THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



347 



then taken up and passed on for a dis- 

 tance and the flooding repeated. It is a 

 rule with irrigators to begin at the lowest 

 point or side of the laud and wofk up- 

 wards toward the main ditch. They are 

 thus enabled to have dry ground tc stand 

 on most of the time. The beginner is 

 nearly always afraid of getting on too 

 much water. If the soil is well drained, 

 as all irrigated land should be, there is no 

 danger of too much water. The danger is 

 too little. The enormous amount of 

 water consumed by a growing crop is in- 

 credible to one who has not looked into 

 the matter. (See Prof. King's book on 

 "Soils.") For the practical details of the 

 work of irrigation the beginner Avould best 

 ter get a work on this subject, of which 

 there are a number published, or better still 

 go somewhere and see the work done. It 

 is so simple that a few days spent with a 

 practical irrigator in a field will enable 

 anyone with intellectual resource to take 

 it up. 



Irrigation before planting is very im- 

 portant and profitable and very simple. 

 To do this it is only necessary to plow the 

 land into ridges by throwing the furrows 

 toward each other and run the water be- 

 tween the ridges. After allowing suf- 

 ficient time for the surplus water to drain 

 off. the land is ploughed, harrowed and 

 planted. This is perhaps the best of all 

 irrigation. The crop gets a good start 

 and stands well. 



With a good start a crop needs irriga- 

 ting only twice or three times during the 

 growing season. It is impossible in a 

 short article to go into all the details, but 

 the work of irrigation depends upon such 

 simple principles that when one gets 

 started at it he becomes so interested that 

 he soon works out the practical details 

 for himself. My injunction would be in 

 short: First, be sure of plenty of water 

 not less than 2uO,000 or 500,000 gallons 

 per acre for the season, depending upon 

 the rainfall which has to be supplemented 

 or want supplied. Don't be afraid of 

 using too much water and remember that 



it always runs down hill, the latter, even 

 when it sometimes appears to run up hill. 

 It is often necessary to lay out the main 

 ditch in a very circuitous manner so as to 

 keep it higher than the land to be irrigated 

 and to avoid too rapid a descent and a 

 consequent too rapid flow of water. 



The dry season has caused great loss to 

 stockmen on the Sierra foothills. It is 

 estimated that 175,000 sheep were driven 

 into the forest reservations after the with- 

 drawal of the United States cavalry some 

 time ago. Recently a force of deputy 

 marshals forced the stock owners to re- 

 move their cattle and sheep from the re- 

 served lands. Some of the herders assert, 

 as there is no grass and little water to be 

 found elsewhere, at least 100,000 sheep 

 must perish of starvation and thirst. 



The New Jersey experiment stations 

 practice crop rotations, and six of the 

 principal systems are as follows, corn 

 being planted the first year in all of them : 



Second year, oats; third year, wheat or 

 rye; fourth year, clover. Second year, 

 potatoes ; third year wheat or rye ; fourth 

 year, clover. Second year, wheat or rye 5 

 third year, clover ; fourth year, timothy. 

 Second year, potatoes ; third year, clover. 

 Second year, potatoes; third year, pota- 

 toes; fourth year, melons. Second year, 

 potatoes; third year, tomatoes; fourth 

 year, clover. 



The Massachusetts Ploughman says 

 that dried blood is rapidly gaining favor 

 with western experimenters as a food for 

 cattle, sheep and hogs. It is mixed with 

 meal and baked in cakes and fed in this 

 way. A very little of the blood is suf- 

 ficient. This has not as yet come into 

 general use among farmers, who have so 

 far only used the dried blood as a fer- 

 tilizer. 



A California man and his wife recently 

 arrived at Ventura from a trip of 454 miles 

 on their wheels. 



