murphy: collection and storage of water in KANSAS. 223 



there no other way of storing it ? There are nine canals in western 

 Kansas taking water from this river. Their combined capacity is 

 about 2200 cubic feet per second, equaling 4400 acre feet per twenty- 

 four hours, or 7 square mile feet per twenty-four hours; that is, the 

 water which these nine canals will take from the river each twenty- 

 four hours, when working at full capacity, will fill a reservoir one 

 mile square to a depth of 7 feet. This is a good sized reservoir and 

 these canals will fill it once in twenty-four hours. 



One objection to these canals is that they are too long, the reser- 

 voirs are too far from the river, and there is too great a loss of water 

 between river and reservoir. Another fault is that the dams are not 

 strong enough to divert a large amount of water into the canals; in 

 fact, they are swept away at each freshet, only to be rebuilt after 

 nearly all the water has passed on doWn stream. 



If the water of this river is to be stored in Kansas this is the best 

 way to do it. 



Mr. Perry, of Englewood, Clark county, is storing the water of the 

 Cimarron river in this way: He saturates his ground with water in 

 the fall, and can raise a crop of wheat averaging thirty-five bushels 

 per acre from this one watering. He irrigates 1200 acres. 



Let us assume a farm somewhere near the 20 inch mean annual 

 rainfall curve, with a draw on it having a drainage area of say twelve 

 acres. And suppose the soil and inclination of surface is such that 

 the run-off is 50 per cent of the mean annual rainfall. Then 50 per 

 cent of 20 inches equals 10 inches, and this depth over twelve acres 

 gives a volume of ten acre feet. If the average depth of the water in 

 the reservoir is 10 feet, an area of one acre will be required to store 

 it. We assume the evaporation to be 60 inches per annum, and the 

 percolation one-fourth of this amount. These two lossses will then 

 be 75 inches or 6}{ feet, leaving a depth of only 3^ feet for irri- 

 gation. 



The percolation loss we have assumed is perhaps too great. Res- 

 ervoirs are made in western Kansas by a process called "puddling," 

 which are nearly impervious to water, but it is necessary to keep the 

 bottom and sides wet all the time, as if they get dry or freeze they 

 crack. The sides and a part of the bottom of a reservoir storing 

 rainwater will be dry a part of the time, and will leak some. By 

 increasing the depth of the reservoir the surface exposed to evapora- 

 tion is decreased, and the rate of evaporation somewhat diminished. 

 To the losses from the reservoir must be added those from the 

 ditch carrying the water to the land. 



The outlook for the storing of water in western Kansas is not very 

 promising. In the central and eastern part, where the mean annual 



