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pftf» RECLAMATION Edited by Prof. W. W. McLaughlin, Logan, Utah. PRACTICAL IRRIGATION. (Concluded from last issue.) Seventh —When you begin to experi ment you will find that the saturating capacity of soils, even in the same field, varies greatly. When the soil is so full of water that the air is shut off, no new roots are formed, and no new water is taken up, and as a result the growth suffers. The soil requires air and sun as well as moisture. . Shallow soils with gravel or open subsoils leach the moisture rapidly and there is less danger of over-saturation, but the continual pouring of water through such soil will also carry away the fertilizing elements which are in solution and soon deplete the soil. Find out how much water your soil will hold in suspension and irrigate accord ingly. The soil is a chemical labora tory and you are the chemist. The soil must have moisture, air and the heat of the sun to keep the chemical action at work making plant food. When you have too much water in the soil there is no air, hence no chemical action. With too much air there is no moist ure and no chemical action. With proper moisture and cultivation the chemical action is complete, the capil lary attraction bringing up the moist ure from the lower levels to the top mulch. Here the sun and air manu facture the fertilizing elements and the next rain or irrigation washes them down to be taken up by the roots. The process repeats itself without end, so long as we water and cultivate prop erly. Cultivation is more important than irrigation, and in the arid regions one is of little use without the other. Don't overlook the fact that a weed is a pump and that it draws water out of the soil at a rapid rate. Of course it is difficult to control exactly the amount of moisture, but a great deal can be done in this direction and will repay any one who will take the trouble to apply his water to crops scientifically. The most economical method of irri gating land and at the same time one that gives an almost complete control of the water is the pipe system, de livering water under pressure to each tract of land. Pipe lines are used in California for surface and subirriga tion systems. In some cases as high as 1,000 acres of land is watered with a flow of one cubic foot per second. In Washington, under the present open ditch system of irrigation, 200 acres with this amount of water would be above the average. Where water is spread over the land in open ditches, the ditches should be close together and large enough to fIAT HOOPS-IRON DRAW-lUGS^ilr Tanks OET BUSY and lot us hear from you with an Inquiry, If not an order, for some of our wood tanks. You need such an article on that ranch of yours and we make It our business to furnish the finished article. Our tanks are guaranteed to give sat isfaction and all we ask for Is a trial. Let u« send you our list with dls countH. Grays Harbor Commercial Co. 1122 White Bldg.. SEATTLE. WASH. /The • R>aiiciv> y carry water in big heads. By using the large heads you can irrigate the ground more rapidly, thus saving in the quan tity of water wasted by seepage, and also have better control of the per centage of moisture you wish to put in the soil. Under long canals where there are numerous users of water, or where the water is divided into sev eral heads, the waste is very large. The soil is over-saturated and in many cases the land is ruined. The system of delivering water to individual users in a constant flow of small rivulets is a bad practice. The time flow system would be much bet ter, delivering the water in large heads for short periods. Generally 60 to 70 per cent of the water diverted from streams by open canals and distributed by lateral ditches is lost before it is stored up in the soil for use by the vegetation. Water is too valuable to allow this kind of waste. In the Inland Empire we find the amount of water used in different dis tricts to run from one-half to four feet the acre, but why the growers use this amount of water few, if any, seem to fully understand. The fact is most people use three to four times as much water as is necessary and do a good deal of harm to their soil and also to the crop by an unbusinesslike and really ignorant use of a valuable quan tity. The soil is a sponge, which will only retain a certain amount of moist ure. If more water is supplied it sim ply leaches down and is lost or runs away, carrying with it a fertilizing ele ment of the soil which is in solution, and only those which are in solution are of any value to plant life. The principal value of water is to make the fertilizing element soluble. Greater irrigation would work won ders in a large portion of the arid belts. The question of pumping water for ir rigation is a problem of the present time in irrigation development. The opportunities for gravity irrigation are largely exhausted. There has been in the past, and is yet, a general yjreju dice against pumping. The opposition is due more to ignorance than anything else. The use of cheap machinery is also responsible for the general belief that the pumping of water for irriga tion is impracticable and too costly. All over the arid region will be found abandoned pumping plants, and when you inquire the cause you get one an swer. "It costs too much to pump the water." The trouble is not with the pumping system, but with the system of pumping. The cost should not be more than $2 an acre, but there are scores of instances where it cost from $12 to $14. Water wheels, current motors, have been in use in China for more than 3,000 years, and, in all that time there has been no marked improvement in their efficiency, though thousands of types have been constructed and tried. They are a crude and burdensome means to get power, and under the most favorable conditions they give only a fraction of the power of steam. Taking the facts into consideration, I may say too that the windmill is an ingenious contrivance, from an irrigation stand point, to waste power and money as a general rule. However, where the lift is low, wind conditions favorable and a natural, inexpensive reservoir avail able, a small tract of land may be wa tered, but in 99 cases out of 100 it is a delusion and a waste of money. An important legal decision was that rendered recently in the United States circuit court of appeals at San Fran cisco, Cal., on a case emanating in this state in regard to the constitutionality of the reclamation law. Having locat ed on land near Lake Keechelus be fore it was surveyed, Chris Hanson claimed homestead rights as against withdrawal by the reclamation serv ice; this claim the lower court sus tained and the reclamation service ap pealed the case, when Hanson chal lenged the constitutionality of the act POTASH J^M^M^i^W^p^W ot on increase ot quantity, but also im &M?. l^%^" ' ' provement in quality, is the result of applying m^^^^^^M Potash t0 ;BBRwWw • POTATOES lf£ *saC*- '^\ * The use of about 10 per cent, of Potash HjiS^^r^P ilk'wki in your commercial fertilizer produces sturdy ,\ t'*" - vines and smooth, solid tubers that bring top J^^B^^^ prices in the market. / POTASH IS PROFIT §0* S'sf** Wi Valuable Literature, Pree, on fertilizing POTATOES *|t i/W '% ', % and a" other cr°ps' XJL a-* * ;ft§| GERMAN KALI WORKS, 93 Nassau Street, New York ** A $m& Chlcato-Monxlnock Block. Atlanta, 0a.—1224 Candler Bldf. SSZT anti!3&co. I^h..J •• , ___ . . , — MF*9b< The Columbia Book will tell you m X how t*his Ram will •'. I .|B irrigate your farm kP|||mH The Columbia Hydraulic Ram has been ■f ■ IgfliK tried by farmers with large farms and w|i V farmers with small farms, and lias been _c ksrS***^ Hk. found reliable, economical and in every Jj^^Mp wa.V satisfactory. ■ nß^*^BJLv ■ 'i(( IIS 'I:lVt' y°ur address and we 11 j-J^jaJtejjJf BL show you what it will do for you. "pUP COLIMBIA STEEL CO. WK^ 146 10th St. N. PORTLAND, ORE. , I : : : ; :— '. ____ WOOD PIPE FOR IRRIGATION MAINS DURABLE. NEVER ROTS. NEVER RUSTS. ECONOMICAL. WASHINGTON PIPE AND FOINDRY CO. TACOMA, WASH. BOSTROM'S SIS-JJLEyLSLI^- With Magnifying Olmmmmm QwftfSS^^^'.'^i^a^dA In Tho Telomcopo M^2S^**B^Z2»jiZ^ammo*^^^ Target distance over l"^^^^^sHHH|H||B^^^ of a FAEM LEVEL with TELEBCOPE at moder-^^^2^^^^^S^X^<'oii»i>l«-««' ato cost has at last been solved. Voluntary letters M^^^^mj Onllit with from every State in the Union show the complete mßHi^B^ full instruc satiafaction it srives for all kinds of DItAINAUK «■ BSa tions, shipped WORK, IKItIOATION, DITCHIWO, TICK- FBB^f anywhere ICACING and every sort of farm work requiring Bf 0.0.D. 81S.00 a Level. GUARANTEED to be absolutely SIMPLE, fiMft and express ACCURATE, DURABLE and dependable in every -.-si&j^PL^v " charges respect. NOW is the time to send in your order. j^^Sp^BPSasMfik Subject to BOSTROM- BRADY MFS. CO., Mf jHlKlk MSIT'""" 153 Madison Aye., • - ■ • Atlanta, «a. jW^,(^9^^^ms. under which it was organized, and which is now upheld. This outcome of the case will give new impetus to reclamation work, as it removes all doubt as to its legality. The Payette-Boise project in Idaho is so far completed that the headgates were formally opened on Washington's birthday. The water will flow from these headgates into huge reservoirs, one —the Deer Flat reservoir—being the largest In the world; thence it will go to irrigate 200,000 acres of land on the south section of the great proj ect. When a Kansas grocer bought five sacks of potatoes of a commission firm and found 65 pounds of dirt in the sacks, the attorney general ruled that the commission men can not be arrested, but the farmer can, for adul terating his potatoes. 14 Wood Stave Water Pipe has proven the best for IRRIGATION POWER PLANTS TANKB, ETO. For details and quotations address Pacific Coast Pipe Co. rtoTcnv AM* orrici w. o. i«lu«d «t». 4«ia i«th *VC. N. w. SEATTLE, WASH. Uk/*%&B DRILLING & ff GoH PROSPECTING MACHINtS t i-,ic->i anllei- Known deal money f4l ner»> .OOMIS MACHINE CO., TIFFIN, OHIO