCKS AND CONTRIVANCES. 401 three feet deep through the hill, or about on a level with the water in the pond, covering the tile thor- oughly as he went along until he arrived at the pond. To the surprise of many, the water, which was two feet deep in the pond, all ran out. Another similar proceeding is related of a drain made by a mole ditcher, which is forced through the soil by a capstan. The plow or mole was set in at the pond and run over the hill, the water following behind. Strange as it may seem, all of the water was taken out of the pond. The drains were pradlically siphons, and when com- pleted were full of water, so that they adled as siphons as long as the water-supply lasted. When once empty their acflion ceased and could not be brought about again unless the drains were filled with water, which of course could not be done. These examples and others which have come under our notice, show that under • certain conditions tile-drains can be made to operate very much as tight pipes. We observe, how- ever, that for all-round drainage purposes tiles must operate freely, without being forced, except for flush- ing in flood- times, when we may expe<5l to see tile lines crowded beyond their capacity for good drainage purposes. The Siphon Elevator. — This contrivance is com- posed of two pipes of unequal diameter — a receiver and a regulator. In the interior of the receiver a clack- valve is placed, so as to cut off, intermittingly, the flow of water into the regulator, and above it is a puppet- valve maintained in its place by a spiral spring. A lever carrying a counterweight is attached rigidly to the axis of the clack-valve, causing it to open. The 402 IRRIGATION FARMING. regulator is formed of a cast-iron drum, having thin corrugated heads. At the bottom of the suction-pipe is a check- valve, which allows the ingress of the water but prevents the escape. At or near the bottom of the discharge pipe is a stop-cock. The siphon elevator is filled with water the first time through the orifice, which is then closed by a screw-cap. Its operation is as follows : By opening the stop- cock in the pipe, the water in the siphon is submitted to atmospheric pressure, with which it seeks equilib- rium. Therefore, as it falls in one pipe it ascends in the other pipe and penetrates into the receiver, where, meeting the open check-valve, it forces the same for- ward and closes it. Its exit being thus cut off, the water by its momentum raises the puppet-valve and escapes through the opening, whence it runs off" in a reservoir or other receptacle. During the time the regulator partially empties into the pipe, causing a partial vacuum and a depression of the corrugated heads ; but the pressure upon the clack-valve mean- while diminishes, allowing it to be thrown open by the weight on the level, so that the water immediately fills the regulator again. The corrugated heads assume their original positions, and the same phenomena take place again in a very brief period of time, varying from four hundred to four hundred and fifty a minute. The vibrations insure the continuity of the movement, causing an uninterrupted flow of water from the reser- voir over the puppet -valve. This elevator will lift water eighteen feet in high altitudes and thirty feet at sea-level, the difference being in the natural atmos- pheric pressure. The elevator costs a few hundred DEVICES, APPLIANCES AND CONTRIVANCES. 403 dollars, and may be used in streams, wells, or reser- voirs. The Bucket Elevator. — This arrangement is calculated to raise water from a stream by the force of the current, but the writer does not accord to it all the great things claimed by the inventor, Ira J. Paddock, of Hemingford, Nebraska. The device is crudely sketched in Fig. 95. According to this plan, two up- right posts are to be driven a few rods apart on the farther bank of the stream, and two or more on the nearer side, at least one being far enough up the slope to be be- yond the reservoir. To the tops of the posts are fastened, by short ropes, pul- ley-blocks, through which is rove a taut endless rope belt. This should be two feet above the ground, and should run quite a distance length- wise over the stream, the latter adjustment being effedled by giving enough length to the fastenings of the pulleys to the two posts on the farther bank. The pulleys are so designed that drag-cords knotted to and hanging from the moving belt-rope will pass them without any trouble. Then to the rope are fas- tened a lot of boxes, or buckets, which perform double duty in carrying water and generating power. They would be full going uphill, their weight being thensus- FIG. 95 — BUCKET ELEVATOR. 404 IRRIGATION FARMING. tained by two wheels running on the ground, and the belt-rope merely hauling them. A bit of plank above the reservoir would come in contadl with a valve in the bottom of each box as it arrives, thus discharging the contents, so that a procession of empty boxes would be going down the slope. These would nearly overcome the weight of the boxes, but not the water going up. Of course, there is some loss through fricflion. Mr. Paddock aims to get enough power for hauling from the pull of the stream upon those boxes which are float- ing in the water, and if the length of the stream section of the belt-rope is great enough in proportion to the climb up the hill the plan ought to work. He would thus have an automatic machine working something like a grain elevator. W. W. Allen, of Centerville, South Dakota, has rigged up a contrivance for elevating water from a river to irrigate his fields. He has had a lot of gal- vanized iron buckets made, holding about five gallons each, which are attached to a large belt running over pulleys, it being operated by a small horse-power. He has ditches running from the river, so that he can run the water very readily over his entire field. The Canvas Dam. — Of the home-made devices for saving labor to the irrigation farmer, the canvas apron, which is capitally illustrated in Fig. 96, is one worthy of special attention. The advantages of using canvas instead of earth for lateral dams are that it saves time and labor and affords complete security against the breaking away of the water during the absence of the irrigator. It also obviates the necessity for mutilating the sides of the laterals for earth with DKVICKS, APPI.IANCKS AND CONTRIVANCES. 405 which to build the dams, which is a point of impor- tance to farmers who take pride in keeping their ditches in good condition. The materials for a common apron, such as is shown in Fig. 96, aside from the canvas, are a piece of scantling seven feet long, two laths, a bit of sheet iron, a piece of rope and a few short nails. The canvas should be twelve-ounce, and for fifty-inch ditches and upward should be sixty inches in width, so as to afford ample protedlion for the sides of the ditch. Nail the scantling to the canvas through the lath, and to the bottom of the apron fasten in the same way a piece of i x 3, fifteen inches in CI length. Put a rope handle in the scant- ling, and a strong wire staple in the piece fastened to the bottom of the apron. When set, one end of the brace engage3 this staple and the other end the rope handle. For laterals of ordinary depth the apron should be three feet long, to allow the canvas to lie on the bottom of the ditch for a few inches behind the staple; otherwise the water will cut under and escape. Make the brace similar to the one shown in the sketch, and cut to suitable length to allow the canvas to lie on the bot- tom of the ditch. The Tri-Lateral Canvas Dam. — It will be seen that the essential feature of this dam will admit of varied construcftion in its attachments. A cheap and FIG. 96 — THE APRON DAM. 406 IRRIGATION FARMING. simple method of construdlion would be to nail one of the three borders to a pole, and make a loop, by means of a stout cord, in the opposite comer. A better con- stm(5lion, however, is recommended. Seled: a stout stick of hard wood, or good pine, 2x4 and six feet long, bore a one-half inch hole through the center of the larger diameter about one foot from the two ends, and make a wide saw-cut between and conne(5ling the two holes. The cut may be started with a keyhole saw. Make the sides of equal length, about four feet and four inches. Hem the edges so as to admit the pas- sage of a half-inch rope around the entire border be- tween the two layers of cloth. To fasten the cloth to the stick, pass one edge of the canvas through the saw kerf to the opposite edge, then thread the rope through the half-inch holes in the stick and around through the border of the canvas, remembering to pass the rope through a two-inch iron ring at the angle opposite the stick, for a fastener, or anchor, in the ditch. The two ends of the rope should be made to meet about half-way along the edge of the stick. Bolt or nail through the flat side of the stick to prevent the sides from spread- ing and the canvas from slipping in the kerf. The other two edges should be fastened firmly to the rope by sewing a stout cord around the rope and canvas. To make the whole thing complete, a half-inch rod of iron about three feet long and sharpened at one end is provided, to pass through the iron ring at the point of the canvas. The device is shown in Fig. 97. In use, the ends of the stick rest upon the banks of the lateral, the iron rod through the ring with the top slanting in the diredlion of the water-source, and the sharpened DKVICKS, APPI.IANCKS AND CONTRIVANCES. 407 end thrust to a good depth in the earth at the bottom of the ditch. The author has used — many years ago, however — a metalHc dam consisting of a sheet of galvanized iron, about thirty inches long and fifteen inches wide, and having two rounded corners. There was an aperture four by ten inches square in the center for the water to flow through. When the gate was in position the flow of water through the aperture was regulated by a sliding adjustable gate, made also of galvanized iron, easily moved up or down by hand. The dam was set in position across a lateral by crowd- ing its sharp edges down into the soil to the proper depth, thus forming a check to the flow of the water in the lateral except as it passed through the sliding gate. The Witcher dam is a patented improvement over the apron and diaper sheets. It is composed of a large piece of canvas secured on one edge to a beam or pole which spans the ditch. The side edges are laid on the banks, while the lower edge lies across the bottom of the ditch or canal. The front is adjustably looped by a rope in the middle, regulating the water to a predeter- mined stage, and causing it to pass through the branch ditch or canal. The main pressure is supported by FIG. 97 — HUNTLEY DAM. 4o8 IRRIGATION FAI^MING. ?t^nc>'i'>rs or stay -braces connedled with the beam, as showu lii Fig. 98. A flap is attached to the apron under openings made just under the pole on the up- stream side in such a way that the weight of the water will hold it in position and allow the desired amount of water to pass through. The Van Horn Tap Gate. — This is the inven- tion of J. A. Van Horn, of Canon City, Colorado, and is not patented. It may, therefore, be used by any one who irrigates land through laterals. The various FIG. Q» — THE VVITCHER CANVAS DAM. forms of its construdlion are shown in Fig. 99. The design. A, shows a plain box made by nailing four boards opposite each other, perfectly square on the front end. B represents A with four boards on the outside, breaking joints, three of the outside boards extending forward of the inside box, which makes a box, or pipe, stronger than if made of two-inch lumber, having free passage for water. For tapping reservoirs and main ditches under high pressure put a gasket on the end of the inside box, thus making it absolutely water-tight. C needs no explanation other than that DEVICES, APPIylANCES AND CONTRIVANCES. 409 the wings need not be more than one-half as wide as drawn, and should also extend under the bottom. For variations make B with only three outside boards, or make the outside jacket to extend only about one foot on the first box, j ust sufl&cient to hold the gate in position. Simple Grade Levels. — A cheap and accurate lev- eling instrument and a tar- get or sighting- rod, like that shown in Fig. 100, can be made by any one with a little ingenuity. This is simply a sharp shaft or stake, B, with cross-bar, A, bolted firmly to it. C is a rubber tube attached to the staff and passing up through a hole at each end of the cross-bar. At each upper end of this rubber tube is a glass tube, say four inches long, with the rubber tubing stretched or sprung around it so as not to leak. Colored water fills the tube, and in leveling it is only necessary to sight across the tops of the colored water to the target and take levels just as with a $25 surveyor's level. For short distances it is accurate enough. The glass tubes may be corked tight about an inch above the colored water to prevent its escape when the level is carried. Of course a carpenter's spirit-level, instead FIG. 99 — THE VAN HORN TAP GATE. 4IO IRRIGATION FARMING. of the cross-bar and tubing, may be screwed to the bar, and sights may be attached to each end of the level half an inch above the top surface, or even small, flat phials, four inches long or so, can be used instead. Two pegs, four inches in hight, with holes bored through near the top, may be driven into the bar to be thus used for sighting. For the sighting-rod or flag use a two-inch batten ten feet long, planed and plainly marked in feet and inches, from the bottom up. Then with a cheap tape line, two rods or half a chain long, measure the distances, take levels, and set the depth stakes for digging the ditch. A Ditch Cleaner.— A home- made affair consists of the forks of a tree cut ten feet long, on one side of which is bolted a share of sheet iron. The arrangement is exhibited in Fig. loi. The plow is heavily weighted, and can be pulled through irrigation ditches, canals, or creeks, by horses. Two men, with four horses, can do the work of fifty ditch men with shovels. The pole is used to raise the front of the ditcher when necessary. A man swings his weight upon the back, and thereby lifts the front or point from the mud. A big hook is bolted on the top, to which the double-trees are attached by a long chain. In ordinary work two horses can pull the ditcher, but in most cases, where the ditches are filled with mud and gravel, two teams FIG. lOO — A HOME- MADE SPIRIT-LEVEL. DEVICES,, APPI^IANCES AND CONTRIVANCES. 411 KIG. lOI — A DITCH CLEANER. are necessary. To strengthen the plow and make it more substantial, braces of iron could be put in, extending from the middle cross-beam to each runner, as in a sleigh. In construdling new canals it has no equal, considering the expense of making. There is no patent on the idea. Some 6x8 good oak timbers will make a better ditcher than an old tree. A Tandem Hitcher. — A useful device for work- ing two horses tandem in a ditch is shown in Fig. 102. It is made by attaching two pulleys for inch rope to opposite ends of a double-thick singletree. Two one- inch ropes, each about ten feet long, are used with an ordinary single- tree hook on each end of the ropes. Fasten one end of each rope, A A, to the trace-eyes of the rear horse, and to the front end of each rope, B B, to the trace-eyes of the lead horse. As shown in the illustration, a knot, C C, is made in each rope a little in front of the pulleys, to prevent the rear horse from coming too close to the lead horse. A Water-Gate.— Of all the flood-gates, patented or otherwise, there is but one that is worth building. FIG. 102 — A GARDEN HITCHER. 412 IRRIGATION FARMING. This gate is called the Carlisle gate, as a man by that name invented it. Suppose a canal is sixteen feet wide; drive three good six-inch posts into the bottom of the stream — one on each side and one in the middle; make a water-gate just as if intended to swing it to a pole the old-fashioned way. Then fasten the gate to the stakes at the bottom with strap-hinges — or if cheap- ness is an item, with wires ; then prop it up so that it will stand eredt against the common stream, but so that FIG. 103 — WATER-GATE, STANDING POSITION. FIG. 104 — WATER-GATE, WHILE WATER IS HIGH. high water will wash it down where it will lie, letting the drift go over, but will not carry the gate away. The stakes or posts at the bottom should be driven clear down to the bottom of the stream, or the water will make a whirl around them and finally dig them up. If the stream is large two or more gates can be put in, in the same way. After the storm is over and the water recedes the gate is raised. The Transplanting Machine. — This is a sort of an irrigation system on wheels, and while it was origi- nally invented for planting tobacco, it serves as well for sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and cabbage. The machine is not unlike a mower in general appearance and costs $70. It is drawn by two horses. The field is previ-^ DEVICES, APPLIANCES AND CONTRIVANCES. 413 ously prepared by a double cultivator, which turns the earth into ridges of two feet level surface and nearly four feet apart. The planter is then driven in the fur- rows between the ridges. Two boys are seated on the rear of the machine, under a shady canopy, each with a pile of plants at his side. As the machine is driven along a sort of a small plow called a marker opens a space in the ridge into which the boys place the plants, alternating with each other, but so rapid is the move- ment that each boy is kept busy placing plants in the ground. As the plant is thus placed, a stream of water is let out of the barrel carried under the seat of the driver, which moistens the plant. The roots of the plant are then covered with soil by two small shares which follow and close the earth over the ridge, as when the cultivator left it. The valve letting out the jet of water from the barrel is operated by a cam connected with one of the wheels. The plants are placed twenty- three inches apart, and the distance between the rows is three feet nine inches. One of the advantages of this machine is that the roots of the plants are not doubled up as in the stuffing hand process, but the chief advantage is the saving of labor. One machine operated by a driver and two skilful boys can do the work of twelve men. The machine will plant ten acres in a day and a half. Watering-Cart. — Where a small area of valuable crops is to be covered only occasionally in a season, very satisfactory results may be obtained with a water- ing-cart. The author has a friend in Colorado who used one and was much pleased with it. He had an orchard of over one hundred acres, for which he made 414 IRRIGATION FARMING. an unsuccessful attempt to get water for less than $2.50 an acre. He then put in a gasoline engine, pumping 15,000 gallons in two hours against a sixty-foot head. He irrigated his trees with the cart, having to convey the water as far as half a mile. He employed five men, gave each tree fifteen gallons of water, and did the entire job at a cost of $97 for labor, gasoline oil, and all incidentals. He kept a stri(5l account of the expenses for his own satisfacftion, and states that the cost of gasoline for the job was $3.80. He simply hauled the water in the cart to a tree where a border had previously been dug, and turned in enough water from the tank-cart to fill the border. Liquid Manuring.— The utilization of liquid manure on all farms is an important con- sideration. On rolling land, such as found on many farms, it is entirely feasible to build a cistern or reservoir in a side-hill, as shown in Fig. 105, to which the liquid may be conveyed by pipes or troughs from the barn, and from which it may be let into a water-tight vehicle through a rude flood-gate or large pipe-faucet by gravity, the wagon standing below the level of the reservoir. Nor will this method be made less valuable by clogging in FIG. 105 — CISTERN AND LIQUID MANURE SPREADER. DEVICES, APPI^IANCES AND CONTRIVANCES. 415 passing the fluid from the cistern to the wagon, because the need of pumps and power is dispensed with. Attached to the cart should be a liquid-spreader such as adopted on most city street-sprinkling wagons. It is merely a semicircular trough at the end of a pipe, through which the water flows. On being freed from the pipe the water is forced downward, then it is spread in a thin sheet regularly over an even area. Straw, sawdust, and other refuse passes through. Such a cart is useful also in watering crops in dry weather. Filled with water it may be left in the center of the lawn or garden, and the whirling lawn-sprinkler and hose attached to it play all night over the grass, straw- berries, etc. The advantages it presents are numerous. It may be only partly filled with the liquid fertilizer where the stuff is too strong, and its contents diluted with water before distribution. This plan is often advantageous where the liquid is hauled up a steep hill. We can see where this cistern could be made to discharge its contents into a lateral of running irriga- tion water, and the manure carried diredl to the land in this way. Some such scheme will have to be de- vised. Manure Vat. — An excellent fertilizer vat or set- tler used successfully by many irrigation gardeners consists of a barrel, hogshead or box sunk in the ground at the highest point reached by an irrigating ditch on the garden plat. This vat can be made of old slabs if nothing better is available and will last for many years. It should be filled with well-rotted manure of any kind, having some hay, corn-stalks, or brush mixed to keep it from becoming solid. The 41 6 IRRIGATION FARMING. water can be turned in from the irrigating ditch and left to fill up the vat and flow out from a two-inch auger-hole near the top. Sometimes the vats are made large enough to hold two or three wagon-loads of manure, and are filled with water and left to stand a few days before the liquid fertilizing element is con- veyed by ditch or otherwise to the growing plants. These vats may be filled and emptied as desired and fresh fertilizers be given the plants. There is no dan- ger of conveying the odor or contaminating influences of the liquid to the vegetables. The Corrugated Roller.— One of the most use- ful machines for preparing a seed-bed in irrigated land is the corrugator invented by Eugene H. Grubb, of Carbondale, Colorado, and illustrated in Fig. io6. There is no patent on the machine and any one may make it. The main part consists of a drum or roller made in two sedlions to toggle like a disc harrow. This cylinder should be of cast iron, but may be made from wood and weighted from 560 to 750 pounds while in operation. It should be three feet or so in diameter. The first se(5lion, or the one at the left, is thirty-four inches long and has but one rim or corrugate, while the other has two and is thirty-nine inches long. This is made necessary to facilitate turning. The corru- gates are five inches wide at the base and have a four- inch flange which leaves a demarkation of similar depth in the soil. A half- worn wagon tire should face each wooden corrugate to keep it from wearing. A spring seat is bolted on the rear of the frame, and in front of each corrugate depending from the frame is a shovel- plow made from ^-inch by 3-inch iron kept in place ^ 41 8 IRRIGATION FARMING. by long stirrups made from % round iron. These are counec5led with a tilting lever so as to raise them in turning. The rollers ac5l on their axle independent of the frame and the team is attached to a strong pole. The advantage of this machine is that it firms the seed- bed and at the same time makes small furrows for the irrigating water. This prevents flooding and baking, and permits the water to seep through from one corru- gate to the other without injuring the surface. In a meadow these corrugations will remain for years and do not interfere with harvesting machines. CHAPTER XIX. SUBIRRIGATION AND SUBSOILING. SUBIRRIGATION is more of a theory than a con- , dition, and until it is better comprehended and ^^M more thoroughly tested, the writer does not care to uphold it as a system worthy of general adoption. There is no doubt that subirrigation has many advantages, especially in the way of economizing water, but the original cost of an underground pipe system is so expensive that many men are deterred from adopting it. A rough estimate would make a gallon of water sufficient to irrigate a cubic foot of ground, and this is a much higher duty of water than can be obtained by the open trench system. This method is probably corredl in principle, and there are authorities who claim that it is most economic, efFedtive and wholesome. The prime aim, under any system of cultivation, or irrigation, should be to stimu- late and induce capillary a<5tion in every possible way. It is a fa<5l, conceded by every observing cultivator of the soil, that the finest and best crops and the most satisfadlory results in every way are obtained from those lands where there is free, constant and uniform moisture diffused from below. Soils differ with respecft to the workings of capillary attraction, but it is more or less potent in all lands. The diffusion of moisture in this way will depend mainly upon two conditions — 419 420 IRRIGATION FARMING. the supply received or contained in the underlying strata, and the chara<5ler of the soil operated upon. Two other points closely allied to these are the storage capacity underneath and the manner of cultivation. Farmers should make themselves most thoroughly acquainted with the subsoil on their estates down to a depth of at least four, but preferably six or eight feet. Similarly, no irrigator should be ignorant of the time or amount of water required to wet the soil to a given depth. A definite knowledge of the rapidity with which irrigation water penetrates downward and later- ally in the soil should form a part of the mental equip- ment of every irrigator, particularly in arranging for subirrigation. Supposing the moisture to have reached the depths of the soil, whether from rains or from irrigation, it is essential that proper means be em- ployed for retaining it in the land and especially to prevent evaporation. As has been set forth quite elaborately in this work in the chapter on soils, this is best accomplished by a dust mulch on the surface of loose, well-tilled soil. Where this principle is well understood, it is considered that a surface layer of three inches or so in thickness is sufl&cient for effedlive protedlion, and this rule applies in subirrigation quite as materially as when water is applied by the various surface methods. The difference between water applied to the surface by irrigation and that applied below the surface eigh- teen inches to two feet, is that in the former case there is much evaporation after the water is applied, and the air has not free access to the soil and roots of the plants for a day or two. In the latter the subsoil is saturated SUBIRRIGATION AND SUBSOILING. 42 1 thoroughly, the plant is never deprived of air and the surface soil is kept loose and fine, and there is com- paratively small waste, as the water rises slowly when the cultivated soil is reached ; the temperature of the soil is thus more uniform, and the growth of the plant is not varied by changes in supply of moisture, air, and temperature. It has been found by experiment that subirrigated soil is warmer than that which has been surface irrigated, and that the atmosphere around plants to the hight of twelve inches is warmer by subirrigation than by surface irrigation. Instead of dilating at length upon the pro and co7i advan- tages of subirrigation, the writer prefers to give a description of the various methods of applying water in this way, and allow the reader to form his own conclusions as to the utility of the system considered as a whole. Subbing. — This is the most natural method of sub- irrigation and it is practiced without resorting to pipes or artificial waterways. It is simply seepage, and is possible only on sloping land having a clay subsoil within a foot or two of the surface, and is quite com- monly seen in the San In8tniction of 124 Crossing a river 182 Curves and grades 124 Iron structures 136 Trestlework 130 Siphons 138 Frost, Preventing 476 Garden Irrigation 250 Asparagus 251 Beans 262 Beets 256 Cabbage 266 Cantaloupes 268 Carrots 257 Cauliflower 267 Celery 253 Cucumbers 265 Horseradish 257 Lettuce 273 Onions 258 Parsley 273 Parsnips 257 Peanuts 273 Peas 268 Pieplant 273 Pumpkins 270 Radishes 256 Rhubarb 274 Roses 275 Salsify 257 Spinach 273 Sweet Com 271 Tomatoes 263 Turnips 257 Watermelons 267 Gasoline Engines 383 Glossary of Terms. 485 Hardpan 285 Headgates 70 History of Irrigation 1 Assyrian works 6 PAGE History of Irrigation— Cont'd. Early work of Menes 2 ^irst artesian wells 3 Great imperial well of China. 4 Hanging gardens of Babylon 6 Hidden springs of Solomon. 7 Invention of the nilometer. 2 Irrigation among the Greeks 7 Mormon operations in Utah 11 Primeval operations in America 10 Roman aqueducts 9 Shadoof or well-sweep 8 Spanish methods 9 Sunken island of Atlantis. .. 1 Tympanum wheel 8 Humid Irrigation 455 Eastern duty of water 460 Irrigating terraces 450 Losses by drouth 458 Sources of supply 459 Hydraulic Embankment 163 Rams 376 Induction Motors 457 Iron Pipes Ill Irrigation in Humid Climates 455 Laterals 81 Ikw of Irrigation 478 Acquiring a right 479 Adjudication of priorities. . . 484 Beneficial use 477 Carrier's diversion 483 Changing point of diver- sion 475 Common law rules 474 Defining channels 481 Intention of abandonment. . 476 Locus of application 476 Proof of non-user 476 Rights as realty 475 Rights in parole 484 Rights of appropriation 474 Right of way 483 Manures 34 Orchard Irrigation 277 Apples 288 INDEX. 493 PAQB Orchard Irrigation— Cont'd. Apricots 296 Cherries 296 Condition in winter 467 Cultivation 283 Lemons and limes 300 Nuts 360 Oranges 397 Peaches 293 Pears 290 Planting 280 Plums 291 Preventing frost 470 Prunes 292 Pruning 292 Quinces 296 Pipes for Irrigation Purposes. 109 Asbestine system 116 Capacity 164 Iron Ill .Liaminated 113 Pressure of 110 Riveted pipes 112 Spiral 112 Steel 114 Vitrified 114 Plowsole 286 Pumps 369 Capacity of 389 Centrifugals 374 Compressed air 385 Cost of raising water 388 Current wheels 383 For windmills 370 Gasoline engines 383 Hurdy-gurdy 881 Hydraulic rams 376 Irrigation cylinders 376 Plunger pumps 369 Propellers 375 Pumping from quicksand. . . 391 Repairs on 387 Rotary 371 Rotary engines 384 Turbine 381 Vacuums 37a PAGE Fumps— Continued. Water motors 380 Quicksand, Pumping from 391 Reservoirs 84 Bear valley works 92 Capacity of 363 Cementing lOO Construction of 89 Cost and capacity 94 Damming a stream 96 For windmills 354 Gates and spillways 101 Hydraulic embankment 103 Laying out 88 Location of 86 Masonry work 92 Storage ponds 98 Sweetwater dam 94 Trouble from silt 105 Rights of Appropriation 480 Sand Gates 74 Saturation in "Winter 470 Seepage 79 Open ditches 443 The Steam Irishman 445 TiUng 447 Silt 32 In reservoirs 52, 105 Siphons 1.38 Soils 22 Acids in 26 Adobe 24 Absorptive qualities 25 Capillary action 31 Classification of 22 Clay soils 23 Color and texture 27 For alfalfa 327 Gravity 29 Gumbo and loam 24 Humus 25 Mechanical arrangement... 28 Sand and silica 25 Temperature 29 Solids in Alkali 817 Storage Ponds 98 494 IRRIGATION FARMING. PAGE Subirrigatlon , 821 Subsoil Plow 287 Tail Races 75 Vineyards and Small Fruits.. 803 Best soils 303 Blackberries 312 Capers 316 Cranberries 314 Cultivation 805 Currants 813 Foreign grapes 309 Gooseberries 312 Irrigation 307 Vineyard 301 Raspberries 810 Strawberries 317 Winter protection 409 Vitrified Pipe 114 Waste Gates 75 Water-supply 47 Beneficial use of 477 Catchment area 611 Evaporation and run-off.... 48 Newsom system 54 Surface supply 50 Tunneling,,,..,,. 53 PAGE Water-supply— Con^mtted. Underflow, phreatic and ar- tesian 68 Water witchery 65 Weirs 152-162 Windmills 852 Capacity of 868 Care of 861 Erecting towers 858 For pumping 862 Home-made kinds 866 Jumbos 364 Merry-go-round 367 Repairs 887 Selecting 856 Steel towers 860 Various makes 858 Wind-power 361 Wind rustlers 364 Winter Irrigation — Depth of saturation 469 Evaporation in winter 464 Orchards in winter 467 Preventing frosts 470 Valuable experiment 465 Vineyard protection 469 STANDARD BOOKS ..PUBLISHED BY.. ORANGE JUDD COMPANY NEW YORK CHICAGO 5-? & 54- Lafayette Place Marquette Building T^OOKS sent to all parts of the world for catalog price. Discounts for large quantities ofi appli- cation. Correspondence invited. Brief descriptive catalog free. Large illustrated catalog, six cents : : : RECENT BOOKS BY THOMAS SHAW Professor of Animal Husbandry at the University of Minnesota, formerly Professor of Agriculture at the Ontaiio agricultural College. Animal Breeding The most complete and comprehensive work ever published on the subject of which it treats, and the first book of the kind ever given to the world which has systematized the subject of animal breeding. The striking originality in the treatment of the subject is no less con- spicuous than the superb order and regular sequence of thought from the beginning to the end of the book. Illustrated. 5x8 inches, 13 full-page plates, about 400 pages. I1.50. 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It covers just the points that every one in- terested wants to know about. It illustrates and describes the newest model sugar mills. It gives the results of the latest experience in promoting and operating sugar factories. It shows just how to es- tablish the industry in any given locality. Illustrated. 10 x 7 inches. 240 pages, cloth. $1.50. INrVKlv'SITV OF CALIFOKNIA LIBRARY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW APK 10 1915 DEC IS 19t {. BtCJs T^f^/ RECEIVED DEClO'67-tflAlvl LOAN DEFT. ultruv- ii^ t^Cv ©ttZ •^. .--i v;_. OCT mM- OF MAR 2 8 196fi 3 3 JOKA 166 28 S80 3 1994 CAUF., BERK 30m-6.'14 YB 53328 4r*^..V/-* [01941 ^5 ::^