158 THE IRRIGA T10N A GE. 



HINTS FOR SMALL FARMERS. 



For a small amount of laud, say from ten to fifteen acres, the small 

 farrows should be about sixty feet apart and the surface between them 

 smooth. A stream of water three feet wide, six inches deep, with a cur- 

 rent of about three miles per hour will irrigate about ten acres in about 

 twelve hours. It should be irrigated every fifteen or sixteen days and 

 cultivated after each irrigation. About 600 barrels of water will be 

 required per acre. In case the land is steeply sloping, run the furrows 

 across the slope instead of down it as otherwise the ditches and crops 

 would be washed out and the velocity of the water would be so great that 

 it would not remain in one place long enough to moisten the soil. 



On the average soil (the sandy loam found in Southern California) 

 farm and orchard crops require water thirty- four inches in depth applied 

 over the whole irrigated area in the course of one year; land of a semi- 

 arid nature, where the sub-soil is not open and porous, will require water 

 six to fourteen feet in depth in time of one year, water applied every ten 

 to thirty days. 



One Western man waters a large garden by means of an eight-foot 

 wind mill and a well twenty feet deep. By storing water from one 

 season to the next, he can with the same power irrigate fifteen acres. 

 Another Westerner has a twelve-foot mill and a six-inch cylinder which 

 lif is the water forty feet to a reservoir on a hill side. This reservoir is 

 forty by sixty feet and four feet deep, and the fall is sufficient to irrjgate 

 ten acres of corn, cabbage a ad potatoes. 



So many farmers make the mistake of trying to irrigate and culti- 

 vate too large an area. A small farm well tilled is much better than a 

 tract of many acres but half attended to. Five acres of good Western 

 land under irrigation and cultivation will support any family of ordinary 

 size. Brigham Young, with his usual shrewdness, recognized the fallacy 

 of one man trying to farm such a large amount of land, and the great 

 progress and rapid extension of irrigation in Utah was due to the fact 

 that her farmers were limited to a small tract of land, the maximum 

 farm being only twenty acres, and were obliged to cultivate and care for 

 that amount thoroughly. By the interest and aid of the Mormon church 

 money was furnished to build the canals, and zealous missionaries secured 

 the colonists to occupy the lands reclaimed from the desert. 



According to Mr. Van Dyke in his book, "Mystery and Mastery of 

 Irrigation," subterranean irrigation is classed with the methods that are 

 failures, yet for small areas it can be used to advantage many times. 

 The lollowing simple and economical plan was tried some years ago at 

 the W. Virginia station, by Prof. F. W. Rene, and might be imitated by 

 small farmers with good results and at small outlay: 



"Place the tiles slightly in the surface of the ground or any conven- 

 ient depth. Give them a slight incline, this varying according as you 

 have pressure or not. In most cases the water is scarce, and the object 

 is to get it to the roots of the plant with as little waste as possible. The 



