POINTS ON IRRIGATION. 



GEORGE P. BEMIS. 



A great many people these days are becoming .quite interested in 

 "Irrigation," and still comparatively few understand it. Naturally 

 enough, being in the real estate business, we were frequently approached 

 by people interested in a subject which, to say the least, is a wealth 

 maker. _ 



Now to answer the very many 

 questions put to us, it was necessary 

 to make irrigation a study, and the 

 only way to study anything and be 

 successful is to study it in a practical 

 way; and to do that one must be right 

 on the ground where the work is be- 

 ing done. So a few months ago we 

 started out to visit some of the best 

 irrigation systems in western Neb- 

 raska, Colorado and Wyoming, and 

 many a valuable lesson we have 

 learned. 



People imagine that there is an 

 enormous amount of work neces- 

 sary to raise a crop by irrigation, as 

 compared with the old way of de- 

 pending on rain. We wish to say, 

 dear readers, that no greater mistake was ever made. The 

 writer, with many others, at one time labored under the same 

 delusion, and while studying the working of one of the best 

 irrigation plants in Wyoming intimated as much to the expert that 

 was sent by the irrigation company to give us the full amount of 

 instruction necessary to make a successful farmer on an irrigated farm, 

 when to our surprise he deliberately took a side curtain from the 

 buggy, threw it into the lateral, stood on one end to keep it on the 

 bottom of the ditch, and then with both hands spread the top, one 

 hand a little lower down stream than the other, he commenced to flood 

 a field of oats. We simply make this statement to show how easy it 

 is to put the water on the crop. Of course there are a great many ap- 

 pliances for handling the water; among them is a canvas, weighted, 

 which is thrown into the lateral, causing it to overflow at any point 



HON. GEO. P. BEMIS. 



