THE ART OF IRRIGATION. 



77 



you may have to take out a little dirt or 

 some leaves or other rubbish, but as a 

 rule, you will have little to do. 



As the head runs down in a flume from 

 the discharge of water to the upper fur- 

 rows, the gates will have to be opened 

 wider. And toward the lower end it may 

 be necessary to tack cleats across the bot- 

 tom to throw the water out of the gate 

 better. Some use brickbats, stones and 

 such things, but cleats are better. It is 

 best to put them on in the form of a but- 

 ton with a single screw in the middle so 

 that they may be turned enough to give 

 the proper flow with ease. 



One of these flumes should be set for 

 every face on which the water is to run. 

 But if two faces meet like the ridge of a 

 house, the water may be delivered from 

 each side at once from a flume set at the 

 top. The five-year old lemonorchard ir- 

 rigated by the boy above mentioned was 

 of this arrangement. The work is but 

 slightly increased over that of a flume 

 delivering from one side only, and if flume 

 and gates are carefully laid and kept in 

 order, the increase of work in this furrn is 

 hardly perceptible. 



The advantages of this style of delivery 

 are so great that it will probably pay to 

 put in flume and gates even for flooding 

 where the scale is not so great as to make 

 the expense of flume over ditch too great. 

 But for flooding on an ordinary scale, and 

 for all furrow irrigation, no matter how 

 large the scale, it is almost certain to pay. 

 You may make your ditches ever so cheaply 

 and put in box connections with gates at 

 the divides, may have all the cau-vas 

 dams or iron dams handy to turn the 

 stream from one to the other, and then, 

 when you have summed up all the running 

 about you have to do looking after this 

 and that, and all the cleaning of ditches, 

 all the breakages from gophers, moles or 

 other causes, all the loss of flow from 

 growth of vegetation in the ditches, with 

 other annoyances too numerous to men- 

 tion, and balance them against the in- 



creased cost of a good flume and gates, you 

 may find you have saved nothing in cash 

 and are out a vast amount of time and 

 patience. 



The ground all graded to a face or faces 

 of uniform slope and the flume in position, 

 the next thing is making the furrows. 

 These are often made with a common corn- 

 plow and are from three to five inches 

 deep. Four will do for most things unless 

 there is danger of water touching the 

 stalk in some places. There is little 

 danger in making them too deep. It mere- 

 ly is not necessary if they are made with 

 care. The deeper they are, the harder 

 they are to break up in cultivation. The 

 shallower they are, the more liable to break 

 and let the water from one to the other. 

 There is generally plenty of time to do this 

 work and no excuse for slighting it. 

 Every hour spent in making the furrows 

 of uniform depth and as free as possible 

 from heavy clogs, ridges or depressions, or 

 openings into the next furrow will be 

 well repaid after you start the water. 

 These furrows are often made with a corn- 

 plow and sometimes with a cultivator. 

 The latter may be easily fixed to make 

 three at once if the ground is smooth and 

 fine enough. It can be made at home of 

 old beams on the principle of the corn- 

 marker. If made long enough, it would 

 make very uniform furrows very rapidly. 

 But rapid work can be done with the com- 

 mon corn-plow and the boy of the family 

 can do it as well as the grandfather who 

 was raised to the plow. It matters not 

 which way these furrows run. Running 

 at right angles to the flume is but a matter 

 of looks. But they should run on a course 

 and slope that will carry the water as fast 

 as possible without cutting the ground or 

 making the water muddy. And they 

 should always be as nearly parallel 

 as possible. By walking along the 

 flume at the head and looking down the 

 rows you can compare them and see what 

 they are doing much better when they are 

 parallel. 



(To be continued.) 



