THE 1RR1GA T10N AGh. 297 



be thirty inches or nearly three times as much water as is needed for 

 a good crop. While this manner of reasoning may seem a little crude 

 to some, yet practical experiments and results prove conclusively that 

 it can be easily accomplished and with little if any more expense than 

 is necessary to attend the lateral ditches in irrigating a field. 



Mr. William McCollum, of St'. Francis, Kan., twelve miles east of 

 Colorado, set out an orchard of some two hundred trees in the spring 

 of 1895 and began a system of careful cultivation to conserve the rain' 

 fall in the soil. This work was carefully continued through 1895, 1896 

 and 1897. In August, 1897, a boring test was made to ascertain how 

 deep the moisture had gone down. The discovery that it was so 

 moist for sixteen feet and two inches down that a ball could be made 

 of the soil at any point was quite a surprise, while just across the 

 road no perceptable moisture could be found below eight inches, the 

 result of a recent good rain. Another illustration which substanti- ' 

 ates the fact that water can be stored and utilized the following year. 

 is the result of the wheat crop on the Pomeroy model farm at Hill 

 City in Western Kansas this season. The particular field referred to 

 had corn on in 1900. During 1901 it was carefully cultivated to store 

 and conserve all the rain waters possible and seeded to wheat that 

 fall. On May 9, 1902, Prof: D: H. Otis, of the Kansas Agricultural 

 College, visited this field. This date was just at the close of the 

 severe early drouth that so seriously damaged the Kansas wheat crop. 

 In Prof. Otis' report of his findings he says that on the upland the 

 wheat by the ordinary methods looked poorly, was only five to six 

 inches high, and very thin. Comparing these fields with those on the 

 Pomeroy farm, the contrast was marvelous. He further states that 

 the farmers, merchants and professional men all agree that the Pom- 

 eroy model farm is naturally the poorest in the neighborhood, that 

 for ten years before the establishment of the Campbell system the 

 land had been farmed. by various parties but no one was able to raise 

 a paying crop. The first wheat field visited on the Pomeroy farm was 

 on some of the highest land in the county. Here we found wheat 

 twenty to twenty-two inches high, apparently too thick, of a very 

 dark green healthy color from the ground up. Actual count showed 

 from eighty to one hundred stalks in one foot of a single drill row. 

 On top of this was the remarkable fact that only twelve quarts of 

 seed was sown to the acre, while on the average field from thirty-two 

 to forty quarts had been sown. Upon boring for moisture over two 

 feet of moist soil was found below this field, while adjoining fields 

 were apparently dry. 



It is proper to add that just before Prof. Otis' visit the first rain 

 of any value came, after which rains were ample. This field made 

 forty- six bushels to the acre, while other fields on the divide yielded 



