30 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



the Utah Station, aiul was carrii'd on by I'rol'. (J. II. Trui', of that 

 .station, and Mr. A. E. Wright, of this Office. Professor Vernon diil 

 siinihir work at the New Mexico Station. The work a( all of these 

 stations included also applying like, quantities of water by ditl'erent 

 methods. 



Tn California the work done by Professor Fortier included also 

 tank experiments to determine the effect of different methods of iip- 

 l)lying water and subsequent cultivation in checking losses of soil 

 moisture by evai)oration, the results being very strongly in favor of 

 applying it in deep furrows where possible. 



Further work on methods of irrigation in relation to the quantity 

 of water used was done in 1005 in Colorado by Mr. F. AV. Hoeding, 

 of this Office, in cooperation with sugar-beet growers near Loveland, 

 and in the Arkansas Valley. The prevailing practice was to use 

 water copiously for a brief period, which, with many crops, is cor- 

 rect practice, but wdth the beets it was objectionable from the fact 

 that it muddied the surface soil, delaying or preventing cultivation, 

 and failed to properly moisten the subsoil into which the roots of the 

 beets reached. Our work last year involved a change in the construc- 

 tion of laterals, a slight change in the character of the furrows, and 

 the using of a small stream of water for an average of eighteen hours, 

 instead of a large stream for an average of six hours. The work 

 done imder the modified practice was carefully compared with the 

 work of farmers irrigating by the usual methods, and showed that 

 instead of using water enough to cover the land to a depth of 3 feet, 

 the water used would have covered the land to a depth of only 1.5 

 feet, and that there was an average increase in the yield per acre of 

 3.5 tons. 



Losses in conveying water are especially large in neAV canals, and 

 in some sections the prevention of these losses is one of the most 

 important problems in irrigation. In the fruit districts of Califor- 

 nia such losses have been prevented by lining the canals Avith cement 

 or by carrying water in pipes; but this method is too expensive where 

 ordinary farm crops are grown, and is not possible in cold climates. 

 In 1005 Mr. A. P. Stover, of this Office, made some experiments in east- 

 ern Oregon, which proved quite successful. The method adopted was 

 to place across the canal a heavy chain attached to a wagon and drag 

 it along the canal. The rolling of the chain along the bottom pud- 

 dled the silt sufficiently to check seepage losses to a considerable extent. 



The great extension of the irrigated area w^hich has been going on 

 during the last three or four years has brought a great demand for 

 practical directions as to the manner of preparing these lands for 

 the application of water and the way in which Avater should be ap- 

 plied. Thirty- four million dollars have been appropriated by the 



