THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



land being plowed before it is at least partially cleared, 

 some farmers irrigate the land, which decreases the 

 growth or deadens the brush, and in some cases kills 

 it entirely. This also produces a ranker and more 

 abundant growth of grass and weeds. After these have 

 been well dried fires are started and the brush is burned 

 off, after which the plowing can be easily done. 



Where the brush is very large and it is desired 

 to remove it at once this may be done by means of a 

 railroad rail, as described above. Most of the brush is 

 pulled up and the rest is broken down so as not to in- 

 terfere seriously with the subsequent plowing. The 

 part pulled up is piled and burned and that remaining 

 is plowed up. 



After the land has been cleared it must be leveled 

 so that lateral ditches can be properly constructed and 

 irrigation easily accomplished. Where the inequalities 

 are but slight a wooden framed harrow turned cross- 

 wise and upside down is drawn over the field. In this 

 way some of the soil is taken from the knolls and 

 ridges and deposited in the low places. Sometimes the 

 driver rides the harrow in order to assist in collecting 

 the soil from the knolls and steps off when a low place 

 is reached. 



The same purpose is sometimes accomplished by 

 means of a leveler made by fastening a tongue into a 

 log six inches to one foot in diameter. This is used 

 in the same manner as the harrow, and with about the 

 same result, except that the work is accomplished in 

 less time. If the inequalities of the surface are con- 

 siderable and the soil is deep, scrapers are used. 



If the soil is shallow and the value of the land is 

 high, the upper layer of soil is removed from a strip 

 about fifty or sixty feet wide and put in piles near by ; 

 after which the lower and poor soil is scraped into the 

 depressions. The soil first moved, together with the 

 upper soil on both sides, is then scraped into the excava- 

 tion and the underlying poor soil is taken to the low 

 places. The better soil which was scraped into the 

 excavation is then evenly distributed over the surface 

 of the poorer soil exposed. 



Water is sometimes used as a leveling agency. 

 Laterals are made on the ridges and the water is al- 

 lowed to flow toward the depressions or swails, where 

 it deposits its sediment. In case the hollows are steep 

 they are obstructed by manure dams and the sediment 

 is held by them. Crops are produced" during the time 

 the leveling is being accomplished, so that this method 

 is comparatively cheap. 



PREPARING LAND FOR IRRIGATION IN COLORADO AND 

 WYOMING. 



Sagebrush can be killed by copious watering, and 

 it has been a common practice for farmers to destroy 

 it by irrigating the land. As a rule, one season's soak- 

 ing will kill it. The roots and the dead plants can 

 be removed more easily than the living sagebrush. This 

 practice is less frequently resorted to each year, since 

 water is becoming too valuable to use for this purpose. 



If the sagebrush is large, tough and deep-rooted, 

 grubbing by hand with grubbing hoes may be necessary ; 

 but ordinarily a heavy plow can be used to loosen if 

 not altogether uproot both sagebrush and greasewood. 

 In contract work it is estimated one man can grub 

 or clear one acre a day, and an energetic man under 

 ordinary conditions should be able to grub two acres 

 a day with the aid of a team and plow. 



After land has been cleared of brush the most im- 



portant requirement is a thorough grading of the land 

 to be watered. The freer from humps and depressions 

 the surface of the ground the more uniformly will 

 water flow over it. The injurious effects of attempting 

 to spread water over uneven surfaces are soon apparent. 

 Water settles in the low ground, waterlogging the soil 

 and drowning out the plant life, while an insufficient 

 supply reaches the higher elevations, leaving the crops 

 to burn up. When once the surface is properly graded 

 one man can apply the water to every part of a field 

 with greater rapidity and effectiveness than two or three 

 men can irrigate a like area where the slopes are rough 

 and uneven. Grading should usually be done after 

 the laterals have been made, as it will be found that 

 less grading will be required than in reducing a whole 

 farm to a uniform slope. Too much stress can not 

 be put upon the importance of grading the surface of 

 the field between the laterals at the outset. The im- 

 provement is a permanent one, and the time and labor 

 spent will be repaid many fold. 



The ordinary means employed for leveling the sur- 

 face of fields is deep plowing, followed by harrowing,, 

 after which the use of a grader or drag will reduce 

 the humps and leave the excess soil in the depressions. 

 On some of the larger farms common road scrapers are 

 used. On other farms ordinary railroad rails and drags 

 of honlemade design are used. 



In building laterals the first thing to be consid- 

 ered is the lay of the land over which the water must 

 be made to flow. Judging the true slope of ground 

 by the naked eye is very uncertain, for even the most 

 experienced are often deceived as to whether the sur- 

 face of the land rises or falls in a given direction. 

 Where possible, every system of laterals should be laid 

 out with an engineer's level and a contour map made 

 of the whole area. In lieu of the services of a surveyor 

 the irrigator may lay out his own laterals, using one of 

 the many types of homemade leveling devices. The 

 average grade for field laterals should vary from one- 

 half inch to one inch per rod, depending upon the na- 

 ture of the soil. 



No special devices are manufactured and put upon 

 the market for building laterals, and farmers have been 

 obliged to depend upon their own ingenuity. The fol- 

 lowing device was constructed to simplify the work of 

 excavating ditches: Two steel-beam plow.8, one with 

 a right and the other with a left share, were placed 

 side by. side and their beams riveted together. The 

 shares of the plows were spread to give the furrows 

 a width of two feet on the bottom. The rear ends of 

 the shares were rounded instead of being drawn to 

 tho visual point. Above the moldboards of the plows, 

 and riveted to them, were placed 'the right and left 

 moldboards of old alfalfa plows. (Fig. 1.) The 

 handles bolted to the lower moldboards were spread 

 wider than in the ordinary plow and braced to beams. 



The beams running side by side were bent apart 

 toward the end, affording an opening wide enough to 

 insert a 4x4-inch timber two feet long, which is 

 bolted in place and on which the devices are fast- 

 ened. 



This plow is drawn by four to eight horses, ac- 

 cording to the character of the ground and depth of 

 lateral to be made. In one operation it turns two fur- 

 rows to opposite sides of the ditch and throws them 

 high on the banks, leaving an unusually clean bottom 



