248 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



pneumatic-tired bicycle passing over a rail or stick 

 without injury to the wheel or jar to the pumping 

 machinery. 



The wheel was started on April 17th, a large party 

 of Douglas citizens being present, and has been run 

 continuously day and night since that time at an ex- 

 pense of about ONE CENT per day, this expenditure 

 being for oil on the pump connections. No engineer 

 or watchman is needed and the wheel works on while 

 the owner works in the field or sleeps, every 24 hours 

 pouring 1,440,000 gallons of water on the thirsty 

 land. 



The cost of the wheel, compared with what it 

 accomplishes, is nominal. Labor and material, in- 

 cluding the pump on the Harvey plant, amounted to 



$1,200. As much of the work was experimental it 

 was necessarily slow. A like plant can be put in for 

 $800, and most of the work can be done by the 

 ranchman himself. 



Since the wheel has been running scores of ranch- 

 men have visited the plant and preparations are 

 already being made to put in four plants at various 

 places along the river, one of them, where the riffle 

 has a fall of 50 inches, to be of 100 horse power. 



Mr. Harvey will not undertake to patent any 

 feature of his motor, and will cheerfully furnish infor- 

 mation as to its construction to anyone. The en- 

 hancement in value of his own property, and the sat- 

 isfaction of seeing central Wyoming develop, is all 

 the reward he wishes for his invention. 



THE ART OF IRRIGATION. 



FIFTH PAPER: METHODS OF THE CHINESE AND ITALIAN MARKET 



GARDENERS. , 



BY T. S. VAN DYKE. 



IT is probable that the Americans would some day 

 have learned to irrigate well without teachers. 

 But it is equally certain that until he saw the China- 

 man irrigate the noble white man of the great west 

 rarely suspected that he was losing time and money 

 and breeding mosquitoes, weeds and malaria through 

 ignorance of some very simple principles. 



Most all the Americans who at first tried raising 

 vegetables on the Pacific coast decided that the 

 coast was not adapted to vegetables, while others 

 concluded it was cheaper to go without them. Occa- 

 sionally a waxy potato with a cave in the center was 

 seen upon the ranch table, but generally the festive 

 bean was the only approach to a vegetable. They 

 used to say that it was too much trouble to raise 

 vegetables, did not pay, etc. The fact was they had 

 nearly all tried it and could not do it. The China- 

 man and Italian were both pretty good irrigators 

 with methods very much alike. Though they can 

 both be beaten to-day in orchard and vineyard work 

 by the more progressive of the American population, 

 there are few if any that can surpass them in market 

 gardening. 



The Chinaman was generally the better irrigator. 

 His methods seemed numerous but could all be re- 

 duced to two; soaking the ground from furrows and 

 flooding it by small dams or checks. To-day the 

 Chinaman uses, or rather wastes, more water than 

 the American ; but at first it was the other way and 

 the small quantity of water the- Chinaman used sur- 

 prised the American. For the first time the Ameri- 

 can saw the ground leveled up so that the water in 

 each check would stand at about the same depth. 



The idea penetrated the Saxon's wool at once. Why 

 had he never thought of it before ? In this way the 

 water could be put on in a sheet so thin that there 

 would be little sediment deposited ; the water would 

 be clear and quickly soak in, and there would be little 

 if any pressure upon the ground ; of course this took 

 some work. But for a garden patch it amounted to 

 little and as the checks did not have to be so high as 

 in a field, there was some compensation. Moreover 

 the principle could be approximated in orchards 

 even where it would not pay to duplicate it. 



The Chinaman and the Italian wherever con- 

 venient kept the water away from the stem or stalk 

 of everything. Many tough things like onions, beets, 

 carrots and turnips he had evidently learned could 

 stand it. He therefore planted them in checks, 

 sometimes very thick ; at other times in rows very 

 close together. But there was method in this and it 

 varied with the nature of the soil. Where he let the 

 water come in contact with the stalk it was generally 

 where the ground was sandy and the thin sheet that 

 he spread over the leveled ground would soak in so 

 quickly that no baking of the ground would follow. 

 In no case was the baking very bad, and if the soil 

 were such that it was liable to be bad then he planted 

 in rows so that he could break up the ground 

 between. 



But there were other things that the Chinaman 

 knew would not do well if the water touched them. 

 Some, like potatoes, would not be hurt much if care 

 were taken to prevent baking, but others, like 

 melons and beans, evidently suffered if the water 

 touched them at all. The Chinaman therefore 



