152 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Before water is let into the furrows around the trees, 

 their trunks are hilled up to prevent it from striking 

 the bark, as in this climate it and the hot sun together 

 in contact with the bark at the same time, produces 

 the sun-scaled the real cause of so many trees dying 

 on the south side in this section and also in many 

 -other localities. 



PRUNING. 



In pruning, the trees are all headed back low with 

 their limbs as near the ground as possible, so that 



AVENUE 



TREES 



^FURROW ROUND TREES THUS 

 ^FOR WATER 



FURROWS FOR WATER FROM 

 OIT(H All ROUND ORCHARD 



MEXAOONAL 



ORDER 



TREES F.QUfOISTANT 

 CVEBY WAV 



their own foliage will be a protection to the trunks 

 from the sun, and then too the fruit is more easily 

 picked off. 



VEGETABLES AND CROPS. 



The system of irrigating vegetables and crops for 

 experimental purposes, and all hoed crops in fact, 

 consists in running the water in shallow furrows be- 

 tween the rows of whatever is being raised, the land 

 beforehand being graded on a gentle incline. This 

 method brings the water up to the roots, preventing 

 it from touching the plants and from forming a crust 

 on the surface and around the base. Except the 

 cabbage family, about three irrigations during the 

 season are enough to mature almost any crop. For 

 the grasses, clovers, and all sowed crops, we have to 

 resort to the system of flooding. With "a big head 

 of water" it is pushed on and over the crops as 

 rapidly as possible to prevent it from standing, and so 

 soon as the land is covered, the water is taken off. 

 On upland alfalfa is irrigated a week or ten days be- 

 fore cutting and on some land twice between the 



cuttings, making the water stand about two inches 

 deep on an average all over the surface. Some farm- 

 ers put on ten inches on the surface at an irrigation, 

 which is altogether too much, as has been proven time 

 and again as shown by the results. 



I might, in conclusion, say that the water of the 

 Rio Grande is very muddy at all times. The sedi- 

 ment is so rich that thus far I have had no cause of 

 resorting to any fertilizers of any kind to insure a full 

 crop, except for experiment. I find that it puts on 

 more fertility than any one crop can take out of 

 the soil in a single season. The sediment contains 

 much vegetable matter and is full of all the elements 

 of fertility, except, perhaps, phosphoric acid. 



THE SAN JUAN ENTERPRISE. 



A correspondent in writing of the San Juan irriga- 

 tion enterprise in old Mexico says: " The necessary 

 works on this undertaking consist of a very fine 

 masonry dam with accessories, which will be built 

 some fifteen miles above the mouth of the San Juan 

 river, which river rises in the mountains near Monte- 

 rey, Montemorelos and Linares, and falls into the Rio 

 Grande nearly opposite Fort Ringold or Rio Grande 

 City. From this point the canal will run in an easterly 

 direction, following the foot-hills, and will water all 

 the land (some 30 sitios) lying between it and the 

 Rio Grande. Its total length will be 90 kilometers, 

 which will reach beyond the city of Reynosa, situated 

 on the Matamoros division of the National railroad. 

 This length can be extended if necessary. What 

 engineering difficulties have arisen are all encoun- 

 tered on the first 7-8 kilometers from the head gates of 

 the canal. A 1,500 foot tunnel and a kilometer of open 

 cut, some 25 feet at its deepest part, together with 5,000 

 feet of fluming along the steep bank of the river San 

 Juan, are the chief works, in addition to the main dam 

 and head works. The balance of the undertaking is 

 all plain sailing. The canal will start out with a 

 bottom width of 25 feet and a depth of water of 7 feet 

 decreasing in size as the canal runs easterly and 

 distribution goes on. Provision has been made for 

 40-50 kilometers of lateral or distributing canals, with 

 regulating gates, to divert and measure out water 

 from the main canal. Ninety kilometers of telephone 

 wire and five instruments will form part of the under- 

 taking. Irrigation is bound to play a prominent part 

 in the future of this country. 



The faculty of the University of Wyoming has 

 commenced supplementing the work of the railroads 

 by publishing a series of pamphlets on the irrigation 

 question, with a view of inducing immigration to that 

 state. Prof. Johnson of the faculty has gone east on 

 a lecturing tour, with the design of interesting capi- 

 talists in Wyoming. 



