88 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



will be one of the factors that will force under-drainage, as it is one of 

 the Problems of Irrigation to get the water to the land, and then to get it 

 away from it, and shallow soils with a clay subsoil cannot be successfully 

 irrigated without under-drainage. To emphasize the fact that with 

 general Irrigation that will in time come in southern Oregon when the 

 benefits are better understood, that under-drainage will be forced on 

 many of our soils where the water-table is forced near the surface by 

 reason of an impervious clay, or cement hardpan subsoil, I quote Mr. 

 Carl S. Schofield, Agriculturist in Charge of Western Agricultural Exten- 

 sion, Bureau of Plant Industry, which will be found under the caption, 

 "The Problems of an Irrigation Farmer," Year Book of the Department 

 of Agriculture, 1909: "One of the most striking features in the history 

 of Irrigation in the Old World is the ruin of Irrigation enterprises caused 

 by the rise of Underground waters and of alkali. Botb in theory and 

 practice these phenomena are closely associated. Arid lands almost 

 universally contain large quantities of soluble salts, because these salts — 

 the products of rock disintegration and soll formation — are not leached 

 out by rain. The more common salts thus formed are sodium chloride, 

 sodium sulphate, and sodium carbonate. and though only the last is really 

 an alkaline salt, the populär term 'alkali" is applied to whatever salts 

 occur in the soll water in sufRcient quantities to check or prevent plant 

 growth. 



"Excessive Irrigation in time fills the soll with water, in which these 

 salts are dissolyed, and the eyaporation of the water from the ground 

 brings the salts up and leayes them at or near the surface in constantly 

 increasing quantities. Unless natural drainage courses are present or 

 artificial ones are created the inevitable result of excessive irrgation is 

 that the land becomes too wet or too alkaline for the growth of crop 

 plants. This problem of Underground waters should be contantly in mind, 

 not only in the selection of an irrigated farm, but also in its management. 

 It does not sufRce that a f armer himself uses Irrigation water .iudiciously, 

 for the reckless use of water on adiacent higher land may ruin a farm 

 completely. It is true that either Underground waters or alkali alone may 

 cause trouble in some cases, but they occur most frequently together and 

 both yield to the same remedy. which is adequate drainage." 



Irrigated land, where the subsoil is not porous and there is reckless 

 use of water, soon becomes swamp. This condition of land becoming 

 swamp is to be found in eyerv Irrigation district. From Secretary 

 Wilson's report in the Year Book for 1909, it is estimated that about 

 700,000 acres of land haye become swamps through irrigation, throughout 

 the West. This land is ;mder water, and the only possibility of reclaiming 

 and making it productive is by under-draining by using tile. Any and all 

 contemplated Systems of irrigation should haye careful suryeys made of 

 the subsoil to determine if the same is porous, and will afford the neces- 

 sary drainage before water is conducted to the land for irrigation, or 

 eise the Promoters may stand to lose large sums of money. 



The outlay at the beginning to put unfayorable land that requires 

 drainage in condition for irripration is expensiye, but the results in 

 production will in the end be a profitable Investment. When land is once 

 properly drained, with necessary depth, it lasts forever, and is always 

 productive with ample water, and gains riches with each generation for 

 all time. 



