TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 205 



EXPERIENCE WITH IRRIGATION IN 1895. 



BY MR. MANFORD E. WILLIAMS OP DOUGLAS. 



It is generally known that there are several methods or systems of 

 irrigation in use. but it is not so generally understood that these varia- 

 tions exist of necessity and grow out of differences in the surrounding 

 conditions, and that a system which Avorks admirably in one place might 

 be an utter failure, or only partially successful, in another; and the 

 Michigan fruitgrower or farmer will probably fail if he attempts to fol- 

 low too closely the methods of irrigation in use along the mountain 

 streams of California or Colorado or around the artesian wells of the Da- 

 kota s. 



T will mention a few of the conditions which determine the method of 

 irrigation to be adopted. First, the source of water supply. Where 

 from natural causes the water is elevated above the land to be irrigated, 

 and can be applied to the land by gravity ditches, as in the case of moun- 

 tain streams, one of the most perplexing and expensive questions which 

 confronts the Michigan irrigator is eliminated, because, as a general 

 thing, water to irrigate Michigan farms must be raised by artificial 

 means; and here again the character of the water supply has an impor- 

 tant bearing on the method of elevating it. Where the supply is ample, 

 power and machinery may be adopted of sufficient capacity to force the 

 water directly to the place where it is to be used, as fast as needed; but 

 if the water supply is not sufficient for that purpose, some plan for storing 

 it must be devised, either by damming back natural water courses or by 

 building reservoirs in which it may gradually accumulate until needed; 

 and whei'e such reservoirs can be built cheaply and effectively it will 

 greatly reduce the expense of raising the water, as a cheaper power, like 

 windmills or hydraulic rams, may be used to fill the reservoirs. 



Another cause of variation in methods of irrigation, is the character 

 of the soil, and this is of more importance than is generally supposed. 

 The writer once lived in a Dakota town which had a fine artesian well. 

 Water was struck at a depth of 1,145 feet, and the pressure was so 

 great that it required a strong hose to withstand it, affording excellent 

 fire protection. The streets were piped, and I had a hydrant in my yard; 

 and with the aid of about 100 feet of inch hose and open ditches I could 

 irrigate my entire garden, consisting of two village lots. When the 

 ground was dry, the water would work its way down the ditches very 

 slowly, owing to the large amount taken up by the soil, and with ditches 

 ten feet apart I could soak the entire space between, so that anyone at- 

 tempting to cross it would sink into the mud over his shoe tops. The 

 water in my cistern, a rod from the hydrant, was ruined by the seepage, 

 as the artesian water was very hard ; and I have recently received a com- 

 plaint from the tenant in the house that the cellar is being flooded from a 

 leak in the main in the street, twenty-five or thirty feet away, and a 

 neighbor was annoyed by water from this well working into his cistern 

 from, an open ditch on the opposite side of the street, a distance of not 



