122 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



every 120 feet on comparatively level land. 

 But if the land is irregular the points 

 should be taken at about half that distance 

 apart. 



The man carrying the rod marks these 

 points with mounds of dirt, thrown up 

 with a shovel, which serve to guide the 

 one who plows out the laterals. 



These laterals at the given fall vary 

 but little from the level contour lines of 

 the land and so run at almost right angles 

 to the greatest slope. Therefore, when 

 the water is turned out of the lateral it 

 runs away from the lateral at almost a 

 right angle to the next lateral below and 

 at a speed varying with the slope of the 

 land, the texture of the soil and the head 

 of water. 



These questions of size of laterals and 

 of irrigating "lands," each man will have 

 to settle for himself. This he can readily 

 do in a small way before laying off his 

 field. But if that part of the land being 

 irrigated just below the lateral being used 

 absorbs from fifteen to twenty inches of 

 water, while the lower side is getting four 

 inches (the amount necessary for one 

 watering), there must be a great waste of 

 water, and damage may be done to that 

 part of the crop receiving too great an 

 amount. 



If this is the case, the distributing lat- 

 erals are too far apart. Having these 

 contour distributing laterals built, you 

 can now ordinarily locate the supply lat- 

 eral from the canal or reservoir, as the 

 case may be, along the sides of your field 

 crossing the starting points of your dis- 

 tributing laterals. 



We use a portable canvas dam to divert 

 the water from the supply lateral into the 

 distributing lateral. The same kind of a 

 dam is used to check the water in the dis- 

 tributing laterals. 



Constructed on this plan one man on our 

 ranch is enabled to spread the water and 

 irrigate 1,000 acres once, and 300 acres of 

 this two and three times. 



To wet the land evenly from ditch to 

 ditch it must be graded down the slope, 

 so that the water will not run around 

 hillocks or too much remain in hollows. 

 This grading we do with a common slip 

 scraper, or, preferably, with a Shuart 

 land grader. We have a home-made lev- 

 eler which we use in the place of a harrow 

 which levels the minor inequalities, and a 

 home-made A-shaped tool for cleaning out 



the ditches and laterals. As a hill torn 

 down or hollow filled up is a permanent 

 improvement and lessens the amount of 

 water used and increases the crop, it 

 always pays to do this work. 



Beginners generally use too much water. 

 The best crops that we have raised had 

 but one watering and that in the fall. A 

 thorough wetting of the subsoil, according 

 to our experience, is what is necessary. 



Corn will never, in my opinion, be a 

 profitable Western Kansas product, but in 

 Kaffir corn we have a crop for us equally 

 valuable. For seven years past a wail has 

 gone up from -Western Kansas. As the 

 hot winds blasted the crops, the people 

 blasted the country. 



The one hundredth meridian line crosses 

 our land, that mysterious line from beyond 

 which all settlers are warned, and few in- 

 deed are they that have returned from 

 there with pocket-book intact. But look- 

 ing back over these same seven years I 

 can truly say that irrigation has given us 

 crops, good, better, best, according to how 

 well our farming and watering has been 

 done. I have many times thought that if 

 I could irrigate the prices up as readily as 

 I can irrigate the crops up, great would 

 irrigation be indeed! 



You have been told, year in and year out, 

 of the beauties of irrigation, and as you have 

 listened to the glib oratory, it has seemed 

 to you an easy thing to irrigate land, but 

 I have tried to tell you that it takes good 

 hard work, it takes patience and it takes 

 skill and brain work to get your water sup- 

 ply and then to use it so that the best re- 

 sults and profits will follow. 



CANAL AND LATERAL ON THE CLARKMONT 

 RANCH IN KANSAS. 



