I| ! II ALBERT R. MAN IV LIBRARV AT CORNELL UNIVERolTY MfNELL UBIVERSITV LIBBARV 3 1924 073 899 134 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924073899134 Production Note Cornell University Library i>Foduced this volume to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. It was scanned at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior to storage using CClll/ITU Group 4 compression. The digital data were used to create Cornell's replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48- 1992. The production of this volume was supported by the United States Department of Education, Higher Education Act, Tide II-C. Scanned as part of the A. R. Mann Library project to preserve and enhance access to the Core Historical Literature of the Agricultural Sciences. Titles included in this collection are listed in the volumes published by the Cornell University Press in the series The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences, 1991-1995, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor. AMERICAN IRRIGATION FARMING A systematic and practical treatment of every phase of irrigation farming, including its his- tory, with statistical tables and formulas BY W. H. OLIN Director of Agricultural Extension University of Idaho ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1913 COPTEIGHT A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1913 Published July, 1913 TVXSS 01' The Vail-Ballou Oo. binghamton, n. y. TO WINNIE THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED FOREWORD TO THE FARMERS WHO PRACTICE IRRI- GATION IN THE WEST IN the past decade there has been a phenomenal development of irrigation practice throughout the Northwestern States. Thousands of men previously engaged in other industrial and commercial pursuits have heeded the " call of the soil," and are now engaged in farming by irrigation under the great projects that have been developed by the Reclamation Service and by private enterprise. For the past ten years Professor W. H. Olin has been a very earnest and persistent student of irrigation farming prob- lems. His studies during that time have extended over the entire irrigated area of Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho, and it may be safely said that no man has a wider acquaintance or a more extended knowledge of successful irrigation farming practice than has Pro- fessor Olin. It is with much pleasure, therefore, that I very heartily commend this book to all those en- gaged in the practice of irrigation in this country. The subject-matter is well arranged and the scope of the work very comprehensive. Professor Olin has considered the work a labor of love and I am assured that it will serve as a brilliant light to brighten the pathway of the irrigation farmer as he Foreword is steadily marching onward in his practice of the science of modern agriculture. I bespeak for this book a very cordial welcome in the homes of the West. Study its pages, practice its precepts and success is assured if you do not weary of well doing. W. L. CARLYLE, Dean of Agriculture, University of Idaho. PREFACE THIS handbook has been written for those not familiar with soil and crop problems under irrigation. The author believes that it may be of some assistance to rural school classes in agriculture seeking information on irrigation farm- ing. Where possible, technical terms have been elimi- nated and discussions given in well-understood terms. The work is divided into three divisions: Part I, treats of the history, terms and principles of irrigation. Part II, discusses some of the more important things the farmer must consider for successful crop farming under irrigation. Part III, gives irrigation data, facts, and tables for reference use on the farm. The pictures have been chosen to illustrate facts de- scribed or explained in the text matter of the book. They are designed to interest while they impress the lesson sought. If this book helps the farmer boys of the West to decide to stay on the farm and make it pay greater dividends, its mission will have been ac- complished. W. H. Olin. CONTENTS PART I IRRIGATION PAST AND PRESENT CHAPTER PAGE I History of Irrigation 3 II Fundamental Terms in Irrigation . 32 III Soil Study 54 IV Seed Bed Preparation 68 V Seed Selection 83 VI Methods of Water Distribution . . 97 PART II CROPPING " UNDER THE DITCH " VII Alfalfa 141 VIII Potatoes 170 IX Small Grains 189 X Sugar Beets 205 XI Orchards 229 XII Trucking " Under the Ditch " . . 250 XIII Miscellaneous Forage Crops . . . 266 Contents CHAPTER PAGE XIV Crop Rotations ....... 279 XV Live Stock ,. . . 296 PART III STATISTICS AND WORKING TABLES XVI The Reclamation Service and its Work 313 XVII Statistical Data, Rules for Measure- ments, AND Helpful Tables . . 323 Bibliography 349 Acknowledgments 357 Index ....,...,.,.,. 359 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Jackson Lake, Wyoming Frontispiece Irrigation Station at Gooding, Idaho 20 An Irrigating Canal 21 Location for site of dam, Twin Falls, Idaho 36 Bringing the water to the desert 37 Automatic water register on a weir 48 View of Riverton, California, with ditch in foreground . . 49 Hilgard's soil profiles 62 Overhead spray system 63 Twin Falls sagebrush grubber 70 Railing off sagebrush 71 Cutting off knolls 80 Reclaimed vs. unreclaimed land 81 Division boxes 106 Small flume for farmers 107 Bee farm 107 Type of crowder no Type of ridger no Furrow irrigation of young orchard Ill Rear view of ditcher plow ill Zigzag furrows in orange orchard, Pomona, California . . 114 Water delivered through spouts or spiles 115 Centrifugal pump used in orchard 126 Pumping water by electric power 127 Lining the canal 130 Concrete lined canal, Milner Dam in background . . . .131 Cement and canvas pipe, Pomona, California 138 Irrigation in Idaho 139 Irrigation of young alfalfa 160 Stacking alfalfa 161 Sixty-five acre potato patch 170 Choosing the type 171 Irrigating Colorado potatoes 180 Illustrations PAGE The final irrigation i8i Harvesting true to type 184 Sacks of potatoes i8s Diversion dam near Boise 185 A Colorado wheat field 198 Lateral checks 199 Dairy herd 199 Last irrigation of sugar beets 218 Beet crop at the factory 219 Orchard in full bloom 228 Irrigating a bearing orchard near Durango, Colorado . . 229 Irrigation in the orchard, Wenatchee, Washington . . . 236 Intertillage crops in orchard 237 Furrowing an orange orchard, Pomona, California . . . 246 Modern system of orchard irrigation 247 Onion field near Greeley, Colorado 256 Celery growing under irrigation 257 Diversified farming under irrigation 264 Chickens on the farm 265 " Harvest home " 265 Irrigating the timothy crop 274 Harvesting of berry crop 275 Nodular growth bearing nitrogen 282 Determining moisture 282 Vine nursery in Lewiston, Idaho 283 Alfalfa the basic crop 288 Crop of peas 289 Hogs in alfalfa 300 Sheep, farm revenue winners 301 "Amorita" 308 Type of horses 309 Shoshone Dam 316 The Milner Dam 3i7 Galvanized iron irrigation flume 33° Concrete pressure pipe 33i Waste gates, Milner Dam 34^ Salmon River Dam 347 Main pipe of King Hill 347 PART I IRRIGATION OF PAST AND PRESENT TIMES AMERICAN IRRIGATION FARMING CHAPTER I HISTORY OF IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENTS IRRIGATION is the watering of land by artificial means to enable crops to be grown or to increase production. (Dr. Elwood Mead.) The Roosevelt dam in Arizona (U- Irrigation 5^ j^\ ^j^^j ^j^^ Assouan dam on the Works of ^,., . -ry. , , , Antiquity ^^^^ 1" Egypt, are truly great en- gineering works of this modern day, and reveal a great irrigation system. But buried in the waste and sands of centuries, along the Tigris river in Asia Minor, and on the Nile in Egypt, are found irrigation dams, conduits, and canals that out- class these latest productions of engineering skill, and cause us to respect and admire the irrigation engineers of antiquity. Historical, archeological and philological re- searches unite in confirming the statement that the great nations of antiquity practiced an agriculture based upon irrigation, so that we can truthfully say: Irrigation farming is the oldest method of farming in the world. Which nation originated the system, and where the parent works were established, it is 3 American Irrigation Farming impossible to affirm. The fragmentary tables thus far found in modern researches are not sufficient to declare this to us. It is believed that among the old- est systems of irrigation were those established along the river Nile in Egypt. EGYPTIAN IRRIGATION. Here, the country being compara- Egyptian tively level, the river with low banks UndeV°" ^^"^ itself readily to a practical system Rameses of irrigation. We know that in Rameses II's time a system of distribu- ting canals, artificial ponds and reservoirs, was in ex- istence in the Valley of the Nile; and it is be- lieved that it was its irrigation system that made the Land of Goshen such a fruitful land in Joseph's time, and explains why the nations came to Egypt for sus- tenance and bread. A king of the twelfth dynasty, Amenemhat III, built the most famous reservoir of either ancient or modern times. It was named Lake Moeris, and was constructed for receiving and distributing the waters of the Nile. This reservoir was ten million square meters in area, equivalent to 2,471 acres. (M. Mariette, quoted in Lenonnant's Manual of Ancient History of the East, Book No. 2, Chap. 2.) It is known to have been constructed more than forty centuries ago. The study of these early systems of irrigation cause us to say that the engineering works of greatest mag- nitude are believed to have been built during the History of Irrigation Developments 5 period of greatest progress in literature and the in- dustrial arts by the pyramid-building kings of the fourth dynasty of the Old Empire. " SAB^AN IRRIGATION'. We find another old system of irrigation in the home of the ancient Sabosans, who built a mighty dam about 1760 B. C. near the original capital of the country. It was built for storage purposes for ir- rigation, and was 500 feet thick, 120 feet high and 10,560 feet long (two miles). This is one of the longest irrigation dams of past or present time. Its sluices were placed at different heights, so that its water supply could be regulated irrespective of water levels in the resei-voir. From this supply, a very complete system of irrigation seems to have been in existence, contemporaneous with the Egyptian works cited above. The CHALDEAN AND BABYLONIAN IRRIGATION. It is thought by some historians that civilization arose from the valley of the Nahrwan t- i ^ rr^- ■ • Canal Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in Asia Minor, a region once in a state of high cultivation and densely populated. Today, Bagdad, located in the very heart of the valley plain, lies in a most barren and desolate waste. To the north of this plain, near the present site of Dura, was the upper intake of the ancient Nahr- wan canal, and there was the region where Nel> uchadnezzar set up his golden image. A few miles American Irrigation Farming away one sees the ruins of Tel Atig, where Em- peror Julian died. Just a little farther on, stands the ruins of Ctesi- phon, where the great arch of Nausherwan's palace is a silent witness of the former magnificence and splendor known in the days of the Sassanian kings, who flourished from 226 to 651 A. D- On this plain was also the historic In the city of Cuxana, from which Xenophon Valleys of ^^^ j^jg io,ooo Greeks started on their the Tigris J u ■ w u gjjj renowned march across a region which Euphrates the historian records was then cut up by innumerable canals. The entire coun- try between the Tigris and the Euphrates was watered by a network of them, traversing the plain between the two rivers. In the delta of the Tigris river, near the com- mercial city of Opis, was the starting point of the ir- rigation system. These engineers of antiquity made the two greatest irrigation canals of ancient times ; the one drawing water from the eastern bank, and the other from the western bank of the Tigris. Each was connected with many lesser canals, and the en- tire system irrigated a large tract of land. The east side canal was known as the Nahrwan, and was 250 miles long. It had an average depth of from thirty- six to fifty feet, and its width averaged 400 feet. Modern engineers estimate that this canal, at the driest time of the year carried a volume of water ten times that of the Thames river, England. History of Irrigation Developments 7 Fragmentary records, which are the Most Fertile remains of recorded statements looo Region of 1111 1 1 ■ -kt 1 the Globe years old, declare that this Nahrwan Canal had well-constructed buildings on its banks, that it passed through date groves, well- cultivated fields, and well-populated villages and towns. This region, under the husbandmen of an- tiquity, could not be excelled by any spot on the globe today for fertility, productivity and agricultural wealth. Here was a tract eighteen miles wide, two hundred and forty miles long — two and three-quarter mil- lion acres — dependent upon this one canal for its water supply. Chaldea's rich irrigated lands were the secret of her wealth, and tell why she was the prey of so many conquerors of antiquity. Her engi- neers were men of high intelligence and ability; her farmers, men of no mean repute. (A compiled ex- tract from " The Builder," given in Scientific Ameri- can, October 12th, 1908.) There are also remains of great ir- Ancient rigation works in Beloochistan, built by in India ^ ^^'^^ whose history is today unknown, and China There are important irrigation enter- prises now being utilized in Southern India that are known to have been built by the Hin- doo engineers before the Christian era. We also find evidences of early irrigation systems in portions of the Chinese Empire, but authentic data is wanting to determine upon their construction. American Irrigation Farming ANCIENT IRRIGATION IN THE AMERICAS. In the southwest portion of the Great Works United States, on the Gila river, Ari- Left by zona, and in the valley of the Upper jjg^g and Lower Rio Grande, and its tribu- taries, we find evidences of irrigation works built by a prehistoric people, whose very name and history are now unknown. In the San Juan river plain, in Southwestern Colorado, near the site of the Cliff Dwellers village, can be seen evidences of irrigation centuries old. One of the best examples of ancient irrigation works which is left by these peculiar people of the Southwest is in an ancient pueblo district of New Mexico. Here the water was evidently diverted from the source stream to a natural depression, and conducted to the fields some two miles away by an irrigation ditch constructed around a mesa, and along a series of sand hills, on a comparatively uniform grade. When necessary, the lower wall or ditch border was reenforced by retaining walls of stone, al- though the main portion of the ditch was made of earth, and quite substantially built. Probably the most extensive of these southwestern prehistoric systems of irrigation was in the valley of the Gila river. Here are traced individual canals twenty-five miles or more long, sometimes, extending Canals of out ten miles away from the source the Ancient Stream. Some of these canals were Salt River evidently seven feet deep, and four feet History of Irrigation Developments 9 wide at the bottom; while the sides, sloping gradually, were built in a step formation, approach- ing thirty feet wide at the top of the last series for surface width. It would seem that these canals had wooden headgates, and that bed and sides of the canal were plastered with some form of adhering clay to check the loss from seepage from source stream to field to be irrigated. Several of these old canal beds in Arizona are be- ing used by modern ditch builders. Reservoirs were provided for every house cluster in the pueblo settle- ments. Thus domestic water was insured for the vil- lages of these Southwest prehistoric people, who were later superseded by the American Indian. In the Salt River valley alone, these prehistoric farmers are believed to have irrigated successfully 200,000 to 250,000 acres of crop land. AZTEC IRRIGATION. ,, , , When the Spanish conqueror, Cortez, Under the -. r • , ^ , ,, Montezumas '^^^^ ^° Mexico, he found a well-gov- erned and exceedingly productive em- pire. His progress from his Gulf Coast landing to the capital city of the Montezumas, was greatly re- tarded, and his army harassed, by the flooding from the irrigation canals, which seemed to be everywhere. Probably nowhere in the sixteenth century could have been found a better system of irrigation than that inaugurated by the Montezumas. The great cities of Central America, the ruins of which, now centuries old, excite wonder and admiration for the architec- 10 American Irrigation Farming tural skill o^ the builders, the paved roads, rivaling the Appian Way, Rome, tell us that they must have had a highly developed system of farming under ir- rigation to sustain the population of these cities, and give stability and support to their pastoral race. The writer believes that the works found in Arizona, New Mexico, and Southwestern Colorado, indicate the most northern advance of these Aztec people. Noth- ing of modern day methods seems to compare with the agriculture these people are believed to have prac- ticed centuries ago from Southwest Colorado on the north, through Old Mexico as we know it today, down to the narrow Isthmus of Panama, on the south. A paved roadway near Sparta, Costa Rica, was recently uncovered, reaching from that city to the Pacific, that causes most favorable comment by all engineers who have examined it. IRRIGATION BY THE INCAS. The most ruthless, cruel and inex- Pizarros cusable conquest of either ancient or Destruction modern times was the Conquest of Peru, by Pizarro, toward the middle of the sixteenth century. The beautiful valley, surrounding the holy city of the Inca (Cuzco) was so supplied with a carefully worked-out and well-distributed irrigation system, that even Pizarro's rude band of destroyers were awed and astonished when they first beheld it. Prescott thus describes, in an impressive way, the civilization that Pizarro so rudely swept away: History of Irrigation Developments 11 By a judicious system of canals and subter- Prescott's raneous aqueducts, the waste places on the coast Tribute were refreshed by copious streams clothing them in fertility and beauty. Terraces were raised upon the steep sides of the Cordillera: and, as the different ele- vations had the effect of a difference of latitude, they exhibited in regular gradation, every variety of vegetable form, from the stimulated growth of the tropics to the temperate products of a northern clime; . . . An industrious population settled upon the lofty regions of the plateaus, and towns and hamlets, clustering amidst orchards and wide-spreading gardens, seemed suspended in the air far above the ordinary elevation of the clouds. Inter- course was maintained between these numerous settlements by means of the great roads which traversed the mountain passes, and opened an easy communication between the capital and the remotest extremities of the Empire. The soil, though rarely watered by the rains of heaven, was naturally rich, and wher- ever it was refreshed with moisture, as on the margins of the streams, it was enameled with the brightest verdure. The indus- try of the inhabitants, moreover, had turned these streams to the best account, and canals and aqueducts were seen crossing the lowlands in all directions, and spreading over the country, like a vast network diffusing fertility and beauty around them. The air was scented with the sweet odors of flowers, and everywhere the eye was refreshed by the sight of orchards laden with un- known fruits, and of fields waving with yellow grain, and rich in luscious vegetables of every description that teem in the simny clime of the Equator. The Spaniards were among a people who had carried the refinements of husbandry to a greater extent than any yet found on the American continent; and, as they journeyed through this paradise of plenty, their condition formed a pleasing contrast to what they had before endured in the dreary wilderness of the mangroves. They arrived in view of Caxamalca, which, enameled with all the beauties of cultivation, lay unrolled like a rich and variegated carpet of verdure, in strong contrast with the dark form of the Andes, that rose up everywhere around it. As far as the eye could reach, the level tract exhibited the show of a diligent and thrifty husbandry. . . . A river flowed through the valley affording the means of irri- gating the soil and clothing it in perpetual verdure; and the rich 12 American Irrigation Farming and flowering vegetation spread out like a cultivated garden. The beauty of the place and its delicious coolness commended it as a residence for the Peruvian nobles. Thus we see the pueblo builders of the Southwest United States, the Aztecs, and the Ancient Peruvi- ans were irrigation engineers, and farmers of rare ability, a people little known and much less compre- hended today. The writer questions whether mod- ern irrigation methods show any superiority over the prevailing systems of those strange, peculiar yet progressive peoples. IRRIGATION IN PAST AGES IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE. The conqueroring Romans, perceiving Roman ^i^g advantages of irrigation in the con- s"'S °" '" quered lands of the East and South, es- Europe tablished irrigation in Southern Euro- pean lands. In Carthage were great works of such magnitude that engineers, artificers and farmers were taken from their home land in North Africa, to establish in Italy, the land of the Gauls and even in the Isles of Briton, irrigation works. Some of the ruins of South England date back to the time of Julius Caesar, who had Carthaginian engineers, and Egyptian artisans arrange for an elaborate system of meadow irrigation on the newly conquered lands. In Southern France, Caesar built aqueducts rival- ing those of ancient Carthage, and so well were they built that some of them are in use today, more than twenty centuries after construction. History of Irrigation Developments 13 The aquetiLicts and conduits were among the most remarkable structures in the city of Rome. Some were subterranean, with only a few miles on or above the ground ; others rested on massive arches, and con- veyed in a masoned channel, water for many miles to supply the many fountains, baths and gardens of Ancient Rome — a city of one million people. To obtain pure water for domestic use Rome sought springs and pure streams in the hills Aqueducts going out from fifty to even two hundred in Ancient ° => „,,■,,.■ .^ Rome °'" more miles. At that time, the prin- ciple that water seeks its own level was not well known or understood. For that reason, in transporting the water from its source stream, it was not allowed to fall below the level of the point of final distribution. Hence, in crossing the valleys, arches were constructed seventy, and often one hun- dred feet high, and instead of going over rising ground, the conduit was cut through it, and thus the level was maintained. Claudius' aqueduct was forty-seven miles long, and had arches one hundred feet high. Martia's aque- duct, for thirty-seven miles, was over arches, seven thousand of these arches being seventy feet in height. Nine conduits delivered the domestic water for Rome, approximating three hundred and thirteen million gal- Ions daily. Similar conduits were built for Constantinople and Roman centers in Spain, North Africa and Asia Minor. Virgil, in his Georgics, reveals the fact that the Roman husbandman was fully conversant with the 14 American Irrigation Farming importance and worth of irrigation to his crop land. He lived in the Augustan era of Roman literature, first century, A. D. The following extract from the Georgics will be read with interest : What shall I say of him, who immediately Virgil on after sowing, presses on the land and levels the Irrigation barren sands? Then, on the sown grain, drives Farming the stream and ductile rills, and, when the field is scorched with raging heat, the herbs are dying, lo ! from the brow of a hilly tract, he decoys the torrent, which, falling down the smooth rock, awakes the hoarse murmur, and with gurgling stream, allays the thirsty land. The Lombards, who in the last days of the Roman Empire settled in North Italy, adopted the irrigation methods practiced by the Romans, and from these husbandmen Modern Italy has her ditches and irri- gation practice of to-day. The conquering Saracens of Asia Saracens Minor and North Africa of mediaeval Extend times, and the Moors of Southern Spain Irrigation extended and improved irrigation prac- tices, as then existing, and became the most practical and successful irrigators of the world. Many of their dams, ditches and conduits, centuries old, are in use today. The civilization, literature, and architecture of these people has been written about and commented upon by more than a score of Ameri- can and English writers of prominence. Little has been said, or is now known, of the irrigation farm- ing which fragmentary records and ruins, slightly, but impressively, tell was highly successful. Living in an age of strife, and struggle, they redeemed dreary History of Irrigation Developments 15 wastes, making them into fertile, fruitful fields. These Moors, especially, emphasized intensive farm- ing, thorough cultivation and scientific irrigation in a manner that has not been excelled by the enlightened nations of the present. To the monks of the Dark Ages, we Monks of Q^^g ^j^g preservation of historic rec- f^ ords, farm practice and methods of the preceding centuries. From their rec- ords, laboriously copied, we obtain the facts that tell us of the past. PRESENT-DAY IRRIGATION IN INDIA. It is the prevailing opinion that under the tropics, rainfall is so abundant that irrigation is not needed, and, therefore, irrigation farming is seldom practiced within tropic climes. In the Punjab, in North India, and Conditions j^ ^j^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ j^^^j^ ^^^ j ^.^j^^^ m India ' j j fall averages, year by year, but little more than four inches, and once in a while it falls be- low two inches. There are parts of the Madras Province having an annual average of from forty to sixty inches of rainfall, with such a small proportion falling in the growing period that irrigation is required to insure normal growth and yield. There are parts of the Himalaya district with a record of fifty to one hundred and twenty inches of rainfall, and even greater, where irrigation is not prac- ticed. India is a vast country, comprising a region equal 16 American Irrigation Farming to the combined area of the states east of the Mis- sissippi river, with the Pacific States, Great Basin States and Texas, our largest state. India has more than one and one-third bilHon acres of land, or about 1,766,642 square miles. The total population, accord- ing to the census of 191 1, is 315,000,000. It is indeed a very large country, so Excessive situated that climatic conditions greatly Evaporation ^^^^^ ^j^^ distribution of its rainfall, both with Limited Rainfall ^s to the season and amount, in a given locality. Cropping with ten to twelve inches of rainfall, without irrigation in India, is well- nigh impossible, because the evaporation is so ex- cessive. The Empire has 100 million or more acres of land with less than twelve inches of rainfall. In East Bengal and Assam, the rainfall ex- Between e ^.^g^jg seventy inches. Here there is too Extremes •' much rather than too little ram. Be- tween these extremes lies a tract of some six hundred and forty million acres where the rainfall is sufficient ofttimes to make a crop. The occasional crop fail- ure which comes to the India farmers in this region can be prevented, and the Irrigation Commission of India is doing what it can to give them this crop pro- tection. The latest published report of this Com- mission obtainable (1901-03) shows the total irri- gated area of the Empire to be fifty-three million acres. This is distributed among the provinces as follows : History of Irrigation Developments 17 CLASSIFICATION OF IRRIGATED AREA IN INDIA Province ^"^-^ Population jrrigaS in sq. miles in millions ^^^^^ ^^,^^ Native States 438,000 51.32 7.76 Five Smaller Provinces. .. .132,000 13.60 .90 Madras 192,000 37.69 10.53 Bengal 151,000 73.04 6.36 Punjab 114,000 22.36 10.43 United Provinces 107,000 47.69 11.06 Upper Burmah 87,000 3.84 .82 Bombay 76,000 14.53 1.08 Sind 47,000 3.27 2.92 Miscellaneous I.IS CLASSIFICATION OF IRRIGATED AREA IN INDIA. From Irrigation in India compiled Government, by Robert B. Buckley within recent ^^\v 11 years we obtain some interesting facts Irrigation about Indian irrigation. The govern- ment has brought irrigation to eighteen and one-half million acres of land with important works under construction to redeem extensive addi- tional areas. The rest of the area irrigated has been accomplished through private enterprise and by means of irrigation wells. It is estimated that India irri- gates nearly thirteen million acres of land by wells. The area which one well will irrigate depends very largely upon the method of distributing the water from the surface of the well, the method used in raising the water, depth of well, and contour of the land. Well irrigation in South India averages two to three acres, the United Provinces, four acres, and in the Punjab, twelve acres, per well. The depth of these wells varies from a few feet to fifty and sixty 18 American Irrigation Farming feet deep. The cost of a well varies, of course, with the depth, from 300 to 600 rupees. The rupee is the standard silver coin, valued at 32.4 cents American money. The mechanical methods used in well irri- gation are exceedingly antiquated, dating back many centuries. The following are among the most com- mon: The Persian Wheel. This is a wheel on a hori- zontal axis, with a series of earthen pots so fastened that they act like the metal cups on the modern cistern chain pump, going down empty, and re- turning full. Upon reaching the surface, each pot pours its contents into a trough, from which the water is distributed on the land to be irrigated. The wheel is driven by camel, oxen or donkey power. This is used a great deal in the Punjab district, for lifting water fifty to sixty feet. The Mote. This system is used quite exten- sively in many different sections of India, for lifting water on lands above stream levels, and for well ir- rigation. A rope drawn over a pulley is used to raise and lower a leathern bag which brings the water to the point of delivery. This method requires a driver for the yoke of oxen, attached to the rope, for raising the water, and a man at the well head, or place of de- livery, to empty the water into the trough or channel prepared to receive it. A Lat or Picottah. Like the former method, this system of lifting water is used in various parts of India. In the upper portion of the Em- pire it is known as the lat; in the lower Empire, it History of Irrigation Developments 19 is known as the picottah. This is an application of a lever with a central support, consisting of a pole moving in a vertical plane; one end with a weight, and to the other end is attached the bucket to lift the water from stream or well. It is worked by one at- tendant at the well head or stream. The Boon. This consists of a hollowed stem of a tree or other form of trough moving on a fixed center. It is fastened to an overhead pole, which operates the trough in a similiar manner to the lat. The trough is lowered by the attendant until it dips into the water, is raised above the point of delivery, and the water thus raised is poured into the channel. These methods of artificially water- Cheap Labor Jng the land are mainly used by native T,, „ irrigators, and but for the cheap labor Inese rorms . . Possible obtainable, would be very expensive. The average cost on a fifteen foot lift runs from three and one-half to thirteen rupees ($1.13) to ($4.21) per acre per season. British engineers are rapidly introducing modern irrigation machinery, methods and tillage tools, and are thus rendering irrigation much more effective and economical. TANK IRRIGATION. Storage reservoirs or surface tanks are called tanks in India. Here millions of acres of rice lands are irrigated by tanks. Madras alone has 33,000 tanks. Earthen embankments are usually used. Many are supported by some masonry work. These 20 American Irrigation Farming dams are placed in a logical position in a natural basin, where, by a minimum of expense, the dam will enable the tank to impound a maximimi of water along the stream that forms the natural water course for the basin. Wherever conditions permit, these tanks are arranged in a series locally known as " ahrahs." Within the Madras are two large tanks which natives affirm to be eleven centuries old. These are still in use to irrigate several thousand acres of crop land. One of the most interesting tank or „ . „. reservoir projects in the Empire is lo- Periyar River Project cated on the Periyar river. Where the river passes between two hills in a nar- row gorge, the dam has been placed. The dam is made of concrete, and is 1,241 feet long, 155 feet from bed of river, with a three foot parapet above that. The catchment basin has an area of three hun- dred square miles, with annual rainfall of one hun- dred and twenty inches of water, or more. The average water spread of the reservoir — area covered with water — approximates twelve square miles. Here is the unique feature of this reservoir: This impounded water is for use in a district on another river with a very uncertain and scanty rainfall, where famines have been frequent in the past. To reach the district to be served, this water has to be trans- ported across a series of hills constituting a divide between two rivers, the Periyar and Vaigai. A tun- nel 5,704 feet long — more than one mile — has been cut through the divide. This tunnel has an area of ninety square feet, with a fall of one foot in seventy- o US bC C o o O _o CS 4-1 C/D o ►—I M-i O OJ ta -4-1 C/3 -73 C rt C O 4-1 ni bO c/:) c PS U fciO .S cj C < History of Irrigation Developments 21 five. The tunnel head is fitted with patent headgate so constructed and placed as to reduce the silt deposit while it regulates the water flow. The water is con- veyed to the Vaigai river, and carried by this natural channel eighty-six miles to the Madura district, where it is used to irrigate something like 200,000 acres of crop land. At a desirable point the water is taken out over a substantial weir, and distributed by a system of permanent canals to the land cropped. This reservoir delivered its first consignment of water in 1896. The work on the dam was done in a most unhealthy district where it was possible to work but a portion of the year, and quite difficult to reach. Its completion under designs furnished by Col. J. Pennycuick, R.E., demonstrates the effectiveness of modern irrigation engineering. Probably the greatest reservoir in India s India from an engineering standpoint, is Reservoir ^^^ Mari Kanave in Mysore. Col. D. McNeil Campbell, R.E., drew the orig- inal plans for the reservoir in 1801. An objection was made to its construction by the Madras govern- ment, believing that this proposed tank would seri- ously damage the Bellary district, also dependent upon the same river, the Vedati. Not until August, 1898, were all objections overcome, and construction work on the dam actually begun. The dam is placed at a most strategic point, where the river passes through a gorge. To insure permanency and ef- fectual water resistance, the concrete dam extends twenty-five feet below the bed of the river. The 22 American Irrigation Farming width of the dam is 150 feet, at base, and 15 feet at top. It extends one hundred and forty-two feet above the river bed, and is 1,185 f^^t long. The reservoir will have a water spread of thirty- four square miles, and its storage capacity at the as- sumed maximum flood level approximates forty thou- sand million cubic feet, two thousand million more than the great Assouan dam and reservoir on the Nile. Torrential rains, and monsoons led engineers to plan the storage capacity much greater than the normal sup- ply in its catchment basin. The actual recorded flood maximum has been twenty-eight thousand million cubic feet flowing thirty-five and one-half cubic feet per second. Then farther up the river which sup- g . plies this reservoir, are nine hundred and seventy tanks with a combined capacity totaling six thousand five hundred million cubic feet. Should dams on these lesser tanks break during a period of abnormal rainfall, this larger tank would be an element of safety for the valley below. Thus we see that the tank system of irrigation as it is locally known in India, is one of vast impor- tance, and one which has interested and employed some of the world's best engineers. THE CANAL SYSTEMS OF INDIA. The melting snows in the Himalaya mountains, cause rivers to rise about the middle of April or the first of May. The waters generally do not subside until the middle of August, History of Irrigation Developments 23 From the Indus river alone, by canal The Indtjs irrigation, four million acres of crop River and , ° ' . . , ^ ^ , ^ Chenab Canal ^^"" ^''^ irrigated. One of the most modern as well as one of the largest canals of India is the Chenab. This canal draws its supply from the Chenab river. To prevent silt chok- ing it, and to give the canal a good head, a weir was built across the river with a water way four thousand feet long. This weir is divided into eight sections, each five hundred feet long. The supporting piers be- tween the sections are solid masonry ten feet thick. On the crest of the sections are iron shutters arranged by gearing so that they can be dropped when the river rises, and raised when the flood subsides. From off this weir the canal takes its water supply. The base of the canal is two hundred and fifty feet wide, and its depth is eleven feet. The main canal is four hundred miles long, and has twelve hundred miles of lateral canals. The region which the Chenab canal system serves was at first a desert waste. Today, the whole region, full two million acres, is most excellent crop land. A most interesting engineering work is Proiect *^^ Kestna system which was completed in 1855. The Kestna river divides the delta into two almost equal parts, the eastern delta be- ing eleven hundred and sixty miles square, and the western delta, nine hundred and sixty square miles in area. The volume of water coming down the river at flood time has been known to reach 770,000 cubic feet per 24 American Irrigation Farming second, having a depth of eighteen to nineteen feet over the crest of the Kestna weir. This weir is 3,714 feet long, stands twenty feet above the bed of the river, and is most substantially built. The canal system which supplies the delta lands on either side of the river ag- gregates three hundred and seventy miles in length, and irrigates 550,000 acres of land. This canal sys- tem has checked the famines which used to occur fre- quently, insures good crop returns every year, and has made this district one of the most prosperous in the Madras Presidency. The torrential rains, silt clogging of Engineering conduits, and waterways, and the un- Difficulties , , , ,. . . , . . in India healthy climate m regions where irriga- tion works have to be constructed render the work of the irrigation engineer much more diffi- cult in India than he finds it to be in the Western world. Yet, in the Indian Empire, where one part is surfeited with rain, and another part is burning up, we find the engineer has built some of the greatest irrigation works of modern times. Here he has so extended the irrigated area, within recent years, that it approximates fifty per cent, of the irrigated area of the globe. CHINA. China has perhaps a better system for How China checking serious damage from devas- Checks Flood . ° • , r, , 7 Damage tating torrential floods than any modern nation. It is a connected system of arti- ficial lakes or storage reservoirs, 4,000 canals, with History of Irrigation Developments 25 many thousand wells. Through this system she drains her seeped and boggy lands, and not only renders the land fit for cropping, but turns the water to economic use by turning it into the commercial system, and transporting the same to a place with a shortage of water. At the head of her system is the Im- 1^^ ■ perial canal, forming a highway of com- Canal merce as well as a channel to convey water to dry and parched, but fertile, land. This channel is the tie that connects inland China with herself, extending across the Empire from north to south, and is of far greater importance to in- dustrial development in Modern China than was the historic Chinese Wall to Mediaeval China. This canal varies in width from 150 to 1000 feet, and is everywhere at least eight feet deep, making it navigable its entire length. This is without question the greatest commercial canal of modern times. The wells are used in a manner quite similar to that explained in India, and irrigate a large fraction of the land at present reclaimed. It is difRcult to get exact data on Chinese irrigation, but the writer is confident that this one nation has more acres under some manner of artificial watering than Continental Europe. It utilizes excess rains, in one part, and, by an excellent canal system, transports this excess to less favored regions, thus effectually checking the ravages of in- undation. Chinese engineers do not tolerate such devastating floods as our nation permits on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers even to this day. The land 26 American Irrigation Farming farmed in the Empire, is farmed intensively, surpassed alone by Japan, in all the Oriental World. EGYPT. From the Nile came the first encour- The Assuan ^ j. • • ^ tt Dam agement to irrigate. How appropriate that on this river should be placed the greatest masonry dam known to the modern world — the Assuan dam. For more than i ,000 miles from its mouth, this river Nile does not receive a tributary and where it has a rich, fertile country, lacking only the water to make it productive, it has the least to give at the time when the growing crops most need the water. To remedy this defect England set this most practical problem before her greatest and best engineers. Go- ing up the river, they found a logical place to take out the water from the river in diverting canals at Assiout. But here they found no " base " for the great storage reservoir which the amount they had figured they must have would require. These careful engineers, going over the ground thoroughly did not find the required base until they came to the favorable basin amid the granite strata along the river, 350 miles up the Nile. Here they founded on the granite underlying the river this engineering work that means so much for Mod- ern Egypt. The dam, as completed in 1902, was The World's 5 400 feet long, 80.4 feet thick at the rea es \)^^e., and 23 feet at the top, and has a Reservoir height of I20 feet. This dam contains, as first completed, one million cubic feet History of Irrigation Developments 27 of solid masonry, and is expected to pass maximum floods of 490,000 cubic feet per second. By the rais- ing of the dam a few years afterward, water storage was increased to 1,000,000 acre feet, the world's greatest storage reservoir. The 180 sluice gates of this great dam are so placed that they not only pass the floods of the river, but will scour out the accumulating silt from the reservoir. Ninety of these sluices have automatic weir gates, which are operated by a counterpoise balanced in the water cisterns, in a most ingenious manner. These gates continue to open as the flood rises, and when the water reaches the crest, these flood gates give the full- est discharge possible for the wasteway. As the flood subsides, the weir gates gradually close down, and thus the reservoir is enabled to return to its full capacity of water, and through its sluice gates it is relieved of a portion of the tremendous pressure which comes with the rushing waters at flood time. To enable the irrigating system to Weir have the desirable " head " to run the water readily Into the diverting canals, at Assiout is built a diverting weir of rubble masonry. This is really a secondary dam across the Nile 3,930 feet long, and forty-eight feet high, with 120 sluice gates to protect itself in time of flood. Through the canal system, " summer water " is being brought to 2,500 square miles of desert land, between Assiout and Cairo, converting it into fields of growing luxuriance and wealth. The leading crops are cotton and cane, probably unsurpassed in the tropical world. 28 American Irrigation Fanning From French engineers' investiga- Wells tions of the nineteenth century, artesian well irrigation has developed fertile, fruitful oases, aggregating many thousand acres in West Egypt, and many places along the northern boundaries of the Great Sahara desert of Africa. Today Egypt has 6,750,000 acres of irrigated land, supporting upon its fertile soil, seven million people. EUROPE. Italy has given to Europe the idea of ■ "^lt\ °" water conservation for crop production. Her system is perhaps the best on the continent. This nation, though small in area com- pared with the rest, has more than three million acres under irrigation, surpassing any other European Na- tion save Russia alone. Government and private en- terprise have succeeded in making the duty of water as much as possible, and the utilization of water, thor- ough and complete. Within recent years, Russia has been studying systems of irrigation. In 1895 the government began building canals to irrigate crop lands belonging to the Crown. In the last few years something over a million and a half acres of these lands have been irrigated. Private enterprise has brought irrigation to one-half million acres of land adjoining these Crown lands. The Russian govern- ment, to encourage colonization, and make tonnage for the Trans-Siberian Railway, has irrigated large land areas along this road in Asia. Russia, within History of Irrigation Developments 29 Europe, has some twenty-five million acres of arable land, uncultivated from lack of moisture. Govern- ment capital and private enterprise has brought water to little more than twenty-five per cent, of this land, and it is believed that as much more is susceptible of reclamation. The Austro-Hungarian nation has Hun ' scarcely 200,000 acres of land irrigated, with large areas needing moisture, but a water supply questionable for all of it. This na- tion's irrigation engineers have put in works that com- mend their moisture conservation to the rest of Eu- rope. France and Spain have extensive irrigation largely developed by private capital and enterprise. Each nation has approximately one-half million acres of crop land irrigated. Natural rainfall is sufficient for crop production over the most of France and Spain, as well as the remaining nations of Eu- rope, not mentioned above, save Turkey. Here are large areas of arable lands with less than ten inches of rainfall per annum. Turkey has employed eminent engi- Irngation r t- i , ^ ... in Turkey neers from England to present irrigation plans. Political governmental changes have retarded irrigation development in Turkey, but some most feasible and practical plans are now under consideration for both European and Asiatic Turkey. Government support and private capital are destined to irrigate a large portion of Turkey's arid lands, within the near future. Because his plan proposes the reclamation of pres- 30 American Irrigation Farming ent desert land once historic for its luxuriance and wealth, we will outline Sir William Willcock's Meso- potamian project, proposed to the Turkish govern- ment in 1908. This plan proposes irrigation for some Restoration three million acres within the flood plains o ncien ^ ^^^ Tigris and Euphrates rivers. He Irrigation ° '■ Works suggests repairing and using such por- tions of the ancient canals as practicable, and building such others as shall be required to bring available lands under irrigation. This Mesopota- mian project is to store or transport torrential waters, thus protecting settlers from flood devastations, and provides " summer water " for all these lands, thus making possible the growing of the more remuner- ative crops which the prevailing climatic conditions permit. These lands at present have little monetary- value, being held at less than one dollar per acre, which, centuries ago, grew luxuriant crops under irrigation, making Babylon the greatest commercial nation of an- tiquity. This irrigation project contemplates the ex- penditure of £7,320,000, approximately $36,000,000. It will require several years to complete the proj- ect. AUSTRALIA. Irrigation development work in Aus- ."if.*'°'? tralia has scarcely more than begun, in Victoria -' . *• Yet we find that the State of Victoria is working on a government project, which, when com- pleted, will irrigate three million acres. Some 350,- History of Irrigation Developments 31 ooo acres were irrigated in 1910. This, when com- pleted, will have cost some twelve and one-half million dollars. The State of New South Wales is also building large irrigation works, but, in 1910, did not have wa- ter ready for crop irrigation. One of the greatest projects is the Barron Jack Reservoir, which will irri- gate 1,800,000 acres, and will cost eight millions of dollars. Some of England's most eminent engineers, to- gether with Dr. Elwood Mead, from America, are aiding the Australian government in bringing irriga- tion water to available crop lands. CHAPTER II FUNDAMENTAL TERMS IN IRRIGATION PRACTICE IN the practice of irrigation farming, there are cer- tain fundamental terms which are commonly used, that need to be fully comprehended by every farmer " under the ditch." These are usually defined in terms well known to the engineer, but not always comprehended by the farmer. The writer has here endeavored to meet this need. A water right is a legal right to di- A Vaster jy j^^ vert water from a stream, reservoir or canal, to crop land for irrigation pur- poses. Dr. Mead, in his Irrigation Institutions states that the first irrigators gave no thought in the begin- ning to their right to use creeks and rivers. Water was running to waste, and they put it to use in the same way as they enjoyed the sunshine, and breathed the pure air of the West. There seemed no more need at that time of recording date of ditch construc- tion and capacity of same, than there was for them to keep record of elk and deer, grouse and duck, which they shot for food. All represented unused natural resources, and they could not foresee the great future of irrigation, and what it should accomplish. The early settlements being small and widely sepa- rated, there was no distinctive plan of taking water 32 Fundamental Terms in Practice 33 from western streams, until conflicts forced legislative enactments concerning water rights. Canada, early in her western settlement, on irrigated Forms of lands, established a system of perpetual Possession ..,,,, licenses upon the prmciple that all streams belong to the public, and special rights can only come from the government, which, in granting same, carries a guarantee of peaceable protection in owner- ship of the granted license. Italy, with her fundamen- tal law grounded in Roman jurisprudence, grants long term leases to individual or corporate owners of stip- ulated waters. Blackstone declares that " appropria- tion " was in the beginning the only way of acquiring title or right to any kind of property. (Huston's Right of Appropriation.) In Book II, Chapter i. Page 9, Blackstone says: Property, both in lands and movables being thus originally acquired, by the iirst taker, which taking amounted to a declara- tion that he intended to appropriate the thing to his own use, it remains in him, by the principles of universal law, till such time as he does some other act which shows an intention to abandon it. As far back as 1846, the "Kearney Code" pro- vided that the laws previously in force — wholly ap- propriation — concerning water courses, should be continued in force by law. The Spanish conquerors in the sixteenth century, found the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande practicing irrigation farming and cropping the valley in a most creditable manner. Here irrigation and appropria- tion, as it were, go hand in hand, and we can safely as- 34 American Irrigation Farming sume that this doctrine was acted upon by the ancients. This right of appropriation is clearly lie Prooert' ^^* ^°^^th in Article XVI of the Colo- rado State Constitution adopted in 1876. Section 5 of said article reads as follows : The water of every natural stream not heretofore appropri- ated, within the State of Colorado, is hereby declared to be the property of the public, and is dedicated to the use of the people of the state, subject to appropriation as hereinafter provided. In 1909, Wyoming incorporated in its Wvomine irrigation laws, the following definition of a water right: A water right is a right to use the water of the state, when such right has been acquired by beneficial application of water under the laws of the state, relating thereto, and in conformity with the rules and regulations dependent thereon. Beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure and the limit of right to use water at all times, not exceeding in any case the statutory limit of volume. The United States Congress in 1866 United States pagggfj ^n act ratifying and confirming Decisions rights which had been previously ac- quired by appropriation of water for ir- rigating purposes. This was later amended and appears in the Revised Statutes of 1874, as follows: Whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing and other purposes have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowl- edged by the local customs, laws and decisions of the courts, the possessors and owners of said vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same, and the right of way for the construe- Fundamental Terms in Practice 35 tion of ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged, and confirmed. U. S. Rev. Stat. 2339, M., P. 2498, Dec. 9th. In the case of Broder vs. Natoma Water Co., loi U. S. 274, appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, it was held that the rights of persons who had constructed canals and ditches for irrigation in regions where artificial use of water was an absolute necessity, the government was bound to recognize and protect when said work was constructed prior to the passage of the Act of Congress of 1866. What Article XVI, Sec. 6, of the Colo- Constitutes rado State Constitution gives statute Priority definition of priority. It says : The right to divert unappropriated waters of every natural stream for beneficial uses shall never be denied. Priority of ap- propriation shall give the better right, as between those using the water for the same purpose; but when the waters of any natural stream are not sufficient for the surface of all those desiring the use of same, those using the water for domestic purposes shall have the preference over those claiming for any other purpose, and those using the water for agricultural purposes shall have the preference over those using the same for manufacturing pur- poses. The courts in western states have by their decisions defined legal appropriations of water, and recognized the establishment of priority in the following named decisions : I. The first appropriator of the water of a natural stream, has a prior right to such water to the extent of his appropriation. (Schilling vs. Rominger, 4 Colo. 100.) 36 American Irrigation Farming 2. Priority of use, gives superiority of right, irre- spective of the mode of diversion. (Farmers' H. L. C. & D. Co. vs. Southworth, 13 Colo, iii.) 3. Priority in point of time, gives superiority of right among appropriators for like beneficial purposes. (Strickler vs. Colorado Springs, 16 Colo. 61.) 4. A prior appropriator of the water of a stream, all of which he claimed, and had used and needed for irrigation, was entitled to the whole as against a pat- entee of land through which the stream flowed, though no custom to that effect was shown. (Drake vs. Eahart, Idaho 23 Pac. 541.) 5. The first appropriator of all the water of a creek, who has continually used the same for the purpose of irrigating lands along said creek, is entitled to all of said water, to the extent of the capacity of his ditches, necessary to irrigate such lands, as against subsequent locators. (Hillman vs. Hardwick, Idaho 28 Pac. 438.) 6. The prior appropriator of water for irrigation purposes is entitled to the water so appropriated neces- sary to the proper irrigation of his land, as against sub- sequent locators. (Kirk vs. Bartholomew, Idaho 29 Pac. 40; Geerston vs. Barrack, Idaho 42.) 7. Where a person settles on public unsurveyed land, with the intention of acquiring title as soon as he can under the law, and appropriates water for its cultivation, such appropriation is effective from date, though that may be several years before he succeeds in perfecting his title. (Elliott vs. Whitmore, Utah, 24, Pac. 673.) o U T3 C cs C a h-1 > C O CD to o c o o h-l Fundamental Terms in Practice 37 We thus see that all water rights pos- Increase m gggg appropriation in order of date of de- Early cTtt. Therefore the right with the first Priorities decree is said to have priority over all others, and must be recognized as first claim to irrigation water from the source stream, ca- nal or reservoir, when adjudicated, as its decree shall name, for full amount of said decree. Early priori- ties are quite valuable, and add to the commercial value of a water right. The method of acquiring a water right Acquiring jg similar in all the Western states. The a Water Right following method is followed in Idaho. The party seeking the right to use the public waters of the state will make application to the State Engineer. This application is required to set forth the follow- ing facts: 1. Name and postoffice of the applicant. 2. Name the exact source of water supply. 3. State the purpose for which the water is to be used. 4. Name the location and give a description of the proposed channel, or other work and state the amount of water to be diverted and used. 5. State the time required for the completion of construction of such work, which in no case shall ex- ceed five years from the date of the approval of the application. 6. Name the time required for the complete appli- cation of the water to the proposed use, which must 38 American Irrigation Farming be within four years after the date set for the comple- tion of such works. The application must also be accompanied by a plan and map in duplicate of the proposed works for the di- version and application of the water to a beneficial use, showing the character, location and dimensions of all proposed reservoirs, dams, canals, ditches, pipe lines, and all other works proposed to be used in the diver- sion of the water and the area and location of the lands which these waters are calculated to irrigate. The map of the proposed ditch should show the lo- cation of headgate; the general course of the stream; the route of the ditch by course and distance ; the legal forty acre subdivisions and other patented lands; the ownership of all lands crossed by the ditch or canal. Township and range as well as direction should be clearly shown and marked. If the proposed works are to have a capacity of twenty-five or more cubic feet per second, the applica- tion must be accompanied by a certificate of the engi- neer or surveyor who made the maps. In some states, notably Wyoming, if there be no more unappropri- ated water, the application is rejected. In other states, if the form is correct, and the state require- ments in the irrigation work contemplated are com- plied with, the permit is granted, the ditches or ditch given a decree number, and it is left for the individual owners to find out if the permit be of any real water value. Mr. Ray Palmer Teele, Assistant Chief Irrigation Investigator, in the valuable annual report of tlie Fundamental Terms in Practice 39 Office of Experiment Stations, the United States Department of Agriculture, for the year ended June 30th, 1909, summarized this matter as follows: " Eight states and territories — Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, New Mex- ico and South Dakota — have provisions for forcing adjudications. In three of these States — Wyoming, Nebraska, and Nevada — the adjudications are made by board or officials, while in the others they are made by the courts in actions initiated by the public officials. " Three states — Idaho, South Dakota and Oregon — provide for surveys and the collection of data by public officials for use in adjudications, when these are initiated by parties claiming water rights. In Idaho and South Dakota, these adjudications are made by the courts, and in Oregon, by an administrative board. In the other seven arid and semi-arid states, adjudi- cations are made by the courts on the testimony pre- sented by the contending parties." The cost of securing water right Water Riffhts ^^'^^"^^ o^ decree varies in the different states according to the character of works, amount of land irrigated, and cost for ex- amination. The following illustration will give some idea of the total amount of the fees charged by the State Engineer's office : Total fees charged for acquiring a right to water a 160-acre farm from a stream in Idaho. 1. Filing fee with application $ 1.30 (3.2 cu. ft. per second.) 2. Fee for examining work for completion 5.00 40 American Irrigation Farming 3. Advertising date of proving completion 5.00 4. Fee for examining land for application of water to beneficial use 8.00 5. Advertising date of proving beneficial use 5.00 $24.30 The present system of granting de- Recorded crees giving water right permits carries Decree no • 1 • r 1 i- Guarantee '^^^" ^*- "° guarantee of dehvery of amount decreed. As stated above, in the majority of the western states, full and complete title must be established by expensive litigation in the courts. In other words, private capital must pay in court for the adjustment of and distribution of water in the public streams. Streams in the West are over-appro- Driation priated, and long and expensive litiga- tion is necessary under present methods to determine where the water distribution must end. Speaking of our present regulations, Dr. El wood Mead in Irrigation Institutions says : A land system which would permit of a score of filings on the same quarter section, and then leave the claimants to fight for its possession would not be held in high esteem. The law for recording appropriations of water which places no restric- tions on the number of volume of these claims, is just as illog- ■ ical, and is fraught with more serious evil. One river in the West has 151 appropriated claims filed upon it, aggregating over six million inches, where the actual normal flow scarcely reaches more than 36,000 inches. No additional water right for Fundamental Terms in Practice 41 water should be recorded on any stream where all of the water has been previously appropriated. The irrigation states should make some provision to make title to recorded water rights as good as their recorded land titles are. As it is now, early priori- ties are very valuable, and late recordings almost value- less. There are two kinds of water rights Water Rights — direct and storage. A direct water right gives the owner of same authority for " direct use " of water from source stream or canal. The Irrigation Law of 1880 in Utah made a division of this direct water right for the Mormon farmers, into primary and secondary. Primary rights include all rights acquired up to the time when the sum of the rights equals the average flow of the stream at low water stage. Secondary rights are rights acquired to any sup- ply in excess of the average low water flow, and are subject to the complete enjoyment of the primary rights. Whenever there is not water enough for all the primary rights, the flow of the stream is divided among them pro rata. When there is more than enough for the primary rights, but not enough for all secondary rights, the excess over the primary rights is divided among the secondary rights pro rata. While the law carries the classification only as far as these two classes, numerous court decisions have made further classification. (Dr. Mead, Irrigation Institutions.) Section 8 of the Utah Law of 1880 provides : 42 American Irrigation Farming A right to the use of water may be meas- Utah's Law ured by fractional parts of the whole supply, or by fractional parts with a limitation as to periods of time when used, or intended to be used; or it may be measured by cubic inches, with a limitation specifying the depth, width and declination of the water at the point of measurement, and if necessary with further limitations as to the periods of time when used, or intended to be used. This granting of rights to parts of the .supply, or limiting the period for the use of the whole, has been working quite satisfactorily since the passage of the law. The following table shows the system in its working in Utah. The reader will observe that the first ditches named are using more water during the first, than during the latter half of the year; the last ditches named receive the larger grant of water dur- ing the latter half of the year : DIVISION OF WATER ON BIG COTTONWOOD CREEK * Number of parts Name of Ditch Jan. i-July i July i-Jan. i 1. Butler Ditch 0.5 0.2 2. Brown & Sanford Ditch 4.5 2.1 3. Upper Canal lo.g 10.2 4. Tanner Ditch 12.6 12.0 5. Green Ditch 3.5 3.8 6. Farr & Harper Ditch 6 .6 7. Lower Canal S.6 6.1 8. Big Ditch i9-6 21.3 9. Hill Ditch 2.6 2.8 Total 60.0 60.0 A storage right gives legal authority Storage Jq,. impounding water in reservoirs as Rights and , , , Value ^ storage supply for use as may be de- sired. Storage would seem to be. the *Bull. 86, p. 198, Office of Exp. Station, U. S. Dept. Fundamental Terms in Practice 43 solution of the problem of providing an adequate sup- ply of water for a given district during the irrigating season. Engineers have commended highly the sys- tem of storage reservoirs which has been established in Larimer, Boulder and Weld counties in Northern Colorado. It is yearly studied by engineers from various parts of the irrigable world. The selection of reservoir sites, build- The Prob- j^^g. ^j^^ ^^^j^ ^^^ ^j^^ general construction lem o£ ° .... Reservoirs °^ ^"^ reservoir is an engineer s problem. We will simply discuss a few funda- mental things the farmer should be fully informed upon, but not go into the details of reservoir construc- tion. Reservoirs, for the storage of water for irri- gation, and domestic use, are " internal improve- ments " within the meaning of the Act of Congress, March 3, 1875 (Senate Resolution 12, Colo. 287). The Colorado Statutes thus define storage right, give right for ditches, and building of embankments for reservoirs : Persons desirous to construct and maintain reservoirs for the purpose of storing water, shall have the right to take from any of the natural streams of the state, and store away any un- appropriated water not needed for immediate use for domestic or irrigating purposes to construct and maintain ditches for carrying such water to and from such reservoir, and to condemn lands for such reservoirs, and ditches, in the same manner pro- vided by law for the condemnation of lands for right of way for ditches : provided, no reservoir with embankments or a dam exceeding ten feet in height shall be made without first sub- mitting the plans thereof to the County Commissioners of the County in which it is situated, and obtaining their approval of such plans. Colo. L. '79, G. S., 1724; M. 2270. 44 American Irrigation Farming In practically all the states where irrigation is prac- ticed, the State Engineer protects the public by pass- ing upon the plans, and specifications of all reservoir projects now being built. In this way, it is believed that the danger from unsafe and dangerous dams, whose breaking would be disastrous to crops, property and life, is reduced to the minimum. In choosing a reservoir site, a com- Choosing a petent engineer should be consulted. Sjtg He will figure the catchment basin, de- termine its run-off, the general location, as related to cost of dam for mipounding the water, distribution to lands it is proposed to water, and the capacity of the basin. If he approves, the site can then be filed on, and legal steps, under his direction, taken to convert said site into a reservoir. A recent law in Colorado gives storage rights priority over ditches when the storage right has seniority in point of time of decree. Thus, in Colorado, senior reservoirs have priority over all junior ditches, but senior ditches have priority over all junior reservoirs. By a recent court ruling in Northern Time of Colorado, the time for storage rights to Water claim water has been fixed from Oc- tober 1st to April isth each year. The custom of opening headgates of all ditches leading to reservoirs during a period of heavy rains, is quite generally practiced. This excess of water is known as " flood water," and unless stored in reservoirs not only often caused damage to crops and property in the lower rivers, but it is also of no economic use. Fundamental Terms in Practice 45 Therefore, it has become the general custom for res- ervoir owners to figure on flood waters for their reservoirs. For this reason flood water rights have grown to have commercial value in connection with reservoir construction. When the run-off of any given stream is above normal, it is called flood or excess water. It may be caused by the rapid melting of mountain snows feed- ing the stream, or excessive rains within the water- shed, or both. This means high water in the stream, and recent appropriations for storage or reservoir pur- poses often specify flood water appropriations. Flood waters, however, cannot be taken until all prior appro- priations are supplied. The regularity of the flood or high water run-off of a given stream usually de- termines the commercial value of these flood water rights. UNITS OF WATER MEASUREMENT. I. A "Miner's Inch" is our oldest unit, first used by the placer miner. The General Statutes of Colorado Sta.tiit6 Definition of ^^^3. Sec. 3,472, define the method for an Inch of measuring an inch of water as follows : Water Water sold by the inch by any individual or cor- poration shall be measured as follows, to-wit: Every inch shall be considered equal to an inch square orifice under a five inch pressure, and a five inch pressure shall be from the top of the ori- fice of the box, put into the banks of the ditch, to the surface of the water ; said boxes or any slot or aperture through which such water may be measured, shall in all cases be six inches perpendicu- lar, inside measurement, except boxes delivering less than twelve 46 American Irrigation Farming inches, which may be square, with or without slides ; all slides for the same shall move horizontally and not otherwise ; and said box put into the banks of ditch shall have a descending grade from the water in the ditch of not less than one-eighth of an inch to the foot. Since most states, like Colorado, have statute regu- lation on the inch measurement, we will call them statute inches. The statute inch is not the same in all states, and since it is not practical for measuring canals, streams, or larger quantities of flowing water, since it is confusing and not readily reduced to terms of the other units, since it can only be of practical use in measuring small quantities of water its present and future use is not advocated. 2. " Cubic Foot per Second " or Second Foot " Second Foot," is the unit of volume Unit for ^gg^ fg,. gauging rivers and measuring Running ^^^ ^°^ °^ ditches and irrigating canals. Water If it flows over a weir one second of time, it is called a second foot, or cubic foot per second. A cubic foot of water in Colorado is 38.4 statute inches (miner's inches) ; in California and Montana, 40 statute or miner's inches ; in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Utah, 50 miner's inches equal a second foot. 3. " Acre Foot of Water." An " acre Acre Foot foot of water " is the amount of water Unit for necessary to cover an acre of land one Reservoir ^°°*- °^ twelve inches deep. It is the Water unit used for measuring storage or reservoir water. A second foot of Fundamental Terms in Practice 47 water running constantly twenty-four hours and twelve minutes, delivers two acre feet, or sufficient water to cover an acre of ground with water two feet deep. Therefore, one-twenty-fourth of a second foot, flowing for one day, would approximately amount to an inch of rain. The simplest unit of measure to use is " acre foot." Every farmer can then readily understand what he is talking about and comprehend the unit. Time does not enter into the definition of acre foot, for it is simply a unit of vol- ume. This " second foot " is the standard unit for flowing water in most of the western states, and the measure of the flow renders time an essential element. It is a solid or a cubic foot of water moving twelve inches (a lineal foot) in one second of time. This has been found to be sufficient water to fill a receptacle of 1,728 cubic inches (one cubic foot) in area, once each sec- ond of time. This amounts to 7.4805 gallons; ap- proximately, seven and one-half gallons of water. While the gauging of streams must be in terms of second feet on account of the flow, the unit of volume of water is more conveniently given in acre feet. If one remembers that there are Cubic 43,560 cubic feet in an acre of ground an Acre ^^ have a common term that enables one to reduce one unit of measurement to the other, and to fully comprehend the general duty of large bodies of reservoir water. Thus, a reservoir containing 21,780,000,000 cubic feet of water has 500,000 acre feet of water. That is, it, would cover 48 American Irrigation Farming 500,000 acres with water, if uniformly level, to a depth of twelve inches. We have already found that a second Acre Feet f qqj- Qf -water running for twenty- four g \ hours and twelve minutes equals two Feet acre feet. Therefore, an acre foot equals a second foot of water running twelve hours and six minutes. Hence 500,000 acre feet, the capacity of the above-named reservoir, would be equal to 21,780,000,000 cubic feet per second, or second feet of moving water, passing twelve inches of space in one second of time (43,560 X 500,000). MEASURE EQUIVALENTS IN TERMS ONE OF THE OTHER. One second foot equals : 43,560 cu. ft. in a run of 12 hrs. 6 min. I acre ft. in a run of 12 hrs. 6 min. 7.4805 (approx. 7^) gallons per second I acre inch in a run of i hr. approximately One acre foot equals : An acre uniformly covered with water 12 in. deep 43,560 cubic feet of water 325,751 gallons (43,560 X 74805) WEIR MEASUREMENTS. A weir is a measuring device for de- Measurement ,■■.■, a r i - bv Weir termmmg the now of water m a given time for a definite distance. It can only properly be used for structures designed to permit water to flow over the crest with a good fall on the c o *-4-l C o '4-* (U O I O U OJ o u o cii o o 1) O o U c .2 c tu U o u c o > Fundamental Terms in Practice 49 down-stream side. In his Manual of Irrigation En- ginemng, Wilson says : " The measuring weir is in all probability the most satisfactory method of obtain- ing an accurate measure of the volume of water pass- ing through a canal." The weir measurements are now used in Australia, India, Italy, Canada, Mexico, and practically all our irrigation districts of the United States. The Hon. Tames B. Francis, of Lowell, ^ . Mass., a past president of the American Francis . . ^. Formula Society of Civil Engineers, worked out an equation form that is now believed to be the most accurate formula yet given for weir measurements. There is always more or less con- traction of a stream when it passes through an orifice ; that is, it narrows at the opening. This is lateral con- traction. When passing over a weir, the sheet of water will be observed to be thinner immediately be- low the crest. This is the vertical contraction. Francis took separate account of these contractions, and obtained what is believed to be a very accurate formula for measuring the discharge, as follows : Let Q equal the quantity of water, flowing in a cubic feet per second. Let L equal the effective length of the weir in feet. This is determined by taking from the real length, the product found by multiplying the number of con- tractions by one-tenth of the depth of the weir. This is when the weir is rectangular. Let H equal the depth of water flowing over the weir, in feet. Because of vertical contraction, this must be meas- ured far enough from the weir to be free from this influence. 50 American Irrigation Farming Let a equal a numerical co-efficient which is required to multi- ply the result obtained by the indicated operations in the measured quantities, in order to give Q the discharge. Francis gave 3.33 as the value of a. Then the Francis formula is in letters : Q equals aLH 3/2 or Q " 3-33 LH 3/2* An Italian company was given a concession of water for the Canale Cilloresi but the Italian govern- ment required a measuring device for the measure- ment and sale of water based upon the theory of the weir with a free fall which should be accurate. Cesare Cippoletti, the engineer in »PPo e charge, prepared a weir which was so formed that the area of same should in- crease by an amount proportionate to the depth of the weir, and balance the loss due to contraction. This weir was trapezoidal in form, made of cut stone, the crests and sides with iron plates, permanent measuring devices which will do duty for generations. This trapezoidal weir when constructed according to state engineer's measurement and placed with care is re- liable within one per cent, error. For this reason weir measurements are preferred by state engineers, who have supervision of water distribution within their respective states. Dams, when so designed as to cause the waters to flow over their crests, can be termed weirs. ♦Special Instructions to Water Measurers, State Engineer, Utah, December, 1898. Fundamental Terms in Practice 51 WATER DISTRIBUTION. To protect the rights of water users, Work of ^^^ J.Q supervise the distribution of ir- State . . ^, . , ^ .,1. Engineers rigation waters, the various states in the irrigated regions of the nation have created the office of state engineer. CaUfornia was the first state to create this office, but abolished it in 1888. Colorado established a state engineer in 1881, followed later by Wyoming, Nebraska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Most of the state engineers have found Water Jt advantageous to divide the state into . _ water divisions, the boundaries of which and Com- ' missioners shall be determined by drainage lines. Each division has its division engineer who is by virtue of his position a deputy state en- gineer. Each division is further divided into dis- tricts in such manner as shall make the distribution of irrigation water most efficient. For each of these districts is a water commissioner. He has the direct charge of regulating headgates so that the water shall be equitably distributed among those having water rights for same. Ditch owners are required to install measuring de- vices, and the state engineer has stream gaugings made that the water commissioner may know the amount of water he has for his district distribution. The commissioner closes all gates, according to de- creed rights in time of water shortage, and it is a 52 American Irrigation Farming criminal offense in practically all states to change a headgate when once set by the water commissioner. The commissioner is further charged with the duty of reporting statistical data regarding irrigation in his district, on streams, reservoirs, ditches and crops grown. The completeness of these reports varies with the individual, the state and the information obtain- able. The various water companies of a dis- Superintend- tj-jct have an employed water super- Ditch intendent. He has personal supervision Riders of all the main ditches or laterals which lead to the irrigated lands of all patrons of his company. It is his business to look after the maintenance and repair and cleaning of said canals and ditches, so that in the irrigating season they shall be carriers of water with least waste from loss and seepage possible. To distribute or measure to individual users, he employs water measurers com- monly known as ditch riders. Each user has measured out to him his amount of water, at the headgate of the lateral which controls the irrigation of his land, by the ditch rider. The ditch rider, in turn, receives his water from the district water commissioner, who turns it in from the source stream. DUTY OF WATER. Duty of Water By duty of water we mean the amount of crop land which a given amount of water will supply with sufficient moisture Fundamental Terms in Practice 53 to mature a crop. This will be further discussed in later chapters of this work. THE irrigator's ARITHMETIC. The most essential element of crop success in the irrigated West is the careful, intelligent, resourceful, painstaking farmer. Irrigation calls for the highest class of intelligent farming. The farmer here must not only be a student of water distribution and con- trol, but he must understand the soil, the seed, his climatic environment, and market essentials. He must also study the habits of crop pests and learn the most effective means of combating them. Sunshine is an important factor in his farm crop suc- cess. We find the equation which our Western farmer friend has to work out, is as follows : Soil + seed -\- sun + water — crop pests + fanner = crop suc- cess. When the farmer has fully comprehended each factor in the above equation, we can, with reasonable assurance of truth, declare that irrigation is crop in- surance! CHAPTER III IMPORTANCE OF SOIL STUDY FOR THE IRRIGATOR FROM the soil, as a nation, we obtain both our food and clothing. Cotton is a direct soil product. The production of wool depends upon the raising of sheep ; sheep raising is directly de- pendent upon the soil products for feed, mentals ' ^^ ^^^' therefore, truthfully say that land is our greatest fundamental resource, and the productivity of the soil the index of our national prosperity, growth and progress. Soil, when rightly used, through the agency of plant life, chemical reaction of liquids and gases, within and about it, together with the disintegration of the rocks, has the possibility of almost infinite re- newal. Like a financial bank, it must have deposits from time to time, to validate checks and drafts drawn upon it. Right use of soils will constantly renew and render them better year by year. What is a plain definition of soil? Soil is Omit technicalities, and the farm defi- nition would be as follows: The soil comprises the upper portion or outer surface of the land, from which plants draw their supply of food, and which furnishes anchorage for their upward growth. It varies from a few inches in depth in poor soil, to several feet in depth in the more fertile 54 Importance of Soil Study 55 soils. The character, depth and nature of the soil must be understood by the irrigationist as each type takes a different amount of water, and many vary as to the manner in which the water may be economically applied. The question of the soil is an important and determining factor in the crop success on every irrigated farm. ORIGIN OF OUR WESTERN SOILS. Practically all the soils of the Rocky Soil ^ . ■" . , .^. . .■' Origin mountam regions are of granitic origin; that is, they were formed and are being renewed largely from the weathering and disintegra- tion of granite, the prevailing type of our mountain rocks. A granite bowlder is broken here, the larger pieces have been reduced to " rock meal " over yonder, and just below, we can see how, from this rock meal, a further reduction separates the elements of granite, and plant life is fed by these elements. Granite is composed of quartz, feldspar and mica. The quartz, through disintegration and Nature's grinding process, forms the sand; the feldspar and mica yield the clay; close in to the foothills the mica is plainly visible in shining particles all through the surface clay. The fine transported particles from the hillsides, beds of streams and irrigating canals, make up the third essential physical element of a perfect soil — silt. Wherever found, we must remember that silt is a sedimentary deposit. Here, then, we find the origin of the soil elements — silt, clay and sand. 56 American Irrigation Farming To the northwest, between the Rocky y^gjj and Cascade ranges, and even west of the latter range, we find large areas where the soil is a volcanic ash, often many feet deep. This comes from the great eruptive sheet which seems to have covered our Pacific Northwest. Hilgard, in his work on soils, speaks of it as being crystalline or basic lava, which weathers readily. The acidic class of lava rock decomposes very slowly because of its glassy nature. Pumice stone and obsidian represent this latter class. The basic rocks found in the Pacific Northwest are readily attacked by atmospheric agencies, and, thus pulverized, innumerable bacteria and molds find a habitat, whose vegetative and secre- tory action materially assist the weathering process, and more quickly render these soils available for agricultural plants. MEASURE OF A SOIL's FERTILITY. The fertility of any soil is shown by Essentials jjjg presence of seven of the more than Fertility seventy elements which the chemist has found. These seven essentials are cal- cium, iron, magnesium, nitrogen, phosphorus, potas- sium and sulphur. Iron, magnesium and sulphur are so generally found in all soils that the farmer is seldom concerned about them. Plants feed to a considerable extent upon nitrates, phosphoric acid, potash and lime — compound forms of the other elements mentioned. For this reason we have come to determine the fer- Importance of Soil Study 57 tility of all soils by the presence of these food es- sentials. Therefore a soil is said to be rich, barren or impoverished, according to the amount of these four compounds found within it in available form for plant use — nitrates, phosphates, potash and lime. Ninety per cent, of the food of all plants comes from the air, which is the great storehouse for plant fertility. While this is true, the soil's portion of ten per cent, is absolutely essential for any plant growth. " Seed time and harvest " are alone made possible by maintaining the soil's quota of food for plants in un- diminished amounts. HUMUS IN SOILS. A soil element which seems to stand of Humus '^^ ^ das?, by itself, of tremendous im- portance, is humus. Humus is the de- composed organic matter in the soil. It is most gen- erally a vegetable mold and is a most desirable and beneficial element, for it increases the capacity of a soil to hold water, renders a soil mellow, and contains a wealth of plant food. All arid soils are generally deficient in humus, for vegetation, through lack of moisture, has ever been sparse on these lands. When brought " under the ditch," the farmer's first concern should be to get humus into the soil. How is this done? By grow- ing legume crops, feeding forage crops to livestock, putting the barnyard manure back upon the fields, and thus build up this vital element which forms such a storehouse for nitrates, enables the soil to retain a 58 American Irrigation Farming much larger proportion of the moisture apphed by irrigation, and renders the soil so responsive to tillage operations. The first and great concern should be, get humus in the soil as soon as possible. TYPES OF SOILS. The relative amount of humus, clay. Types ^^^^ ^^'^ ^^'^^ found in a soil determines its texture and type. The practical types with which the irrigation farmer will have to deal are here briefly summarized. I. Sandy Soils. Soils which contain eighty per cent, of sand, and less than ten per cent, of clay are sandy soils. If the sand particles are large and coarse, the soil is usually too porous for good crop- ping, and tends to leachiness when irrigated. Such lands need filling with humus. Generous dressing with barnyard manure fills the large spaces between the grains of sand, while it supplies the needed hu- mus. If fine sand particles abound in these soils, they tend to blow, and drift with the wind. Irriga- tion tends to compact such soils, and all tillage opera- tions should have one object in mind — firming loose soil; get the soil into alfalfa as soon as practicable. This supplies the humus, which gives cohesiveness to the loose soil, rendering it less liable to blow and drift. 2. Sandy Loam Soil. Soils contain- g ., ing from fifty to seventy per cent, sand, and the rest silt or clay, represent the sandy loam type. Such soils are not inclined to bake Importance of Soil Study 59 under irrigation, do not puddle, and hold a goodly amount of plant food usually, and warm up early in the spring. 3. Clay Soils. Soils containing sixty Soils '•^ ninety per cent, clay are spoken of as clay soils. As the per cent, of clay ap- proaches ninety per cent., the soils become a heavy clay. Such soils, when irrigated, become a waxy mass, impervious to air, unless the irrigator is very careful. This is known as puddling soil. When puddled soils dry out, the soil becomes a hard, imper- vious mass, or breaks into large clods, resisting tillage operations. Because of their tendency to bake read- ily in the sun, sundried bricks or adobe bricks are made from this type; hence, it is often spoken of as " adobe " soil. 4. Clay Loam. Soils carrying thirty to fifty per cent, clay are known as clay loam soils. They usu- ally have from twenty-five to forty per cent. sand. They are desirable cropping soils under irrigation. 5. All Round Loam. Soils which contain less than forty per cent, clay, fifteen to twenty-five per cent, sand, and about the same amount of silt, repre- sent the all round loam type. This soil is usu- ally found in the flood plain of rivers, or lake beds. Because easily worked and irrigated, and all general farm and truck crops do well on it, this type is known as the " all round loam." 6. Gravelly Loam. This type of soil is usually a sandy loam with an appreciable admixture of gravel. It is a virgin soil which Nature has not thoroughly 60 American Irrigation farming reduced. The gravel gives warmth and these heav- ier particles work down into the soil with irrigation and tillage operations. These soils require more wa- ter, usually, than the sandy and clay soils. 7. Rocky Mountain Red Loam. This type of soil is formed usually from the disintegration of red sand- stone and granite. There is always more or less iron in these soils; this and the sandstone accounts for its red color, which is a prominent feature. These soils have an abundance of plant food, have the quality of porosity so favorable for potato culture, are easily worked, have natural drainage and are es- pecially favorable to the growing of such fruit and root crops as climatic environment will permit. It is usually an especially good tree fruit soil, is a pe- culiarly fertile soil in the mineral elements available to the plant, quickly responds to tillage, and readily rewards the good farmer. His first concern needs to be the getting of humus in this soil, for like all our mountain soils, it is lacking in this one element. 8. Lava Ash Soil. The volcanic or lava ash soils of the United States are most largely distributed in the Pacific Northwest — Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. As previously stated, these soils are powdered lava from basic lava rock. Through the physical changes brought about by weathering processes, bacteria and certain plants taking possession, these soils are al- most universally thoroughly reduced to medium or small particles, and therefore, already subdued and ready for the crop. Therefore, these soils are phys- Importance of Soil Study 61 ically " light " soils, easily worked, but also easily lifted by the wind and transported, in the dry state. The great sand mounds or " dunes " of the Columbia show this. Yet these blowing soils, when once " under the ditch " compact and firm down, and give but little further trouble from their tendency to blow. These soils are easily worked, are usually rich in pot- ash, lime and phosphates, but very deficient in humus. The farmer's first care should be to put in legume crops — alfalfa, beans, peas, and vetches, etc., as soon as possible. Because of the wealth of available Volcanic mineral foods, these basic lava soils are Poor Soil spoken of as our most productive soils. A few scattered areas of acidic lava rock soils are found in the Sierra Nevada regions. This volcanic glass, reduced to volcanic ash, forms un- thrifty soils, because its plant food generally is locked up, and not available for plant use. Like so much glass, pounded up, it forms a " starving soil " unde- composable and hence a poor soil for cropping pur- poses. This type of volcanic ash soil is only found in small restricted areas in the vicinity of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and the valley foothills. SURFACE VERSUS SUBSOIL. Fletcher, in his text on soils, says the Sub-soil distinction between surface soil, or soil. and subsoil, lies almost entirely in the color and texture due to the greater amount of humus near the surface. Eastern soils show the line of dis- 62 American Irrigation Farming tinction by the depth of plowing. He also aptly says that we should look upon the rocks, stones, pebbles and subsoil of our fields as so much potential plant food, doled out to us year by year, as fast as it can be used to advantage. Therefore, he says, subsoil is rotting rock, and surface soil, or soil, is rotted sub- soil. Dr. Hilgard says that soil and subsoil are ill de- fined generally. In the main, the soil material sub- jected to tillage is soil, and that which lies beneath it, is the subsoil. The most obvious distinction between them, he remarks, is the presence of humus, or vege- table mold, in the surface soil, its darker tint being brought out by irrigation. The root masses of growing plants, free access of oxygen and soil organisms or bacteria, work up and decompose the humus, so it gives a uniform tint to the surface soil. The arid soils of the West do not show the distinctive differences between surface and subsoils found in the humid regions of our country, as clearly as we might expect. Plants root deeper, air circulates more Plant freely, because of the greater porosity . ^ ' .^, of arid soils, and often these arid soils m And Soils show no change of tint for many feet down. The writer has dug down to a depth of more than six feet to find the soil bottom of the hole dug identical with that taken from the surface in color, texture and general appearance. This is frequently true all over the arid West, while again, a clear line of distinction may be seen between the SsyBagiCcirA^^ ■' 4g UNIFORM "Vii^a IJ^^ztlra^"^-^^— - '■r^'^'f>>'i> ^■^^A\'-\'f ." C U C '5 Methods of Water Distribution 131 3. It checks ditch damage by trampling of cattle and horses, and weather deteriorations. 4. It eliminates vegetative growth along the canal or ditch, clogging the current of the flow, and oft- times seriously interfering with the velocity of the water. Weeds and aquatic plants are a nuisance in an irrigation ditch or canal. 5. It stops depredations from burrowing animals, ground squirrels, gophers, etc., and the cause of tre- mendous losses of water and great damages to canals, ditches and reservoirs. The investigations made by Dr. Mead Linines ^^^ Prof. B. A. Etcheverry showed that Southern California, the home of citrus fruit irrigation, is using the following materials for canal lining: 1. River bowlders set in lime and mortar and pointed with cement mortar. 2. River bowlders or cobbles placed behind wooden forms and cemented together, with cement mortar rammed between the cobbles. 3. Cement concrete from three to six inches thick. 4. Cement mortar plaster one-half to one inch thick. 5. Heavy road oil. 6. Clay puddle. All these linings will be familiar to With Oil armers unless it be the road oil. The Lemoore Canal and Irrigation Company of Kings county, California, have used this with great success. It was applied in November, 1905. The 132 American Irrigation Fanning canal is approximately twenty feet wide, and a little more than one foot deep. The oil used was crude pe- troleum with an appreciable percentage of asphaltum in it. When cold this oil will not run freely. It was used hot, and applied with an ordinary road sprin- kler. First the ditch is. thoroughly cleaned of all veg- etation, and allowed to get perfectly dry. Then the sprinkler is run so that it thoroughly sprinkles the bottom first and then the banks. The oil is applied at the rate of one and one-half gallons per square yard. This application is followed with a harrow and thoroughly worked into the surface soil of the canal. It has proven a success from the start. Price of oil and distance from oil field districts will determine the advisability of its use. The Ivanhoe reservoir near Los Angeles has been lined with oil. Here it was found necessary to pro- tect the sloping banks from the erosive action of the waves. Three inches of clean river sand was evenly spread over the slope surface to be protected. Oil was then sprinkled on the sand and raked in. Two and three-tenths gallons were used to the square yard. William Mulholland, for a number of years super- intendent of the \\'ater Department of Los Angeles, reports that when the work was properly done oil lin- ing for reservoirs was a comiDlete success. Water has become too valuable to longer allow its waste to aug- ment one-third to one-half the total volume of water as it does now. The bulletin, and the investigations made, should convince every irrigation company that its stockhold- Methods of Water Distribution 133 ers are entitled to the greatest efficiency of water pos- sible with good business economy. We must study the raw material most effective and nearest at hand, and protect canals, ditches and reservoirs from the enormous wastage present methods, common to our irrigated West, seem to foster. SUMMARY ON WATER DISTRIBUTION. Whenever irrigation is practiced on a eed of large scale it seems necessary for some Storage " , \. ^ Systems Storage system to supplement direct flow, to insure irrigation water for crop dis- tribution for the later crops of the season after the snows of the mountains have melted, and the flood waters passed by for the season. The most complete storage system known to the writer is found in North- ern Colorado. Here eighty-five reservoirs impound late water for cropping on nearly one million acres of land practically in one body. Engineers from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Canada, Mexico and Australia have visited and studied the system of stor- age here established and have almost universally com- mended its completeness. The hydraulic ram is often made use of for irriga- tion where water must be lifted but a short way. The principle of the syphon is employed in carrying ditches from hill to hill without a serious loss of grade, under other ditches, railroads, roads, etc. , , , European practice for some centuries Value of , , , . . Sewage ^^ shown the use of city sewage on grass and succulent root and vegetable 134 American Irrigation Farming crops to be practical and very valuable. From four thousand to six thousand tons of this liquid manure is applied to each acre of land. In experiments which Lawes conducted at Rugby, England, it was found that the normal hay product from permanent meadows was something more than two and a half tons of hay per acre. In an average of three years' application of sewage, the following results were obtained : 3000 tons of sewage per acre 5 tons of hay 6000 " " " " " 575 " " " 9000 " " " " " 6.S0 " " " A contiguous field not treated 3.00 " " " A wealth of good aftermath was furnished after mowing for good late fall feed. Prof. E. H. Storer, in his Agriculture^, Use of ^ Volume 3, tells us that sewage and ordi- Scv^cicfc in Milan "^^^^ irrigation overlap at Milan, Italy. Here half the land is kept continually in grass. The sewage from the city is always above a freezing temperature, as it flows from the city, due largely to the mild climate. The warmth of this sew- age enables farmers to start grass very early in the spring by judicious flooding, and it can be kept grow- ing until late in the fall. A cutting of grass a foot high is obtained at Milan the first week in February, and nine cuttings are re- corded for the season. Four thousand acres of meadow, irrigated by the canal of Vittabia, which re- ceives the discharge from the Milan sewers, has be- Methods of Water Distribution 135 come so rich that occasionally the sods from parts of these meadows are removed and sold as manure. Were it not for this precaution, Prof. Storer tells us that the growth of grass would be so rank that it would lodge too badly for successful mowing. Our western meadow lands can make good use of city sewage, and prevent the pollution of our streams from such sewage, rendering the water of said streams fit for domestic use. By providing sewage tanks and use of Sewage subterranean irrigation, sewage irriga- Fields, not . , , . ,, Streams ^'°" '^^^^ °^ ^^^^ crops grown " under the ditch," alternating with ordinary irrigation as we find practiced at Milan. By the flooding method for meadows, we can moisten and enrich the soil at the same time. Many years ago, the English Engineer Parker, urged that in draining flat land, all drains be made to issue from a cesspool into which water from a higher canal could be conducted. By stopping up the outfall pipe, and letting water into the infall cess- pool, all the pipes ramifying through a field might be filled with water which would gradually disseminate itself through the en- tire mass of earth above the level of the pipes, and to any desired height. In this way water could be taken to the roots of plants, and when enough had been given, the whole of the water may be removed at will, and perfect drainage established. He thus com- mended what he called " sub-irrigation." * We find that underground or sub- ^/^^h*^^^ irrigation by means of pipes, tile, etc.. Irrigation leaves the entire soil surface of the field free from ditches to obstruct tillage op- * Storer's Ac/rkulture, 3, p. 253. 136 American Irrigation Farming erations, lessens evaporation, and gives a more nearly natural condition, where ground water can be made to stand at the best level for the best growth of plants. Many systems are now being brought out, and some form of underground irrigation will be adopted as water continues to enhance in price for irrigation pur- poses. It will materially cut down the enormous waste now recorded from soil percolation, seepage, and evaporation. It solves the drainage question, and answers the following criticism by Dr. Hilgard, the irrigator's greatest soil expert: Irrigation without provision for drainage, has in the past in very many cases been the cause of the abandonment of lands once abundantly fruitful which were supposed to be exhausted by culture, but in reality had simply become over-charged with in- jurious salts or alkali, from the ever-repeated evaporation of enormous quantities of water, the solid constituents of which, though naturally very small, had nevertheless been concentrated too strongly in the soil. Dr. Hilgard states that if more than Black Alkali °'^5 P^^ ^^"*'' °^ ^°"^^ carbonate (black alkali) is in the surface soil, seeds will be killed in germination. Constant irrigation brings from the soil mass, beneath these salts, sodium chlor- ide, and sodium sulphate (white alkali) as well as so- dium carbonate, forming incrustations on the surface which act like caustic on the growing plants. The treatment of these alkalied lands is given in another part of this work. The present method of water distribution by ditch riders to individual users is not satisfactory. When Methods of Water Distribution 137 water was plenty, the common plan followed in most . of the West was all right, and gave sat- Demand for igfaction. Today, when amounts of Better , •" , ^ , Delivery water must be measured as accurately as we measure grain or potatoes, farmers find that the head received at the field is not sufficient in volume to do effective irrigation. Then the possi- bility of the man above him to " steal his water " often becomes an actuality, and accounts ofttimes for " no head to irrigate with," that is 'phoned in by the fanner to the ditch rider. Our present methods of water delivery to irrigators can and must be improved to give equitable and timely delivery to the man who has paid for his water, and knows when he wants it, and in what amounts. Severe and harsh criticism has been given the water commissioner on water delivery. It is not the fault of the superintendent, the commissioner or the ditch rider — it is in the system. The State Experiment Stations within the irrigated districts should, with the office of Irrigation Investigations of U. S. Experiment Station, unite on some system that can be recom- mended to water companies to supplant the present plans of water delivery, which have come to us as a heritage of past customs and practice, when water was less valuable, and more abundant, because of re- stricted areas served, than it is now. This is a present, pressing need. More careful ap- plication of water within the field, the saving of waste water, preventing its " running away " in countiy roads, and other places where it is not a benefit, but 138 American Irrigation Fanning a positive injury, will enable all farmers to have abun- dant crop irrigation, and leave a considerable volume of water to bring new lands " under the ditch." We waste nearly or quite as much Nee of water as we effectively use by present dis- Methods tribution methods. The problems of water distribution and transportation are many and vary with the soil, the character of the country, the agriculture practiced, the farmers served, and the neighborhood environment. No rule can here be given that would apply. We can only say, seek always to adopt that method which benefits all, works hardships to but few, and does the greater good to the greater number served. An irrigation company has the most complex and difficult problem in water distribution that comes up in all our western work in agriculture. The success or failure of adequate crop returns very largely depends upon its correct solution. PART II CROPPING "UNDER THE DITCH" CHAPTER VII GROWING ALFALFA UNDER IRRIGATION ALFALFA is the oldest forage plant known to man. Xerxes' army carried this plant into Greece five centuries before Christ. Two hundred years before Christ this valuable plant was brought home by the conquering Romans from the far East. Some of the most sound and practical Age and treatises on alfalfa culture that have yet Alfalfa been given to the farmers of the world were written by the Latin essayists twenty centuries ago. The freebooters of Spain who discov- ered and conquered Mexico and Peru, seeded alfalfa in their wake to blot out, as it were, their bloody foot- prints and atone in a measure for their cruel ravages. From the Mexican borders the Jesuit Fathers intro- duced alfalfa into Southern California, and from there it has been distributed throughout our irrigated West. The value of this crop to the American farmer is shown by the following statements made by men of national authority on agricultural topics. George L. Clothier, for many years in the employ of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, says : The cultivation and feeding of alfalfa mark the highest de- velopment of our modern agriculture. Alfalfa is one of Nature's 141 142 American Irrigation Farming choicest gifts to man. It is the preserver and conserver of the homestead. It is peculiarly adapted to a country Alfalfa with a republican form of government for it Nature's smiles alike on the rich and poor. It does not fail Choicest from old age. It loves the sunshine converting Gift to the sunbeams into gold coin in the pockets of the Man thrifty husbandmen. It is the greatest mortgage lifter yet discovered. Alfalfa makes the hens cackle and the turkeys gobble. It in- duces the pigs to squeal and grunt with satisfaction. It causes the contented cow to give pails full of creamy milk and the Shorthorn and Whitefaced steers to bawl for the feed rack. Alfalfa softens the disposition of the colt and hardens his bones and muscles. It fattens lambs as no other feed, and promotes a wool clip that is a veritable golden fleece. It compels skim milk calves to make gains of two pounds per day. It helps the farmer to produce pork at a cent and a half a pound and beef at two cents. It prospects beneath the surface of the earth and brings her hidden treasures to the light of day. It takes the earth, air, mois- ture, and sunshine, and transmits them into ncfiirishing food stuffs and into tints of green and purple, and into nectar and sweet perfumes, alluring the busy bees to visits of reciprocity, whereon they caress the alfalfa blossoms, which in their turn, pour out secretions of nectar fit for Jupiter to sip. It forms a partnership with the micro-organisms of the earth by which it is enabled to enrich the soil upon which it feeds. It brings gold into the farmer's purse by processes more mysterious than the alchemy of old. The farmer with the fifty-acre meadow of al- falfa will have steady, enjoyable employment from June to October; for as soon as he has finished gathering the hay at one end of the field it is ready for the mower at the other. W. J. Spillman, in charge of Farm Management Work, U. S. Department of Agriculture, says : Most Valu- Alfalfa is the most valuable forage plant ever able Foraee discovered. All over the West there are thou- p, J sands of fields of alfalfa that were sown twenty- five years ago, still yielding large crops. Growing Alfalfa tinder Irrigation 143 In Wisconsin, the generous alfalfa yields three crops of hay a year ; in Texas, four and five large crops ; and in Southern California, below sea level, where they never have any frost, they cut alfalfa eleven times a year. Alfalfa does not exhaust the soil. Nitrogen is the soil's most important element, and the one most liable to give out; the one the farmer is called upon to supply first. Alfalfa does not ask the farmer for nitrogen at all, because it can get its nitrogen out of the atmosphere. P'our-fifths of the atmosphere consists of ni- trogen. Ordinarily, plants cannot make use of that nitrogen at all; the roots of alfalfa will leave in the soil eight or ten times as much as was there before. The farmer who plants alfalfa, clover, or peas does not have to get nitrogen from the fertilizer fac- tories. I know one farmer who for the past eight years has made an average of eight and one-half tons per acre of alfalfa on irri- gated land in the State of Washington. I have heard of other men who produced twelve tons per acre in Southern Texas, on irrigated land. It would hardly be possible to produce that much on land that is not irrigated, because rain does not come to order. I have lived ten years in a country where the horses, cattle, sheep, hogs and chickens eat alfalfa hay or green alfalfa the year round. It is the richest hay food known. Eleven pounds of it is worth as much for feeding purposes as ten pounds of bran. SEED BED PREPARATION. Alfalfa in its young life is one of the most delicate and sensitive of agricultural plants. After it is well matured it becomes one of the sturdiest of plants. No field crop pays better returns for thorough preparation of seed bed than alfalfa. It requires a clean, well pulverized, firm, moist seed bed. .^ . Fall plowing is very desirable for Preparing . ,,,.,. „ . the Soil sprmg seeded alfalfa. Sprmg plowmg tends to leave the soil too loose, prevent- ing the young plant from readily and easily getting its 144 American Irrigation Farming food or finding anchorage in the soil. It also leaves too many air cells in the under or sub-surface soil. Alfalfa also does best on soil which has been thor- oughly aerated and has grown one or more crops. In plowing let all of the ground be thoroughly stirred and turned, allow no " cutting and covering," and, on the other hand, do not plow so deep that several inches not previously turned are thrown to the surface out of which to make a seed bed for alfalfa. Its plant food is not easily available and this unaerated new soil will not give rapid, sturdy growth to the young and tender plants. Seek to level the ground before plow- ing so that the irrigation water can be uniformly and easily distributed over the entire field .of growing alfalfa. After the weathering and mellowing action of winter frosts and snows, the sub-surface needs to be com- pacted while the surface should be left with no clods or large, hard lumps. The surface soil must not be too light or of ashy-like fineness for best results. One can scarcely prepare the seed bed too well for alfalfa if he prepares it right. If one must use spring plowed ground, thoroughly harrow it to fill up the too numerous air cells in the sub-surface of spring plowed land. Follow the har- row with a corrugated roller just before seeding to insure a sufficiently firm seed bed. In case the soil is liable to drift or blow with the wind, seed the alfalfa in the spring on ground seeded the fall before to winter wheat. The wheat anchors the soil and allays the tendency to blow. Grotving Alfalfa under Irrigation 145 IMPORTANCE OF GOOD SEED. The old saying " good seed is essential to good agri- culture " is as true today as ever. We should know where and under gggj what conditions our alfalfa seed is grown to insure a good and a permanent stand. The Kansas Experiment Station, some years ago, seeded nineteen acres with Utah grown seed and one acre with imported alfalfa seed of unknown an- cestry. Both had a germination of ninety-eight per cent, and both gave a good stand the first season. The spring following the first winter showed scarcely a live plant on the one acre, but a good stand all over the nineteen acres. Know where your seed comes from and its purity and per cent, of germination before you buy it. Sweet clover, bur clover, dodder and yellow trefoil are some of the weed seeds found in commercial alfalfa seed that all alfalfa growers should guard against. Dead alfalfa seed has cut down the germination to sixty and even fifty per cent, when it should be over ninety per cent. If the seed be kept dry, it should re- tain its vitality for several years. The writer planted some alfalfa seed in 1906 at the Colorado Experiment Station, which Dr. W. P. Headden of said station had gathered in 1891, fifteen years before. He kept the seed in a closed jar in his laboratory. They tested ninety-nine per cent, germination when planted. The value of clean, acclimated seed cannot be over esti- mated. 146 American Irrigation Farming SEEDING ALFALFA. I. Time. Seed when moisture and Conditions climatic conditions are favorable for a of Vital , , , , ^, . Importance Soo'^ growth from the start. The time of year is not so essential as it is that a prolonged growing period be assured. If spring seeded in regions where snow occurs, wait until all danger of a killing frost is past. Many farmers have lost their entire stand by seeding too early and the tender plants have been killed just before or just after the seed leaves have appeared above the surface of the ground. 2. Amount of Seed. Use from eight to eighteen pounds of seed to the acre, depending upon conditions of seed bed, quality of seed and manner of seeding. The best stand the writer ever obtained was upon spring disked beet ground, seeded with a press wheel drill using sixteen pounds per acre. One cannot afford to slight seed in getting a good stand, and, on the other hand, at present prices, one cannot afford to over-seed. A farmer must use his judgment in determining the amount of seed to sow. 3. Manner of Seeding. The manner of seeding must be determined by the purpose for which the crop is grown. If grown for seed, the writer advises seed- ing in rows with sufficient width between for inter- tillage — twenty-one to thirty-six inches have been successfully used. If grown for forage use a press wheel grain drill with seeder attachment, seeding in rows as drill shall regulate. The press wheel firms the Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 147 dirt around the seed, starting germination quickly and places seed where it can easily obtain its needed plant food. While broadcast seeding on irrigated or Drilling ground is being done the writer cannot advise it. It does not give each seed an even chance or prepare conditions for a uniform even stand. For these reasons it requires more seed to bring equally good results with drill seeding. On a newly prepared seed bed one must be care- ful to drill in the seed at a uniform depth, sufficient for the seed to get moisture and covering but not so deep that it will hinder the tender seed leaves reaching the surface. If there is not sufficient moisture within the soil to germinate the seed and carry it through its first growing stage, one should irrigate before seed bed preparations are started. It is extremely diffi- cult to irrigate new seeding without retarding growth or producing an irregular stand as a result. While light cross harrowing can follow the seeder and is im- perative when broadcast seeding is practiced, it is not necessary where a press wheel drill is used. It is a general practice in the West Regarding ^.^ ^^^^ ^ nurse crop when seeding down Use of a Nurse Crop ^° alfalfa. A nurse crop induces a spindling instead of a sturdy bushy growth and will retard the first season's forage growth. The best growth is obtained when no nurse crop is used. On the other hand irrigated ground is so val- uable that one feels he cannot afford to give alfalfa the ground this first season for the returns alfalfa alone 148 American Irrigation Farming the first year will bring him. He will use a nurse crop, no matter what theory advises. The writer has used barley, wheat and oats as a nurse crop. He finds barley the least objectionable as a nurse crop since it matures earlier than either wheat or oats and can, for that reason, be gotten off the ground and out of the way of the growing alfalfa that much sooner. When using small grain for a nurse crop for alfalfa use but one-half to three-fifths of the amount of seed used for a normal grain crop. After nurse crop is up is the preferable time to seed the alfalfa, although it can be seeded the same time the grain is sown, making but one seeding operation necessary. One must al- ways remember alfalfa is the major crop and when the nurse crop is too rank and is smothering out the alfalfa, the nurse crop must go for hay and be quickly eliminated from the field. For this reason do not seed nurse crop too thick. CULTURAL TREATMENT THE FIRST SEASON. The following cautions the writer has hammered out of successful practices all over the West : I. Should the ground be crusted by a Alfalfa j.j^jj^ after seeding or through other Cautions causes, as the tender alfalfa plants are breaking through the surface of the ground, run over the field with a corrugated roller op- posite to the way it was seeded. 2. When alfalfa is firmly rooted give field a light cross harrowing. This cultivates the ground, invig- Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 149 orates the alfalfa and leaves a soil mulch which checks surface evaporation of moisture. 3. Do not irrigate alfalfa when too young if it can be avoided. The irrigation of ground before seed bed is made will carry the crop until plants are well rooted and the crop will not be easily drowned when first irrigated. In case it is not practical to irrigate before seeding and the young alfalfa is suffering for water, irrigation, while difficult, is imperative. Irri- gate so as to have the least soil erosion around the plants possible and do not let the water stand on the ground any longer than you can avoid and give the crop a good drink. Every plant that has air cut off too long by a flooded soil, perishes the same as does the plant that receives no water. This renders it diffi- cult to irrigate young alfalfa satisfactorily. 4. Follow the first two irrigations of alfalfa with a good cross harrowing by a spike-toothed harrow, or, if soil conditions render it advisable, use a weeder. This prevents formation of surface crust, often fol- lowing an irrigation on some soils, cultivates the alfalfa and checks svirface evaporation by formation of the soil mulch. 5. Clip young alfalfa often enough to keep down weeds this first season. It checks the weeds but in- vigorates the alfalfa. This has a tendency to keep down stem growth and invigorates root growth of the plant. Do not clip so close to the ground as to remove too much of the leafy growth, for there must be sufficient leaves remaining to elaborate the plant 150 American Irrigation Farming food required by the whole plant. When this is done clipping acts like a tonic on alfalfa. Should alfalfa be frozen down after leafing out, or if the tops of growing stems are cut by the frost, no matter whether young or old, it is advisable to give a high clipping to the whole crop with a mower at once. This cuts off the frosted parts and leaves the unaffected portion to put out new shoots. If left to struggle out its ex- istence to the usual time of cutting the first crop, a stunted growth is the result and a correspondingly light, unsatisfactory crop. The quality of the hay is also injured. Therefore, clip frosted alfalfa and ir- rigate it as soon as possible after clipping. This is a general rule it will always be safe to follow. 6. The editor of Nebraska Farmer is quoted in Coburn's book, Alfalfa, as saying he has collected information on alfalfa from every section of the United States for ten years. This data gives unques- tionable evidence that nine-tenths of the failures with alfalfa have been due to failure or neglect to cut it as it should have been done when young. This, he says, is the law of alfalfa — it must be cut down. Should " spotted leaf " or other fungus diseases invade the field the mower should be used to reduce its ravages. 7. Do not plan for more than one — on the Pacific coast, perhaps two — hay crops this first season. Cut the crop so that you can reasonably expect full three weeks' growth after last cutting of the season. This gives a stem growth protection for the crowns this first winter, a very important item. It is neither hay Growing Alfalfa tinder Irrigation 151 nor seed we want this first year, but a sturdy, un- checked, vigorous root growth. 8. If it be possible to top dress the field in the fall of this first year with well-rotted stable or sheep manure it is wise to do so. By applying six to eight loads per acre with a manure spreader and giving a good irrigation (if late water is possible) the alfalfa is given a good mulch of an ample supply of water to- gether with the weathering processes of winter, to render this helpful plant food available for the next season's crop of hay. If you can top dress but one alfalfa field, let it be the newly seeded one, helping to " warm it " through its first winter and encouraging a vigorous early start on its second season's growth. The rainy season on the Pacific slope renders this treatment advisable but requires a careful distribution of a thoroughly well-rotted compost when top dress- ing the field, since the alfalfa here grows all winter most luxuriantly from the natural moisture and the mild climate of the winter months. CULTURAL TREATMENT SECOND SEASON. I. Irrigate as early as season seems to Second justify, SO steady rapid growth may be Season ■' . . , , , ^ , Treatments nianitamed, whether grown for seed or for forage. In seed alfalfa follow irri- gation with a good inter-tillage soon as ground con- ditions permit. This warms up the soil and encour- ages early and vigorous stem growth ; just what we seek in this crop. 2. When grown for forage, irrigate the " crop to 152 American Irrigation Farming be " before the present crop is cut. Do this just as the second growth begins to appear at crown of plants. It is nature's warning that the first crop must make way for this second crop just starting. The chemist, the plant physiologist and plant breeder, after spending much time, energy and money, agree that it is not the per cent, of bloom, but the starting of the second growth that should determine the proper time to cut alfalfa wherever grown. As soon as ground is firm enough to go on with the mower after this irrigation, cut the first crop down and hurry it off the field out of the road of the second crop. By following the irrigation with the mowing as closely as possible, the stems will retain their leaves better, a very essential thing. 3. Harvesting the Crop. One should seek three things in harvesting alfalfa — a. To retain as high a percentage of leaves as possible. b. To retain the green color so desirable on the market. c. To prevent sunburn and loss of feeding value as much as possible. The leaves contain from seventy-five . y J ' to eighty per cent, of the protein, the rich feeding value of the plant, which goes to produce meat, milk and blood. While some loss of the leaves is unavoidable, throughout the West our present methods of harvesting or putting up alfalfa hay causes us to lose from ten to thirty per cent, of the leaves, the most valuable part of the hay. Grozving Alfalfa under Irrigation 153 CURING ALFALFA. The method of curing alfalfa will vary with the condition of the green hay, the soil and the climate. No general rule can here be given. The first cutting of the season is usually the most difficult thoroughly to cure and yet avoid sunburning and parching the hay. The whole philosophy of hay-making is HaymaHng ^'^'^'^ ^^ Professor F. H. Storer in his work on agriculture under the subject of " Hay-making." He there says : Of mown grass when left in small heaps (cocks) the leaves will continue to transpire water (when not scorched or sunburned in the swath) very much as they would do if the grass were still standing uncut. So long as the grass remains alive water will be exhaled from the pores upon the surface of the leaves, and water will continue to be pumped out from the stalks in a thoroughly natural way, much as if the grass had not been mown. Whereas, if newly cut grass were immediately spread in the hot sunshine, the leaves would speedily be scorched to such an extent that circulation of moisture within them would cease, and transpiration of moisture from their pores become impossible. After the physiological ap- pliances for removing water have been destroyed in this way, the moisture in the stalks can only escape by way of simple evaporation, and, as that process is necessarily slow, there would be danger of carrying to the mow (or stack) hay that really contained a large amount of water in its stems, although it might seem to be tolerably dry to judge merely by the crispness of the leaves. In this point of view, the really ideal plan of haymaking would be to spread the mown grass out thin (leave in the swath) and let it wilt just enough, but no more than enough, and then to put it in windrows or little cocks, so that the leaves might continue to draw moisture from the stems. 154 American Irrigation Farming We thus see that we must so handle the Process ^^^ ^'^^^ ^^^ moisture in the succulent stems shall have time and opportunity to transpire from the leaves. Throughout most of the West we find most of this curing process can be done either in the windrow or the cock, or both. Most of the curing is done by the wind and not by the sun. When this is done in the cock, we can put the hay in the stack as green as when it was cut. Often when we stack with sweeps we seek to run the hay from the windrow right into the stack. In this case it is always advisable to use some fonn of side delivery rake which puts the hay in a hollow windrow and al- lows the wind thoroughly to cure it. If we can tightly twist a handful of C red Ha stems and wring no water from them, we can consider the hay reasonably well cured. It is when alfalfa hay has not been well cured that it heats, parches or browns in the stack and some- times will even catch fire and burn up hay and en- danger buildings if in a barnyard. This is spon- taneous combustion. Remember that the very best quality of green alfalfa can be spoiled in the curing process, turning out poor quality hay. HARVESTING FOR SEED. Where alfalfa is grown for seed in the West, it is almost always desirable to save the second cutting of the season for this purpose. The first crop in many sections is too early for fertilizing insects to do effec- tive work and thus many seed pods are barren, the Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 155 crop is too often uneven in maturity and the yield of matured vital seed is always less than that which can be obtained from the second crop of the season. Alfalfa blossoms seldom, if ever, self- ,^g " fertilize, nor can they depend upon the wind to blow the pollen to the stigma of the pistil. The blossoms are fertilized by bees and other nectar-seeking insects. The nectar of alfalfa makes delicious honey. The Gold Medal Award for best honey at St. Louis Exposition in 1904 was for honey from alfalfa grown under irrigation in Ar- kansas valley, Colorado. Whoever raises seed alfalfa should keep several stands of bees, for they will fer- tilize his blossoms and manufacture a very fine flavored honey, giving him, therefore, a revenue both " going and coming." It will be found advisable to cut the first crop of the season as early as possible for hay. Irrigate by the furrow method and fol- Cxdtivation, j^^^ ^N\\h a thorough cultivation as soon and Seed ^^ practicable. The alfalfa being in rows frequent cultivation can be given, keeping down excessive evaporation of moisture and leaving a good soil mulch on the ground. The con- tention that alfalfa seed cannot be grown under irri- gation is incorrect, as Dr. Samuel Fortier proves in his bulletin No. 373 of the farmers' series. Irrigation of Alfalfa. He shows that every state in the West where irrigation is practiced is actually growing the alfalfa seed " under the ditch." The seed crop ripens more uniformly and gives a better set of seed, if no 156 American Irrigation Farming irrigation be given, or as little as possible during blossoming and seed maturing period. A dry hot season is really the best climatic condition for seed production and that crop should be saved for seed which will be matured under these conditions. In the Southwest it may be the third crop, while in the region farthest north it may be the first crop. The seed crop should be cut when the greater portion of the seed pods have turned a dark brown color and while the enclosed seeds are hard. They are not at this stage sufficiently hard to shell. The usual plan of cutting with a mower and curing seed alfalfa same as hay, requires considerable caution, for should it heat in the stack it would injure the vi- tality of the seed. Many alfalfa seed growers have found in Nebraska and Kansas that they secure fully one-fifth more seed by cutting with a self-binder, put- ting the sheaves in shock the same day cut, letting the leaves transpire the sap from leaves and stems. Threshing When sufficiently cured, put in stack and Seed for a convenient time to thresh. When ^^^^^ stacked the top should be covered with good, heavy slough grass or a stack cover to protect from the weather, as there is danger of the seed heat- ing in the stack should it get wet. While most of the seed is threshed with grain separators with seed at- tachments, an alfalfa or clover huller is preferable and should be used where there is sufficient seed grown to justify its purchase. The yield of seed is relatively greater when alfalfa is grown in inter-tilled rows than when in the usual field mass. This gives air, sun and Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 157 bees a greater chance at all sides of the individual plant. Where rows are thirty or more inches apart and plants distinctly separate in the row, the writer has known individual plants to yield one or more ounces of seed. The yield of seed ranges from 150 to 750 pounds per acre ; 300 to 500 pounds is counted a good yield. The presence of insect enemies and fungus diseases have seriously cut down yields in many regions and great care should be exercised to keep them out of a district not now infested. The threshed straw is worth about fifty per cent, of ordinary alfalfa for feed- ing purposes. It is fed principally to colts and calves. The threshed seed should be thoroughly cleaned, screened and fanned before it is offered for market. As far as possible remove from field, before alfalfa matures, weeds with seeds which are serious adulter- ants of threshed alfalfa. While there are many things in raising alfalfa seed not yet understood, the above suggestions represent the best methods of seed production now practiced. One farmer raises a good yield of seed one year, little or no seed the next, giving same treatment and same amount of water each year. Why this differ- ence ? We oftentimes cannot tell but we are all work- ing to get the solution. CULTURAL TREATMENT THE THIRD AND SUCCESSIVE SEASONS. While our alfalfa plant was a delicate, tender plant at the beginning, by the close of the second season it 158 American Irrigation Fanning has become the hardiest plant on the farm, sending its tap root down many feet, to become the best subsoiler and soil renovator known. Some authorities have warned against Third Season. ,• , - ir u- ^, Treatments diskmg alialia, usmg the renovator or any other tool which lacerates or cuts the crowns. It has been demonstrated that disking or using a renovator on alfalfa two or more years old is beneficial. Any tool which loosens Cultivator ^^^ ^^^'^ ^^^^ ^°^^ about the crowns, kills weeds and conserves moisture, is a good alfalfa cultivator, and the best one is that one which does the greatest good to all plants in the field. The older the field the more cultivation should be given to the plants. Disking in the spring and Results . . , , . Follow givmg a good harrowmg or renovatmg after each cutting yields good results in the quality and quantity of harvested hay. Use those cultural methods which in E oect your judgment will best maintain a normal stand and keep your field average up to or above one and a quarter tons per acre per cut- ting for the season. In some parts of the irrigated West but two crops of alfalfa can be obtained per season with a total yield of two and one-half to four tons. In the irri- gated Southwest where the crop grows practically all the year, six to ten cuttings are obtained, approxi- mating eight to ten tons for the year's yield. The Wyoming Experiment Station has found some interesting results in a series of experiments Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 159 with alfalfa grown at varying altitudes, one being that the feeding value of alfalfa increases Relation of ^^j^}^ ^j^^ altitude where grown when all Altitude to , , , , , Food Value other factors of plant growth are made as comparable as possible. That is, that alfalfa grown at high altitudes under irrigation has, pound for pound, greater feed value than when grown under same irrigation at lower altitudes. It will, therefore, make more pounds of beef, mutton, and pork per ton than lower altitude alfalfa. IRRIGATING ALFALFA. In the beginning we called attention to the impor- tance of a well smoothed, level surface. This will prevent the water settling in the low places and drown- ing or smothering the plants. This law always holds true — - water seeks its level — no matter what system of irrigation be followed. If the corrugation method be followed, Suggested ^^^ *^^^ ^^^ corrugations are uniform in depth and are laid out with the contour of the land. If the check method of irrigation be followed, do not allow the water to stand on the alfalfa longer than twenty-four to thirty-six hours. If the field has a steep slope some other method should be used. The flooding method is very commonly used for alfalfa. For this, lay out laterals at least thirty inches wide and three feet deep. Deep laterals permit use of a good head of water and enable the irrigator to get over the ground quickly, something especially desirable 160 American Irrigation Farming for alfalfa. Use a ditcher plow for making laterals wherever possible. This requires a number of horses, but once through the ditch is made and does not re- quire V-ing out. If this is not obtainable, a lister plow is next to be desired, followed by a wooden V with a steel shoe, to clean out and deepen the lateral. The laterals must be laid out with the lay of the land, for water will not run uphill. Formerly laterals were placed as far apart as possi- ble and water forced over the ground to cover this space in between. The nature of the soil must de- termine the distance between laterals, but do not lengthen the time necessary to distribute the water, unduly. In some soils seventy-five feet is sufficient distance between field laterals; in other soils that tend to " sub " laterals can be made 150 or more feet apart. The canvas dam has been found most serviceable to place in the lateral and send the water out from it for irrigator to distribute over the ground surface, between the field laterals. Seek to irrigate the higher ground first Irrigate ^nd advance the sheet of water in a uni- ^^ ^j form manner over the area to be irri- First gated so that all sections of the field, be- tween laterals, shall receive a uniform amount of water. By using canvas dams the water can be backed up in the lateral, making a head of two to two and one-half feet per second possible, so the irrigator can spread water over his field with compara- tive ease. The beginner must exercise great care and leave no patches unirrigated. If I i f-' TT" ,«^ 4^' ■*«** r •>; ^ jn^ ■* • -^.^'; , »•' jut -T*^ XJilt- ; ^^T .'■f n * - ■f * -a O C O 3 o U 13 6fl c o 4-1 Stacking Alfalfa in the West Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 161 The border method is used in the Southwest quite generally and, of course, where care is exercised in making a uniform level surface within the border, a uniform distribution is obtained. Wherever possible, irrigate alfalfa just Irrigation ^^ soon as the second growth begins to appear at the crown. It is an erroneous idea which some have advocated, not to irrigate the second crop tmtil the first is removed from the ground. This causes a loss of from ten days' to two weeks' growth of the second crop, a needless delay, working a loss of forage to the farmer, since it lessens period of growth which will always mean lessened yield. Soon as ground is sufficiently dry and firm to run the machine mow the crop and remove from the field soon as possible. Follow the mowing with a good cultivation by har- row, disk or renovator. This invigorates the alfalfa, checks ev.poration, and thus conserves moisture. Ir- rigation just preceding each cutting as a general rule, gives a sufificient amount of moisture for that cutting's growth of good quality hay. Fall irrigation, when late water can be Fall and obtained, is almost always a wise safe- Winter , /.„. Irrigation gtiard agamst wmter-kilhng. Lettmg water stand on alfalfa in winter in a freezing climate is almost certain death to alfalfa. Winter irrigation is most successfully practiced in Southern California and Texas, but the writer has never known success where the thermometer falls much below freezing in winter. On the other hand, he has 162 American Irrigation Farming seen hundreds of acres killed out by sheets of ice over alfalfa fields in winter. Fall irrigation is helpful, but winter irrigation, under above conditions, is fatal. It is the dry, cold winters that kill out alfalfa in the irri- gated countries and fall irrigation prevents this loss. Experiments at the Utah Experiment Water Used Station demonstrated that one and one- quarter to one and one-half acre feet of water, properly applied, gave better returns than four to five times that amount applied six to eight times during the growing season, using a half acre foot or more of water per irrigation. All the amount that drains off the field is that which is not used by the crop and for that crop is wasted and, therefore, lost. The ofiice of irrigation investigations. Duty of u. S. Department of Agriculture, is now Alfalfa determining for our Western farmers the duty of water on alfalfa. The soil, season, farmer, and number of cuttings cause a great variation in the amount of irrigation water required so that no general rule c.an be named for the alfalfa farmers of the West. Suffice to say that the thorough irrigation at the times named above will tend to give the greatest economical use of water on alfalfa wher- ever grown throughout the West. PLOWING UP ALFALFA. The first essential is a good alfalfa plowshare, tempered just right and kept keen and sharp. Next, do not turn a furrow wider than the plowshare will cut clean. All the alfalfa roots must be completely Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 163 cut off or they will send up new shoots and the plants, thus, become obnoxious weeds in the succeeding crop, to be grown in the field rotation. Farmers in the West are finding that Plowine ^^^^ plowing the alfalfa, just deep enough to turn under the crowns of the plants, being careful to cut off all the roots, is a good plan to follow. If the last cutting is thus plowed under, it adds a valuable green manure crop as a humus pro- ducer in the soil. Leave the ground subject to the weathering action of winter storms, and early in the spring plow six, eight or more inches deep, doing the work thoroughly so no roots escape being cut off by the plow, which should be kept good and sharp. This plan eliminates volunteer alfalfa. This plan of double-plowing alfalfa is commended to farmers who seek to convert alfalfa meadows to fields of grain or root crops, as it prepares ideal soil for potatoes and sugar beets. It is wise to follow some general rotation plan on every irrigated farm and the life of the alfalfa meadow will then conform to the ro- tation plan. ALFALFA MEAL. Alfalfa meal is the basis of many Value and f M al stock foods and, mixed with various grains, is being sold as desirable feeds for all classes of live stock. Buyers of this meal de- sire it to be clean, dry, pure, and green, so, when moistened, it shall have the bright green of the new mown hay. 164 American Irrigation Farming The alfalfa districts of the West have but few or no rains during hay making seasons and, by taking special care to have the hay well and properly cured, we can surpass the rainbelt states in the quality of alfalfa meal. We have unequaled facilities since we practically control the moisture the alfalfa shall re- ceive and have the sun and wind, which so thoroughly and quickly cure the hay that kiln-dry methods are not required for grinding into meal. Grinding alfalfa for feeding increases the per cent, of utilized feed and correspondingly decreases the percentage of waste from twenty to forty per cent, found by recent feed yard tests. Each farmer can have his own small mill, since they are now made portable and at a reasonable cost. This will utilize all the alfalfa and give the farm the fertilizer value of the crop when fed. ROTATION VALUE OF ALFALFA. Alfalfa is the leading basis for crop Alfalfa rotation on the irrigated lands of the , „ West. In the sugar beet, potato and Success fruit districts, alfalfa is considered the very basis of their success, being used to maintain fertility of the soil. The depth to which the roots penetrate, aerates and loosens up the soil, bring- ing up from the under surface soil mineral elements which are rendered available for other crops. Dr. W. P. Headden, of the Colorado Station, says that a portion of the nitrogen used by alfalfa in its growth is obtained from the soil as well as the air. Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 165 but he further adds that it probably returns more ni- trogen in the leaves that fall and the plants that die than it takes from the soil. Doctor Headden estimates that the Fertilizer fertilizing value of the stubble and six and one-half inches of roots plowed un- der, is about $20.00 per acre, while the value of the whole root system and the stubble is about $35.00 per acre. Name of crop Yield per acre Yield per acre Ave, money after other after alfal- gain per crops fa. acre Wheat 18 bu. 30 bu. $8 to $12 Oats 37 " 78 " 16 Potatoes 52 " 81 " 16 Experiments carried on at the Wyoming Station (Bulletin No. 44) gave the above results. Gov. Hoard, of Wisconsin, says: "Nothing else we have ever tried equals alfalfa for putting the soil in good tihh." We must realize that alfalfa while storing nitrogen in the soil, is at the same time, a heavy feeder on lime, potash and phosphoric acid. In Bulletin No. no of Colorado Station, Doctor Headden shows that the average per cent, of crude ash in a crop of four and one-half tons (9,000 pounds) is not far from ten per cent. — 900 pounds. This will contain 208.8 pounds of lime, 231.5 pounds of potash, and 39.1 pounds of phosphoric acid. Speaking of plant food required by a crop of alfalfa. Doctor Headden in the same bulletin, says: 166 American Irrigation Farming There are but few crops which will equal the _ , .^ alfalfa in its draft upon the resources of the soil , .J^ p. J in which it grows, but while other crops gather their food from a depth of two, four or five feet, alfalfa gathers its food from depths ranging from six to twelve feet ; so, on the assumption that the alfalfa plant has no greater power to gather its food than the wheat plant, for example, it has, owing to the greater depth to which its roots penetrate, from three to four times the depth of soil to feed on. This is an essential advantage especially, if the upper portions of the soil, from which the wheat plant has to draw its food, have already been particularly exhausted by re- peated cropping, as has been the case in many instances in this state (Colorado). Its feeding roots which gather this food are almost wholly below the depth at which ordinary crops feed, so this portion of the soil is resting while in alfalfa. Many of the plants die and rot, adding organic matter to the soil and facilitating the solution of the mineral constituents used by other plants. Not only do the plants die out, as is to be observed in almost any field of alfalfa, but every crop grown adds materially to the upper soil by that portion of the plant which escapes being gathered as hay. THE A. B. C. OF ALFALFA CULTURE, A. Alfalfa The successful grower of alfalfa has me to beli be observed : Musts come to believe the following rules must 1. Use only clean, vital, well-acclimated seed. 2. Use for alfalfa land which has previously been well cultivated and which has good under-drainage. Thorough drainage is chief among alfalfa require- ments. 3. If sagebrush land be used for seeding to alfalfa, make a thorough preparation of the seed bed and very Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 167 completely aerate the soil. It were better to seed new land to some crop before seeding down to alfalfa. 4. No field crop pays richer revenues for thorough preparation of the soil than alfalfa. Have the seed bed first well pulverized, then firm and moist, with surface soil devoid of hard lumps, well planked, floated or leveled. 5. Sow on irrigated land with a drill, evenly at a uniform depth, at that rate of seeding which will give a good stand provided seed and bed are what they should be. Usually the amount of seed is from eight to twelve pounds per acre. 6. Follow the drill, as soon as possible, with a good cross harrowing. This insures covering all seed, checks weed growth, and gives the ground that sur- face condition which prevents excessive surface evap- oration of soil moisture. 7. Prevent crusting of surface at germination or early stage of growth, if possible. This is the critical period when alfalfa is the tenderest of plants. Jf ground be crusted, then use the corrugated roller to break the crust so the little plants may get through. 8. An alfalfa cultivator of some kind is indispens- able for the irrigated fields. The renovator, disk or spike-toothed harrow can any or all of them be used for this purpose. 9. Use common sense and good judgment at all times. The following don'ts have been ^" font's brought out by the " Alfalfa King " of Texas, R. E. Smith of Sherman: 168 American Irrigation Farming 1. Don't sow any nurse crop. (This is not the general practice in irrigated regions. ) 2. Don't sow on freshly plowed land, no matter how carefully prepared. 3. Don't let weeds or grass grow over six inches high without clipping. 4. Don't clip or mow when wet with dew or rain. 5. Don't let alfalfa stand if turning yellow; cut it. 6. Don't sow old seed. (The writer would add, un- less it shows strong vitality by germination test.) 7. Don't sow seed on land that will not raise crops. 8. Don't sow twenty-five acres first ; sow five. 9. Don't pasture it first season. 10. Don't put any of your rotten manure anywhere but on your alfalfa field. 11. Don't let water stand on it too long. 12. Don't let it go, if a thin stand, but disk it. Don't be afraid you will kill it. 13. Don't wait for it to stool; it never does. 14. Don't sow on any land not well underdrained , for alfalfa does not like wet feet. 15. Don't leave your land rough; use a roller or a plank float to level and smooth the land before seeding. 16. Don't give up. I. Securing a good stand. C. Cobum's 2. Dying out the second year. Sr"Y,*fV/ ^ Failure through harvesting and of Alfalfa ^ 00 Vexations stacking. 4. Injury from insects or disease at- Growing Alfalfa under Irrigation 169 tacks. Remedy — keep up with the best practices o£ the times by reading alfalfa bulletins of U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture and the State Experiment Sta- tions. CHAPTER VIII POTATO CULTURE UNDER IRRIGATION NEXT to rice, the potato is the most exten- sively grown food crop in the world. One acre of potatoes should, if properly grown, furnish as much food as many acres of wheat. The world's potato crop approximates five billions of bushels — 2,500,000,000 " sacks of spuds " to put it in western terms and measure. Russia is the world's greatest potato Acreage of grrowing nation with 10,000,000 acres. Different *= • • . ^ 1, u . Countries averagmg nmety-five bushels per acre. Germany is second, 8,000,000 acres, averaging 200 bushels per acre. In his Cyclopedia of Agriculture Doctor Bailey gives the following data on potato culture in other na- tions : France grows between 3,500,000 and 4,000,000 acres, Austria nearly 3,000,000, Hungary, 1,500,000 and the United Kingdom, 1,250,000 acres. The average yield of England is about 250 bushels, that of Ireland 150 bushels per acre. The United States grows about 3,000,000 acres and a ten year average yield (1900-19 10 inclusive) is 84.5 bushels. 170 Potato Culture under Irrigation 171 The measure of success in potato The Measure ■ • ^i • i i j ^i of Success growing is the yield per acre and the hai-vested crop. From obtainable data we find by this measure of success that potato farmers rank as follows : English, Germans, French, Aus- train, Canadian, Russian, American. Among the great potato fanners of the world, we stand at the foot as a nation, when we should be at the head. Maine, way up in the Northwest cor- Our Nation "^'" °^ " Yankeedom," holds the record for yield per acre of the whole Union — 195 bushels of potatoes. Next to Maine, in yield per acre, come the states of the irrigated West. Today we can say that large areas of the West show a favorable soil, varying altitudes give a favorable climate and irrigation supplies water as the potato farmer shall have need. Hence we can say that here is Uncle Sam's most desirable potato field for twentieth century development. CHARACTER OF SOIL FOR POTATOES. A workable loam soil with a good un- A. and Soils rainage der-drainage is the most desirable type of soil for good yield and good quality potatoes. If the surface soil should receive an over- supply of irrigation water, the subsoil, with good un- der-drainage, takes away this excess. A sandy loam surface soil warms up earliest in the spring and is therefore well adapted to the growing of quick-maturing types of potatoes for the early market. A clay subsoil with a heavy clay surface soil is not 172 American Irrigation Farming adapted to potato culture under irrigation. On the other hand, the lava-ash soils prevailing in so many parts of the West are especially favorable soils for this crop. Another type quite prevalent in the West which has been found most excellent is the Rocky mountain red loam soil. It always has good under- drainage and is lacking in but one required essential — vegetable mold — humus as it is called. CHIEF REQUISITES IN THE SOIL. 1. Plenty of air, hence porosity in the soil. Po- tatoes must have air, especially after the tubers set on the growing vine and are maturing. 2. Plenty of available plant food. Soils rich in potash with a reasonable amount of vegetable mold are generally well supplied with the desirable elements. 3. An evenness of texture to receive and retain moisture and feed same to plants as they shall have need, through capillarity. PREPARATION OF SEED BED. The preparation of the seed bed is an ■ **E °tial Jrnportant essential in successful potato culture. Lack of the proper seed bed will cut down yield and reduce quality more than any other one thing. The potato is a deep rooted crop. While the tuber bed is well below the surface of the soil the roots which gather sustenance from the soil for the growing crop are still below the tuber bed. For this reason thor- ough and deep plowing is required that the soil en- Potato Culture under Irrigation 173 vironment around the potato roots shall be of that me- chanical fineness that, in the presence of a sufficient amount of moisture said roots can obtain the desired food elements. If the land is irregular at surface, fill all hollows and otherwise make the surface as uni- formly level as possible before plowing is done. If the soil be dry and hard, tending Dr'^Soil *° ^^'^^^ ^^P '^^ ^ cloddy manner, irrigate before plowing. This gives the proper amount of moisture which enables one to put the soil into proper tilth for the crop. Follow the plow with tillage tools as closely as possible, that this moisture may be conserved to mellow the seed bed while it will also render the plant food more easily available to the sprouting tubers. After thorough disking and har- rowing run the float or leveler over the ground prop- erly to prepare the surface for planting at a uniform depth. A well-fined, firm, moist seed bed, affords oppor- tunity for a well-developed root system by means of which the young potato plants draw sustenance from the soil. SELECTION OF SEED AND TREATMENT. The irrigation farmer has learned that Quality market, climatic environment and soil conditions must be considered in selecting a type for the commercial market. As a general rule, the market for western potatoes desires a white po- tato. An early potato will be received without discrimina- 174 American Irrigation Farming tion of color, provided it has desired quality, for it is usually marketed before it is matured. The market is developing for the red potato, but the commercial market has " to be showrn " that it has the desired quality, the same as the farmer had to demonstrate that the red hog had desired quality under the unde- sired skin, and now the Duroc Jersey is taken without question on any hog market in America. Select for the farm type a potato with Selection medium to shallow eyes that is either a good baker or good boiler. Such a po- tato should also be a good keeper and a good shipper. A firm skin, not easily ruptured, tends also to protect the tuber from fungus attacks. Use for seed potatoes a medium sized tuber of the shape and type you want to grow for market. The practice of using cull potatoes for seed is a cer- tain way of producing, eventually, " run outs," irregu- lar, undesirable market potatoes. Eventually this practice gives small potatoes and few in a hill. The potato farmer can take a lesson from the grain farmers of the middle states, who now select their seed grain with the utmost care. True it is that the potato is really an Selection of , , ^ , ^ , , Seed Wins underground stem and not a real seed. Our selections must then be more or less artificial, but if we follow natural laws, select the strongest specimens rather than indifferent or weak individual tubers for the parent stock, we can surely improve the quality and yield of the crop from year to year. Therefore hill selection is preferred wher- Potato Culture under Irrigation 175 ever it can be practiced, and a special type adapted to that soil, climate and market is to be maintained year by year. For the first year select from the general field spe- cial hills for seed that have stocky, sturdy vines and which contain not less than eight potatoes of commer- cial size. Select from the hill the shape and type Seed Plot ^^^ desire to develop and plant in a spe- cial seed plot the succeeding year to grovir desirable seed stock for the general field. Some farmers dig these special hills from, the general field that first year before the general crop is harvested. Others follow the planter closely, sacking up the spe- cial hills by themselves. By the latter method one cannot study vine qualities, an essential character to be considered, since it indicates the vigor and consti- tution of the potato selected. The maintenance of a seed plot each year insures good seed stock for the succeeding year. On many irrigated farms this is now being practiced. In the heart of the Rockies at an altitude of 6,500 feet from seed plots on sagebrush land two potato farmers have harvested from twelve to thirty-one potatoes per hill of excellent quality and just right size for seed. On fields of twenty-five and thirty or f' \a\ d ™o''^ acres these farmers by using this Results ^^^^ plot seed have had field averages of 30,000 pounds per acre. We have known instances where a careful test gave one sack of culls to 200 sacks of commercial potatoes with hill se- 176 American Irrigation Farming lected seed and one sack of culls to twenty sacks of commercial potatoes using field run or average bin seed. In case hill selections cannot be made, as soon as harvesting is done, with the potato sorter or grader make as close, careful selection of seed from the stored potatoes as possible and place in a special bin for the succeeding year's planting. The exposing of seed potatoes to sun of Seed ^""^ ^'^ J"^*" '^^O'"^ planting is proving to be a wise thing to do. Avoid intense sunlight in this " greening " process. This toughens the skin and tends to prevent fungus attacks. Treatment of seed potatoes for scab is all right, provided the seed is not planted on ground infected with fungus diseases. One of the most practical meth- ods of treating potato seed for scab is the use of for- malin solution or the use of gas. For treating a large quantity, the latter is recommended. This is done by exposing the potatoes within a tight room. Use twen- ty-three ounces of potassium permanganate for each 1 ,000 cubic feet of space, placing same in a shallow pan in center of the room. Pour on this one pint of for- malin and at once close the door. Allow the gas to remain within the room for full twenty-four hours. For the solution use one pound of formalin to every fifteen to twenty gallons of water. In this thor- oughly stirred solution soak the potatoes two or three hours before cutting. Care must be exercised not to reinfect the treated seed and they should be planted on ground known to be free from fungous diseases which injure potatoes. Potato Culture under Irrigation 177 PLANTING MACHINERY. Planting potatoes by hand or plow- The Potato ■^^„ -^^ ^j^g g^^j jg ^^^ practicable nor de- Machine sirable for the irrigation farmer who is growing potatoes upon a commercial basis. In a community of small potato growers it is sometimes advisable for two or more farmers to co- operate to the extent of owning their planting and harvesting machinery for potato culture jointly. A potato planter in the West costs from $67 to $75 and will plant from five to eight acres a day. It has been found that no matter what make of planter is used, it is desirable to ride the machine, that the driver can see that it plants regularly and well. Rows should be at least three feet three inches apart to irrigate well between them. Plants can be eight to eighteen inches apart in the row. Twelve inches is a common distance between hills in a row. The mod- ern potato planter requires two horses to operate it. This machine opens the furrow, drops the seed, covers and firms the dirt over the seed and, at the same time, marks the place for the next furrow. Usually it has been found best to plant the seed from two to five inches deep. Proper seed bed preparation will insure moist earth at this depth. „. , The time of planting must vary with Time of 1 • J ifr , , Planting altitude and season. We should seed so that tuber-setting on the growing vines shall take place in the most favorable portion of the growing season. This has been found to be just past Potato Culture under Irrigation 179 moisture. The cultivator shovels should be placed to throw dirt toward, not away from the planted row in this first cultivation. Set the shovels well down in the ground. This enables one to cut off any sprout- ing roots of clover or alfalfa which may have been plowed under, that tend to choke or interfere with the growing crop. As soon as plants are high enough to tivation distinguish the row, give a second culti- vation. We may not be able to get up as close to the row as in the first cultivation, for care must be exercised not to cut or lacerate the growing roots. Still we can run the shovels good and deep, perhaps sometimes raising the inside shovels suffi- cientl}' to prevent any possible plant injury. We want now to give sufficient cultivation to work up a mellow soil inviting thorough and deep rootage of the plant. This cultivation gives ample air for vigorous growth. We must have vigorous vine growth to obtain de- sirable tuber yields. Potatoes, like pigs, never fully recover from a stunted growth in early life. IRRIGATION OF THE CROP. The potato farmer should try to de- Irrieation ^^^ ^^^ irrigation until the young tubers are set or the plant is in bloom. Earlier irrigation tends to make shallow rooting, sending the tuber bed too near the surface, lessening the yield and impairing the quality of the potatoes. More " ir- ritation " with little or no "' irrigation " during its early growing period is what makes the best potato 180 American Irrigation Fanning crop returns. Yet the young plants must not be al- lowed to suffer for water. The darkening of the fo- liage is the way potatoes call for water. If the under- surface soil will not retain its form when pressed in the hand, but crumbles down when the hand pressure is removed, there is not sufficient water in the soil for normal plant growth ; we must therefore irrigate. It is never wise to irrigate potatoes by the flooding system. That tends unduly to solidify the ground, shutting out the abundance of air which the growing tubers demand. The method described in U. S. Farm- Furrow gj.g. Bulletin No. 386 is a practical one Advocated ^^^^ generally followed by farmers of the irrigated West. The writer gives a brief, condensed report of the method the above named bulletin quite fully describes. Open a V-shaped trench half way between the rows in alternate middles. This can best be done with a double mold board plow or lister which throws the dirt each way. If this first irrigation be forced upon the grower before the setting of the young tubers, make this trench just deep enough readily to convey the water down the middle. If it is made at the time the tubers are setting, make the furrow for irrigation deep enough thoroughly to moisten the roots, and that the irrigator can prevent the water in the furrow from soaking up the tuber bed. Experience is required to know how much water is required to do this. It is never wise to open all middles and irrigate both sides of the same row at the same time in this first irriga- O O o O u tD ■i-j Potato Culture under Irrigation 181 tion. The second irrigation will use the middles not opened and used for the first one. The details of irrigation depend upon vas Dams ' ^^^ ^^^^' ^^^P^ ^""^ contour of the field to be irrigated. If the land slopes suf- ficiently and continuously across the field from the sup- ply ditch the problem is a simple one. At the head of the field is a feeder ditch from which the water is admitted to the furrows between the rows. A canvas dam is placed in the lateral so as to hold the water back and raise it to the proper height in the row fur- row. After the water has run a sufficient length of time thoroughly to wet the adjacent potato rows, place at the proper distance farther doAvn the row, another canvas dam for a check and remove the first one. The head of water in the feeder ditch will determine the number of rows which can be irrigated at the same time. If ridges occur in the field, transverse ditches are run along at their top and irrigating is given both ways from it. When one follows the general rule of getting water on the higher surface first, he can then bring water to the lower levels more easily. It is essential in potato culture that the g t right quantity of Avater be used and that Amount ■■•■ r , ,• ■, of Water '^ "^ uniformly distributed. As soon as possible cultivate after the first irriga- tion ; this lessens evaporation and insures a vigorous uniform root and tuber growth without a serious check. In the second irrigation, when the water seeps 182 American Irrigation Farming through to the non-irrigated row, it indicates the soil is sufficiently wet. For succeeding irrigations give plants sufficient water to keep up vigorous growth, but do not over-irrigate. Arrested irrigation tends to produce knotty, irregu- lar excrescent growths and the very undesirable second growth when irrigation is again renewed. Dur- ing the irrigation period let water delivery follow uni- formly as the plant has need until crop is matured. The amount of water applied will vary with the kind of soil and the character of the season. Proper irrigation will prevent soggy potatoes and enable the farmer to harvest clean potatoes from a dry tuber bed. These potatoes sell well because they are sound keepers and are good shippers. From one to four and a half sec- ond feet have been used on this crop per season. The Colorado Station, on Billings clay loam soil, used 13.76 inches, which, added to the season rainfall, made equivalent to 22^^ rainfall inches per acre for a 300- bushel crop of potatoes. The Office of Irrigation Investigations Finding ^f ^^g y g. Department of Agriculture Water '^ determining the duty of water on dif- ferent potato soils throughout the West. It is a demonstrated fact that the adoption of thorough tillage as practiced on the non-irrigated lands, cuts down the amount of water required on all potato soils for a normal crop. One essential thing the potato farmer must do — " dry ofif " the potatoes so they will have time to ripen fully before freezing weather. This must be deter- Potato Culture under Irrigation 183 mined by experience with his particular soil and cli- matic environment. He should give fully thirty days, and more is better still. When and How to Dig HARVESTING THE CROP. Potatoes should be sufficiently ma- tured for the skin to be firm and the potato to give the results as a baker and a boiler, which a ripened and properly matured tuber will show, before harvesting is begun. Most of our Western farmers use potato diggers in harvesting the crop. These machines plow out, and carriers separate the tubers from the soil, leaving them in rows on top of the ground. The digger usu- ally requires four horses to operate it. A sorter hav- ing screens somewhat like grain riddles should be used in the field, to separate remaining dirt and small potatoes from the commercial grade. Here is the time and place most advan- th C OD tageously to grade or size the potato. Generally the digging comes at a time when the farmer places little and big potatoes into sacks and hurries them from the field to car " on track " or to the storage cellar. As irrigated fruit at harvest time is carefully graded, so should potatoes be likewise treated. This saves an additional handling of the crop and they are prepared for either market or storage as the farmer may decide is wise. The culls can be utilized for feed or sold to starch factories if the farm be in the vicinity of such a plant. Some of the larger potato districts have a system of 184 American Irrigation Fannin p; rigid potato inspection and have registered trademarks to guard their well-earned reputation for quality. Farmers who do produce a good quality potato should get district adoption of that type and a striving after excellence of quality of that particular potato which markets best or organize an association for en- couragement of better harvesting methods, larger market to meet all demands, and correspondingly increasingly better harvest returns. COST OF GROWING THE CROP. The cost of growing potatoes under irrigation varies with character of soil, season variations and price of. labor. J. F. McCrery, Secretary of the Weld About Cost County, Colorado, Commercial Clubs, has prepared a cost table from a personal survey of the Greeley potato district, where upwards of 30,000 acres are, each year, being grown under irri- gation. This is one of the oldest potato districts of the West and potato growing is well-nigh reduced to a science. The writer believes this will represent fairly well the cost of growing potatoes over a large portion of the irrigated West. COST PER ACRE OF GROWING POTATOES 1. Plowing the land $ 2.50 2. Harrowing and leveling i.oo 3. Seed potatoes 5.00 4. Planting 1.50 5. Cultivating 2.50 6. Irrigating (distributing over field three times) 1.50 7. Digging 7.50 o u U C O (J 3 u H M C 38,640 Pounds of Potatoes Per Acre, Snyder Farm, Twin Falls, Idaho Courtesy U. S. K, S. Diversion Dam Near Boise, Idaho [ Page 315 Potato Culture under Irrigation 185 8. Sacks $7-50 9. Marketing 6.00 Total $35.00 Add to this $3.50 per acre for grading and inspec- tion in the field, and we have a sum total of $38.50 for growing a good quality potato one year with another, under irrigation. The highest yield reported from the ord Yields West is from Central Washington, on dark silt loam soil — a little over 900 bushels per acre. This crop received but one irriga- tion when the potatoes were well set. A potato farmer in the Idaho Falls, Idaho, district grew 38,600 pounds of Idaho Rurals upon a measured acre in 191 1. Another farmer in the Twin Falls dis- trict in 19 10 captured the $500 prize offered by D. E. Burley of the Oregon Short Line for the best yield of good quality potatoes grown on the line from Salt Lake to Huntington. His record was made with Dalmeny Challenge and amounted to 38,700 pounds (645 bush- els) of potatoes per acre. These show possibilities in potato farming " under the ditch." The Carbondale district growing 3,000 acres of potatoes is producing better than 300 bushels per acre. One potato farm within this district growing 200 acres of potatoes aver- ages better than 400 bushels for the entire farm. STORAGE FOR POTATOES. Experience teaches that potatoes keep best when stored in a cool, dry place. A potato cellar well set 186 American Irrigation Farming in the ground with a roof above ground, built of well- supported poles, covered with brush, tato Cellar ' ^t''^"^^' ^"^ earth, can be held at a reason- ably uniform low temperature. With ventilations in the roof, by opening in the cool of the morning and closing later in the forenoon, through the late fall, the temperature can be held around forty degrees Fahrenheit. Through proper ventilator regu- lation the temperature can be maintained between thirty-six and forty degrees through the winter. The best potato cellars have a double set of large double doors at either end so loaded wagons can be driven right in, unloaded and sent out through the opposite door. The writer gives below the dimensions of the best potato cellar which he has seen, all home-made: Length 148 ft. (inside meas.) Width 44 " (16 ft. bins on either side of a 12 ft. driveway.) Capacity 20,000 bushels. SEVEN POTATO RULES FOR SUCCESS. I. Careful selection of potato soil. Seven Es- Good underdrainage, a reasonably porous be Sought ^'-''^ ^'^^ sufficient sand or gravel to pre- vent packing, baking, or adobe formation, is much to be desired. A sandy loam soil warms up in the spring, enabling its owner to get the early " new potatoes " on the market, which obtain " cream prices." 2. Plenty of air, hence porosity in the soil. Pota- Potato Culture under Irrigation 187 toes must have air, especially after the setting of the tubers during the period of their maturity. 3. Plenty of available plant food. Soils rich in pot- ash with plenty of vegetable mold — humus — are usu- ally well supplied with all the other desirable elements in available form for the growing tubers. 4. A well-fined, firmed, but porous soil has an even- ness of texture which enables it to receive moisture and feed the same to the potato plant, through capil- larity, as its root system shall have need. An earth- mulch at surface prevents too rapid evaporation of this desired moisture, conserving this essential for the growing plant needs. Thus other essential requisites are provided for that encourage a well-developed root system by means of which the growing tuber plant draws its sustenance from soil and air. 5. Deep plowing and thorough stirring of the soil at the proper time, insures soil aeration, so essential in successful potato culture. 6. Careful, systematic seed selection, is all-impor- tant in maintaining quality in potatoes. A seed plot grown crop, will furnish the desirable quality seed for next year's general field crop. A definite system of using hill selected seed pays rich dividends this year, from hill selected seed of last year in increased yield per hill and desirable type sought. Plant for seed the type and character of potato you desire to market. A tuber with but few and shallow eyes, with skin free of fungus diseases which prey upon it, and of the form typical of its particular breed, is the type of potato most to be desired for seed. Unknown gro- 188 American Irrigation Farming eery potatoes, runouts and culls, must or should be discarded for seed if we would hope to improve the crop or obtain satisfactory profits in potato culture. 7. A well-ordered rotation of crops is all-important for potato success. Potatoes should not be grown more than twice in succession on the same ground with- out rotation, to insure freedom from fungus diseases. Place potatoes in the rotation after the legume crop which pays you best to grow upon the farm. SUMMARY. Feeding operations give barnyard Soil Must manure which can be distributed most ad- plenished vantageously upon the alfalfa fields in the fall and winter and disked-in, in the early spring. This is preferable to using it either upon the potato or the grain crop and renews the ground for all crops, while it invigorates the alfalfa upon which it is applied. Our western soil is rich in mineral ele- ments, but needs replenishing in nitrogenous matter. The barnyard compost and the alfalfa work up and replenish the soil, preparing for real profits in the crops of potatoes which are later grown. The irrigated West is the region to which the na- tion must look for the increased amount of this staple crop that shall, in the near future, be needed to feed our increasing population. We, in the West, must, therefore, study how we can best enlarge our acreage, increase our yield and better the quality of this, the most essential food crop of the American nation. CHAPTER IX SMALL GRAIN UNDER IRRIGATION THE small grain crops are food crops for man or beast and are, therefore, usually the first crops to be grown on irrigated lands. They bring quick returns, furnish feed and mature within the period of the greatest water supply. For these reasons wheat, oats, barley, and rye are the new land crops, especially the first two. Some one of these small grain crops fits into every rotation on an irrigated farm. The returns from a wheat or rye crop Kinds of being less than almost any other cash Grain and .... , Returns ^^°P "°^ grown under irrigation, and, since both winter wheat and rye are now being quite successfully grown on the non-irrigated lands, many farmers on the higher-priced irrigated lands question whether they can afford to grow these crops under irrigation. This is a question for the in- dividual farmer to decide for himself, with his own farm environment. The type of grain grown must vary with the locality, market conditions, and charac- ter of farming followed. Barley in the irrigated regions of the West is fast becoming the corn of the farm. For years California has grown it for both grain and forage feed for horses, 189 190 American Irrigation Farming sheep and hogs. When the grain is rolled or flaked, it is readily digested and it has as great a nutriment or feed value as corn. While corn can be grown under irriga- E ects of ^Jqjj jj^ some parts of the irrigated West, Irrigation . .^ , , . , . and Altitude ^^ many regions the altitude is too great for the best results with corn, since the cool nights of these regions are not favorable to its best growth. Using the best types of feed barley, un- der good farming and careful irrigation, yields of eighty to one hundred bushels per acre are frequently obtained. Choice brewing barleys can be grown under irrigation, since they are seldom weather-stained, and therefore give a desirable uniform malt. The oat crop is an important grain crop to the irri- gation farmer. Experience shows that a high yielding type of white oats brings the best market price and gives a meaty, fine-quality grain for either milling or feeding. The higher the altitude, the heavier weight oat is grown, provided the season is long enough to mature it. The writer has known oats weighing fifty pounds to be grown at 8,000 feet elevation under irri- gation. These oats tested seventy-six per cent, meat to hull. That is, for every hundred pounds of grain there were seventy-six pounds of naked kernels of high feeding value. Each locality has its local environment Results which determines the type of wheat for With Wheat , •,-.-•. and Rye ^"^*- section, be it spring or winter grown. Experiment stations report the most de- sirable results for Turkey Red wherever winter wheat Small Grain under Irrigation 191 is grown under irrigation throughout the West. The spring wheats vary from a chib to a soft berry hke De- fiance, Dickiow, Colorado No. 50, and Bhiestem of the Northwest. Rye is not very generally grown " under the ditch." It is a hardy crop and is our surest and most certain grain crop grown " above the ditch." For this reason it is being dropped from the list of irrigated grains. It yields less per acre than any of the other grains and markets do not so readily handle it as they do the wheat, oats and barley. Emmer (commonly spoken of as speltz), is being grown under irrigation to a certain extent. It is a feeding grain that shows value as such. It is well adapted to the non-irrigated lands and the writer feels its acreage should be on these and not on the irrigated lands. PREPARATION OF SEED BED. It is highly important to prepare a good seed bed for grain, no matter what the method of irrigation. When the season opens dry and windy, When to ^nd the soil has not the proper amount B^fore^ of moisture, the writer urges a thorough Plowing irrigation before plowing, wherever pos- sible. This will make the ground plow much easier and each day's plowing should be put into proper seed bed condition before leaving the field, thus retaining as much of this moisture as possible to keep the ground in condition for quick gennination of seed at time of sowing. The harrow should follow the 192 American Irrigation Farming plow and the farm level or " float " the harrow. This leveling fills all crevices or cracks, checks tendency to dry out quickly, puts the ground into the proper phys- ical condition for good results with the growing crop and prepares the ground for better and more desirable results in crop irrigation, be it by the flood, check or corrugation method. Seed only with a good grain drill. Harrowine '^^^^ P"*-^ ^^^ grain at a uniform depth in the seed bed and one can regulate the depth so the seed grain can be put into moist earth. If one does not use press wheels on the drill, he should follow the drilling, with a good cross harrowing. When seed is well up and firmly rooted, either roll the grain with a corrugated roller or give a good cross har- rowing with a spike-toothed harrow. Better still, one should do both. This gives a good soil mulch, check- ing evaporation of soil moisture, and cultivates the growing grain. AMOUNT OF SEED TO SOW. To get a good yield one must have a good stand. Good quality seed, put in a properly prepared seed bed, should produce a good stand if a sufficient amount of seed be used. The practice of most successful farmers under ir- rigation shows that from seventy-five to ninety pounds of grain is used for wheat, oats and barley. If winter grain, seventy-five pounds is usually sufficient; if spring grain, seventy-five to eighty pounds for wheat, seventy- five to eighty-five pounds for barley, and seventy-five Small Grain under Irrigation 193 to ninety pounds for oats is commonly used. Use a force feed drill. IRRIGATING THE GRAIN. When to irrigate first is not easily de- Rules for termined. Much depends upon the na- Proper Irrigation ^^^^ ^""^ character of the soil and the prevalence of rain in the early season of plant growth. When normal moisture conditions prevail, the grain has a light green color. When it begins to suffer for water it takes on a dark green color and the lower leaves begin to fire. If the earth taken a few inches below the plant will barely hold together when squeezed in the hand, it indicates that soil moisture is deficient and should be supplemented at once. Stooling grain needs ample moisture and if not present in the soil, it must be supplied. At this season of the year the water is cool and this is an advantage, for cool, moist weather is ideal for the stooling of small grain. When irri- gated by the flood method before the grain covers the ground, this first irrigation tends to form a crust on the surface soil. This crust must be broken. Usu- ally a light harrowing, or running over the field with a corrugated roller, proves beneficial. Winter-sown grain should be corru- When to . , , r • ,• t^ Corrugate gated before sprmg stoolmg. Best re- sults are obtained when the corrugations for irrigation are made in the fall before winter sets in. The spring-seeded grain should be corrugated before it begins to stool. This gives the grain an op- IW Avicrican Irrigation Farming portunity to recover from the severe digging out of the grain plants, which corrugation always renders neces- sary. Drilling the grain so it will enable the farmer to corrugate or flood with the slope of the land is al- ways advisable. For all systems of irrigation perma- nent supply ditches bring the water to the fields, the farmer runs his field ditches as he finds he can most ad- vantageously use the water for field irrigation. For long level stretches of ground Making where water can be carried a considerable Ditches distance and a large head of water effect- ively used, a regular ditching plow is sometimes used. This plow requires eight to ten horses, and both digs and cleans the ditch. This makes a ditch three to four feet wide on top and two and a half to three feet deep. A Wyoming ranch growing many hundred acres of grain has these large field ditches more than a mile long and straight as a gun. The smaller ditches — two to three Use of a £gg^ wide on top and nine to eighteen Crowder inches deep — are made with a double mold board plow and a V or crowder, which smooths the banks and removes the loose soil. This crowder is a V-shaped tool usually homemade, of 2 X i2-inch plank, some six to ten or even twelve feet long, steel shod and joined in a V-shaped edge. One side is usually hinged so this V can be changed to fit the size of the ditch. Usually twice through the ditch with the crowder puts it in serviceable condition. These are the field ditches from which the irrigator Small Grain under Irrigation 195 takes his water for field distribution. If the grade be so steep it cuts out the bottom of the Use of ditch, checks and drops must be put in C!hcclcs and Level *° prevent this cutting. It is money saved to take no chances in first running these ditches. The inexperienced man cannot trust to the eye in running off field ditches. After a few years' experience cultivating and irrigating the fields, the farmer may trust to the eye with safety, but it takes experience and, until one has accjuired it, he had better depend upon a farm level, which can be procured at an expense not exceeding $15 to $20, and which will show him where to run his ditches to distribute the water most economically and uniformly over the grain field. WASTE WATER DITCHES. It is important that, on the lower side Importance ^f ^j^g ^^^jj^ ^ waste water ditch be pro- Ditch vided to take care of the surplus or waste water. One of the very finest irrigated regions of the West opened prosperously and all went well until the farmers on the higher levels began irri- gating their fields and permitting their waste water to " run wild " and course down on the lower levels. In a few years this rendered thousands of acres of these lower level lands non-productive, and forced the farmers on these lower lands to drain them at an ex- pense of $25 per acre and up. Thousands of other- wise fertile acres of land have been seeped or water- logged — water table brought to surface of land — through carelessness in this regard. Waste water is 196 American Irrigation Farming also valuable and can be used over and over again do- ing duty on many farms. For these reasons each farmer should see that the waste water ditch at the lower edge of each field irrigated, returns this " run off " water to the lower supply ditch, saving farm land lower down from danger of seepage and at the same time increasing the duty of the water used. USE OF THE CANVAS DAM. The canvas dam is more serviceable How to ii^ getting water from the field ditches Canvas ^°^ irrigation than earth dams. These Dam can be placed in the ditch with the canvas upstream and weighted down with a few shovelfuls of earth temporarily to check the water in the field ditch, making a head for the irrigator to use in distribution over a given area. If by corrugation the water is fed out of the field lateral to the corruga- tions by check boxes, it is the corrugator's concern to see that each check box is working full capacity for its respective corrugation furrow. If by flood method he must distribute out over the area to give a uniform wetting to ground and grain, a good irrigator can tend to two or three field ditches or laterals at the same time, using from one to three second-feet of wa- ter as a head. He should have all the water he can well use, for the successful irrigation of grain depends, largely, upon a good head and quick, effective distri- bution of that water. Employ no novice to irrigate your grain for the first irrigation. Then, if ever, you need thorough, Small Grain under Irrigation 197 careful, efficient work. Unless a good supply reser- voir is provided for the farm, it were First Im- better to have continuous irrigation from gation Im- ^ . , , ^y i • • portant ^^^^^ ^° finish on the gram. JMight irri- gation can seldom be as efficient as day irrigation, but when one has the water he feels he cannot afford to lose the night's run and, unless he has storage for it, he will continue to distribute same over the grain until it is all irrigated. To handle this water effectively, the irrigator supplies himself with several canvas dams so he can keep wa- ter moving out over the field. He will irrigate eight to twenty and even twenty-five acres per twenty-four hours, varying with method of irrigation used. The border method uses fewer field ditches than either corrugation or flooding. VARY IRRIGATION WITH GROWING HABIT OF GRAIN. Our methods of cultivation and irrigation should maintain maximum growth from seed time to har- vest for best results. To do this we must observe the growing habit of grain. Our Experiment Stations have deter- Different mined that the grain plant procures from Growth the soil during its early growth the lar- ger portion of its total weight. In its later growth the seed is being formed largely from material stored in the stalk. Between this early and later growth the grain plant is in an intermediate growth, during which time it is elaborating the mate- rial for building up or developing the seed. Upon the 198 American Irrigation Farming early growth depends the future of the plant. There- fore we must not let a lack of moisture occur here. In the later stage, lack of moisture prevents the plant using the elaborated material provided for grain in the panicle or head. Hence shrunken or undeveloped grain is the result. Therefore we see that a greater amount of moisture is required for the early and later stages of growth than in the intermediate stage. If the first irrigation be given at stool- Relation of -^ time, the second will probably be Irrigation . , , , ..... Periods required when the gram is in the boot — first indication of heading. If the first irrigation be given when the grain is in the boot, the second will usually come when the head is fully out or perhaps the grain be in flower. If the soil retains water well, this will carry the grain through to maturity unless excessive hot, dry weather ensue. If another irrigation be found necessary, be sure to give it before the grain goes out of the milk stage, as the heads weigh down heavily and a very strong wind is likely to lodge the grain. Water softens the soil and the stalk, at or near the surface, as well. Just a moderate wind at this stage is liable to bend the grain over which then becomes top heavy. This is especially true of barley which almost invariably has a weak straw for its weight of grain. The same is true of many of the spring wheats and the heavier )Melding oats. The cooler the climate the less the evaporation and hence the fewer irrigations recjuired. The hotter and Lateral Checks Used in a Field With Considerable Fall [Page los ^^J|^i^tv| i*i fv '-V'^>' '<-i(sMi^^. Dairy Herd on an Irrigated Farm [ Page 304 Small Grain under Irrigation 199 drier the climate, the greater the evaporation and, therefore, the more frequent must be the applications of water. Two or even one irrigation in the Central West and Northwest may make a grain crop, where the same grain may require two to three times as many irrigations in the more torrid Southwest. QUANTITY OF WATER REQUIRED. The heaviest irrigation should be given when the elaborating of the seed draws heavily on plant food. Then, there must be ample moisture to convey nour- ishment to the rapidly developing seed. The first irrigation will usually soak What Affects yp ^.j^g ground pretty thoroughly so suc- of Water ceeding irrigations will not need so much water. If new ground, it will require from six to ten acre inches of water for this first irri- gation. The duty of water for a grain crop varies from a second foot for forty acres to a second foot for i6o acres. This is due to the difiference in soil and climate, tillage methods, and the individual grain farmer. W. W. McLaughlin reports the results of careful observation and investigations made in the Bear river valley, Utah, in Farmer's Bulletin No. 399. He found that for the first few years of irrigation a second foot of water was used on sixty to eighty acres. After this land had been irrigated for seventeen to twenty years a second foot of water averaged for all crops 116 acres and for grain crops 163 acres. The office of Irrigation Investigations of the U. S. 200 American Irrigation Farming Department of Agriculture, at a number of irrigated stations in the West, is determining the duty of water on all irrigated crops. At the Gooding station, cooperating Determining ^j^j^ ^^e state of Idaho, some most in- Amount of . . . . . . , Water terestmg work in gram irrigation has been done. The purpose was to give careful and thorough tillage to one plot of grain, but no irrigation; and on same character of soil and same sized plot have grain to which should be given vary- ing amounts of water until an amount should be reached so far in excess of the plants' needs that a de- terioration in quality and a reduction in yield should be obtained. The harvest result showed an in- Too Much creased yield with each application of Water an Injury water from one-half to two and one-half feet and a clearly lessened yield from the latter amount to four and one-sixth feet, fifty inches, the highest amount used. The yield from the plot re- ceiving this highest amount of water was less than from the plot which had no irrigation and the quality of straw and grain was inferior to that from the non- irrigated plot. This demonstrates that too much irrigation of grain is injurious, lessening the harvest returns, while it in- creases the cost of growing the crop. A better tilth of soil increases the duty of water, and results in a better quality grain. Thorough tillage pays in grain farming " under the ditch " fully as well as it does in grain farming above the ditch. We must apply the Small Grain under Irrigation 201 principle of thorough tillage to grain farming, if we would approximate the maximum duty of water on grain. HARVESTING THE CROP. The harvesting of the grain is an operation fa- miliar to all farmers. Irrigated grain can be har- vested with least loss from shattering when the kernel is in the medium dough stage if harvested with a binder. Where combined harvesters are used the grain can be taken care of at the convenience of the farmer. There is one thing that should here be ^°^J °* emphasized — leaving grain in the field in Field where binders are used. This threshing from the shock has caused most serious trouble in sprouting grain, makes threshing a more ex- pensive operation than it need be and forces it upon the grower when other farm work may be most seri- ously needing attention. Stacking the grain leaves the field Advantages j. j. ,.,,,. of Stacking ^^^^ *°'' ^^''v i^'l plowmg, puts the Straw where the farmer can better use it for the feedyard, and permits him to choose his own time for the threshing operation, besides giving him always a more desirable quality grain when threshed. Let every precaution be used to secure good quality grain in the harvested crop. Where neither the Little Idaho or the California combines are used which cut, thresh, and sack the grain in one operation, let it be repeated, stack the 202 American Irrigation Farming shocked grain after the binder as soon as other farm work will permit. Unfortunately, we have few reliable statistics for irrigated grain regions apart from the non-irri- gated districts. The author estimates the following Oat Yields S^'^^^ yields of well-known irrigated grain sections as averages for five year cycles : Wheat, forty bushels per acre. Individual records are known of sixty to eighty bushel yields; careful seed selection, good tillage, and irrigation should give fifty bushel averages. Oats, sixty busliels per acre. Individual records show lOO or more bushels per acre of forty to fifty pounds oats of commercial grade. The atithor knows of a girl farmer who grew 4,500 pounds of oats on a measured acre at 8,000 feet elevation in the very heart of the Rockies. She used two irrigations on her BARLEY SIXTY BUSHELS PER ACRE. Individual records show 100, 125, and YMd'' ^3° bushels of feed barley per acre. Some barley districts can maintain seventy-five and eighty bushel averages. Where careful farming is done this should be obtained on all irrigated lands. The highest yields of grain reported anywhere in America are from those regions of the irrigated West where careful farming and systematic crop rotation methods are followed. Small Grain wider Irrigation 203 COST OF GROWING THE CROP. W. W. McLaughlin has given in Farmers' Bulletin No. 399, previously referred to, a tabulated statement of cost of growing irrigated wheat that is more com- plete than any investigation known to the author. It is based upon a yield of forty bushels per acre, a price of seventy-five cents per bushel and a land valuation of $ioo per acre for land and water right. The tables give the cost per acre : Culture. Plowing $ 2.00 Harrowing and leveling 90 Seed 1. 10 Seeding 50 Ditching 15 Irrigating 1.25 $ 5-90 Harvesting. Cutting with binder $ i.oo Twine for binding 50 Shocking 40 Hauling 1.25 Threshing 2,50 $5-65 Marketing — Hauling to local market or to cars. Interest and taxes. Water tax $ .50 Tax on land 30 Int. on farm equipment 25 Int. on $iao @ 87o 8.00 $ 9-05 Total $21.35 Gross returns, 40 bu. @ 7sc 30.40 Net gain 905 204 American Irrigation Farming This shows the items requiring a cash nue Cron ' Outlay to be but $5.00 per acre. Hence the farmer can grow this crop with but little capital, on new land or on a general crop farm. It is not a crop for revenue on high priced lands, or on small farms, nor for intensive farming. SUMMARY. Grain in the irrigated West fits into the alfalfa, field pea or other legume rotation. Many crops of grain in succession will reduce the yield as well as impair the quality of the grain grown. The quality of the grain is maintained at a high standard of excellence through careful seed selection, good tillage methods, and consistent, persistent use of the fanning mill. As we study the duty of water in grain culture, we shall be able to produce more and better grain with less water and thereby increase the acreage which can be sown with a given amount of water to irrigate it. Then we shall come nearer supplying present demand of grain for western consumption. This is the conservation of water which brings dol- lars to the farmer and wealth to the land. The duty of water can be increased fifty if not one hundred per cent, to the advantage of the grain, and with no det- riment to the land. CHAPTER X SUGAR BEET CULTURE SUGAR beets have become an important crop in the West. The first state to grow this crop under irrigation was California. Today, over sixty per cent, of the sugar beet acreage in the coun- try is under irrigation in the West. Each irrigated state contributes its quota. PREPARATION OF THE LAND FOR THE CROP. First of all, the area selected for the L r I ^'^'"'P should be one in which the surface of the land is fairly even and has a uni- form slope. If the surface be uneven so that a Fresno must be used to cut down places and fill up hollows, it makes a spotted field, since portions where soil is removed from surface will be lacking in fer- tility, showing an impoverished growth in the later crop. This leveling of the surface is necessary for proper and uniform distribution of irrigation water over the field. Where any considerable amount of leveling be necessary it is wise to do this work in the fall, before plowing, giving a good application of well- rotted barnyard compost to the cut-ofif areas, after leveling the lands. Then, the rainy season in Cali- fornia, and the winter snows in the other sugar beet 205 206 American Irrigation Farming regions, render this compost available to the next sea- son's crop, making the crop growth more nearly uniform over the entire field. A well-leveled field eliminates the probability of either drowning out or scalding of beet plants in the irregular depressions, found in an uneven field surface. SOILS ADAPTED TO THE CROP. Sugar beets require intensive cultiva- A Study |.JQj^ fQj. successful harvest returns. ous Soils "^'^^^ ^^°P '-^^ ^^ grown on a great variety of soils. The heavier soils — heavy clay, adobe or gumbo — are more difficult to work up to the proper seed bed condition, but they contain a greater amount of available plant food than the lighter soils, and produce, correspondingly, a heavier crop and are stronger beet soils. The lighter soils — sandy loam and silt soils — are more easily worked into proper tilth and are not so likely to form a crust after rains, or after irrigation, as are the heavier soils. We can say that beets are being successfully grown on soils shading from very sandy loam, to quite heavy clay, as in parts of Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and California. It has been demonstrated that the beet crop can be grown on lands which have an ap- preciable amount of alkali provided it be not crusted at the surface, like a caustic to eat ofif the plants in the early or tender stage of their growth. Black alkali lands should not be used, as the carbonate salts (black alkali) are more injurious than the sulphate salts Sugar Beet Culture 207 (white alkali). When well tilled, beets will thrive in soils impregnated with alkali better than any other field crop commonly grown " under the ditch." When the soil is crusted with white alkali it is an in- dication that there is too much alkali in the soil for even sugar beets. Even could the crop be grown, the purity of the juice would be below the standard re- quired by the sugar factories, making the crop unde- sirable for sugar purposes. Where the hard pan formation is Some Bad within sixteen to twenty inches of the Good Soils surface, such soils are not good sugar beet soils since they interfere with the root growth and also are apt to lose moisture too read- ily. Beets are naturally deep-rooted plants and do best in deep, well-tilled soils. Low lying, wet lands are also to be avoided since such wet soils do not per- mit of proper aeration and tillage, are cold soils fre- quently, and therefore do not show the gjjjjg proper growth and give a desirable sugar content. The lava ash soils, many feet deep found in the Snake river basin, are ideal beet soils, as are also any loam soils with a good percentage of clay and sufficient sand to warm up early in the season and enough silt to give resilience to the soil. „. , , „ Field superintendents, in all our sugar Field Super- , , t ,. . ., , . intendents "^^* growmg districts, are provided by sugar factory plants to aid farmers in proper field selection and crop tillage of this sugar- producing crop. The farmer will receive valuable assistance from the field superintendent from choice 208 American Irrigation Farming of best field for the crop to the harvesting at the close of the season. PREPARATION OF SEED BED. Thorough and deep plowing is es- Fall Plow- sential for a good beet crop. Fall plow- Deep ^^S is generally preferable to spring plowing since it allows the surface the desirable weathering effects of winter frost and snows. Several districts plow ten to twelve inches deep with deep tillage tools — engine plows or Spalding deep tillage machines — while other regions plow eight to nine or ten inches and subsoil several inches below that depth. All sections have found that deep plow- ing is most beneficial for this crop. The use of the two way plow eliminates the frequent recurrence of a dead furrow, so objectionable in an irrigated field. F. W. Roeding in Farmers' Bulletin No. 392, Irri- gation of Sugar Beets — gives the following advice for treatment of fall plowed land : This plowing should he left without cultivation so that the soil may be well aerated and be able to catch and retain snow or rain without drifting or run-off. On land which is checked the direction of the plowing is not essential, except as it affects per- manent ditches, but either dead furrows or back-furrows would interfere with the even surface of the basins, and the former would cause cuts in the levees. When fields have been winter irrigated in California they must be thoroughly cultivated after watering so as to retain the moisture applied. If the ground in the spring is too dry to Irrigate *° respond to tillage — through insuffi- cient winter moisture — irrigate early. Sugar Beet Culture 209 A good double disking, followed by such preparation for irrigation as the system followed will demand, prepares the way for water distribution over the field. It is not often that irrigation will be required before seeding the crop, but where it is, let it always precede seed bed preparations, for it enables one to make a much better, finer and more moist bed for desirable seed germination. Use such tillage tools as, in your estimation, will produce the most uniform, fine loam, moist seed bed. The quality of the soil and clod- diness of the ground, must determine the type of disk harrow, smoothing harrow, float and roller to be used. One needs to remember that the beet The Beet plant is a tender one at first, and too a Tender ^ , , • , . Plant much care cannot be exercised m pre- paring the ground for its initial growth. Thorough disking, harrowing and floating are the suc- cessive steps usually followed. The author suggests that the grower follow the float or clod crusher with a corrugated roller to firm the bed and fine the sub- surface soil. Follow this, in turn, with a very light harrowing crosswise to the direction it is proposed to seed. The harrowing checks surface evaporation of soil moisture which is required for uniform and suc- cessful germination of the sown seed. A good seed bed is an important es- Essential sential for sugar beet success. SEEDING THE CROP. The time of seeding must necessarily vary with the season and the climate. 210 American Irrigation Fanning Probably no state has such a range Seedine °^ variation as California. Mr. Roed- ing, in the Farmers' Bulletin No. 392, previously referred to, reports the seeding season in California as extending from the last of October to the forepart of May. In Oregon, seeding begins early in March, as season conditions may indicate. Late March and early April seeding is practiced in Arizona and New Mexico. The rest of the Western sugar beet districts seed from the middle of April to the middle of May, as soil and season conditions may prove most favorable for beet seed gennination. A warm as well as a moist seed bed, hastens germi- nation. Therefore do not seed until good growing weather prevails in the spring. The seeder used is a force feed drill Seeding and niade especially for beet seeding. It Working gjjjj usually is of the shoe type and seeds four rows at a time, eighteen to twenty-one inches apart. One should, use press wheels to firm the soil in the seeded row. If the open wheel is used it will press the dirt down over the seed but leave it loose directly above, so there may be no tendency for the formation of a crust to interfere with the sprout reaching the surface. If a rain or a necessary irri- gation should crust this ground before the beet sprouts have come through the ground, run a corrugated roller over the ground to break or loosen this crust crosswise to the planted row. If the soil be a heavy loam, the roller may tend to pack the soil too much, and, in this type of soil, use a spiked tooth harrow Sugar Beet Culture 211 with teeth set so as to break the crust without much more than " brushing " the field. On any but an adobe or gumbo soil the corrugated roller is the best tool to use for breaking the crust. The depth to plant must depend upon the depth to moist earth. Shal- low planting on heavy soils is preferable, so sprouts may get to surface soon as possible to anticipate a rain crust. Crusting in heavy soils is a serious menace to a good stand. One should gauge the depth from one to one and one-fourth inches in these soils, depending on depth to moisture in surface soil. One may plant deeper on the lighter loam soils where there is little danger from crusting. In these soils try to put the seed in moist earth, even if it places seed more than two inches below the surface. The capacity of the drill or beet seeder Seed on In- depends on seed bed preparation, the stallment , , , . t ■■,, , r pja^ team and the driver, it will be found that most seeders can plant from six to ten acres a day. Right here a caution : If a farmer planting thirty or more acres of beets will begin seed- ing as early as the season will permit, he can seed ten acres at a time and allow several days to elapse before the next seeding. In this way his beets will reach the thinning stage at different periods, varying with the time of seeding, so his whole acreage will not reach this stage at the same time. Thinning at the proper time is very important, and one should seed on the installment plan so this may be accomplished. Since furrow irrigation is practiced in many beet districts, the straightness of the seeded row is a very 212 American Irrigation Farming great help to later irrigation as well as making direc- tion of rows conform to the slope of the Amount land. The quantity of the seed used per Required ^'^^^ varies with the character of soil, crop enemies, and the farmer. In lighter soils, with little danger from crusting, eight to fifteen pounds of seed per acre can be used ; in the heavier soils twelve to twenty pounds per acre is used. Could the seed be placed in the row at proper dis- tances apart by seeding machinery, not more than one to two pounds per acre would be required. No ma- chine has yet been devised which has proven satis- factory in field test runs for such planting. A good stand is very important; therefore, use plenty of seed to insure it. BLOCKING AND THINNING. When large areas are seeded at the same time, farm- ers usually have to begin blocking and thinning beets when plants are pretty small, that they may thus be sure of getting through before the last ones are too large. The beet plants should reach the four Blocking jg^£ stage, before thinning begins, nine Out Blocking precedes thinning. A good sized hoe is used for blocking, cutting out plants so as to leave bunches from seven to twelve inches apart. Experts can make the proper width de- sired at one stroke with special blocking hoes. Thin- ners follow the blocker, who by hand remove all but one sturdy plant in each remaining bunch. Since Sugar Beet Culture 213 this work is contract work usually and pay is regu- lated by the acre, especial care is the exception rather than the rule. The dirt should be pressed around the one remaining beet that the sole survivor may not be too seriously disturbed by the thinning process. If two beets are left at a place each one interferes with the other, producing two under-sized and undesirable beets at harvest time. The extra beet should be re- moved at the very first hoeing which succeeds thinning. If the space between beets be too great the beet plant may grow too large for best sugar purposes. Factories have demonstrated that a higher percentage of purity and sugar content is contained in one to three pound beets than is found in beets weighing five or more pounds. Since many beet farmers are now paid by the per cent, and most factories reserve the right to reject any and all beets weighing more than five pounds, it is to his own interest for each farmer to thin to not more than ten and perhaps, in rich soils, not over eight inches in the row. CULTIVATION OF THE GROWING CEOP. As soon as rows can well be followed Cultivation '^^ cultivation begin. The author be- lieves that a good cross cultivation with a corrugated roller is most beneficial at this time, fol- lowed by row cultivation as soon as possible. For the latter any of the modern four rowed cultivators are good. Use such shovel devices as surface soil would seem to demand from the " spider " to the weeding knife. The former is a series of radiating rods with 214 American Irrigation Farming pricking points set in a revolving spindle. A spider runs on either side of each row, breaking up any crust close to the tender plants without further disturbance of the top soil. If weeds are starting use such shovels as shall catch them without too serious disturbance of beet plants in the row. Usually, to prevent the dirt being thrown upon the row, shields are used. Run shovels quite shallow in this first cultivation. Follow the thinning with a careful cultivation which shall loosen the top soil between rows and run as close to the row as it be wise to set the shovels. Follow this cultivation with a careful Hoeines hoeing to loosen dirt around plants if crusted, to firm dirt where it be left too loose around thinned plants in the row, and to remove all " double " beets left by the thinning process. Fol- low the hoeing with a pretty thorough stirring of the ground with the deer or bull tongue shovels on the cultivator. Keep weeds down and soil mellow and well loosened at surface in the early growing stages to prevent stunting of the plants and to en- courage invigorated growth. Let each cultivation be deeper than the preceding one, increasing with the plant growth. Just before the beet leaves cover the ground, and in advance of the last cultivation, give one more hoeing to cut down any large weeds which may have come up within the rows since last hoeing. Let this last cultivation be the deepest and most thorough one given for the season. It will greatly help to make the following irrigations more effective. Sugar Beet Culture 215 IRRIGATING THE CROP. While check and border irrigation can be and is now used for beet fields in California, furrow irri- gation is more generally used in the larger portion of the sugar beet zone of the West. The checks can best be handled when Prepanng rectangular in form and not larger than Fields for ^ . ,,,..„. Irrigation ^" ^^''^ "^ area, one-half is still better. As when used with other crops, checks nearest the head of the ditch are filled first. Levees are seeded with the rest of the field, but these beets cannot have the moisture the rest of field receives, hence are usually smaller. Care must be exercised in irrigating so that plants are neither drowned out nor scalded. In furrowing out a beet field for irrigation, a fur- rowing sled, a corrugator or furrowing shovels on a beet cultivator, can be used. The furrowing sled is homemade. Any tool which makes good, clean, smooth channels to carry water between the beet rows, with which one can furrow from five to ten acres per day, is desirable. The less the expense and the more efficient the tool, the greater the economy in time, water, and money. By supplying field laterals and head Care in ditches as contour of the field shall indi- Furrow . , ,. Irrigation ^'^*^' ^"^ water can be quite evenly dis- tributed through the furrows provided for row irrigation. In Southern Idaho and Colorado the water is distributed from the ditch to the pre- 216 American Irrigation Farming pared furrows through small lath tubes thrust through the lower bank of the ditch. These are usually thirty inches to three feet in length, long enough to protrude a little at either side of the bank and have an inch square opening. It is a mistake to attempt the irriga- tion of rows the entire length of a long field, even if slope of the land will permit it. On flat or level sur- faces 200 to 300 feet should be the distance between cross ditches, and on sloping ground no run should be to exceed 500 feet. A waste ditch at lower end of field saves an excess of water at that end on the beets and returns the water to economical use. The allow- ing of water to " run away " in the irrigating season, spoiling roads, injuring other crops in other fields and soaking up lower ends of the fields irrigated, to the great detriment of the growing crop, is little short of a criminal waste of water. While the use of lath, tin, or iron pipe tubes in furrow irrigation is more expensive to install, it enables one more easily to reg- ulate the distribution of the water and to irrigate a larger area in a given time. Less labor is required and greater efficiency results. Night irrigation is made much easier and more effective. The other method of furrow irrigation Cut-out j^ ^^^ ^£ ^^^ ^^^^ jj^ ^gj^ lateral banks Irngation . . for as many rows as irrigator can take care of, or as his head of water will supply, using canvas dams to hold water in the lateral below the cut out. The one caution which must be observed is to give a thorough uniform wetting to the whole field. Thoroughly moisten the high spots and at the same Sugar Beet Culture 217 time do not drown out beets in the low spots if such there be in the field. Do not irrigate too soon. Early irrigation encourages top growth but dwarfs root growth, making turnip top or shallow beets. If there be sufficient moisture in the ground for normal, healthy growth, do not irrigate. If the ground be lack- ing in sufficient moisture for good crop growth and the beet leaves, in the morning, appear wilted and calling for water, then irrigate. Follow this irriga- tion, soon as soil has dried sufficiently, with a good cultivation, using the narrow shovels for pulverizing the ground, unless the beet leaves have become so large they will be injured in the process. Follow this cultivation with a furrowing, for subsequent irri- gations, before the beet leaves become so large that fur- rowing would injure plant growth through mangling them. Weather conditions will wholly con- and Soil ^^^^ further irrigations. In hot days the leaves of the beet will be likely to wilt, for the exposed surface will transpire more water on a hot day than the plant, at that immediate moment, can absorb from the soil. When night comes and plant transpiration of moisture lessens, the equilibrium is restored and morning finds the leaves in normal condition, provided the soil has a sufficient amount of moisture for normal plant growth. If leaves look wilted in the morning, instead of fresh and healthy, investigate the soil condition, at once. If too diy, irrigate. The growing beet requires constant atten- tion to maintain healthy, desirable growth. 218 American Irrigation Farming Very porous soils will require more irrigation than close or " tight " soils. Night irrigation, while more difficult effectively to distribute on account of inability to see, on the whole gives even better results than day irrigation. One can then get a better head to work with, for few people like to irrigate at night, hence less water is used, evaporation is at the minimum, there is less danger from sun scald and with the use of fur- row boxes night irrigation of sugar beet fields is not much more difficult than day irrigation. The factory field man will have to Making gjyg helpful suggestions to sugar beet "d^T growers on all cultural practices. He ing Out will advise as to the proper time for the last watering of the beets. Usually there should be a period of thirty to forty days be- fore digging, for the plant to store within itself the proper amount of sugar. It is during this period, that field factory men try out the beets, by samples taken from various parts of the field. When these samples show sugar content of sufficient amount and quality, the order comes for the beet harvest to begin. Experiments conducted by the Office Tube vs. qJ Irrigation Investigations in various Irrrgation parts of the sugar beet region, show that the greater tonnage was obtained with the use of furrow boxes to control flow to furrows than in open cuts. This is attributed to the fact that there was deeper penetration of the water by lath box method, because of the slower flow. Furrows were of equal length — 350 feet — water, supplied in Z2 fa -M !U m CiD CD d Sugar Beet Culture 219 open cuts, passed tliroiigh furrows in one to two turns. It required five to six hours for the water to reach the end of the furrows supplied with the boxes. Yield from furrows supplied with open cuts averaged 13.7 tons per acre; yield from furrows supplied by water through lath boxes fifteen tons per acre. It was also demonstrated that better quality beets and a higher tonnage yield was obtained through irri- gation in every furrow, than where alternate row irri- gation was used. The amount of water used varies so much with the character of the soil, the season, and the farmer that a general rule cannot be given. As a general practice, too much irrigation and too little cultivation is given the sugar beet crop. Over-irrigation lessens the per- centage of sugar and retards the maturity of the crop ; a lack of moisture may reduce the yield. Careful study of the crop and experience teaches one the proper mean between these two conditions. HARVESTING THE CROP. Harvesting is the busiest of all times in the season, when everybody works. Beets are deep rooted and in case there has been but little rain previous to digging time, the ground will be hard and firm. Ordinarily the beet puller is used. Beet Puller 'p|^jg consists of Steel prongs which run Beet Plow °" either side of the row under ground, and lifts out or loosens the beet. It re- quires two, and in firm soil four horses to draw it. If the ground be quite dry and hard, the beet plow is 220 American Irrigation Farming used. This is built something hke a subsoil plow. It requires four horses to pull this plow, which is run at a sufficient depth to leave the beet loose in the sur- face soil. In California, for a number of years a machine has been used which digs the beets on a large scale, cov- ering twenty-five to thirty acres per day. It is worked by a cable with an engine at each end of the field. While a number of pullers and toppers have been invented and used in the fields, a machine that will successfully pull every beet, top and pile them, is still in the experimental stage. One company, owning a number of sugar factories, in 19 1 2 offered $10,000 to the inventor who brought out such a machine and made it a practical success. After the beet puller has done its work 1 ing an ^j^^ toppers follow up, removing beets from the ground. As they gather the beets they hit them together to knock off all clinging dirt possible and then throw them into a pile or wind- row. From six to ten beet rows are thus thrown into piles. These are now topped by use of long, heavy knives which have rounded ends without the usual sharp point. At the point of the lowest leaf, with one blow the topper severs leaf stem from root and throws the topped beet into a cleared space between piles where the beet haulers can readily shovel them into wagons. In portions of the beet regions, where long seasons prevail, as in Southern California, harvesting is carried on, on the installment plan, being prolonged through many weeks. Sugar Beet Culture 221 In the intermountain states, special Keep up precaution is taken to keep topping up Pullers '^^'^'^ ^^^ ^^^^ puller, so that each night all pulled beets are topped and piled with piles covered with beet tops. This prevents possibil- ity of freezing and beet tops check evaporation or withering of beets if left for some days in field before hauling or siloing. Whatever loss in weight occurs here, before being weighed and accepted by the com- pany, is the farmer's loss and he usually looks closely after it. Special wagons are provided with strong racks, ca- pable of cari-ying a load of several tons. Usually no haul is longer than three miles to a beet dump, which is an elevated platform, built for convenience of farmer in unloading his wagon and at the same time loading a waiting beet car. Here the weights are taken and recorded by dump weight master. Farmers say that they find contracting Cooperative j^^j^j j^j^^^ ^ ^j^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^^^^ ■ Working . . , . , for Yields ^^ ^^^ entirely satisfactory. A plan is now being adopted in certain districts like the one followed by a most successful beet grower in the Fort Collins district, Colorado. He contracted with his Russian help, as was the custom there, and then told the foreman of these workmen that it would take fully fifteen tons per acre to make farmer's wages. For every ton per acre which he, by good thinning, hoeing and topping, could make above that, this farmer agreed to pay fifty cents per ton. It gave those hand laborers a personal interest in the crop. 222 American Irrigation Farming Farmer Bay never failed to get his twenty and some- times twenty-two, and even twenty-four tons per acre in his harvest returns. He, as well as they, worked for yields and obtained them. Practically all sugar beet farmers contract for the hand labor work, sugar companies aiding them by bringing in such help as they may require, the farmer himself preparing the seed bed, seeding the crop, cultivating, irrigating, pulling the beets, and hauling to dump or siloing the crop. The contract price for blocking and thinning, hoeing two to three times, topping and piling topped beets, is from $18.00 to $22.00 per acre, the farmer furnish- ing house room or shelter for the families helping in the hand work in beet fields. In the intermountain states factories Siloing \\2i\re: been unable to afford adequate stor- Beets . , , age for beets at harvest tmie, when thou- sands of tons come in to the factory over and above its slicing capacity. They have therefore been forced to ask farmers to pit or silo a certain per- centage of the crop, on the farm, awaiting later orders for delivery. These orders usually come within ninety days from digging. The beets for siloing are piled carefully on ground from which the surface soil is removed sufficiently to give an even, smooth bottom for the pile. Here, the beets after being topped, are carefully ricked up in piles of one to several thousand pounds each. Earth is shoveled on several inches deep, leaving at the top a vent to carry off excess heat from the piled beets below. A few beet tops thrown over this vent, prevent chilling of the beets on a cold night. Siiirar Beef Culture 223 Should extreme weather occur, more dirt is thrown on the silo cover. No straw, beet tops or anything that will decay or rot, should be placed on the beets, experience having shown that this is a bad practice. The sugar factories pay farmers an extra amount for siloing, to cover cost of labor in thus pitting the beets. The yield of beets varies widely from six, eight, and nine tons, to forty tons per acre. This dif- ference is due to seasonal changes, crop pests, good and poor farming, good soil, and poor soil for the crop. While the average yield for most of d Cost ^^^ irrigated states approximates twelve tons per acre, it should not be taken as the basis for making up returns. We shall consider those good sugar beet growers who pay attention to all details connected with growing the crop under irri- gation. These farmers, one year with another, aver- age better than fifteen tons per acre, usuall}' eighteen to twenty tons. Let us consider fifteen tons as the farm acre average. The price paid for sugar beets ranges from $4.50 flat rate basis, to as high as $6.75 per ton, on the percentage of sugar and purity basis. The cost of growing sugar beets in the Fort Col- lins, Colorado, district, as given by one of the largest growers, is as follows : Per acre. Plowing $ 1.7s Seed bed preparation 1.50 Planting 50 Seed, 15 lbs. to 20 lbs., @ isc $2.25 to 3.00 Rolling 25 224 American Irrigation Farming Per acre. Bunching and thinning $7.00 Hoeing two to three times 2.00 Three irrigations, @ 60c 1.80 Topping and piling 7.00 Plowing out or pulling beets 2.50 Siloing 25% crop 1.20 Depreciation, machinery, etc I.oo Hauling not to exceed 3 miles 6.00 Rental of land 10.00 $45.25 to $46.00 Suppose the farm acreage on the individual farm to be thirty acres. The yield being fifteen tons per acre gives us 450 tons. 25% of 450 tons at $5.50 flat rate plus siloing allowance, $618.75. ' 75 % of 450 tons at $5.00 flat rate $1687.50 Total amount paid for beets 2306.25 Total cost growing thirty acres at $46.00. . . . 1380.00 Net profit 926.25 We must also remember that the farmer is paying himself wages for all team operations and good rental for the use of the land besides the above named profit on the crop. Growing sugar beets successfully requires good farm- ing and makes good farmers of everyone who sticks to it until he succeeds. The farmer knows what his crop will bring him before it is grown and his only concern need be to increase the tonnage per acre of the harvested crop, for it is sold before it is planted. While it requires considerable capital to grow the crop, it is one of the few crops upon which bankers Sus:ar Beet Culture 225 will advance money, thereby helping the farmer to finance his crop. ROTATION FOR SUGAR BEETS. Rotation is necessary to maintain any soil to its full producing capacity. Sugar beets draw upon the min- eral foods in the soil quite freely. For this reason, even in our Western soils, rich in mineral constitu- ents, sugar beets should not be planted on the same ground more than three years in succession, with good fertilizing the last two years. One of the best sugar beet farmers „° ^ , . known to the author grows each year Methods in . '^ -' Practice eighty or more acres of beets, and his farm average seldom falls below eighteen and often runs to twenty tons per acre of good cjuality beets. He makes alfalfa work up his ground for beets, puts in potatoes and some other hoed root crop on plowed up alfalfa to prepare the ground in proper physical condition for beets. The alfalfa is fed to lambs on the farm, and the sheep manure, after com- posting for a year, is hauled out in the winter during feeding season and scattered with a manure spreader on the following season's beet ground at the rate of eight to ten loads per acre. This farmer allows his lambs to feed upon his beet tops after the beets are re- moved in the fall. He considers an acre of tops equal to a ton of alfalfa in feed value, and thus he turns his tops into remunerative gain while they prepare his lambs for the feed lot as they come from their grazing ground. 226 American Irrigation Farming During his first irrigation of beets he runs a lime solution over his beet field. This he gets by hauling the spent lime from the factory, obtaining it for the hauling, and distributes to his field head gates. When he turns in the irrigation water this acts as a distributing agent to carry this lime to all parts of the field. Thus he gives the soil its lime at a minimum of cost. Following beets he grows a seed grain crop, then a feed grain crop and seeds down again to alfalfa. This farmer is improving, not impoverishing his farm, and he admits that sugar beets caused him to study out his present farm practice which is here commended to the careful consideration of all who would succeed with this crop. CROP TESTS. This work is too condensed for a discussion of this topic. Bulletins of State Experiment Stations, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture, fully treat of insect enemies and fungus diseases which prey upon this crop. Farmers should obtain these helps. CONCLUSION. Sugar beet farming is intensive farming. It re- quires good soil in practically garden tilth for the best success. No acid soil or soil strongly alkaline can, or should be, used for this crop. The feeding value of sugar beets Experiment Sta- tions have found to be $3.50 to $4.00 per ton. This crop has been grown from sea level to an Sugar Beet Culture 227 altitude of 8,000 feet. San Luis valley, Colorado, with an altitude greater than 7,500 feet, ^^^ has a most successful sugar factory of 600 tons' capacity per day, which farmers of that valley supply with beets for slicing. The high percentage of sunshine Sunshine through the growing season, high per- Sugar centage of mmeral ash in Western soils, and usual absence of rain in latter part of season, makes the growing of a beet with a high sugar content possible even in the higher altitudes of the West, when the season is long enough to ma- ture the crop. The labor problem is the most serious Problem °"^ '" sugar beet culture. Sugar fac- tories render aid in the solution of this problem by bringing in hand laborers who contract for this portion of the work with farmers. These workers, when not busy with the beet crop, are ready for assistance with any other crop on the farm. In this way, other crops can be made remunerative which, for lack of this help, it would not be profitable and therefore not advisable to grow. This crop requires late season irrigation — August and sometimes September in the intermountain states — and some system of storage water should be pro- vided for the crop by irrigation companies. Flood water stored in reservoirs lessens the possibility of crop damage from floods in the rainy season of the year while it assures sugar beet farmers irrigation water when their crop needs it. u^?;k pafflgM^BI '*^B WSM^^SM 1 ^6^^ n ^r^ P M ^s ^HH ? T^B ■ ■p M 9 ; a •^ w o c u c O o o « c o o u S-i CS "3 -o o o CD CO •— ' U O •"I « H 3 H-l Crop Rotations and Their Value 283 mination of the pest, the weed question is solved. Get Station Bulletins. Weed and insect pests as well as fungus diseases are fully discussed in State Station Bulletins which can be had by addressing the director of your State Experiment Station. We will, there- fore, not need to discuss these topics here. SEVEN ROTATION FUNDAMENTALS. We will now consider the fundamentals which will help us in adopting a rotation for our irrigated lands. The value of most of these lands is such we cannot afford to grow cheap forage and grass crops unless, upon these farms, we can convert these cheaper crops into more remunerative meat, dairy, and poultry prod- ucts. 1. All plants tend to exhaust the soil. They ab- stract some one or more food elements to the full amount of availability. 2. All plants do not exhaust the soil in the same way and manner equally. 3. Plants grown constantly or continuously on the same field favor the spread of insect pests and certain plant diseases. 4. Some plants by methods of tillage are favorable to weed growth, while others are not. 5. Plants differ in habits of root growth. 6. All legumes are soil builders and soil renova- tors. 7. Some form of stock raising, combined with crop growing, will furnish manure for making humus and building up the soil. The old English adage, " No 284 American Irrigation Farming grass, no cattle; no cattle, no manure; no manure, no grass," is true everywhere. Special farming, as orchard, berry, truck or garden farming, cannot follow the rotations general farming must practice for success and profit. WHAT GENERAL IRRIGATION FARMING SHOULD IN- CLUDE. General farming under irrigation should include in its rotation : 1. At least one money or cash crop. 2. At least one cultivated crop. 3. At least one legume crop. 4. At least one livestock or feeding crop. 5. These crops should be grouped so as to most eco- nomically distribute farm labor throughout the year. 6. The farmer should arrange his rotation so he shall be able to turn cheap, bulky feeds into milk, poul- try or meat products. 7. We should, through a carefully worked out ro- tation, practice factory methods on the farm, turning ordinary waste products into profits. The meat packer so utilizes the calf, lamb and pig that nothing is now lost but the bleat and the squeal. The adop- tion of a definite crop rotation and the practice of fac- tory methods are tending more and more to stop the leaks that leach away a part of the profits on far too many farms, while it will increase the quantity and, at the same time, improve the quality of the output of every irrigated farm. Each locality and the individual farmer must de- Crop Rotations and Their Value 285 termine the special rotation for the farm. It cannot be done by "rule of thumb," and space Determining ^jjj ^^^ permit more than an enumera- Each Farm . . . . . , Rotation ^"-'^ °^ suggestive facts to guide one in choosing his rotation crop. We would say make the cash or money crop the one your partic- ular soil and market facilities favor. Thus the melon industry has grown up at Rocky Ford because of a favorable soil and climate and transportation facili- ties. The same is true of Grand valley, Colorado, and its fruit ; of Carbondale and Greeley districts with the potato industry; of Riverside and Redlands dis- tricts and the orange industry, in California ; of Rogue river and Hood river valley and the apple industry, as well as of truck farming on the tule lands of the lower Sacramento, and within the region of commercial cen- ters over the West. Next to the cash crop chosen should be the selection of the hoed crop. Choose the one that enables you to keep down weeds, stirs and aerates the ground ; one that can make good market returns for the farm at the end of the season either as a feed or a market crop. We need to choose the legume crop Enduring ^yj^-jj great care. Experiment Stations of Legume *^^^ "^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^'-'^ effects of legumes Crops upon both the soil and the succeeding crops can, in some instances, be seen for ten and even fifteen years afterwards. Alfalfa, red clover, alsike or forage peas should find a place in ev- ery rotation in a general-crop farm. Choose the one 286 American Irrigation Fanning legume which you can most advantageously use and make it the basis of your rotation. Last, but not least, in importance, is choosing the livestock feeding crop. Every farm uses, or should use, barnyard compost. We must have a feed crop which will form a basis for its production. In this way, the farm rotation turns bulky feeds into more condensed and far more profitable market products. Fruit farmers find livestock, of some kind, indispen- sable. CONCRETE ILLUSTRATIONS OF WORKED OUT ROTATIONS. In a Rocky mountain valley is a farmer who has worked out the rotation that suits his environment and his pocketbook. It is alfalfa, potatoes, sugar beets. Object Les- ■wheat or oats. Potatoes he uses in or- Rotation ^^^ ^^ S^^ freshly broken alfalfa sod in proper tillage conditions for sugar beets, as well as to insure clean ground, free from fungus diseases for his potato crop. Beets are a cash crop and the tops furnish good fall feed for the lambs he brings in every fall to eat up his alfalfa crop. The sugar beet ground receives the manure of the preced- ing winter's feed-lot, after a summer's composting, in the fall and winter, preceding the plowing of the sugar beet field. The late irrigation, or the winter's snow, renders this effective, first season. This fonner has not a definite period when he grows alfalfa; but when his alfalfa for the season falls below three and a half tons per acre — three cuttings are obtained — Crop Rotations and Their Vahie 287 he plows it up for a succeeding crop. This fanner, on a rented farm, works with head as well as hand, and his rotation, by wise farm management, in seven years brought him from $2,000.00 in debt to $20,- 000.00 in bank. An orchard farmer in the West has Inter-Til- practiced growing the first year after tton in°an' planting his orchard either a forage crop Orchard or a crop of sweet corn or field corn be- tween his rows of trees. This, he says, prevents the possibility of the sun blistering the young and rapidly growing trees and, at the same time, in- sures giving the soil aeration. The second year he grows cantaloupes, for his soil and climate are favor- able to this crop. The third year he grows potatoes or some truck crops, as onions, cabbages, etc. This he follows by some cover crop which he later plows under, for a green manure crop to put additional hu- mus in the soil for the later crop of fruit he plans to harvest. In this way every acre of his orchard land yields some revenue, while he prepares for the continued crop of fruit he is to later get from his trees. When these trees come into bearing he gives them all the plant food in the ground, growing upon the surface some quick-growing cover crop which prevents the burning out of the humus already there by the intense sun which prevails in the West. Thus, instead of the orchard losing, it is gaining humus, and he feeds his orchard crops through his care of the land as well as trees. 288 American Irrigation Farming In the vicinity of a pea-canninsf fac- Wheat . . After Peas ^°^^ *^^ writer made an investigation of effect of growing canning peas upon the soil for other crops. He found that the pea crop fer- tilized the land to the extent that it increased yield of wheat from five to twenty bushels per acre. The^value of this crop is clearly shown from the experience of a practicing physician in the Longmont district, Colo- rado, using a two-crop rotation, canning peas followed by winter wheat, confirming the above finding. Within six years he has brought this farm up so that a season's crop of peas has yielded him 4,000 pounds of shelled peas giving an average return of $64.00 per acre gross for the crop. Since seeding can- ning peas he has not cut less than fifty bushels of win- ter wheat per acre. One of the successful farmers of that A Five- district uses the following eight-year ro- tation tation : alfalfa, three years ; canning peas, one year; sugar beets, two years; pota- toes, one year; wheat, one year, and back to alfalfa. This rotation averages $55 per acre, gross, per crop season. This farmer keeps up the beneficial effects of his ro- tation by supplementing with barnyard manure which he gets from the near-by town for hauling it away. He utilizes with his milch cows, hogs and poultry what would otherwise be a waste. Rotation I" ^^ irrigated valley at an altitude of in High 7,5oo feet lives a farmer using a rota- Altitudes ^-JQjj Qf ^^]^ pgj^g j^jj^j barley mixed, po- c o o c o u U m Oh a, o U o en Crop Rotations and Their Value 289 tatoes two years, then grain — wheat or oats — and back again to field peas. He harvests his pea and barley crop with lambs and hogs, usually feeding 2,000 or more Iambs and several hundred hogs. His lambs and hogs clean up v^reeds, cull potatoes and furnish a market for all farm roughage. His rotation gives an average gross return of $87,123^ per acre. The President of the Colorado Farm- A College gj-g' Congress (1QII-IQ12) uses a rota- Farmer's . , f , . ^ , ^ / \ , . , Success ^'°" "^ itt\s IS best adapted to his farm' district environment. After graduating from his State University this man, E. R. Bliss, felt the farm had for him a future enticing as it was profit- able. His farm success he attributes largely to the carefully worked out rotation which he gives wise farm care. It is a rotation with alfalfa as a base; then potatoes two years, grain one year and seeded again to alfalfa with a grain nurse crop. He and his son Mark have, by selection, developed a superior seed oat that has a ready sale and makes a money crop in addition to the potato which is the cash crop of the farm. His rotation for the past six years averages $76.34 gross returns per acre. In a valley in the heart of the Rockies Business a,re two business men who have formed a $100 Ro- ''■ partnership and who more fully illus- tation trate wise and intelligent team-work successfully performed on the farm, than the author has yet been able to find else- where. Their adopted rotation is alfalfa two or three years, the third crop being plowed un- 290 American Irrigation Fanning der to add a wealth of humus to the soil for suc- ceeding crops. Then potatoes two years, followed by a seed grain crop of choice wheat or oats. Finally seeded again to alfalfa with a feed grain crop. This rotation is giving these men a gross average return of $ioo per acre per crop season. No potatoes are sold for less than $1.25 per cwt. f. o. b. farm. Livestock take care of cull potatoes, the alfalfa hay and all other farm roughage. The returns, per acre, for above- named farms are made at prevailing local farm prices. The cost of growing the various crops Net Results jg g^ influenced by local conditions, be- parable yond the control of farmers, that net results will not be comparable. A gov- ernment official has estimated that the average yearly returns for an irrigated crop should be $50.00 per acre. All of the illustrations given above are over this estimate. STANDARDIZING THE CROP. Following crop rotation is standardization of the cash crops of the fai^m. What do we mean by this? Let us Standard vs. illustrate. Through their experience of Mixed Lot , , , on Market several years, western apple growers have learned what varieties are the best keepers, shippers and sellers. Their markets are such distances from their orchards that only these types prove profitable for fruit farmers to grow. There- fore, the types of apples which standard markets seek are the kinds these fariners are now planting. Two Crop Rotations and Their Value 291 carloads of apples reached the Chicago markets the same day. One was a carload lot of half a dozen varieties of good quality apples but none were stand- ard or the most desired apples. The other was a car of Jonathans, one of our standard market types. This latter car sold quickly for an average price of forty to fifty cents per box — more than was obtained for the best of those found in the first car lot. West- ern apple orchards are being standardized so car lots and train loads of standard varieties can be bought. Thus the result is that the markets are Effect of coming to these orchards instead of the Commumty . Interest growers havmg to go to the markets. To insure obtaining the quality which brings the best price, community interests have led to a system of inspection which has made the apple of these certain districts a symbol of quality in color, shape, size and flavor for each commercial type grown. The farmers of certain potato districts have realized that they have a peculiarly favorable soil and community interest has led to the choosing of a stand- ard type for each district that has the yield the farmer desires and the quality the markets demand. This eliminates all miscellaneous types and quantity as well as quality attract wholesale markets. When the farmers of Aroostook Leaders in county, Maine, standardized their pota- Potatoes "^ and Wheat ^°^^ ^"^ ^^^^ farmer strove to excel his neighbors in the quality of his tubers, they made Aroostook the greatest potato county in all this Union. 292 American Irrigation Fanning When the farmers of Kansas, following the direc- tion of their most efificient Secretary of Agriculture, F. D. Coburn, made Turkey Red the one type of wheat for their farms, they made Kansas the greatest winter wheat state in the entire nation and gave their millers an opportunity to produce a flour which, for its su- perior excellence, is wanted in ever-increasing quanti- ties for the export trade. Many districts are peculiarly situated for the grow- ing of special crops exceptionally well. A study of this material asset will often increase the farm returns tremendously. We must study our farm district as Mix Brains ^j^^ schoolboy does his textbook, that we With , . ■' , , the Soil "^^y obtam our farm s greatest agri- cultural worth. The days of " hit and miss farming " have passed. We must mix brains with the soil, if we would have it mint dollars in the harvest. Within many irrigated districts are Cooperation , , inr ^ ^ j- ■ F rmine """any farmers who came West to farm irrigated land from shop, counting house and the city office of this or that profession — men of intelligence, skill and energy. They realize that hard- working, intelligent farmers get returns for their labor and do reasonably well. But their previous business experience has taught them that working individually for certain things will not accomplish what cooperation can readily bring to pass and quickly accomplish for all. Each one individually might work a long time before the same results could have been obtained. Crop Rotations and Their Value 293 These are the men who are leading their communiities to adopt for all the farms of a given district a definite cash crop of a community type. Through farm or- ganizations of various kinds they encourage farmers to grow these special crops to the best of their ability producing a quantity as well as a quality by means of which their farmer's organization interests wholesale markets, bringing to each individual farmer of the dis- trict enlarged market demands at better prices for the crop grown. Selecting the rotation that makes each Getting on farmer the best returns, and community the Com- . , .^ . -' mercial Map interests determmmg a uniform type for each cash crop grown in a given district, are what makes farming a systematic business, brings markets, encourages railroads to build out to serve the newly-created business and puts the district on the commercial map. This is standardization of crops. Let our boys of today realize that What Farm- farming is indeed a complex business, Tt^ a ^" made up, as someone has said, of twenty tunity. per cent, science, forty per cent, art and forty per cent, business management ; that to fit for this work they need special preparation just the same as the lawyer, banker, physician or teacher does for his business; that when fitted and prepared to do the work, there are as great possibilities, oppor- tunities and futures in agriculture for the especially trained and energetic worker, as can be found in any business of city or town. When this is fully comprehended the city can no 294 American Irrigation Farming longer lay tribute on the farm for our brightest and best boys to captain their industries, with our wealth of farm resources remaining but partially developed. This " stay on the farm " movement will make un- necessary any " back to the farm " campaign. Special preparation, through the care- e Attrac- f^j application of the principle of seed tion of the , . , , , , Farm. selection for crop chosen, the adaptation of special crops to certain soil, climatic and market environment, with cooperative community interest in selecting the type and marketing the cash crop, crop rotation, with crop standardization, have made farming in many irrigated districts of the West, more attractive, more enjoyable and much more re- munerative to the farm workers. In conclusion it may be said that a England vs. system of crop rotation in England has „ "' * „. , , enabled its farms to maintain an average States Yield . ^ of Wheat of thirty bushels of wheat to the acre. This land has been cropped for more than a thousand years. The wheat average for the United States 1901 to 191 1 was but little more than half that amount and much of our farm land was comparatively virgin soil and none of it has been cropped for more than 350 years. Let the irrigation farmer take a lesson Make Land from this, work out the rotation that suits a egacy j^j^ region, gives a good money return, Lemon. ^^^ which improves rather than impov- erishes his land. He is a wise steward, then, who hands his posterity a legacy and not a Crop Rotations and Their Value 295 lemon. Then he can never be accused of being a soil robber and leave behind him a depleted soil that re- sults in waste and later abandonment, such as we too frequently find in the older settled sections of this na- tion — in the East. Such waste is little less than a crime. CHAPTER XV LIVESTOCK ON THE FARM WE have considered the soil, crop, irrigation and rotations for western farms. We will now talk about livestock on the farm. It has been demonstrated as wise husbandry to feed on the farm such forage, grain and root crops as can be most advantageously utilized, with profit to the farmer. This plan enables one to market on the farm, the cheaper feed crops. At the same time, it gives a fertilizer essential to soil maintenance enriching both farm and farmer. POULTRY. Livestock can be made helpful with Turning ^^y j^jjjj q£ farming, converting much Waste Into , , , , . , . Profit *"^^ would otherwise be a waste, mto profit, in addition to furnishing a market for all forms of farm roughage. This is practical farm economics, the adoption of " factory methods " in agriculture. The small farmer finds poultry and hogs, economizers of farm waste and good revenue winners. Winter eggs bring exceptionally good prices. Western winter layers pay good dividends to their owners. One must have a real liking for chickens and study their feeding habits to succeed with them. 296 Livestock on tlie Farm 297 Irrigation provides swimming places How to Jqj. (JuqI^s and geese almost everywhere. Make Eggs ^ , , ? , u + p Turkeys are bemg made a poultry asset on many farms very successfully. Com- mercial success in tgg production recjuires the follow- ing essentials : 1. Choose a uniform tgg by raising one definite dis- tinct breed of chickens. This insures uniform shape and color. 2. Place the farm stamp and date egg is laid, on each &gg. 3. Deliver the cases of eggs to a definite, desirable market within forty-eight hours from the time of lay- ing. 4. Put up in cartons holding an even dozen, and sell for a. price which pays for the extra care necessary to insure uniform fresh eggs to the consumer. 5. To make poultry business a profitable " sideline," the orchardist, trucker or special crop farmer, must give poultry the same attention and care he does his field or garden crop. When a man or woman makes a business of poultry raising, and sticks to it until he or she learns how, success follows. When a few dozen hens return a dollar per head, profit per year, it is a mistake to consider that the same ratio or amount of profit can be maintained with several hundred fowls. There will be too many unprofitable fowls in the num- ber. Keep Poul- -pj^^ individual must be constantly try Profit- .. , ^^ , , r , , 3]3lg_ studied. Have some method of check- ■sng up so as to weed out the unprofitable 298 American Irrigation Fanning hen. Keep no fowl beyond the period of profitable egg production. Determine for your farm breed of hens the one which your market desires for broilers and springers, provided a satisfactory egg record can be maintained by this breed. Fancy breeding is not profitable for the average farmer. Neither is the egg record alone sufficient, unless this feature be made a farm specialty. Turning off broilers early in the season gives quick returns, takes but little feed and yields good profits on the average farm. Poultry should be raised on every irrigated farm. They furnish eggs for the farm's own needs, and " pin money " for the home maker. HOGS ON THE FARM. Hogs for the farm require but little capital to get a start. A small herd soon grows into a good sized herd and a bank account. The West has the sunshine and the altitude which encourages health and vigor in hogs. Grains which thrive in the West have ^°^^' proven worthy and profitable substitutes Methods ^ T r. 1 + • u • With Hogs. ^°'' corn. In a Rocky mountam valley m Wyoming, at over 7,000 feet elevation, is a large irrigated farm from which the main products are milling grains and hogs. The owners believe that Mr. Coburn of Kansas was correct when he said, " alfalfa is a hog's idea of heaven." They grow several hundred acres of alfalfa simply as pasture feed for hogs. The central station is a well-con- structed barn where the grain feed is kept and where the colony pens are located. From these pens are run- Livestock on the Farm 299 ways leading out to pasture and water. The pens are kept clean and dry throughout the year. A regular time is given night and morning for the grain ration. This consists in the main of peas and barley grown on the farm, with a change of mill shorts frequently added. The alley way through the center is large and roomy. This farm averages at present 200 farrowing sows with a total capacity of 400 sows. The kind chosen averages eight pigs per litter of good sturdy build. Such pigs " grow like weeds " from the start. A man who makes a study of the hogs' A Happy likes and dislikes manages the breeding Mr Hoe '^"'^ feeding work on this hog farm. This is perhaps the secret of its success. Hogs, winter and summer, have an open runway from the sheltered barn pen to the open pasture lots. A warm, clean, dry place is offered Mr. Hog within the barn, with the privilege of a good open air promenade daily. Cholera and other infectious and profit kill- ing hog diseases, which are so destructive in the corn- belt, are here comparatively unknown. Another hog farm up in the North- XT ' west uses colony houses for shelter and ony Houses. ■' farrowing pens. These are " A " shaped portable houses, eight feet square on the ground, making good farrowing pens for brood sows. They are being quite generally adopted in many parts, because of their cheapness, sanitary features, and gen- eral utility and desirability. The large, expensive hog house is passing out of general use. Upon this hog 300 American Irrigation Farming farm is a most excellent hog pasture. It consists of a mixture of alsike, red clover, and alfalfa. The peas, barley, and milk fed, together with this good pasture, produce a fine quality of pork which brings a premium on the market. A certain valley of the West is sit- ing Valley'^" ^^^^^^ '^^ ^^^ '^'^^J heart of the Rockies with snow-capped peaks all around it. This valley has an altitude averaging 7,500 feet and a farm area equal to the state of Connecticut. The farmers of this region have for their slogan, " One million hogs for our valley." Hog farmers are actually leaving the com belt states, where the hog has been the mortgage lifter and are coming to this valley. Here the altitude and sunshine make cholera and kindred diseases a stranger and peas and barley replace corn as the grain ration. The orchard farmer, on the lands of lower altitude, finds the hog turns much by-product material into pork. The potato farmer finds the hog his ™/p°rk ^""^ best market for cull potatoes. The dairy farmer knows that the Danish hog grower has demonstrated what barley and milk will produce in the way of pork. The completion of the Panama Canal will make an increasing demand for pork products that our irrigated farms of the West should satisfy. Under present conditions, Kansas, Nebraska, and other states of the corn belt, are re- peatedly called upon to supply western market de- mands for pork above what the West and Northwest farmers are able to satisfy. %M > u Q a fa c O X u a, >-. H U '-a o Livestock on the Farm 309 Withholding feed of colts is not good Needed. practice. Liberal feeding makes for rapid and profitable growth. The farmer should inform himself as to feeds and feed- ing, balancing of rations, care and management of horses, anatomy and structure of the foot, and other details concerned with success in draft horse raising. He will thus be enabled to produce animals with sound feet and legs, good bodies, vigorous constitutions and kind dispositions which will bring a premium on the market. The United States ought to produce horses of distinctive and superior breeds. Write your State Experiment Station for advice on the best books and station bulletins to guide you in this important work. SUMMARY. We have briefly reviewed the different types of live- stock for the farmer in the reversed order usually fol- lowed. We chose to present those types which Begin in a ^.^j^ j,^ obtained with the least initial Small Way , , . , and Grow. "''^^ ^°^^ ^"^ which are best adapted for the smaller farms. One dozen hens and a good rooster can start a small farmer in the chicken business so that in a very short time he will have his hands full. So a few brood sows and a good boar will enable our farmer friend to get into the hog busi- ness very soon. It is always best to start in a small way under new environments and thus grow into the business. Thus one can feel his way, and it does not 310 American Irrigation Farming tie up a great amount of capital to begin this livestock work on the farm. Grow the crop first and get the livestock afterward, but be sure and get the livestock. Select that type which your environment and your size of farm would seem to justify. Some men succeed with chickens and Special Con- j^Qgg ^.j^q would utterly fail with sheep Success ^"*^ cattle. Others succeed with cattle and horses who would fail with hogs and poultry. Individual tastes will differ and must be con- sidered but should be secondary to the farm and its environment in the final choice of livestock. The keeping of good types of livestock promotes a deeper interest in the farm on the part of its workers, while it increases the cash output of every farm. Let the boys and the girls grow up with the colts, calves, and chickens as pets and they imbibe a love for farm life and farm environment which will make them stronger in moral fiber, keener workers and better citizens of their commonwealth. Keep livestock on your farm to improve your youth, enrich your farm, and help your bank account to grow. PART III STATISTICS AND WORKING TABLES CHAPTER XVI statistical facts Organization of Reclamation Service. THE United States Reclamation Service was created, pursuant to an Act of Congress known as the Reclamation Act, which de- clared that " all moneys received from the sale and disposal of public lands in Arizona, California, Colo- rado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1 901, including the surplus of fees and com- missions in excess of allowance to registers and re- ceivers, and, excepting the five per centum of the pro- ceeds of the sales of public lands in the above states, set aside by law for educational and other purposes, shall be, and the same are, hereby reserved, set aside, and appropriated as a special fund in the treasury to be known as the ' Reclamation Fund ' to be used in the examination and survey and for the construction and maintenance of irrigation works, for the storage, diversion, and development of waters for the reclama- tion of arid and semi-arid lands in the said states and territories, and for the payment of all other expendi- tures provided for in this act." 313 314 American Irrigation Farming The act provides for the financing of projects, the payment by settlers for water used, and the operation of water distribution by the Service, until a Settlers Water Association shall be organized to take over the project and protect the government in receiving back, dollar for dollar, all expenditures in connection with each project. The purpose of the Service was to engineer, and carry through to successful completion, irrigation projects which would appear to be needed but re- quired too great an expenditure to interest private cap- ital. As the money was returned from a com- pleted project in active operation this was to be used in construction work on an incomplete but approved project. Below is given in detailed form, projects of the U. S. R. S. already undertaken : PROJECTS IN ARIZONA: 1. Salt River. Area irrigated in season of 191 1 150,000 acres Estimated area for completed project 230,000 " Available reservoir capacity in acre feet 1,300,000 Average elevation of irrigable area 1,200 ft. Average annual rainfall on i rigable area.... 8 in. Source of water supply, Salt and Verde rivers, and wells in various parts of valley. Principal products; semi-trcpical fruits, cere- als and alfalfa. Irrigating season June I to Sept. 30 Oct. I to May 31 36s days. 2. Arizona — California — ^Yuma: Area irrigated in season of 191 1 10,000 acres Estimated area for complete project 131,000 " Average elevation of irrigable area 100 to 300 ft. Average annual rainfall on irrigable area.... 2j4in. Statistical Facts 315 Source of water supply — Colorado River. Principal products ; semi-tropical fruits, al- falfa, and grain. Irrigating season June I to Sept. 30 Oct. I to May 31 365 days. PROJECTS IN CALIFORNIA: I. Orlando Area irrigated in season of 191 1 2,551 acres Estimated area for completed project 14,000 " Present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 45,000 Average elevation of irrigable area 225 ft. Average annual rainfall, irrigable area 17 in. Source of water supply. Stony Creek. Principal products ; citrus and other fruits, alfalfa and vegetables. Irrigating season. May ist to Sept. 30, 152 days. PROJECTS IN COLORADO: 1. Grand Valley. Area irrigated in season 191 1 no acres Estimated area for completed project S3,ooo " Average elevation of irrigable area 4.70O ft. Average annual rainfall, irrigable area 8 in. Source of water supply, Grand River. Principal products ; fruit, sugar beets, and alfalfa. Irrigating season, April i to Oct. 31, 214 days. 2. Uncompahgre. Area irrigated in season 191 1 24,000 acres Estimated area for completed project 140,000 " Average elevation of irrigable area 6,000 ft. Average annual rainfall on irrigable area.... 9 in. Source of water supply, Gunnison and Un- compahgre rivers. Principal products ; alfalfa, grain, vegetables, fruit, sugar beets and potatoes. Irrigating season, April i to Oct. 31, 214 days. PROJECTS IN IDAHO: I. Boise-Payette Project. Area irrigated in season 1911 121,000 acres Estimated area for completed project 243,000 ' Average elevation of irrigable area 2,500 ft. 316 American Irrigation Farming Average annual rainfall on irrigable area... 12.7 in. Source of water supply, Boise River. Present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 173.000 Principal products; alfalfa, small grain, ap- ples, prunes, small fruits, potatoes and vege- tables. Irrigating season, April i to Oct. 31, 214 days. 2. Minidoka : Area irrigated in season 191 1 57,000 acres Estimated area for completed project 124,000 Average elevation of irrigable area 4,225 ft. Average annual rainfall on irrigable area.... 14 in. Source of water supply. Snake River. Present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 433.500 Principal products ; alfalfa, grasses, small fruits, grains, sugar beets and potatoes. Irrigating season, April i to Oct. 31, 214 days. PROJECTS IN KANSAS: I. Garden City. A pumping plant, 23 pumping stations each driven from a central station by electrical force or power. Wells 35 to 60 ft. deep and 15 in. in diameter. Area irrigated in 1911 J Abandoned I in 1910 Estimated area for completed project 10,677 acres Average elevation of irrigable area 2,925 ft. Average annual rainfall on irrigable area. ... 20 in. Source of water supply, shallow wells near Arkansas River. Principal products ; alfalfa, sugar beets, mel- ons, sweet potatoes, small fruits and vege- tables. Irrigating season, April i to Oct. 30, 213 days. PROJECTS IN MONTANA: I. Blackfeet. Area irrigated in 191 1 none Estimated area for completed project 133,000 acres Average elevation of irrigable area 3,850 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 16 in. Source of water supply, Two Medicine River, Cut, Bank, Badger, Birch, Whitetail and Blacktail creeks. Principal products ; hay, grain and vegetables. Irrigating season. May i to Sept. 30, 153 days. Courtesy U S R S Shoshone Dam, Near Cody, Wyoming, 383 Feet High [Page 332 u CS u o (L) O Vh I— I u 4-1 ^ C m >.5 Ph(-( S Q u I H Statistical Facts 317 Flathead. Area irrigated in 191 1 8,8cx) acres Estimated area of completed project 152,000 " Average elevation of irrigable area 2,800 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 15 in. Source of water supply, Flathead, Jocko and Little Bitter Root rivers ; Mud, Crovsf, Post, Mission, Dry, Finley, Agency, Big Knife and Valley creeks and about sixty smaller streams. Principal products ; grain, hay, apples, small fruits, vegetables and cattle. Irrigating season. May I to Sept. 30, 153 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 7,500 Fort Peck. Area irrigated in 1911 none Estimated area of completed project 128,000 acres Average elevation of irrigable area 2,000 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 13 in. Source of virater supply, Missouri and Poplar rivers, Big Porcupine, Little Porcupine, Wolf, Smoke and Big Muddy creeks. Principal products ; hay, grain and vegetables. Irrigating season, April i to Aug. 15, 137 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre ft 8,900 Huntley. Area irrigated in 1911 1,200 acres Estimated area of completed project 32,405 " Average elevation of irrigable area 3,000 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 12 in. Source of water supply, Yellowstone River. Principal products; alfalfa, sugar beets, po- tatoes, oats and barley. Irrigating season, May i to Sept. 30, 153 days. Milk River. Area irrigated in 1911 2,000 acres Area irrigated 1911 2,000 acres Average elevation of irrigable area 2,200 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area i^ jj, Source of water supply, St. Mary Lakes, Swift Current Creek and Milk River. 318 American Irrigation Farming Principal products ; alfalfa, hay, grain and vegetables. Irrigating season, March 15 to Sept. 15, 185 days. Storage. The plan contemplates storage of water from St. Mary Lake, conducted by a canal 25 miles to headquarters of Milk River; storage in reservoirs at Chain Lakes on Milk River ; and in Nelson Lake Reser- voir south of the Milk near Malta. 6. Sun River. Area irrigated in 191 1 7,I70 acres Estimated area of completed project 32,000 " Average elevation of irrigable area 3,7oo ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area I2 in. Source of water supply. Sun River, and trib- utaries, Deep and Borah creeks. Principal products ; hay, grain and vegetables. Irrigating season. May 15 to Oct. 15, 153 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 2,000 MONTANA-NORTH DAKOTA PROJECT: I. Lower Yellowstone. Area irrigated in 191 1 18,375 acres Estimated area of completed project 60,116 " Average elevation of irrigable area 1,900 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 16 in. Source of water supply, Yellowstone River. Principal products; grain, forage crops, and vegetables. Irrigating season, May 15 to Oct. 15, 153 days. NEBRASKA- WYOMING PROJECT: I. North Platte. Area irrigated in 1911 74,302 acres Estimated area of completed project 129,270 " Average elevation of irrigable area 4,100 ft. Average amount of rainfall on irrigable area 15 in. Source of water supply, North Platte River. Principal products; alfalfa, corn and small grain, sugar beets and potatoes. Irrigating season, April i to Sept. 30, 183 days. Storage, present available reservoir, capacity in acre feet 1,025,000 Statistical Facts 319 NEVADA PROJECT: I. Truckee-Carson. Area irrigated in 191 1 34.950 acres Estimated area of completed project 206,000 " Average elevation of irrigable area 4,000 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 4 in. Source of water supply, Truckee and Carson rivers. Principal products ; alfalfa, grain, onions, po- tatoes and sugar beets. Irrigating season, April i to Oct. 15, 198 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 200,000 NEW MEXICO PROJECTS: 1. Carlsbad. Area irrigated in 191 1 13,673 acres Estimated area of completed project 20,267 " Average elevation of irrigable area 3,ioo ft. Average amount of annual rainfall in irriga- ble area 15 in. Source of water supply, Pecos River. Principal products ; alfalfa, cotton, grain, grapes, melons, peaches, pears and miscel- laneous fruits. Irrigating season, March to November and two weeks in winter, 260 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre ft 47,000 2. Hondo. Area irrigated in 191 1 1,000 acres Estimated area of completed project 10,000 " Average elevation of irrigable area 3,750 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 16 in. Source of water supply, Hondo River. Principal products, alfalfa and fruits. Irrigating season, March to November, 245 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 40,000 NEW MEXICO-TEXAS PROJECT: I. Rio Grande. Area irrigated in 1911 25,000 acres Estimated area of completed project 180,000 " 320 American Irrigation Farming Average elevation of irrigable area 3,70o ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area gYz'm. Source of water supply, Rio Grande River. Principal products ; alfalfa, corn, vifheat, mel- ons, fruit and vegetables. Irrigating season, Feb. 15 to Nov. 15, 274 days. Storage; no present available water supply but Engle Dam is under construction which will have a storage capacity of 2,538,000 acre feet. NORTH DAKOTA PROJECT: 1. Bu ford-Trenton Pumping Plant. Area irrigated in 191 1 1,240 acres Estimated area of completed project 12,025 " Average elevation of irrigable area 1,900 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 15 in. Source of water supply, Missouri River. Principal products; small grains, alfalfa and vegetables. Irrigating season, June 5 to Aug. 30, 87 days. 2. Williston. Area irrigated in 1911 3,800 acres Estimated area of completed project 11,289 " This pumping plant has same source of water as Buford-Trenton project situated on same river within same state. Its agricultural features are also quite similar ta this same project. OREGON PROJECT: I. Umatilla. Area irrigated in 1911 8,600 acres Estimated area of completed project 25,000 " Average elevation of irrigable area 470 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 75^ in. Source of water supply, Umatilla River. Principal products; alfalfa, fruit, berries and vegetables. Irrigating season, March 20 to Oct. 16, 210 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 50,000 Statistical Facts 321 OREGON-CALIFORNIA PROJECT: I. Klamath. Area irrigated in 191 1 27,693 acres Estimated area of completed project 72,000 Average elevation of irrigable area 4,100 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area IS in. Source of water supply. Upper Klamath Lake and Clear Lake. Principal products; alfalfa, hay, grain and ve.getables. Irrigating season. May i to Sept. 30, 153 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 662,000 SOUTH DAKOTA PROJECT : I. Belle Fourche. Area irrigated in 1911 33.362 acres Estimated area of completed project 100,000 " Average elevation of irrigable area 2,800 ft. Average annual rainfall on irrigable area. ... 13 in. Source of water supply. Belle Fourche River. Principal products ; grain, alfalfa, potatoes, sugar beets, truck crops and small fruit. Irrigating season. May i to Oct. 10, 163 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 203,770 UTAH PROJECTS : I. Strawberry Valley. Area irrigated in 191 1 none Estimated area of completed project 60,000 acres Average elevation of irrigable area 4,600 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 18 in. Source of water supply. Strawberry and Span- ish Fork rivers. Principal products ; alfalfa, cereals, sugar beets, fruits and vegetables. Irrigating season, April 15 to Sept. 30, 168 days. WASHINGTON PROJECTS: I. Okanogan. Area irrigated in 191 1 6,349 acres Estimated area of completed project 10,051 " Average elevation of irrigable area 1,000 ft. 322 American Irrigation Farming Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 8 in. Source of water supply, Salmon Creek. Principal products ; fruit, hay, grain and vege- tables. Irrigating season, May i to Sept. 15, 138 days. Storage, present available reservoir capacity in acre ft 15,000 2. Yakima. This project stores water from the Yakima River in a succession of valleys under the different units named below. Dams placed at the outlets of several moun- tain lakes makes possible a storage capacity totaling 930,000 acre feet. a. Tieton unit, irrigable area 34,SOO acres Unit irrigated in 1911.. 6,362 " b. Sunnyside unit, irrigable area 98,628 " Irrigated in 191 1 58,612 " c. Wapato unit, irrigable area 114,000 " Irrigated in 1911 15,000 " d. Kittitas unit. e. Benton unit. Average elevation of irrigable area 1,000 ft. Average amount of annual rainfall 8 in. Source of water, Yakima River and tributaries. Irrigating season, varies in the different units from 153 to 214 days. Principal products ; forage, hops, fruits and vegetables. Storage, named above. The present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 82,000 WYOMING PROJECT : I. Shoshone. Area irrigated in 191 1 14,580 acres Estimated area of completed project 164,122 " Average elevation of irrigable area 4,50o ft. Average amount of annual rainfall on irriga- ble area 5 in. Source of water supply, Shoshone River. Principal products; alfalfa, grain, vegetables and fruit. Irrigating season, April 15 to Oct. 15, 180 days. Storage, provides for storage of flood water of Shoshone River by construction of a drain across said river at the head of a canyon near Cody, Wyoming. Present available reservoir capacity in acre feet 458,000 Statistical Facts 323 This totals twenty-nine irrigation projects already surveyed, approved and either completed or under construction by the Service. These projects con- template the irrigation of 3,101,450 acres of land, the impounding of vi^aters with a total storage ca- pacity of 13,272,490 acre feet in the numerous res- ervoirs either completed or under construction. For information on the work of the Reclamation Service, address the Statistician U. S. R. S., Wash- ington, D. C. Farm Statistics From 1910 Census. (Compiled from data obtained by the Census Bureau of U. S.) Items 1910 No. of farms 6,340,357 No. less than 20 acres. 829,303 No. 20 to 50 acres 1,410,992 No. so to 100 acres.... 1,435,743 No. 100 to 175 acres... 1,513,235 No. 175 to 500 acres... 976,597 No. 500 to 1,000 acres. . 124,883 No. 1,000 and more acres 49,604 Average acreage per farm 138 Improved acreage 477,448,000 Total acreage 873,729,000 Value of land $28,386,770,000 Value of buildings 6,294,737,000 Value of implements and machinery 1,262,022,000 Expenditures for labor 645,612,000 Fertilizer 1 14,277,000 Ave. value of land per acre 32.49 Per cent. 1900 of increase 1900-1910 5,737,372 10.5 673,870 23.1 1,257,496 12.2 1,366,038 S-i 1,422,262 6.4 868,020 12.5 102,526 21.8 47,160 5-2 146 5-4 414,499,000 15-2 838,592,000 4.2 ;i 3,058,008,000 1 17.4 3,556,640,000 77-0 749,776,000 68.3 357,392,000 80.6 53,432,000 II3-9 15-57 108.7 324 American Irrigation Farming Livestock on the Farm. (Compiled from data obtained by Census Bureau.) No. in 1900 No. in 1910 1. Horses and mules 15,506,000 17,344,000 2. Cattle. a. Dairy cattle 20,500,000 17,000,000 b. Beef cattle 32,968,000 35,489,000 c. Total 53,468,000 52,489,000 3. Sheep of shearing age 39,644,000 39,853,000 4. Swine 58,001,000 62,876,000 Statistical Data on Irrigation, 1910. The following data was compiled from the U. S. Census by R. P. Teele, Special Agent in charge of irri- gation, prepared under the supervision of Le Grand Powers, Chief Statistician for Agriculture of Thir- teenth Census of the United States : I. TABLE OF lRRI(i/MION ENTERPRISES CLASSIFIED Acreage in- Acreage capable Type of enterprise eluded in of irrigation, project 1910 1. U. S. Indian Service 879,068 376,576 2. U. S. Reclamation Service 1,973,016 786,190 3. Carey Act Enterprise 2,573,874 1,089,677 4. Irrigation districts 1,589,865 804,951 5. Commercial enterprises S.096,;y7 2,416,516 6. Cooperative enterprises 8,845,437 6,194,677 7. Individual and partnership en- terprises 10,154,513 7,667,124 Total 31,112,110 19,335.711 Crop acreage under actual irrigation 13.739,499 II. IRRIGATED AREA CLASSIFIED BY STATES AND SOURCE OF WATER SUPPLY — CENSUS, I9IO State Total area in Total area Total area acres irrigated with irrigated from pumped water streams and lakes Arizona 320,051 13,087 306,964 California 2,664,104 309.134 2,354,970 Colorado 2,792,032 16,993 2,775,039 Idaho 1,430,848 20,925 1,409,923 Statistical Facts 325 Total area rr , , ■ Total area irrigated from State ^ LrT'" irrigated with streams and State acres pumped water i^kes Kansas 37,479 i,979 3S.500 Montana 1,679,084 8,023 1,671,061 Nebraska 255,950 157 255,793 Nevada 701,833 906 700,927 New Mexico 461,718 7,485 453,233 North Dakota 10,248 1,615 8,633 Oklahoma 5,402 119 5,283 Oregon 686,129 5,711 680,418 South Dakota 63,248 548 62,700 Texas (exclusive of rice) 164,283 65,806 98,477 Utah 999,410 2,859 996,551 Washington 334,378 20,606 313,772 Wyoming 1,133,302 1,615 1,131,687 Total for arid states. .13,739,499 478,288 13,261,211 III. TABLE OF EXPENDITURES FOR IRRIGATION, COST PER ACRE AND MAINTENANCE States Arizona California .... Colorado Idaho Kansas Montana Nebraska Nevada New Mexico North Dakota. Oklahoma .... Oregon South Dakota. Texas (exclu- sive of rice) Utah Washington . . Wj'oming .... Total U. S.... Cost ? 4,438,352 ig,i8i,6io 11,758,703 5,120,399 529,755 4,683,073 1,310,698 1,537,559 4,165,312 17,980 21,872 1,843,757 284,747 1,027,608 5,865,302 1,722,369 3,973.165 67,482,261 1910 $ 17,651,148 72,445,669 55,477,350 40,977,671 1,365,563 22,819,868 7,765,660 6,664,833 9.051,087 836,482 45,200 12,689,044 3,043,186 7,306,830 13,844,943 15,015,111 17,700,355 304,699,450 I- S «^ 4J rt a> 4J O.J3 I Ave. ?5S.iS 27.19 19.87 28.64 36.44 13-59 30.34 950 19.60 81.62 8.37 18.49 48.12 44-48 13.85 44.90 44.90 22.18 •o c «J « g„ O C " ^ rt J-, o S r°> o< R =^ C U o c o.S Ave. 326 American Irrigation Farming •c1e3 cliunj CO i-^0\"^t^o\u-ir^fo^ ON O\oo rx Q ^ N m - - . - - ^ of ^O of r6oo' in in (5" ro fvf 00 •-T cK c 3 Ah XjpBdEO aujSug OO Q - - 00 (^ r^r^ CvmOl »H OIVOM^OO f^OO 00 - ■ - looy r^ f^ Tf 1^ m ■» t-i 00 VO OJ -^a- ^ CI \o -^ c* gvO O Tf - ON t-s ON fO lO r^ CO 0\ i-T to H < o < On in "^ O (L) paduinj O O '-' -^OxOS?^ t^ SuiAvou to ^sJiOAjasa^ Q\i-( POTrf^t-^fOO r-sn O "*) Ooo '-' CO CN IT) ro O C?; CO f^\0 N •-<" d\ 04 lO Tf (N" CO I'N'O IN. lO fO -^ >-« i-T of t-^" ^v tN. CO rN.vO ■^ »-' -^ fO lO O fo m q\ N_ oToo" ^H O cf lo M moo of ci ■ON W ro ) 01 vo IT) ro 5 00 m t-i ro vd S3IIIU »-< 01 cv) looo u^oiomoioo'-'io vovouofoi-H vo i-H^ IN; r^ 01 O; ^; "lOO^ •-• ^ 04 vo moo oi vo oTKroToT oo^offoio txt-T t-TKrofOin OJ 01 M i-H M 04 O < vo --o o ^ OO in 01^ O CO*" loin 0»00 01 ov , tN tN. 01 Ol OJ I-T i-T of oo" fO tx OvOO oi 0\ O vo I '^ Cv "-■ vo ro QMO Is. lo mo 01 0\ ^ p-T fvf K; K of I-T ao r^ 0( -^ ov w Q Poio in ■^ po owo vovo 0\ -^00 fOO fOVO in ro CO 0\ iN; in Oi po in of cf rC •-•00 II rt rt rt iQ E 9 X VI C o ^ „ „ 2 o SiS «-o x^ oj: "'« ^^ E_ o^ 5 og £ £ S3 S § S ==2 « ^-S Statistical Facts 327 A Weir Box for the Farm. Weir Box. — In order to maintain the weir in a proper and constant position and to prevent leakage around and under it, and in order that all water that is to be measured should be conducted over it, it is usually necessary to construct some sort of box or frame to hold the weir in place. A common form or type of this box which is recommended for a one foot Cippoletti weir is shown. This box is 9 feet long, 2^ feet deep and 3 feet wide with inside measurement, and with a one foot weir will measure with accuracy amounts ranging from 10 to 50 Idaho miner's inches. 328 American Irrigation Farming Where a weir box is built it is necessary that it be made of sufficient size and depth in comparison to the size of the weir notch to eliminate all excess velocity of approach. If the box is built too narrow or too shallow it will add to the velocity of approach to such an extent that correct measurement cannot be secured. It is but a mere matter of convenience, however, to have a box of the exact length prescribed, for that part of the box above the weir may be omitted if a settling basin or pool of the same size is constructed in the ditch above the weir. The weir boxes and pools which should be constructed for weirs of larger sizes should be in the same proportion with respect to the size of the weir as for the one foot. The size of the weir box that is required in order to eliminate velocity of approach has been found by experiment to be ap- proximately seven times the cross section of the weir notch. (From Extension Bulletin No. 3, U. of I.) Statistical Facts 329 DISCHARGE OF CIPPOLETTI WEIRS Depth 1 Toot Weir 2 Foot V/eir 3 Foot Weir water on Second Miner's Second Miner's Second Miner's Crest Feet Inches Feet Inches Feet Inches 1-4 .010 0.5 .020 1.0 .030 1.5 1-2 .029 1-5 .058 2.9 .087 4.4 3-4 ■053 2.7 .106 5.3 -159 8.0 .081 4-1 .162 8.1 .243 12.2 1-4 • 113 5-7 .226 11-3 •339 17.0 1-2 .149 7-5 .298 14.9 •447 22.4 3-4 .188 9-4 •37C 18.8 • 564 28.2 .229 II-5 .458 22.9 .687 34-4 1-4 •273 13-7 ■ 546 27.3 .819 41.0 1-2 .320 16.0 .640 32.0 .960 48.0 3-4 .369 18.S .738 36.9 1. 1 07 55-4 3- .421 21. 1 .842 42.1 1.263 63.2 1-4 •474 23-7 .948 47-4 1.422 71.1 1-2 ■ 530 26,5 1.060 S3.0 1.590 79-5 3-4 .58S 29.4 1. 176 58.8 1.764 88.2 4- .648 32-4 1.296 64.8 1.944 97-2 1-4 .709 33-3 1.418 70.9 2.127 106.4 1-2 ■773 3S.7 1.546 -7.3 2.319 116.0 3-4 -839 42.0 1.67S 839 2.517 125.9 S- .906 45-3 I.8l2 90.6 2.718 135-9 ■■4 .974 48.7 1.948 97-4 Z.922 J 46.1 1-2 1.044 52.3 2.088 104.4 3-132 136.6 3-4 1.116 33-8 2.232 111.6 3-348 167.4 6. 1.191 59-6 2.382 119.1 3.573 178.7 1-4 2-531 126.6 3.796 ■189.8 1-2 2.684 134-2 4.026 201.3 3-4 2.841 ,142.1 4.261 213.1 7- 3.000 150.0 4.500 225.0 1-4 3.162 158.1 4.743 237-1 1-2 3-327 166.4 4.990 =49-3 3-4 3-496 174.8 5-244 262.2 8. 3.664 183.2 5.496 274.8 1-4 3-838 191.9 5.757 287.9 1-2 4.014 200.7 6.021 30T.1 3-4 4.192 2og.6 6.288 314.4 9- 4.374 218.7 6.561 328.0 1-4 4.557 227.9 6.835 34>.8 1-2 4-744 237.2 7.116 355-8 3-4 4-932 246.6 7-398 369.9 10. 5.124 256.2 7.686 3843 1-4 5.316 265.8 7-974 398.7 1-2 5-310 275.5 8.265 413-3 3-4 5.709 285-5 8.563 428.2 11. 5.910 29S-5 8.865 443-2 1-4 6.112 305-6 9.168 458.4 1-2 6.317 315.9 9-475 473-9 3-4 6.52s 326.3 9-787 489.4 12. 6.734 336.7 10.101 505.0 * See next page for explanation of this table. 330 American Irrigation Farming Weir Table and Method of Using the Same Explained. This weir table was worked out by Don H. Bark, in charge U. S. Office of Irrigation Investigations and his assistant engineer, A. V. Tallman, for Idaho. The table is based on the formula Q equals 3.367LH3-2 and has been calculated with depths reading in inches and fractions thereof rather than tenths of a foot, in order that the depths may be accurately read with an ordinary carpenter's rule or square. Method of Using Weir Table The head flowing over the crest should not be measured until after the water has been running a sufficient time so that a steady uniform flow is ob- tained. It can then be measured with an ordinary rule graduated in inches by holding the rule on top of the nail head and carefully observing where the surface of the water strikes the rule. Due allowance Statistical Facts 331 should be made for the capillary attraction which causes the water to creep up slightly on the sides of the rule. The eye should be held as nearly as possible to the level of the water's surface when reading the rule, in order to avoid the errors liable to occur where the same is observed from an angle. When the depth of water is noted, say 45^ inches on a i-foot weir, the column headed " i-foot weir " in the table should be used, the amount opposite the 4j^ inches, which is 0.773 cubic feet per second, or 38.7 miner's inches, is the correct discharge for that amount over a i-foot weir. The same method is used with 2 and 3 foot weirs, care being used to read the amount from the proper column. Where weirs longer than 3 feet are required, the discharge can be calculated by multiply- ing the discharge for that depth on a i-foot weir as taken from the table by the length of the larger weir in feet, as the discharge of weirs is always proportional to their length. (Extract from Extension Bulletin No. 3, U. of I.) Pump Irrigation. Pump irrigation is now attracting capital all over the West. Many very interesting investigations have been made by both the Western States and the U. S. Office of Irrigation Investigations. The follow- ing tables show relative pump efficiency at varying depths and the equivalent in second and acre feet of the gallons named. Electric power is now being effectively used wherever cheap electric power can be obtained throughout the West. 332 American Irrigation Farming a o t/5" M < ° O S •— ' in o < 1— c « 1 — 1 o o (U O < tti o. •a Ul h 4-» b rt u o •i^ in "1 3 - £ W "tJ , & &.2 C2 < ■& H t.ie U £ ■d-HoS d H °^ •d-Hoe •d'HOS d'HSi Cfooo'owmt-" ^ 0_ f^ in q, "O "^ 0)^ »-<_ O uS - in'*' o ft y «, o o o 1- U) C4 0; .ip a O £ o S'-a~ < o O 3 - -1 J u -4-1 a> r, 0. "2 "^ "^^ •"!, ^°Q,^ K3 ^ Q. ^_ "} C)^ o in i-T rC ro cS "S Q "O of cxf rC oTvo" "^ ^f i-Tcd \d^ t-t ►H OJ 01 rOTf^OOO Q\ onoo fx txso 10 in CO 0) c^vo <^ ►- 00 »o ro in l^iOr^i-i 0\r*.iOroO\ mvo 00 O 01 ro^n t^ Tt -rt 0\ -Ti- Q^ fOCO f^CO I-^ I^^O m 10 -^ fO 04 «-i ro " w M M w oi oi c^ -^ i/3\d Kod d\ d\ rN. in ro *-< d\ In. m roOO T^'0 !>. G\ •-' 0) rf m ■■ '-' 01 ro -^ Tj- Ln\o 00 0\ Tf iSco m of Q rC -f K-f CO in d" rf eg ro rC — ~ 01 1000 O f^vo 0^ »-< -T I-v c5\ n| 00 roOO rj- 0\ m hHi-H t-iM 04 010101 foco-^TTio mso OQOOOOOOOOOOOOOOQO .^^ J^ ^ "^00 >-" -^ 1>^ O rO^O 01 C» TT O VO 0* *0^ ^'_C0 iOt-*_rs.-^00 roo LOCO O rOVD 00 t-n f^ t< o -400" i-h" in d\ of vo (S (^ o'cc 10 ff 0\ K '-''-I H-t 04 W04 f^oor^^t^^ ii-)\0 t^ WOO 04 PO ■^ irjvo tNOO 0\ O i-H o W "^O 00 O O 334 American Irrigation Farming Practical Measurements, measuring hay in the stack. Stack should be settled for thirty days. Add over and width measurements. Divide the sum by four. Multiply the quotient by itself. Multiply this product by the length. This will give the number of cubic feet in the stack. Dividing by the number of cubic feet agreed upon for a ton of hay will give the number of tons in the stack. Professor Ten Eyck says: "The rules for meas- uring hay in the stack will vary according to the length of time the hay has been stacked, the kind and quality of the hay, and character of the stack. With alfalfa or prairie hay which has been stacked for thirty days it is usual to compute an eight-foot cube or 512 cubic feet as a ton. When the hay has been stacked five or six months, usually a seven-and-a-half foot cube or 422 cubic feet is calculated for a ton. In old stacks which have been stacked a year or more a seven-foot cube or 343 cubic feet is allowed for a ton." The rule for measuring' hay in the stack which more nearly compares with scale weights is the one given below as the New Mexico rule, and made a law by the first state legislature. It is now unlawful in that state to use any other rule to measure hay in the stack. It has been tested out in the alfalfa states of the West, and where the hay is well settled it has been found to be an equitable rule for the buyer and seller. Statistical Facts 335 THE NEW MEXICO RULE FOR ALFALFA HAY MEASURE- MENT The width plus the over, divided by four, the quo- tient squared, this product multiphed by the length of stack and this result divided by 422 (approx. 7I/2 ft. in the cube), gives the tons of hay in the stacks, set- tled thirty days. Another rule quite generally used in the West is: substract the width from the over measurement. Multiply one-half the result by the width. Multiply this product by the length. This gives the number of cubic feet in the stack. Divide by the number of cubic feet agreed upon for a ton. This will vary with the bulkiness of the hay. For well settled alfalfa hay it is usually yyi feet in the cube, 422 to 512 cu. ft. MEASURING GRAIN IN BIN OR WAGON BED. Multiply length, width, and depth together to get cubic contents. Multiply the cubic contents expressed in cubic feet by eight-tenths (.8) and it gives, in bushels the amount of grain. Add one-third of a bushel to this amount for every 100 cubic feet in vol- ume. This gives approximately the contents in bushels, of small grain. FINDING NUMBER OF GALLONS IN A TANK OF WATER. Multiply the diameter in inches at the bottom, in- side measurement, by the diameter at the top, in inches, inside measurement. Multiply this product by 34 and 336 Ame7'ican Irrigation Fanning pointing off four figures gives the average and num- ber of gallons to one inch in depth in the tank. QUANTITY or SEED FOR AN ACRE, UNDER IRRIGATION Alfalfa 8 to i6 lbs. In rows, ij^ to 4 lbs. Barley 75 to 90 " Oats 75 to 90 " Flax 25 to 35 " Wheat 75 to go " Corn for grain 18 to 20 " Corn for fodder 4010 80 " Sugar Beets 12 to 16 " Stock beets 8 to 12 " Onions 4 to 5 " Potatoes 600 to 2,000 " Vetch, Winter 50 to 60 " Vetch, Spring 50 to 75 " Rye 70 to 90 " Peas, field 45 to 75 " Beans, field 40 to 60 " NUMBER OF PLANTS TO THE ACRE Distance apart No. plants Distance apart No. plants 12 X I in. 522,720 24 X 24 in. 10,890 12 X 3 " 174,240 30 X I " 209,088 12 X 6 " 87,120 30 X 6 " 34,848 12 X 12 " 43,560 30 X 12 " 17,424 18 X I " 348,480 36 X 3 " 58,080 18 X 3 " 116,160 36 X 12 " 14,520 18 X 6 " 58,080 36 X 18 " 9,680 18 X 12 " 29,040 36 X 36 " 4,840 18 X 18 " 19,360 42 X 12 " 12,446 20 X I " 313,63s 42 X 18 " 8,297 20 X 6 " 52.272 42 X 24 " 6,223 20 X 12 " 26,136 48 X 12 " 10,890 20 X 20 " 15,687 48 X 24 " 5,445 24 X I " 261,360 48 X 48 " 2,723 24 X 6 " 43,560 60 X 36 " 2,901 24 X 12 " 21,780 60 X 60 " 1,745 The vast store of plant food in the soil is the farmer's stock in trade, the bank on which he may draw. Under good treatment, by superior tillage much more of the treasure can be utilized than at present. Statistical Facts 337 POUNDS PEE ACRE OF PI-ANT FOOB REMOVED BY CROPS Compiled from Minn. Station Bulletin No. 47, by Prof. Harry Snyder. The values of the last column are on the basis of nitrogen 150 per lb., phosphoric acid 6c. per lb., potash sc. per lb., lime 2c per lb. Crop Gross Nitro- wgt. gen Phos- phoric Potash Lime acid Total value Wheat, 30 bu.. . Straw Barley, 40 bu.. . Straw s Oats, 50 bu Straw Corn, ss bu Stalks Flax, IS bu Straw , Peas, 30 bu Straw Clover hay 3 tons Alfalfa hay 5 tons Timothy hay, 3 tons Mangels, 20 tons Potatoes, 200 bu. Apples, 6ooboxes Leaves, 4T Wood growth, i/SO tree 1,800 37'/! 18% loVz VA 3.000 15 loM 42 loH 52'/4 ' 29J4 52/2 12 1,920 28 15 8 I 3,000 12 5 30 8 40 20 38 9 1,600 35 12 10 l'/2 3,000 15 6 35 9>^ 50 18 45 II 2,200 40 18 15 1 3.000 35 2 45 II 75 20 60 12 900 39 15 8 3 ■ 1,800 15 3 19 13 54 18 27 16 1,800 18 22 4 3.500 7 38 71 25 60 75 6,000 42 99 II2>1 10,000 22 J4 120 ,180 6,000 72 9 71 9 40,000 ,150 70 300 60 1,200 53 27 100 33 30,000 47 5 57 2 8,000 59 7 47 K2 6 2 7 Vs 112 14 III 25/8 ?I2.SI 9.46 1 1. OS 1589 10.8s 6.00 9.72 10.9s 14.94 42.90 1523 23.24 338 American Irrigation Farming Vital and fascinating problems, to the solution of which the farmer must bring to bear all the knowledge and wisdom available, are how to maintain the supply of the food elements — nitrogen, phosphoric acid, pot- ash, and lime — in the soil, and how to make them most available for the crops. Vitality of Seeds. New seed is, of course, always to be preferred, though seed if well-cared for will retain germinating powers for a long time. In Colorado Bulletin Num- ber 35, W. P. Headden declares that results show that " The age of seed up to six years does not affect its germinating power." The following test on vitality of seeds is the most complete and thorough known to the author. Dr. William Caruthers, F. R. S., consulting botanist for many years of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, began in 1895 ^ test for vitality of six cereals, sixteen grasses, six clovers and allied plants, six turnips and allied plants, and two other plants, carrot and yarrow. The total number kinds of seeds tested was thirty-five. The object of the test was to determine how long, under ordinary conditions, the vitality of these seeds would be maintained. These seeds were tested each year in the germinat- ing case at a temperature of seventy degrees to eighty degrees Fahrenheit, on plates of porous porcelain or between blotting papers. It terminated with the death of the last seeds in 191 1. Below is given the result as each year's record was made by Dr. Caruthers : Statistical Facts 339 w 1161 6061 0161 8061 Z061 9061 £061 ^o6i C061 E06l 1061 0061 6681 8681 o o o o >- to t^oo \nO\0\ . r^ kH On 'to V} -^ Z 8!8 W O IN. n rn rONO OniOIOnoMD OMOnQ On VO On On no 0> On In- 0» tN, r^\C) 00 MO OnOO On 01 en -^ ^ ^ ra>.2 . e 1J *-< — —- ^ ;.S jn rt o « O 340 American Irrigation Fannin o «vooo i^ -a- M T Tf ^>OC» O fO ^3-52-^ 2061 I06I 0061 6681 ^681 968I s, ^O^C^ 00O\O\0nocS uto l-l u h:; c ■•a a; > 'oU-"^ u^ J, ^ o :5"0 Qj 'u K S 1) ° O.. nut. — C3 rti-niuaCnira N N N N « C4 W I bo O S o u Statistical Facts 341 t:jiejiv J3A013 v8 vSv 5 VDvS ^ MO 3 ^0\ Xq^ouiix SB3 o mm"^mininmmmin \D so so so so "O in in in in in "^ ?E3q^v \00~>C^^^^OMD\5^vS^^O^O\Sovo^S^O^^^D^^ •^ S 77. V ,2 rt <2 Ti.i' •>)j:.« U ™ " I- ".-, ^.- ^ ^ r- — « .B-C " m ^ C, vj CA) r* ■ ■5.2 o 342 American Irrigation Farming ^JI^JIV ■J3A0I3 jCllJOXUIX SE3J suBsg SUOIUQ 5 \OVO\0'0\0^^^0^ .23 \0\0'8 vS lo lo m »o m < .00 .3 c o o ■ C •£- J +J H bo en en Statistical Facts 343 The adoption of some system of weights and measures such as the metric system offers, would be far preferable to the one which custom has forced on us with its unexplainable variations in many states, as illustrated by the preceding table. The condition can be emphasized further by many facts in regard to legal weights in different states, such as that in Iowa forty pounds of cherries make a bushel, and in Tennessee sixty-four pounds without stems, and fifty-six with ; chestnuts, fifty pounds in Tennessee and fifty-seven in Virginia; cucumbers, forty-eight pounds in Missouri and fifty pounds in Wisconsin ; plums, forty pounds in Florida and sixty- four pounds in Tennessee; spelt, or spiltz, forty pounds in North Dakota and forty-five in South Dakota; strawberries, thirty-two pounds in Iowa and forty-eight pounds in Tennessee. The West avoids confusion by the general use of the hundred-pound unit in buying and selling, but a complete unit system of weights and measures, based on the decimal scale, so that reductions could easily be made, and one practical for all the states in the Union, is greatly to be desired. Organization of the U. S. Department of Agri- culture. In 1862 the Commissioner of Agriculture was es- tablished, who like the Commissioner of Education, was appointed to collect and distribute helpful facts re- lated to his subject and his bureau. In 1889 Congress created the Department of Agri- 344 American Irrigation Farming culture making the Secretary of Agriculture a cabinet officer to the President of the United States. As at present organized the department is composed of a number of bureaus, divisions and officers as fol- lows : I. Primary Divisions : 1. Bureau of Animal Industry. It has charge of the work of the department related to the live stock industry. 2. Bureau of Plant Industry. It studies plant life in all its relations to agriculture. Its divisions of work are grouped so as to most efficiently enable its workers to study specific crops in all phases of growth and de- velopment. 3. The Bureau of Soils. This division investigates the mechanical analysis of soils, makes agricultural chart- ing or mapping of soils of a given district and seeks to direct the best agricultural use of a distinct soil. An agricultural survey of the soils of a farming dis- trict makes a careful study of just the facts farmers want to know, and these reports are considered of very great value to the intelligent agricultural use of the soils investigated. Each farmer in an investigated district should have this soil report when it is made. 4. The Bureau of Chemistry. To this bureau is entrusted the analysis of economic plants of agriculture, fer- tilizers of various kinds, different agricultural prod- ucts and foods, drugs and commercial stimulants, con- diments and cosmetics used by the people of the nation. To the chief of this bureau is entrusted the enforcement of the Pure Food Law of the nation, its most important beneficial work. 5. The Bureau of Entomology. This bureau is entrusted with the important work of obtaining and disseminat- ing information regarding injurious insects affecting field crops, tree fruits, small fruits, truck crops, for- ests and forest products, stored products and any insects prejudicial to life and health of man or beast. 6. Bureau of Biological Survey. This division studies the geographical distribution of plants and animals, charts the natural life zones of the country, sends out infor- mation on predatory animals detrimental to animal, forest and crop interests and investigates life habits of economical birds and animals. 7. Bureau of Statistics. This bureau collects information as to the conditions, cost of production, yield and the marketing of the principal farm crops of the nation; Statistical Facts 345 data on farm animals, rural economics, transportation, compiles facts and figures upon these various farm activities, publishing the same in the form of bulletins from time to time. This bureau issues a Crop Report each month vifith help- ful data. 8. Bureau of Forestry. This newly organized bureau has control of all national forests and forest reserves, pre- vents theft of lumber, and as far as possible prevents forest fires, assists lumbermen, farmers and others in managing forest lands, while it is reforesting many thousand acres of denuded forest lands. 9. Weather Bureau. This Bureau reports weather condi- tions for the various weather zones and districts of the nation. The weather reporting Bureau was es- tablished in 1871. It has several hundred telegraphic reporting stations distributed over the United States observing and reporting on wind velocity, precipita- tion, evaporation, humidity, maximum and minimum temperatures. The frost warning service has proved of inestimable value to the fruit growing sections of the West. This Weather Bureau has grown to be of very great service to coast-wise trade vessels, to spe- cial and general farmers and to the general trade de- pending upon crop growing conditions and therefore weather predictions. II. Secondary Divisions: (These divisions of the work have been made since the formation of above named bureaus and their work has not been deemed broad enough to justify the forma- tion of additional bureaus for these phases of the work.) I. Office of Experiment Stations. a. Relations with State Agricultural Experiment Sta- tions. This division has supervision of disburse- ment of federal funds to the various State Stations for Experiment work : Hatch Fund, Adams Fund, etc. b. Insular Stations. 1. Alaska. 2. Hawaii. 3. Porto Rico. 4. Guam. c. Agricultural Education. d. Nutritious Investigations. e. Irrigation Investigations. It is the purpose of this office to obtam dato upon use and abuse of irri- gation water in every state where irrigation is prac- tical ; to find the duty of water in varying soils and climatic environment ; to keep in touch with all phases of irrigation development. 346 American Irrigation Farming i. Drainage Investigations. This division investigates the cause and rise of alkali in western soils, feasible methods of redeeming swamp lands, east, south, and all over the nation wherever found with prob- able cost of same. 2. OMce of Farm Management. This office is divided into the following sections of work : — a. Office Administration and records. b. Farm Economics. This section investigates agricultural cost accounting, farm equipment, marketing farm prod- ucts, agricultural credit, agricultural insurance, history of farm management and makes farm management surveys. c. Farm Management Field Studies and Demonstrations. This section has men assigned to make a special study of the farm management problems, which are funda- mental to farm success, within a given geographical region. The primary objects sought are briefly sum- marized by Prof. W. J. Spillman in his Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin No. 259, page 61 : — " I. To carry to the farmer the results of scientific research in his behalf, as well as the results of the experience of other farmers, and to aid the farmer in applying these results to his work. "2. To reorganize and redirect the agriculture of the various sections of the country in such a way as to secure on each farm not only enterprises that are profitable in themselves, each being so con- ducted as to bring maximum net returns, but also to secure a system of enterprises that will permit the largest economical use of power, capital and labor possible under the conditions, and which will give as nearly as possible an even distribution of labor and a full utilization of equipment throughout the year." This work is carried out by extension workers coop- erating with the county and state in which these farm problems are located. d. Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Club work. This section employs a specialist whose business it is to assist state and local authorities in the organization and conduct of such agricultural clubs as the crop conditions and needs would seem to justify. 3. Office of Public Roads. III. Division of Publications : .The publications consist of : — I. Annual reports, yearbook, reports of the various bureaus and offices. Courtesy I>. H. Bark. V. S. I. I. Salmon River Dam, 239 Feet High iaiumn^i' K t'ourtesy U. U. JJaik, U. S. 1. I. Main Pipe of the King Hill Irrigation Project, Crossing Snake River Diameter 72 Inches Statistical Facts 347 2. Farmers' bulletins, circulars, extracts and popular papers. These publications are distributed by Supt. of Docu- ments, Office of Publications, at request of farmers desiring the same. IV. Division of Accounts and Disbursements. Appropriations for the Department of Agricul- ture FOR 191 I. This gives one an idea of what Congress is doing to keep up this work which means so much to the farms of our nation : Salaries $ 1,473,650 Weather Bureau 1,318,610 Bureau of Animal Industry 1,734,540 Bureau of Plant Industry 1,502,936 Forest Service 4,947,900 Bureau of Chemistry 816,340 Bureau of Soils 193,600 Bureau of Entomology 502,900 Bureau of Biological Survey 71,520 Division of Publication 30,000 Bureau of Statistics 115,620 Library 15,400 Contingent Expenses 100,000 Agricultural Experiment Stations 1,021,740 Public Road Inquiries 92,980 ?I3,487,636 BIBLIOGRAPHY. Some of the most interesting and practical books on agriculture for the farmer are here named. Name Author Publisher Price 1. Alfalfa in America . Joe Wing Breeders Ga- zette $ 2.00 2. Apple Growing in the Pacific Northwest . . Compiled by H. W. Stone Portland. Ore. Y. M. C. A... i.oo 3. Agricultural Botany. John Percival ... H. Holt & Co. 1.75 4. Amateur Fruit Grow- ing Samuel B. Green 5. Agriculture for Schools of the Pa- cific Slope Hilgard & Oster- hout Macmillan .... i.oo 6. American Apple Or- chard Frank A. Waugh. i.oo 7. Arid Agriculture ... B. C. Bufifum . . Author I.50 8. Book on Corn Bowman & Cross- Orange Judd ley Co 2.50 9. Book on Alfalfa F. D. Coburn . . . Orange Judd Co I.7S 10. Breeding Farm Ani- mals F. R. Marshall . . 11. Beef Production H. W. Mumford. 12. Bush Fruits F. D. Card Macmillan Co.. 1.50 13. Bacteria in Relation to Country Life ... J. G. Lipman ... Macmillan Co.. 1.50 14. Cereals in America . Thos. F. Hunt . . Orange Judd Co I.7S 15. Clover Farming Henry Wallace . . Author 25 16. Conquest of Arid America Wm. E. Smythe . 17. Checking the Wastes Mary H. Gregory Bobbs - Merrill Co I.2S 351 352 Bibliography Name 18. Conservation of Nat- ural Resources of the U. S 19. Cyclopedia of Agri- culture 20. Cyclopedia of Horti- culture 21. Dairy Cattle and Milic Production . . . 22. Dry Land Farming . 23. Dry Farming 24. Domesticated Ani- mals and Plants . . 25. Diseases of Animals 26. Farm Boys and Girls 27. Farm Machinery . . . 28. Farm Grasses of U. S 29. Farm Dairying Farming of Forty Centuries 30. Feeds and Feeding. . 31. Fertility of the Lands 32. Fertilizers 33. First Principles of Soil Fertility 34. Food Products of the World 35. Forage and Fiber Crops 36. Forage Crops 36i.Fruit Growing in the Arid Regions 37. Fundamentals of Ag- riculture 38. Fungous Diseases of Plants 39. Grasses of North America Author C. R. Van Hise . L. H. Bailey .... L. H. Bailey .... C H. Eckles .... Thomas Wing . . John A. Widstoe Eugene Daven- port N. S. Mayo Publisher Price Macmillan Co..$ 2.00 Macmillan Co.. 20.00 Macmillan Co.. 20.00 Macmillan Co.. 1.50 Pioneer Pub. Co 1.25 Macmillan Co.. 1.50 C. A. McKeever. Davidson & Chase W. J. Spillman . Laura Rose .... F. H. King W. A. Henry . . L P. Roberts .. E. B. Vorhees . Ginn & Co. . . 1.25 Macmillan Co.. 1.50 Macmillan Co.. 1.25 2.00 1. 00 A. C. McClurg & Co I.2S Mrs. F. H. King, Madi- son, Wis. . . Author 2.2s Macmillan Co.. 1.50 Macmillan Co.. 1.25 Vivian Mary A. Green . F. S. Hunt E. B. Vorhees . . Paddock & Whip- ple J. E. Halligan . . . B. M. Duggar . . . Beal (2 vols.) . . i.SO Orange - Judd Co 1.7s Macmillan Co.. 1.25 Macmillan Co.. 1.2s D. C. Heath & Co I.2S Ginn & Co. . . . 2.00 7.50 Bibliography 353 Name Author Publisher Price 40. Garden Making .... L. H. Bailey .... Macmillan Co. .$ 1.50 41. Hand Book of Na- ture Study Anna B. Com- Comstock Pub. stock Co 2.50 42. Healthful Farm Home Helen Dodd .60 4,V Hog Book, The .... Dawson 44. Horse Book J. H. S. John- ston 2.00 45. How to Choose a Farm Thos. P. Hunt .. Macmillan Co.. 1.50 46. How to Keep Hens for Profit C.S.Valentine.. Macmillan Co.. 1.50 47. How to Keep Bees for Profit D. E. Lyon Macmillan Co.. 1.50 48. How to Grow Vege- tables Allen French Macmillan Co. . 1.75 49. Irrigation Farming.. L. M. Wilcox... Author 2.00 50. Irrigation Institu- tions Elwood Mead . . . Macmillan Co.. 1.7s 51. Live Stock Judging. John Craig Orange - Judd Co 1.50 52. Landscape Gardening Frank A. Waugh S.3. Law for the Amer- ican Farmer J. B. Green Macmillan Co.. 1.50 54. Milk and its Products Wing Macmillan Co.. 1.50 55. Modern Methods of Testing Milk and its Products Van Dyke .75 56. Manual of Gardening L. H. Bailey .... Macmillan Co. . 2.00 57. Manual of Practical Farming John McLennan. Macmillan Co.. 1.50 58. New Creations in Plant Life W. S. Harwood . Macmillan Co.. 1.75 59. Our Insect Friends and Foes Craigins 1.75 60. Potato, The Grubb and Guil- ford Doubleday, Page & Co.. 2.00 61. Primer of Irrigation D. H. Anderson. Author i.oo 62. Principles of Fruit Growing L. H. Bailey Macmillan Co.. 1.50 354 Bibliography Name Author 63. Principles of Agri- culture L. H. Bailey .... 64. Physics of Agricul- ture F. H. King 65. Practical Dairy Bac- teriology Conn 66. Practical Farming... W. F. Massey .. 67. Profitable Stock Feeding H. R. Smith 68. Profitable Stock Raising Charles Shamel . 6q. Pruning Book, The. L. H. Bailey 70. Poultry Breeding . . . Miller Purvis . . . Publisher Pkice Macmillan Co..$ 1.25 1-75 Ginn & Co. ... 1.25 A. C. McQurg & Co 1.25 1.50 Orange - Judd Co 1.50 Macmillan Co.. 1.50 Breeders Ga- zette 71. Rural Hygiene H. N. Ogden ... Macmillan Co.. 1.50 72. Self Supporting Home 73. Sheep Farming in America 74. Soils 75. Soils Kate U. St. Maur Joe Wing E. W. Hilgard . . S. W. Fletcher . 76. Soil Fertility and Permanent Agricul- ture C. G. Hopkins . 77. Soils and Fertilizers Harry Snyder . 78. Soil Culture Manual H. W. Campbell 79. Story of the Soil... C. G. Hopkins . Macmillan Co.. 1.75 Breeders Ga- zette Macmillan Co.. 4.00 Doubleday Page & Co. . . 2.00 80. Spraying of Plants. 81. Spraying Crops 82. Types and Breeds of Farm Animals .... 83. Testing Milk and its Products 84. Three Acres and Lib- erty 85. Uncle Henry to a Farm Boy Bademan Weed .... Ginn & Co. . . . 2.25 Macmillan Co. . 1.25 Campbell Soil Culture Co. . . 1.50 Richard D. Badger 1.2s 1 .25 •SO C. S. Plumb Farrington and Woll Bolton Hall .... Ginn & Co. . . . 2.00 125 Macmillan Co.. 1.75 Henry Wallace . Author 25 Bibliography 355 Name Author Publisher Price 86. U. S. Yearbook (Dept. of Agricul- ture) Obtained by ap- plication 87. Vegetable Garden . . Samuel B. Green $ 1.00 88. Weeds (Dept. of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada) i.oo FARMERS' BULLETINS. The government has issued something over five hundred of these bulletins, especially for the use of the farmers. A list of them can be obtained from Office of Publications, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Bulletins in this list will be sent free as long as the supply lasts to any resident of the United States, upon application to the Supt. of Docu- ments or to his senator or representative in Congress. Farmers are urged to send for a list of these bulletins and choosing those which are of special interest to them, send as directed above. The bulletins will be found most helpful to the man on the land. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to acknowledge having received most helpful and valuable suggestions and informa- tion for this handbook, from the following sources : Persons. Gov. E. M. Ammons, Mr. Peter Anderson, Mr. Mark Aus- tin, Mr. Don H. Bark, Mr. E. R. Bliss, Prof. A. E. Blount, Gen. Pass. Agt. D. E. Burley, O. S. L., Dean W. L. Carlyle, Prof. Geo. L. Clothier, Sec'y F. D. Coburn, Dr. Samuel Fortier, Mr. P. E. Fuller, Dr. W. P. Headden, Prof. G. N. Houston, Prof. E. J. Iddings, Dean W. M. Jardine, Mr. J. W. Jones, Dean H. K. Knight, Mr. J. F. McCrcry, Prof. L. A. Merrill, Dr. Elwood Mead, Mr. J. U. McPherson, Mr. W. W. McLaughlin, Prof. O. E. Olin, Mr. Benjamin Preston, Mr. F. W. Roeding, Dr. Saunders, Mr. R E. Smith, Mr. William Smythe, Mr. A. H. Sanders, Prof. W. J. Spill- man, Mr Lou D. Sweet, Mr. R. P. Teele, Mr. A. V. Tall- man, Prof. W. H. Wicks, Prof. E. J. Wickson. Corporations, Companies, Associations or Offices. Great Northern, Denver and Rio Grande, Northern Pacific, Oregon Short Line, and Southern Pacitic Railroads ; U. S. Reclamation Service, Office of Irrigation Investigations Cali- fornia Development League, Lewiston Orchards Co., Bisbee Photo Co., J. E. Stimson Photo Co., Capt. H. D. Smith Photo Co., L. C. McQun Photo Co. Books and Bulletins. Annual Report U. S. Office Experiment Station, igog ; Bul- letins on Irrigation Office Experiment Stations, U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture; Bulletins on Irrigation from Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming ; Report of State Engineer for Cahfornia, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming ; Irri- gation Institutions, Dr. Elwood Mead ; Irrigation in India, R. B. Buckley; Huston's Right of Appropriation; Revised U. S. Statutes, 1874; State Statutes, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming; Blackstone, Book 2; Wilson's Manual of Irrigation Engi- neering; Lenormant's Manual of Ancient History of the East; Prescott's Conquest of Peru; Conservation of Natural 357 3588 Acknowledgments Resources, Pres. Van Hise, U. of Wis. ; The Nation's Fu- ture, J. J. Hill ; Fletcher's Soils ; Snyder's Soils ; Hilgard's Soils; Plant Breeding, Luther Burbank; Percival's Agricul- tural Botany; Prof. E. H. Stover's Agriculture; Report, Lawes and Gilbert, England ; Bailey's Cyclopedia of Agricul- ture; Lund's History of Latter Day Saints; Paddock and Whipple's Fruit Growing in the Arid Regions. INDEX INDEX Acre foot, 46-48 Adjudications in water claims, 35-37 Agriculture, U. S. Department of, 343-347 ; appropria- tions, 347 ; organization, 343-347 Alfalfa, 141-169, 278; A. B. C. of culture, 166-167; cul- tural cautions, 148-152, IS7, 158; curing, 153, 154; "Dent's," 167, 168; feed value, 142, 152, 159, 163, 298, 303, 30S; fertilizer, as a, 165 ; harvesting for seed, 154; irrig-ating, 159- 162 ; meal, 163 ; nurse crop, 147; plowing up, 162; ro- tation value, 164; seed bed preparation, 143, 144 ; seed, amount of, 146 ; seed, im- portance of good, 145; seeding, 146, 147; thresh- ing, 156, IS7 Alkali soils, 136, 232 Ancient world irrigation, 3-15; Americas, 8-12 ; Babylonia, S; Chaldea, s; Egypt, 4; Sabjea, 5 Apples, 237, 24s; packing, 246, 247; marketing, 246, 247; standardizing, 246, 291 Appropriation of water, right of, 33-41 Artesian well irrigation, 120, 121 Asparagus, irrigation, 24S, 255 ; soil, 2SS Australia, irrigation in, 30, 31 Author's acknowledgments, 357 Aztec irrigation, 9, 10 Barley, 189; yield, 202 Basin method of irrigation, 112 Beans, 241, 281 Beef, feeding for, 305 ; "Baby," 306 ; range, grass-fed, 306 Bees, double service, 142, 155 Berries, 262, 263 Bibliography, 349-355 Border method of flooding, 108, 109 Bulletins, state and national, 345. 347 ; how to obtain, 355 ; value of, 169 Cabbage, 252; cost, 232; cul- tivation, 252 ; soil, 252 Canals, 128; lining, 130, 131 Canvas dam, 106, 107, 160, 196 Celery, 255-262 ; blanching, 260; cost, 261; irrigation, 259; plant setting, 258; seed, 256, 257; soil, 258, 259; transplanting, 258, 259; varieties, 257 Cement for ditches and canals, 131 Check method of irrigation, 105, no. III China, present day irrigation in, 24-26 Cippoletti weir, 50, 328 Clover, 278 Corn, 190, 268, 287 : silage, 268 Cows, 303-307; feed, 305, 306; kinds, 305 ; value, 304 Crops, fundamentals for suc- cess, 279 ; cash, 285 ; feed- ing, 286; legume, 281, 282; rotation of, 279-295; stand- ardizing, 290 Crowder, "V-shaped," 106, 194 Cubic foot, 46 361 362 Index Dairy, the western, 303-305; profitable, 304 ; sanitary, 304 Ditches, 99, 100, 103-106, 128, 194, 195; crowder, 194; lining, 130-132; mileage in states, 326 Distribution of water, 97-138 Division boxes, 106 Duty of water, 99, 204 Eggs, essentials for com- mercial success, 296, 297 Egypt, ancient and modern ir- rigation in, 4, 26-28 Electric motor pumping, 126, 127 Emmer wheat, 191 Europe, irrigation in, 28-30 Farms, small truck and fruit, 263 ; "Stay on the Farm Movement," 294 ; twenty- acre, plan for, 263, 264; statistics, 323 Farmers, depleting soil, 66; failure to use state and national helps, 65; eight points on irrigation for, 118, 119; must be students, S3; bulletins for, 355. Farming, preparation for, 293, 294; what general should include, 284-286 Flooding method, 100 Forage crops, 266-278; com for silage, 268; field peas, 266-268; timothy, 269, 270 Formalin treatment for smut and scab, 90-^3, 176 Fresno, in preparing seed bed, 80 Fruit, see orchards; associa- tions, 246 Furrow method of irrigation, 113; for potatoes, 180 Gasoline engine pumping, 124, 125 Grain culture, 189-204 ; cost for wheat, 203 ; disinfecting for smut, 90-92 ; harvesting, 201 ; irrigating, 193-200 ; measuring in bin or wagon bed, 335; returns, 200; seed bed and seeding, 191- 193; yields, 200-202 Grasses, 134, 270-278; altitude, 269, 277 ; cultivation, 271 ; irrigation, 270, 271 ; seed and seed bed, 272, 273; formulas for mixtures, 274. 275 Hay, product under sewage, 133. 134; measuring in the stack, 334, 335 History of irrigation, 3-31 Hogs, 298-301 ; diseases, 299 ; feed, 2^, 300; pens, 299 Horses, 307-309; breeds, 308; market, 308; qualities, 307; value on farm, 307 Humus, 57, 58, 60, 61, 163, 187, 241, 251, 281, 283 India, present day irrig tion in, 15-24 Irrigation, defined, 3; cost, 116- 118, 325; expense per acre and maintenance, 325'; fundamental terms, 32-53 ; preparing land for, 81, 99; projects, 314-323 ; sug- gestions for new settlers, 118; tables of equivalents, areas, etc., 324, 332, 333 Irrigator's arithmetic, the, 53 Legumes, 280, 282 Level in grading land, 80, lOl, 103-10S, 19s Leveling triangle, loi, 102, 104, lOS "Little Landers, The," 263 Livestock, 296-310, 324 Miner's inch, 45 Index ,363 Nitrates, value of to soil, 56, 57, 281, 282 Oats, igo; yield, 202 Oil lining for ditches and canals, 131, 132 Onions, 250-252; cost, 251; harves.ing, 251; soil, 250; varieties, 250 Orchards, 229-249; culture, 241-245 ; frost fighting, 247-249 ; harvesting, 245- 246 ; inter-cropping, 241, 287 ; irrigation, 242, 243 ; location, 233-235 ; plantine, 237-240; soil requirements, 230-232, 236; weather in- fluences, 234-236 Peas, 253, 254, 281, 288 Plant, breeding, 84, 85; food removed by plants from soil, 280, 337; number of plants to an acre, 336; food restorers, 281, 282 Plowing, deep, 63; skim, 63; team, 78; traction, yy, 78; two-way, 79; ditcher plow, 160 Potatoes, 94, 170-188; cost of growing, 184; cultivation, 178, 179; disinfecting seed, 92; irrigation, 179-182; harvesting, 183, 184; plant- ing, 172, 177; treatment for scab, 92, 176; seed, selection, 173-175 ; plot, 175; treatment, 176; amount, 178; seven rules for success, 186-188; soil requirements, 171, 172, 188; standardizing, 290, 291 ; storage, 185, 186; success with, 94, 95, 171, 185, 291. Poultry, 296-298; economizers, 296; eggs, 297; raising, 297, 298 Priority of water rights, 34- 27 Projects of the reclamation service, 313-323 Pump irrigation, 122, 331 Pumping plants in states, 326 Reclamation service of United States, 313-323 Reservoirs, leakage, 129; lin- ing, 132; sites, and dams, 43-4S ; tables of numbers and capacity, 326 Rome's aqueducts, 13 Rotation of crops, 279-295 ; choosing the crops, 284, 285 ; fundamentals of, 283 ; illustrations of successful, 286-290 ; localities, 284, 285 ; purpose and necessi- ty, 279. 281 Rye, 191 Sagebrush, 69-72 Second foot, 46, 48 Seed, 83-96; acclimated, 86; Burbank table, 84; germi- nation tests, 87-89 ; quality, 85; quantity to an acre, 336; selection, 83-96; vi- tality, tables of, 89, 338- 340 Seed bed, 68-82; essentials of good, 68, 69, 82; discing, 75; harrowing, y^; level- ing, 80; plowing, 73; pre- paring native sod, 72; re- ducing sagebrush, 69-71 ; tillage operations, 72 Seepage, 98, 128 Sewage, city, 133, 135; as fertilizer, 133-135 Sheep, 301-303; feed, 302, 303; ranges, 301 Silage, 268 "Sinking lands," 80, 232 Small grains, 189-204; cost of growing crops, 20-?, 204; harvesting, 261 ; irrigation, 190-193, 196-200 ; kinds, 189; quantity to an acre, 192; seed bed, 191; seed- ing, 192 364 Index Smut, disinfecting for, 90-93 Soil, 54-67; clay, 59; compari- son of western and east- ern, 63 ; conserving, 65-67 ; defined, 54; exhaustion of, 64-66, 280, 281 ; fertility, measure of, 56, 57; gravel- ly, 59 ; humus in, 57 ; origin of western, 55, 56; preser- vation of, 64-67 ; replenish- ing, 281-283; sandy, 58; surface vs. sub-soil, 61-63; volcanic, 61 ; value of, 64 Standardizing crops, 246, 290, 291 Storage of water, 42, 45 Statute inch, 45, 46 Stubble land, 75, 76 Sub-irrigation, 114, 115, 135 Sub-soil, 61, 62, 115 Sugar beets, 205-228; blocking and thinning, 212; cost, 223, 224; cultivation, 213, 214 ; harvesting, 219-221 ; irrigation, 208, 209, 215-217, 218; land preparation, 205, 208; pests, 226; rotation for, 225 ; seed bed, 208 ; seeding, 209-212 ; soils for the crop, 206, 207, 217; sugar making, 218; yields, 221, 223 Team plowing, 78 Timothy, 271 ; sod, 75 Tomatoes, 252, 253; culture, 253; soil, 253; varieties, 253 Traction plowing, 77, 78 Trucking, 250-265 Two-way plow, 79 Twenty-acre schedule, 263, 264 Vetch, 276, 277; vicia irillosa, 276; with oats or barley, 277 Water, amount required to cover given acreage, 332; appropriation of, 33-41 ; decrees, 33-36, 40, 42, 44; distribution, methods of, 51, 52, 97-138; duty of, 52, 99, 182, 199, 242; efficiency of, 128; rule to find num- bt. of gallons in tank, 335; measurements, 45-50; pri- ority, 35, 36; rights, 32, 42, 44; storage, 133; waste, 98, 99, 129, 137, 138, 195 Water wheel devices, 128 Weeds, 282; carriers of, 282; elimination of, 282 Weight, standard of farm products in pounds in dif- ferent states, 341-343 Weir, 48-50, 327, 328; Cippo- letti, so, 327; diagrams, 327, 328, 330; how to read water, 49, 50, 330, 331; measurements, 48-50, 331 ; methods of use, 330 Wheat, 189, 190, 191, 288, 294; cost of growing, 203, 204; standardizing, 292 Windmill irrigation, 122, 123 THE END l'^l.'.'i!ljli,