118 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



&quot;We find now the valley through this entire territory, instead of being a dry, barren 

 plain, over which the wind used to pass so rapidly, a country covered with vegetation, 

 with grass, corn, grain of various kinds, and with groves of trees, so that the wind, in the 

 first place, moving up through the valley, is checked by the trees, and when near the surface 

 of the earth, probably does not move up the valley with half the rapidity that it formerly did. 

 On the surface, instead of passing over hot, barren sand, it passes over fresh herbage, so that 

 we have all through that valley a layer of air that moves comparatively slow, and at the same 

 time is charged with moisture, and when it strikes the great Salt Lake, instead of being a 

 rapidly moving current of air, hot and thirsty, it is moving comparatively slow, is nearly 

 saturated with water, and has no longer the ability to take up the waters of the lake as it 

 formerly did. Therefore the waters accumulate, and so over, the whole surface (and this is 

 true of all these places) evaporation is prevented by the introduction of trees to prevent the 

 rapid movement of the currents of air, and also by covering the whole surface of the earth 

 with this vegetation.&quot; 



The moist atmosphere of the British Islands and the German provinces, and the generally 

 plentiful summer rains of the Atlantic States, have thus far obviated the necessity of resorting 

 to any extent to artificial watering in these regions, except in market-gardening, but it 

 would be well for many farmers if, during certain dry seasons especially, they possessed 

 the means of irrigating some of their crops, and thus obviate the great loss often sustained 

 by drought. This can often be accomplished with slight expense where the lands are suited to 

 it and the means of irrigation convenient. 



All waters are beneficial for irrigating purposes, except those that contain an excess of 

 certain mineral substances that are injurious to vegetation, such as peat-swamp drainage, 

 water from saline and mineral springs, and from ore-beds of various kinds, these often con 

 taining a solution of iron. Waters that have washed other soils often contain a vast amount 

 of fertilizing substances, which they will deposit in the gradual process of irrigation; conse 

 quently after heavy rains and floods, the brooks and rivers are usually heavily charged with 

 fertilizing materials. Dr. Dana estimated the quantity of humus and other fertilizing sub 

 stances which were borne to the ocean, past Lowell, on the Merrimac river, during a year of 

 unusual freshets, to be about 840,000 tons, or enough to have sufficiently enriched 100,000 

 . acres of land. We have already referred to the fertilizing properties of the sewage of cities 

 in previous pages, and a repetition is consequently unnecessary here; suffice it to say, that 

 when such water can be utilized for irrigating purposes, the results on vegetation are often 

 almost incredible. In any case, water should never be permitted to remain stagnant on the 

 surface of lands, both for sanitary reasons and on account of its injurious effects upon the 

 land and vegetation ; saturating the soil with an excess of water being equally injurious to a 

 drought. These injurious results are often seen in charging the sub-soil with water, and 

 rendering it cold and &quot;sour,&quot; as it is often termed, to the roots of plants which pierce it; it 

 also facilitates the decomposition of both organic and inorganic soluble matter contained in 

 soils, and carries off such matter from it, leaching it of its fertilizing properties to a certain 

 extent. This is sometimes disputed, but it is proven by the fact that constituents of vegetable 

 growth are found in water drained from cultivated fields, and also that grounds impregnated 

 with salts to such a degree as to be incapable of vegetable production, have been made fertile 

 by washing with fresh water. We quote the following on the advantages of irrigation from 

 a treatise on that subject by Hon. George P. Marsh: 



&quot; In elevated and mountainous districts, water is usually abundant, and its sources so 

 numerous that almost any land-holder may secure one or more of them for his own sole use, 

 without clashing with the rights and interests of his neighbor. Hence the division of the soil 

 into comparatively small estates is promoted ; for though, in new countries like ours, moun 

 tain-lands are thinly inhabited and held in large tracts, yet well-watered hill-pastures gradually 

 rise in value, and these at last become the homes of a comparatively dense population, each 



