126 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



from six to eight feet high. An ex- 

 cellent and cheap remedy to prevent the 

 waves from washing the banks is to rip- 

 rap them on the inside with willows, tying 

 the willows to the bank with No. 12 gal- 

 vanized wire attached to stakes and driven 

 into the bank. If care is taken in select- 

 ing live willows and at the proper time of 

 year, a sufficient number of them will grow 

 to hold the bank of your reservoir from 

 ever washing. There are a number of 

 other ways to save the banks from being 

 destroyed by waves, but I consider that 

 where the willow can be had cheap enough 

 they are the best. 



The writer is not a theorist as he is 

 developing a 640 acre irrigated farm in 

 Ola Township, Brule County, South Da- 



large stream of water, the reservoir system 

 increases its value and efficiency by fur- 

 nishing all the water needed to irrigate 

 and at the proper time, when the water af- 

 fords the most benefit to the soil. It also 

 has the advantage of being a great saving 

 of time. The water that can be let out at 

 one time from the reservoir that I have 

 just constructed and described will cover 

 320 acres of land one inch deep. From 

 my experience so far, and the way my 

 land lays and ditches are constructed, it 

 will take two men four days to distribute 

 the water over this amount of ground, 

 while some of my neighbors who have 

 stronger wells than mine, but no reser- 

 voirs, cannot do the same amount of work 

 in five times as long. 



SECTION OF hESEKVOIK ON IRRIGATED FARM OF J. M. GREENE IN SOUTH DAKOTA. 



kota. The reservoir has been constructed 

 on the plan stated, covering seven acres 

 of ground; the banks are eight feet high 

 on the outside, giving about that depth 

 for water on the inside; the gates or out- 

 lets are protected with galvanized screen 

 wire, as it is intended to stock it with fish 

 in the spring. The reservoir has been 

 full of water for the past two months, 

 during which time a number of heavy 

 windstorms have occurred without dam- 

 age to the banks, which proves the wil- 

 low rip-rap a success. The well that sup- 

 plies the reservoir is 1,030 feet deep, and 

 flows 800 gallons of water per minute, 

 and although this of itself makes quite a 



There need be but very little expense 

 to a farmer in constructing his reservoir 

 and ditches in South Dakota. He can do 

 this work in the winter time when he has 

 very little else to do, by plowing the 

 ground thoroughly before the hard frosts 

 of winter occur. A great many miles of 

 ditches were constructed in this county 

 during the months of January and Febru- 

 ary, also four or five reservoirs, which 

 goes to show that the industrious farmer 

 can do this work all himself during the 

 winter time, and the only expense or act- 

 ual money needed in developing an irri- 

 gated farm in the artesian belt of South 

 Dakota is for drilling his artesian well. 



