THE ART OF IRRIGATION. 



A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THE DUTY OF WATER. 



BY T. S. VAN DYKE. 



THE illustration belongs properly to the chapter 

 on the duty of water which is some distance 

 ahead. It is given here because other illustra- 

 tions are not yet ready. It shows a field of barley 

 that in 1893 with a rainfall of thirteen and one half 

 inches (all in the winter), the only wetting it received, 

 yielded by the machine measurement sixty bushels of 

 barley to the acre for the average of a large field. 

 This was in San Diego county on the San Marcos 

 ranch. It is some twelve miles from the coast. It 

 was not done on fog either. But the character of the 

 Southern California spring, which is cool with con- 

 siderable cloudy weather about the time the heads 

 are filling, is a factor that makes this hardly a fair 

 test for the duty of water elsewhere. 



The level of the water below the ground here was 

 twelve to sixteen feet and had nothing to do with the 

 crop. This thing has been done repeatedly in Califor- 

 nia; and on land well summer-fallowed and well 

 cross-plowed in the fall can be done in almost any 

 season on twelve inches of rain if the distribution is 

 at all reasonable. 



This year on the same ground eight acres of wheat 

 yielded fifteen bushels to the acre on a rainfall of 

 seven and a 

 half inches 

 with a distri- 

 bution any- 

 thing but 

 good. On land 

 plowed the 

 spring before 

 and well 

 plowed again 

 at planting 

 twelve to fif- 

 teen bushels 

 of wheat and 



GRAIN FIELD, MAN-HIGH, RAISED WITH 13 INCHES OF MOISTURE, 

 SAN MARCOS VALLEY. 



double that of barley or corn have been repeatedly 

 raised here in the driest years on record. Some 

 verifications that I have sent for have not yet come 

 in in time for this issue of THE AGE, but I will later 

 on present some even more remarkable than those 

 above given, though I am not able to get a picture of 

 them. 



I do not intend by this to discredit the statistics of the 

 government, but only to show that they do not in all 

 cases apply. And if wrong in one case they may be 

 in others. Probably they come near the average 

 results for the whole country. In many parts of 

 Southern California the soil is extraordinary in ite 

 retention of moisture. I know nothing like it in the 

 East. The cool weather of spring at the filling time 

 of the heads also increases very much the yield. But 

 there may be many places East where the same con- 

 ditions make necessary a far less .amount of water 

 than is shown by the government reports or experi- 

 ment stations. 



The weight of the above crop to the acre would be 

 about as follows : 



Grain one and a half tons. 



Straw, without grain, one and a half tons. 



Roots and 

 stubble about 

 one ton. 

 Making about 

 four tons an 

 acre from thir- 

 teen and one- 

 half inches of 

 rain. 



This is near- 

 ly four times 

 the yield gen- 

 erally consid- 

 ered possible 

 from that 

 amount of 

 water. 



THE VAN DYKE PAPERS. 



The series of papers entitled, "The Art of Irriga- 

 tion," begun in THE IRRIGATION AGE of January, 1894 

 is conceded to be the greatest contribution yet made 

 to the literature of irrigation methods. The author, 

 Mr. Theodore S. Van Dyke, is a writer whose several 

 books and frequent contributions to periodical litera- 

 ture have won him a most enviable reputation. Ar- 

 rangements for the present series were concluded 

 nearly a year in advance of the publication of the 

 initial article, and Mr. Van Dyke made a careful, 

 special study of his subject before beginning the 

 work, although he has been for a great many years 

 both a student and a practical man in this direction. 

 He has had wide opportunities of observation, but his 

 schooling has been principally in Southern Cali- 

 fornia where irrigation has wrought out its highest 



forms. Owing to the crowd of special matter in this 

 number of THE AGE, Mr. Van Dyke's usual full 

 paper is omitted, but in the October issue one of his 

 most valuable contributions, dealing with "The 

 Choice of Methods," will be published with illustra- 

 tions. This series of papers will continue for several 

 months and extend well into the year 1895. The 

 papers that have thus far appeared are as follows: 



JANUARY "Irrigation an Art that must be 

 Learned.'' 



FEBRUARY" Methods of Mexico and Italy.'' 

 MARCH" The Dangers and Evils of the Flooding 

 System." 



MAY " The Mistakes of Early Irrigators." 

 JUNE " Methods of Chinese and Italian Market 

 Gardeners." 



AUGUST" Water Measurement and Delivery Con- 

 sidered." 



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