RESERVOIRS, AND HOW TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN 



THEM. 



BY JOHN M. IRWIN, Freeport, 111. 



Irrigation by Wind Mills and Pumps involves the selection of a 

 good mill and a suitable pump or pumps which supplies the necessary 

 machinery, but the Irrigator must, in addition to this, build a suitable 

 reservoir to store the water for the reason that the direct flow of water 

 from the pump can not be used in successful irrigation for two rea- 

 sons, the first of which is the absence of pressure required to push 

 the water forward over the land; and, second, the cold water drawn 

 from the well is unsuited to plant life. 



To make a reservoir, first select a suitable location, one that will 

 occupy the land as high, or higher, in elevation than any of the land 

 you wish to irrigate; then lay off the lines marking its dimensions. If 

 the land on which the reservoir is to be built be of fresh sod, it will be 

 necessary to plow up or remove all of the sod from the ground on 

 which the embankments are to be constructed, otherwise there would 

 always remain a seam through which the water would escape from the 

 reservoir, as sod is not fit material to use in the construction of em- 

 bankments, it should not be used when building them up to their re- 

 quired heights. When the outlines of the embankments are estab- 

 lished and the sod removed^, as before stated, then plow within the 

 lines of the proposed embankments and with a scraper draw the earth 

 from the inside of the reservoir to build up the walls with. The walls 

 should not be less than 5 feet in height, measuring on the outside, and 

 very wide or thick at the ground level. The wall should be so carried 

 up that the slope from the inside will be very gradual, not abrupt, 

 for the reason that if the walls are nearly perpendicular, waves of the 

 water will destroy them, hence the advantage of making the walls 

 very sloping from the inside; the outer walls may be made more per- 

 pendicular, because there is no water from the outside to injure them. 

 Having built the walls by using the earth from the inside of the res- 

 ervoir, and everything ready for puddling the earth to hold water, the 

 first thing in order is to plow up all of the land over the whole bottom 

 surface of the reservoir, 4 or 5 inches deep, then with a harrow or 

 drag, or other suitable implement, reduee the earth to a very fine pul- 

 verization, and after this shall have been done, and thoroughly done, 

 tho next thing in order is to make ready to puddle. 



Having your team and that of your neighbor, if you can procure 

 his services, with his team, with drags, or harrows, or inverted 

 scrapers, or other suitable tools that will be best adapted for working 



