THE ART OF IRRIGATION. 



CHAPTER XX. A FEW FINAL REMARKS. 

 BY T. S. VAN DYKE. 



""phe methods so far described cover all 

 * practical ways of managing an 

 irrigating stream on any considerable 

 scale. All the methods of the world 

 can be reduced to some one of them and 

 you will do we'll to look with care on 

 anything purporting to be a new sys- 

 tem. There will of course be improve- 

 ments in the detail of delivery and distri- 

 bution upon the land, but in the essential 

 principles that govern the handling of 

 it there will be no change. The best irri- 

 gators of America have merely refined 

 upon what is old in China. There they 

 were compelled to get the greatest 

 quantity of produce out of the smallest 

 amount of ground before Columbus was 

 born. But the Indian and the Mexican 

 irrigated where land was no object and 

 no ecomony in water or fertilizers neces- 

 sary. Too many of the irrigators of the 

 United States have imitated the latter 

 and irrigation was, even in California, a 

 practical failure until the new comers 

 went to the Chinaman instead of to the 

 old native Californian as they all did at 

 first. They have merely improved upon 

 the instruction until to day the teachers 

 are far behind in many things, though 

 none can yet surpass the Chinaman in 

 producing the largest amount of vege- 

 tables to the acre with water. 



I had intended to go into the subject 

 of irrigation machinery but it opens up 

 territory large enough, in connection 

 with the building and management of 

 irrigation works, for a book in itself. I 

 shall probably take it up in that line 

 some day and will pass it now with a 

 few words. In "Irrigation Farming" by 

 Lute Wilcox the reader will find treated 

 from a standpoint different from mine 

 much that is very valuable and every 

 one should read it. I have had to omit 

 a great deal for brevity, although this 

 work is now longer than intended. 



It is too late to question the utility of 

 lifting water for irrigation. Whether 

 you can afford to pump or not is merely 



a question of what you want to raise 

 and what you want to do with it. You 

 may raise it to eat when you could not 

 to sell and vice versa. 



As a rule all irrigation machinery is 

 honestly rated by the makers. They are 

 not to be expected to say how much it 

 will lose in friction on complicated bear- 

 ings, or unnecessary, stupid or bad ones. 

 Least of all can you blame them for not 

 knowing how much of the power you 

 propose to throw > away in overcoming 

 friction on small pipes when larger ones 

 would cost but a trifle more and carry 

 two or three times the amount with the 

 same power. Engines are sometimes 

 rated at their theoretical power not al- 

 lowing for the loss on their bearings 

 which may be as high as thirty per cent. 

 The maker will give you a fair allowance 

 for this but he cannot allow for what 

 you fasten to it. Nor can he be blamed 

 if you run the machine at a low efficiency 

 because you have a well that pumps out 

 so easily that the machinery must be 

 slowed down to allow it to fill. All the 

 machinery I have ever seen was miser- 

 ably handicapped in its operation by 

 one of these causes and generally by 

 both. Often the buyer is not getting 

 over forty per cent of the power and I 

 have seen many in which one-half was 

 wasted in overcoming friction in pipes 

 too small, rough or dented, and with one 

 or more right-angled bends. The major- 

 ity of windmills are doing less than half 

 duty from these and other causes. And 

 you cannot expect good results from 

 steam and none too good from gasoline 

 unless the machine can run at full 

 power or very near it for a long time. 

 The gasoline looses almost nothing in 

 stopping or firing up but even it does best 

 running steadily at a good speed for a 

 long time. You will never invest a few 

 dollars better than in getting a compe- 

 tent engineer to figure all possible fric- 

 tion out of your works. No matter 

 how cheap fuel may be you cannot af- 



