THE ART OF IRRIGATION. 



THE DANGERS AND EVILS OF THE FLOODING SYSTEM. 

 CHAPTER III. BY T. S. VAN DYKE. 



MANY people soon discovered that depending on 

 water to run in streams and soak the whole 

 ground with anything approaching evenness was un- 

 safe, and as it would not spread over the ground in a 

 thin sheet but one thing remained, and that was to 

 put it on in a thick sheet. 



Even on level ground this could be done only by 

 lines of dams or checks an inch or two in height, and 

 on sloping ground they might run to a foot or more. 

 It was quite natural to make them in lines crossing 

 each other at right angles, and thus grew up the sys- 

 tem of flooding in checks, which is one of the leading 

 systems of the world to-day. It is very effective 

 where well done, and on some soils is the only 

 method available, as we shall see farther on, but it 

 has been as badly abused as any other system. 



During all this time no one ever thought of grad- 

 ing the ground to a uniform slope or anything near it. 

 If there was a depression in one part, all the better. 

 It took so much less of a dam or ridge of dirt on the 

 outside to hold the water. That the water stood 

 there a foot or two deeper than elsewhere, pressed 

 down and packed the soil and deposited on it twice 

 as much slimy sediment to form a crust that would 

 exclude the air when the water was off, was quite im- 

 material, even if it had been thought of. If one part 

 happened to be too high it was rarely, if ever, graded 

 down. A larger check was perhaps made around it, 

 and perhaps the center of it was left above water. 



The sediment deposited from this style of work 

 was deeper, finer and tougher than that deposited 

 from water running in furrows. When the sun had 

 smiled on it two or three days it began to break into 

 big, thick flakes, the lifting power of which was re- 

 markable, but the breaking was never sufficient to let 

 the air into the ground; in fact, it was good only to 

 pull out of the ground something you wished to keep 

 there. 



Though these primitive irrigators differed much 

 in their ways of making the checks and running the 

 water into them, their method of treating the ground 

 when the baking process had reached its most ruin- 

 ous stage was remarkably uniform. They simply 

 poured on more water. 



You may think I insult your intelligence when 1 

 tell you that you are very apt, if left to yourself, to 

 imitate these miserable errors. Yet right here on 

 the edge of the beautiful and prosperous city of Los 

 Angeles, a city that has made its best growth during 

 the late panic and where I can see out of the window 



as I write, new roofs rising on every hand, in this city 

 made by irrigation and surrounded by ditches under 

 which is done the best work in the world, I can see 

 within five minutes' walk of my home every one of the 

 mistakes I have so far mentioned, and see them done 

 over and over again. In some cases it is excusable, as 

 where a man is irrigating a vacant lot or so for pasture 

 for one cow. I n this soil and under this sun almost any 

 kind of work will give all the grass needed for one 

 cow. So the Mexican style of garden is not so bad 

 when one only wants a little fruit for home use. But 

 these are not the reasons why poor work is done. It 

 is because it is done by people who cannot or will 

 not go to study the subject in places where it has 

 been brought to perfection. You will incline to do 

 the same if you have a chance. And the reason why 

 I dwell so much on these errors is because the study 

 of error is the surest road to truth. 



Strange as it may seem, they one and all poured on 

 more water when the ground began to' bake after 

 an inch or two of the slime had settled upon it. 

 This only made matters worse More water was 

 exactly what the ground did not need. Beneath the 

 beautiful cake of sediment the soil was still moist 

 enough, probably too moist. What it needed was air 

 and not water. Yet water was all it got, tr.e crust was 

 thickened for the next drying, the air was excluded 

 more than ever, the ground was kept cold from excess 

 of water and packed hard under the additional weight 

 and everything was injured except certain kinds of 

 weeds, which were rarely disturbed. The basins thus 

 formed were often left year after year. Sometimes 

 they were made anew every season, but were rarely 

 disturbed oftener. 



Later irrigators began to use manure, and sand, tan- 

 bark, saw-dust and other things as a mulch to retain 

 the moisture and keep the ground from baking. But 

 it was limited to a small space around the trees, and 

 while it did prevent baking immediately under it the 

 heavy, cold, tough, sodden and sour condition of the 

 ground from too much water and too little air re- 

 mained about as bad as ever. The effect of all such 

 work was bad fruit and little of it compared with 

 what is now seen on the same ground under the 

 present methods. But as there was then nothing 

 better with which to compare it the results seemed 

 pretty good. In 1875 we used to think the oranges 

 very good. We now know that they were sour, light, 

 insipid, thick skinned, spongy and nasty. We can see 

 the difference to-day, so that there is no imagination 



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