1HE IRRIGATION AGE. 113 



dence and a hundred thousand homes can be reared on the relics of 

 present failures. This subject deserves more than a passing thought. 

 Nowhere in the realm of certainty is there a more deserving field for 

 the writer or statesman. Nowhere is there less work for the politi- 

 cian. Everywhere throughout the west the voice of the people is- 

 being raised and everywhere in the network of valleys is heard the 

 same plea. If the general government permits these appeals to go 

 unheeded, let it be after the cause has been made known and the re- 

 sult surmised. 



DITCH MAKING. 



BY JOHN M. IRWIN, Freeport, 111. 



The main ditch should be located along the highest level of land 

 you wish to irrigate, so that the water may be kept up high enough 

 to run into the latterals or small ditches, which in turn must be kept 

 above the general level of the land over which the water is to flow. 

 Should the bottom of main ditch or laterals be below the top level of 

 the ground, then all the water in the ditches below the land level will 

 be wasted, as far as getting it up over the land is concerned. 



To put land in shape to irrigate, plow the land as deep as con- 

 venient, then with a drag made in the form of a capital letter A, but 

 with the base 8 feet wide and the top 16 inches wide, as shown in dia- 

 gram, I I constructed a's follows: With plank 2x6 inches and 12 



feet long for side pieces and suitable plank for cross pieces to bind the 

 outside pieces firmly together. The side pieces should be arranged 

 on edge. When ready to go to work hitch to wide end of the frame, 

 and after you have decided how wide and long to make the beds (lands), 

 drive straight across the field from one side to the other; the wide- 

 spreading ends of the drag gather in the loose earth, clods and all, 

 and heap it up back behind. This forms a ridge that will separate the 

 field into beds. Some irrigators make these lands only 16 feet wide, 

 while others make them two, four or more reds wide. The width will 

 depend largely on the size of the reservoir. If the land is so large 

 that it will require more water than the reservoir contains at one time 

 it will not be all properly irrigated. 



After the field has been laid off into lands or beds as described, 

 then if the ground between the ridges is humpy or uneven a scraper 

 will come into good play. The humps should be scraped into the low 

 places, and after this is done a harrow or drag should be used, and to 

 finish up with, aboard leveler, well weighted down, should be dragged 

 over the land to put the' bfds in perfect condition, so that the w t ater 



