228 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ladder carrying the dirt in pails, when a windlass 

 would make it ten times easier. 



The right way to raise water in large quantities is 

 by the use of an elevator. I do not mean a Chinese 

 pump, which shoots the water up an inclined plane, 

 for while this is a good thing in its way it still must 

 overcome the inertia of the water to a great extent, 

 or what the unthinking would call the ' ' friction '' of the 

 water against the inside of the trough. What I do 

 mean is a regular elevator, such as is used for lifting 

 wheat or flour an endless belt or cable carrying 

 buckets, and running over a pulley at the top. The 

 journals of this pulley ought to make the only " fric- 

 tion " allowed in the whole machine; for there need 

 not be a pulley at the lower end, and the journals of 

 the wheel at the top should rest on ball bearings 

 like the wheels of a bicycle, then even that small 

 friction would be reduced to a minimum. The buck- 

 ets passing through the water at the lower end would 

 have some little inertia of the water to overcome, in 

 a movement of two or three feet below the surface, 

 and this would be the greater with the increase of 

 speed. Therefore put on more or larger buckets and 

 calculate it to run slowly. The Chinese pump will 

 not throw water at all unless it is run fast, and this 

 alone ought to show that it must fight against a great 

 amount of inertia or gravity of the water. 



I have never seen such a water elevator as I have 

 described, unless it be indirectly on the same prin- 

 ciple in the use of the clumsy current wheel here in 

 Colorado. Every windmill that I ever saw was hitched 

 to a heart-breaking, back-breaking iron pump. It 

 is willing and eager to do good hard work, but it is 

 handicapped with the burden of a dead weight in an 

 awful pump. Give it an elevator, with a single 

 pulley hung on ball bearings running in oil, and a 

 simple weight-wheel at the bottom suspended in the 

 water without any journal, and the mill would fairly 

 flood the land. 



You say the windmill would run away and break 



' itself. This could be prevented by a properly made 



governor. But I may at a future time venture some 



points on the subject of windmills, for as now made 



they do not suit me much better than the pumps. 



One thing more. It may be asked how a perpendi- 

 cular water elevator can be made to deliver the water 

 at a distance. Make a broad screen upon which the 

 water falls after reaching the desired height. Let it 

 drain into a pipe, and conduct the pipe where you 

 want it, and let the water wrestle with the valves and 

 elbows to suit itself. But now if you are going to be 

 stingy and narrow with your pipe you will soon hear 

 from it, for the water will run over at the top. The 

 water is going up, whether it goes down or not. 



IRRIGATION BY ELECTRICITY. 



OWING to the interest in irrigation by electricity 

 at the present time, I desire to present a 

 seeming possible and feasible plan for re- 

 claiming and securing permanent prosperity to the 

 arid and semi-arid regions of the West, by means of 

 electricity. The statements made are based on 

 practical experience and careful investigation and 

 observation. 



To accomplish this scheme requires capital, but the 

 amount needed is small compared with the gains. 



It is a well-known fact that in nearly all the arid 

 land regions artesian wells can be obtained at a 

 depth of from 300 to 600 feet, the water in these 

 wells rising to within fifty feet of the surface. In 

 some localities they flow. There are many places 

 where abundance of surface water can be had by 

 digging only a few feet. Especially is this the case 

 near streams. To utilize water power costs much 

 less than steam. 



A power plant is imperative. The full capacity of 

 a 10-horse power electric motor will yield power 

 equal to a 10-horse power engine, and, if its capacity 

 be not overworked, will last indefinitely. The same 

 may be said of dynamos without regard to size. 



The cost of a 15-horse power motor is $500. Found- 

 ations, power-house, two 500-horse power dynamos 

 with engines directly connected, and everything 

 ready for operating, could be constructed for about 

 $36,000. The power-house, when run by steam, 

 should be placed at a railroad switch. To construct 

 for water power might cost as much, but the operat- 

 ing expenses would be much less. 



A 600 foot well can be sunk for $1,500. It takes 

 27,154 gallons of water to cover an acre one inch 

 deep. A 15-horse power motor will pump 750 gallons 

 per minute, and raise the water fifty feet. Seven 

 hundred and fifty gallons will cover forty acres one 



inch deep every twenty-four hours, or 280 acres 

 every week. One well will furnish water during the 

 irrigation season, from May 1st to August 31st, to 

 cover 280 acres seventeen inches deep. This is an 

 abundance for almost any crop, and a great deal 

 more than most crops require. The water could be 

 pumped into a ditch or reservoir. The well could be 

 sunk where most convenient, as the power comes to 

 it by wire. 



One thousand horse power will run fifty-six 15- 

 horse power motors, and will allow 15 per cent, loss 

 for transmission of power from dynamos to motor. 

 The lines for transmission, including poles, wires, 

 etc., would cost from $8,< 00 to $10,000. Thus we see 

 that 1,000-horse power would furnish an abundance 

 of water for fifty-six times 280 acres, or 15,680 acres, 

 about 24% sections, at a cost, not including ditches 

 and reservoirs, of about $160,000, a very little over 

 $10 per acre. A larger amount is often expended in 

 clearing some Eastern lands of timber and stones. 



It takes three pounds of coal per horse power per 

 hour, or 72,000 pounds for twenty-four hours, at a 

 cost of from $1 to $2 per ton, according to freight, or 

 $72 per day for coal. The other power house ex- 

 penses, including oil, can be run for $18. One man, 

 with the use of a horse, can look after ten motors, 

 making an expense of $10 per day, giving a total 

 operating expense of $100 per day, or $12,300 for 123 

 days, the entire irrigating season, less than $1 per 

 acre. 



In valleys where the fall of streams is not suffi- 

 ciently rapid to admit of taking out ditches, ditches 

 can be built, the stream dammed, and the water 

 raised to the required height by pumps through 

 means of pipes, each pump working by motor. It 

 makes little difference whether the water be raised 

 perpendicularly or otherwise. 



