IRRIGATION IN SOUTH DAKOTA. 



125 



except when it is allowed to become very 

 strong it is harmless; it even acts as a 

 fertilizer. 



Again suppose your land is in Egypt, 

 your well showing the water three feet 

 from the surface of a sandy soil. After a 

 rain or irrigation an efflorescence will ap- 

 pear. The water in the well contains but 

 small quantities of carbonate of lime, car- 

 bonate and sulphate of magnesia, sulphate 

 of potash, chloride of soda, and traces of 

 phosphoric acid and ammonia. The 

 efflorescence will consist of the same and 

 act as a very fine fertilizer. 



In general the nature of the alkali will 

 be governed by the geological strata of 

 the district. Where there are granite 

 hills and valleys with rich clay soil, the 

 black alkali may be feared, but the soil 

 will be extremely productive. Parts of 

 California and India exemplify this. 



In a limestone region the alkali will be 

 probably carbonate of lime and there is 

 likely to be some common salt and mag- 

 nesia. It will be harmless, but the soil 

 will not be as rich as the last. The dis- 

 trict east of El Paso may be taken as an 

 example. It is in the cretaceous with 

 granitic formation underlying. Where 

 the strata is broken here the soil may be 

 more like the last. 



In the Mesilla valley and the Pecos 

 valley we have districts in the cretaceous 

 underlayed by the gypsum. Where there 

 is efflorescence it consists of carbonate of 

 lime, sulphate of lime, sulphate of mag- 

 nesia and common salt. The abundance 

 of sulphate of lime precludes the possi- 

 bility of the presence of "black alkali." 



I trust that I have made it clear that 

 we need a revised Webster for irrigation 

 districts. 



IRRIGATION IN SOUTH DAKOTA, 



BY J. M. GREENE. 



THE irregularity of rainfall, or the en- 

 tire absence of it at times, created 

 the necessity of irrigation. Water ap- 

 plied at the proper time insures success, 

 and the uncertainty of the supply coming 

 through natural channels has made it nec- 

 essary to procure it by artificial means. It 

 is not the purpose of this article to go into 

 the many advantages possessed by irriga- 

 tion wherever practiced, but to deal with 

 it in one section only. 



The writer has looked over the irriga- 

 tion districts of Colorado and California, 

 and in these States the development of irri- 

 gation in the past ten years proves conclu- 

 sively that it is a profitable and perma- 

 nent industry. South Dakota has just 

 awoke to the fact that there is no area of 

 corresponding magnitude in the world that 

 can be so cheaply irrigated as what is 

 known as the artesian basin, which under- 

 lies a large portion of the state; cheap for 

 the reason that every quarter section of 

 land in the artesian basin can be supplied 

 with more water than is needed for irriga- 

 tion or any other purpose, by drilling an 

 artesian well varying in depth, according to 

 locality, from five hundred to one thousand 

 feet and giving an unsupported flow of 



water above the surface of the ground 

 from six inches to sixteen feet high. Two 

 years ago irrigation was almost unknown 

 in Brule County, South Dakota. One year 

 ago some experiments were made by drill- 

 ing wells for irrigation and the results 

 were so satisfactory, both from the stand- 

 point of profits and cheapness of develop- 

 ment, that during the coming season 7,000 

 acres will be irrigated. The beauty of the 

 artesian well system of irrigation is that 

 every farmer can own his own well and 

 water, and be independent of any and all 

 water companies. He can use the water 

 when and where he chooses. He can con- 

 struct a reservoir on the highest ground on 

 his farm and turn his well into it there. 

 Reservoirs can be cheaply constructed by 

 the farmer himself. If he has, for in- 

 stance, a six -inch well and desires to irri- 

 gate 1,000 acres he should have a reser- 

 voir that would hold five or six acres of 

 water. To construct such a reservoir it 

 should belaid out in a circle; take all the 

 sod off where the bank is to be made, plow 

 up the center of the circle, and haul the 

 loose dirt into the bank with common 

 scrapers, giving the bank from one-fourth 

 to one-sixth pitch, building the banks 



