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-examples of the great size of these canals, we have the Eagle Lake 

 Rice Irrigation canal, 17 miles long and 200 feet wide ; The Trespa- 

 lacios canal, 4| miles long and 200 feet wide, and the Treadway canal, 

 25 miles long and 220 feet wide. Another canal, now under construc- 

 tion, will be 56 miles long and 175 feet wide. 



Owing to the fact that these canals are practically on a level and 

 have no current in many cases, they are subject to obstruction through 

 the o-rowth of water weeds, and these constitute a serious menace to 

 the usefulness of the smaller ditches, unless the growths are removed. 



The water in these canals all has to be pumped, and in most cases 

 from bayous which are below the sea-level, on to lands which lie as 

 hio-h as 70 feet above. For such a raise it is necessary in most places 

 to have several lifts, the first one being from the bayou or stream, and 

 the others at intermediate points along the canal. The pumps are of 

 two types only, both suction pumps, however — the centrifugal and 

 rotary. The former is the more popular, as it does not need direct 

 connection with the propelling machinery, being run by belt or rope 

 transmission. The rotary pumps, when properly established, should 

 be more efficient than the centrifugal, and as they are run much mOre 

 slowly, there is less wear and tear ; but the increased cost of installa- 

 tion, owing to the necessity for permanent and strong foundations, 

 limits their use. Boilers and engines are of varied patterns, but any 

 that are good will serve the purpose. 



Fuel is of three kinds- coal, wood and oil. Of these, coal is the 

 most expensive and oil the cheapest and most convenient to handle. 

 Wood can be had near at hand, as most of the bayous are in heavily 

 wooded districts ; but the cost of labour brings the price above that of 

 fuel oil, which is delivered from the nearby Texas oil fields at a low 

 rate. In Texas particularly, where much of the irrigation is from 

 artesian wells, crude oil is the most important factor in the fuel and 

 power question. 



From the canals the water is distributed over the fields through 

 measuring flumes, and is held at different levels in the sloping field by 

 means of low levees, over which the water may flow until all the levels 

 are flooded. Planters are now making these levees in the fields very 

 flat and with gradual slopes, so that they interfere but little with the 

 cultivable surface of the ground and allow the passage of the reaper 

 and binder for harvesting. Since the water rises to the tops of these 

 field levees, almost an average crop of rice is raised on thera, and the 

 fact that they can be cultivated and harvested makes it possible to 

 keep out the weeds and red rice. 



The application of water to the crop differs in some particulars from 

 irrigation on the Atlantic coast. In the first place, the Louisiana 

 farmers depend on early rains to start the crop, and need no flooding 

 to protect the grain from birds, since the reed-bird orbob-o-link is not 

 the pest in Louisiana and Texas that it is in the Carolinas and Georgia. 

 The first growth of the crop, or until the plants are from six to ten 

 inches high, is made without artificial application of water, but after 

 that the fields are kept flooded until within ten days of harvest time, 

 when the levees are cut, and the water drains off rapidly by means of 

 ditches provided for that purpose, leaving the ground dry enough to 

 permit the use of the reaper and binder. As the harvesting machinery 



