176 



THE IB1UGAT10N AGE. 



says Mr. King in conclusion, "that with 

 potatoes, as with hay, the rainfall of Wis- 

 consin is seldom so large in quantity or so 

 well distributed but that good and timely 

 irrigation will measurably increase the 

 yield. " 



Mr. King also gave the results of his 

 investigations with the windmill as a 

 motive power, an accurate record being 

 kept of the amount of water pumped each 

 day from March 6, 1897, to March 6, 1898. 

 The windmill used was a 16 ft. geared 

 steel po\ver mill, purchased of the Aer- 

 motor Co., of Chicago, and the pumps 

 used were : a reciprocating pump with 

 14-inch piston, one of the bucket kind, 

 manufactured by Seaman & Schuske, of 

 St. Louis, Mo. ; a No. 2 Gould and a 

 Menge pump. The Seaman pump was al- 

 ways given to the mill in light winds, as it 

 required the least power to run it. Its 

 normal capacity was 120 gallons per min- 

 ute. From the accurate account kept of 

 the work it was found that during the 

 year the total amount of water pumped 

 was 24,433 tanks, each tank holding 141.2 

 cubic feet; or expressed in another way, 

 enough water was pumped during the 

 year to cover 79.1 acres 12 -inches deep or 

 at the rate of 2.6 cubic inches per day for 

 the entire year. 



To use the windmill as a motive power 

 for furnishing water for irrigating pur- 

 poses, it is necessary, owing to the great 

 variability of the wind velocity, to store 

 some of the water pumped so that it may 

 be used in times of insufficient wind, if 

 needed. 



Statistics concerning the windmill 

 power with especial reference to irrigation 

 give the following conclusions: 



Irrigating once every ten days, lifting 

 the water ten feet, it was found that the 

 mean amount of water pumped during the 

 100 days from May 29 to Sept. 6, the sea- 

 son when irrigation is most needed in this 

 country, was 24,549 acre- inches per 1(1 

 days. Expressed differently, 10 inches of 

 water can be given to 24.5 acres of ground 

 during 100 days where the lift is 10 feet. 



THE ALKALI SOILS OF THE YELLOW- 

 STONE VALLEY. 



The evil done to the soil through over- 

 irrigation is so widespread and so disast- 

 rous alike to the soil and to the irrigation 

 industry, that anything tending to correct 

 the tendency by pointing out to farmers 

 the folly of the injurious use of water, is 

 worthy of dissemination. We take pleas- 

 ure in presenting a few extracts from a 

 bulletin lately issued by Chief of Divi- 

 sion of Soils, Milton Whitney, and Thos. 

 H. Means : 



"There is generally little system in the 

 application of water to the land. Very 

 few of the planters know how much they 

 need. The water is applied when the 

 surface appears dry, and it is then applied 

 is such excess that much of it cannot 

 evaporate. ***** Proper irri- 

 gation in an arid region furnishes an ideal 

 condition of crop production. In practice,, 

 however, the method or applying water to 

 the land Is extremely crude, and there is 

 really liitle cause to wonder that much 

 harm has been done through over- irri- 

 gation" 



The following is given as to the origin 

 of the alkali salts : 



"Any excessive accumulation of soluble 

 mineral salts in the soil is popularly 

 spoken of as "alkali" in the West. The 

 term, therefore, as popularly used and a& 

 used in this bulletin, does not necessarily 

 refer to material of an alkaline or basic 

 nature. The alkali soils of the West are 

 of two principal classes : The alkaline 

 carbonates, or black alkali, usually sodi- 

 um carbonate, is the worsb form of alkali, 

 actually dissolving the organic materials 

 of the soil and corroding and killing the 

 germinating seed or roots of plants; the 

 Avhite alkalies, the most common of which 

 are sodium sulphate, sodium chloride, 

 magnesium sulphate, magnesium chloride, 

 and occasionally, as in northern Nevada, 

 some of the borates, are not in themselves 

 poisonous to plants, nor do they attack 

 the substance of the plant roots, but are 

 injurious when, owing to their presence in. 



