THE IRRIGATION AGE 157 



source of supply. Wonderful results have been achieved in increasing 

 the efficiency of pumps and motors and reducing their cost of opera- 

 tion. Individual owners have often secured water by boring or dig- 

 ging wells and the use of a pump for much less than they could buy it 

 from ditch companies, and thus are enabled to use more water and at 

 more convenient times with -less outlay. For this home supply all 

 sorts of wells and all kinds of pumps and motors are being used, ac- 

 cording to local conditions of subterranean water-bearing strata and 

 local power supplies. The subject is too wide and varied for discus- 

 sion in this place. It should be studied with the help of the best local 

 well-borers and mechanical engineers and mechanics. 



Several things are now very clear, viz. : That the capacity of all 

 openings into underground water should be tested by pumping to de- 

 termine what is the available supply; that, this being known, the mo- 

 tor and pump should be adapted to the supply by a competent expert 

 and purchased under contract that they shall actually perform the 

 service contemplated with the specified cost of fuel; that there is such 

 great difference in efficiency and working cost between the modern 

 pumping outfits and those of even a few years ago that one cannot 

 afford to accept an old-style outfit even as a gift; that makeshifts of 

 discarded thrashing engines and second hand pumps are too great an 

 extravagance to be indulged in. These suggestions apply of course to 

 all sources of pumped water, including wells, lakes and streams. 



The development of pumping from local sources of supply has not 

 only made individual farmers independent of distant supplies, but it 

 has led to the organization of many neighborhood co operative under- 

 takings which are proving very satisfactory, and has led also to trav- 

 eling pumping plants, on wheels and on flat boats. All such under- 

 takings seem to be satisfactory when they are up to date in machinery 

 and methods. 



On many farms there are already wells with windmills and pumps 

 for supplying water for stock, which can be utilized to raise a good 

 garden of vegetables and small fruits, or to save a garden crop in a 

 short season of drouth. Either the mill is shut down much of the time 

 or the water is allowed to waste onto the ground around the watering 

 trough. The only added investment necessary in order to use this 

 waste is for a tank or reservoir to hold the waste water until enough 

 has accumulated to be of use. The water from an ordinary pump will 

 flow but a few feet from the well if allowed to run on the ground, but 

 if it is collected in a tank or reservoir, and run out in a good-sized 

 stream, it can be carried for a considerable distance, even in an open 

 ditch, and much farther in a pipe or trough, and can be made to water 

 quite an area of garden. 



