196 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



water until old enough to shade the 

 ground and become tough euough to en- 

 dure considerable baking and scalding. 

 The soil should be well soaked before 

 plowing even if it takes two or more flood- 

 ings to do it. Then, when in condition, it 

 should be so well plowed and harrowed 

 that it will retain moisture and remain 

 mellow. Then your stuff can grow two or 

 even three months without more irrigation 

 and in many places will make a crop of 

 grain without any more. But to flood it 

 just after it is up is always to hurt it, and 

 often to ruin most of the stand, however 

 good it may be. 



The great problem in flooding is how 

 to make a number of checks feed each 

 other without having the water stand too 

 long in each, or having it run so fast 

 through the upper ones as to cut or other- 

 wise damage anything in it, and at the 

 same time to use up the whole head in the 

 series so as to have little or none to waste 

 at the lower end. 



If checks do not feed each other, then 

 you have the expense of more laterals and 

 gates, and more care in watching each 

 check so as to get in just enough water to 

 soak away quickly, and no more. If you 

 have to have a waste ditch at the lower 

 end to empty the check completely and 

 see that it is done, then you might as well 

 have one feed another at once. If you can 

 run just the right amount into a check at 

 once and be sure that it will soak away 

 quickly enough to avoid scalding, or such 

 puddling as is sure to result in bad bak- 



ing, even if no sun strikes it, then, every- 

 thing else being equal, it is best not to 

 have one check feed another. But it often 

 costs more in time and labor. 



Suppose, then, you are feeding a line 

 of ten checks, one from the other. You 

 want to have each soak an average of two 

 inches in depth. If you let twenty inches 

 in depth into the first one, with the view 

 of letting it all out when it has settled 

 down two inches, you may press down and 

 puddle the soil too much in a very short 

 time. Many soils, such as a fine granite 

 soil, will rarely stand this, and in some 

 such a depth of water will by pud- 

 dling stop the soaking instead of hasten- 

 ing it. 



You must then start with less water and 

 run in more after you have cut the check 

 to let it into the next one. But this in- 

 volves the danger of keeping deep water 

 too long in the first one, or else cutting 

 the soil or injuring vegetation by running 

 the stream over the bottom of it after it is 

 emptied. And whichever way you try to 

 avoid these troubles you may find your- 

 self at the end with a large amount of 

 waste on hand which should have gone in 

 the ground. For you want to learn at the 

 outset that waste hardly ever pays. 



There is no royal road out of these dif- 

 ficulties, because each case must be de- 

 cided on its own peculiar state of facts. 

 But if you bear in mind the main princi- 

 ples you will soon find your way out of 

 the woods with a little patience. 

 (To be continued.) 



FLOODING WITH TEMPOKAKY CHECKS. 



Checks made with ridger. Checks just emptied showing ground puddled where water stood too deep and too long- 



For orchard work to be followed by cultivation this does little harm if not too great, but it would 



greatly injure young grain or tender vegetables and destroy many of the plants. 



