PRACTICAL IRRIGATION IN KANSAS. 



121 



Where the draws and the ravines came 

 down from the hills only one bank was 

 built, thus forming ponds on which the 

 winds made waves that cut out the banks. 

 This was remedied by making the bank 

 strong enough to be split and on which the 

 water could be carried with a drain under 

 the ditch to lead off the rainfall. In 

 other places the ditch was rebuilt around 

 the pond next to the hill. Some of the 

 hills had to be made heavier and after 

 two or or three years the banks settled 

 and were grassed over. 



I have thus briefly outlined for you our 

 troubles in building the dam and canal, 

 but even after the waters had been brought 

 to the land, our troubles were not ended. 



DISTRIBUTING THE WATER. 



The main laterals and distributing 

 ditches had then to be built so that the 

 land could be evenly watered. The liter- 

 ature of irrigation was very limited seven 

 years ago. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE was not published 

 and the Kansas Farmer did not then devote 

 from a column to a page to the subject. Our 

 State Board of Agriculture did not then set 

 apart a day or a part of a day to the discus- 

 sion of this question. We had only the 

 scanty government reports and Stewart's 

 Manual on Irrigation to aid us. 



To say that mistakes were made is to 

 give you but a faint idea of our discour- 

 agements. We often thought it ought 

 rather to be called an " irritation " ditch. 



A look over our alfalfa fields will show 

 the traces of four abandoned systems by 

 which we attempted to distribute .the 

 water, before the present system was 

 adopted. 



Before describing it, let me say, I can 

 conceive of no way of having absolute con- 

 trol of the water at all times except by the 

 basin system, which requires very level 

 land and a great deal of very hard work. 



According to our system, the distrib- 

 uting laterals, either for running the water 

 down the corn or orchard rows or for 

 spreading it over on alfalfa or grain field, 

 are all laid out to a uniform grade of one 

 inch to 125 feet of length of lateral. 

 This grade has been adopted as the result 

 of experience. 



We have found that six- inch banks and a 

 canvas dam to raise the water that much 

 above the natural surface, allows us to take 

 the water out along the desired length of 



ditch of about 400 feet with a margin of 

 safety. With a fall of only one inch to 

 125 feet it is necessary to raise the water 

 only three inches at the dam to back it up 

 so that it can be taken out for 375 feet. 



This margin of safety in a six-inch 

 bank, allows us to make holes in it about 

 sixteen feet apart and to divide the water 

 in the lateral so that it will be evenly 

 spread down over the land between this 

 lateral and the one next lower down in 

 the field. 



By laying out the laterals on this regu 

 lar grade, the lands or sections of the 

 field to be irrigated are made irregular in 

 width because the slope of the land is 

 irregular. In order to determine how far 

 apart these distributing laterals shall be, 

 you must find out how far you can run the 

 water economically over the land. In the 

 case of hoed crops and of orchards, this 

 distance will probably be greater than in 

 the case of those crops that are flooded. 



Most of you have observed how short a 

 distance the stream of water pumped by 

 an ordinary windmill will run down a 

 furrow before it is all absorbed by the 

 earth. 



No matter how long you pump, the 

 water never flows any farther. The dis- 

 tance the water will run is determined by 

 three factors: First, the texture of the 

 soil; second, the slope of the land, and 

 third, the head of water at your disposal. 

 However, I am not giving you a general 

 rule for your guidance. The conditions 

 are different on each farm, frequently on 

 different fields of the same farm, more 

 especially on bottom and second bottom 

 farms, where the soil is mostly "made 

 land." 



I am only giving the sizes of laterals 

 and of irrigating "lands" as we have 

 them on Claremont ranch. Our distrib- 

 uting laterals are from three to five feet 

 wide, rounding on the bottom and carry- 

 ing water from six to ten inches deep. 

 W r e aim to make our irrigating "lands" at 

 the start about 250 feet wide. But in run- 

 ning the laterals a quarter to a half a 

 mile, the " lands " might be made to vary 

 from 150 to 400 feet, according to the 

 slope in the field. 



These distributing laterals are laid out 

 with a surveyor's level on a tripod. One 

 person managing the level and another 

 carrying the rod and finding therewith 

 the proper points of the proposed line 



