THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 287 



soil or watch the effect of the rainfall upon my farm. My better-half 

 often scolds me for so doing, but I just cannot help it. As a good 

 Quaker would say, "The spirit moves me too hard to keep still," but 

 having been born "on the banks of the Wabash far away" may 

 have something to do with it. In my last conversation with the late 

 lamented J. Sterling Morton, we were talkiug exactly along this line, 

 and in his last speech in Chicago he embodied some of these ideas. 

 Our esteemed friend, J. C. Bowlby, of Crete, has also written good 

 words as to the creation of artificial reservoirs to hold back much of 

 the surplus water till the time it is needed. 



This was my idea when I first began to dam up the draws on my 

 place fourteen years ago, but I had no idea of the results that have 

 taken place in the saving of soil. The first pond I made was 10 feet 

 deep, 250 feet long by an average width of 50 feet. Now this is full 

 and the soil much higher than the original level of the water; about 

 12 feet of fill in the two ponds and the draw leading into them. I 

 have caught what would amount to one foot of soil from four acres of 

 ground, and in the two reservoirs on the north side of my place, 

 made during the past twp years, I have caught half as much more 

 soil, so in round numbers I have caught from my neighbors' farms one 

 foot of soil one rod wide and six miles long, or one foot of soil (it's 

 cream if you please) over six acres of ground, and this from only 

 seventy acres. Now this is the result of only a few short years. 



Wake up, Mr. Farmer of eastern Nebraska, you are giving to the 

 mighty Missouri river the wealth of an empire, and all the money of 

 the Standard Oil Company could not replace what Nebraska and Kan- 

 sas have lost this year. 



The loss will not be in diminished crops this year so much, but 

 the soil will never be as good as it was and the drouth of coming 

 years will hurt us far more. What I have said and will say applies 

 more to our hilly and rolling farms and it is these that I have been 

 watching. 



Some have said to me, "I cannot afford to build so many dams; 

 they cost too much and are liable to wash out the first big rain." 

 Wrong again; a dam made as I will explain it will stand an immense 

 amount of washing and pressure before giving way and only a little 

 care and watching will preserve it against any freshet. In the mak- 

 ing of a dam, if a large one, clean off the black soil till you are down 

 to the clay subsoil. Then clean off the black soil from where you are 

 to get the dirt to make the dam, of course from the pond side of pro- 

 posed dam. Utilize this dirt at the back side or ends of the dam. 

 Now you are ready for business. You have a clean foundation, say 

 50 feet wide and 100 feet long, Begin and lay a layer six inches deep 

 over the whole bottom at once and so continue until completed. A 



