THE IRRIGA Tl OX A GE. 1 61 







er begins to waver on both wings and in the center. The only de- 

 fence is for the farmer to out-figure the agent. Let us figure; the es- 

 sentials of fertility which I have named can be supplied from within 

 the soil or from without: from within by heat, cultivation and moisture; 

 from without by fertilizers. An acre of ground, where the fertilizer 

 route is adopted should receive each season from a half ton to a ton 

 and a half of fertilizer. It will cost 30.00 to $40.00 per ton. Suppose 

 we use only one half ton of the cheaper grade 15.00 at the factory; 

 in seven years the cost of the fertilizer will be 105.00 per acre more 

 than the value of land in most parts of Kansas. Better results with 

 half the money in any of our river valleys can be produced with 

 water: and leave on hand a water plant, fully paid for, not half worn 

 out. 



The commercial gardeners in Kansas are mostly on bottom land 

 within easy reach of water, lying directly below them from ten to 

 thirty feet away. All that is required for their irrigation is a perfor- 

 ated point, a practical pump, some pieces of pipe and plenty of 

 power. Points are cheap: pipe is cheap; pumps are cheap: power is 

 cheap. We have envied our sister states with their mountain system 

 irrigation without reason. We can deliver water on our bottom gar- 

 dens cheaper than many Californians or Coloradians get their water 

 delivered at their flood gates. And in ten thousand locations in Kan- 

 sas, outside of river bottoms, running water is at hand or artificial 

 ponds are feasible. 



The most extensive use of the point and pump for irrigation pur- 

 poses, that I know of, is to be found in Muscalin Island, Iowa. Its 

 advent, there, dates back about ten years, and its development has 

 been continuous. There are now about thirty irrigation plants on the" 

 island. I am told that none have ever been abandoned. These 

 people are north and east of us; they have less sun and wind to con- 

 tend with than we do: they also have more rain-fall. They don't 

 need irrigation as bad as we do. If their necessities are less than 

 ours, their facilities are somewhat greater: they are only twenty feet 

 from water, whereas on river-bottoms we are about thirty. They ap- 

 ply the water they pump in precisely the same manner that a Colo- 

 radian applies the water to his ditch. 



One of the most extensive irrigators on the island is Mr. T. B. 

 Holcomb, he has been irrigating for five years, he intends to put in a 

 second outfit next spring: his present equipment is simple and inex- 

 pensive. It consists of four four-inch points driven equi-distant from 

 each other and each five feet from a common center. Here they are 

 all connected up and a rotary pump attached to the connection. The 

 pump is run by a twenty horse-power portable engine. The cost out- 

 side of the engine was about 500.00. The discharge is sufficient 

 theoretically to give ten acres one inch of water in ten hours. This 



