THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



PREPARING LAND FOR IRRIGATION 

 METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 



AND 



From Bulletin 145, courtesy U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



CLEARING AND LEVELING LAND IN WASHINGTON. 



Land in the Yakima Valley is covered with sage- 

 brush and is usually rough. If greasewood is found 

 mingled with the sagebrush to any considerable extent 

 the land is regarded with suspicion, since this brush 

 is looked upon as an index of the presence of injurious 

 alkali in the soil. 



The roots of sagebrush are all near the surface and 

 the earth about them is loose, so that the removal of 

 the brush is not difficult nor expensive. It is grubbed 

 with a isharp mattock which cuts the roots below the 

 surface of the ground. The usual cost of clearing the 

 land by hand work, including burning of the brush, i? 

 $3 an acre, though during the winter, when labor is 

 plentiful, it is sometimes done for $2 an acre. 



off. The buck scraper is a most effective implement for 

 moving loose or sandy earth where the haul is short. 

 Its simplicity and cheapness also commend it to the 

 farmer and contractor. In its simplest form it consists of 

 a plain scraper made of 2-inch plank having a steel 

 shoe on the cutting edge, and a tailboard for holding 

 it in position while filling and also for controlling the 

 angle of the scraper for the purpose of leveling the 

 earth as it is dumped. The size commonly used for 

 four horses is eight feet long and two feet wide. It is 

 securely ironed with strap iron and bolted together. 

 The cost of a scarper of this size is $14. An improve- 

 ment consists of a tailboard equipped with a lever, by 

 means of which the load may be dumped and scattered 

 or spread. These scrapers are made of different lengths 

 up to twenty-four feet, the latter size requiring six 

 teams to operate. 



Some skill is required for this work. The prepared 

 surface should be even that is, free from hollows and 



Home-Made Lateral Plow at Right Front View. 



Another plan for clearing the land of brush con- 

 sists in drawing a railroad rail across the field and 

 doubling back over the same tract. This pulls many 

 of the bushes and loosens others, so that the subse- 

 quent work required is much lessened. This "plan is 

 not regarded as reducing the cost of the work materially, 

 but it is more expeditious than the first. The loose 

 brush is drawn into windrows with a sagebrush rake 

 and burned. The rake has strong teeth about two feet 

 long made of 2 x 4-inch scantling. The brush is some- 

 times used for covering stretches of sandy road, greatly 

 improving their condition as soon as the brush is once 

 crushed into place by travel. 



The leveling of the land is a work involving more 

 time and expense than anything else connected with 

 the starting of a new place. M.uch of the land con- 

 sists of alternate humps and depressions of from one 

 to three feet in height or depth, not infrequently with 

 knobs of larger dimensions. Few implements are re- 

 quired for this leveling, the plow and the buck scraper 

 being chiefly used. The work is often done by contract. 

 $15 an acre being a common price for the leveling of 

 land not so rough that it can not be readily "bucked" 



humps, so that when water is turned in at the head 

 of the furrow it will flow across the field without form- 

 ing pools; and the slopes should be as uniform as 

 practicable. Much labor and inconvenience in irri- 

 gating can be avoided by making the leveling as perfect 

 as possible. Before it is considered finished, water 

 is sometimes turned upon the field and its surface 

 practically tested for uneven places, and additional 

 grading done afterward where shown to be desirable. 

 An ideal field is one which slopes gentjy and uniformly. 



REMOVING SAGEBRUSH IN SALT LAKE BASIN. 



If the brush is not more than three feet high 

 it can probably be loosened most easily by plowing the 

 land in the early spring when there is sufficient mois- 

 ture in the soil to favor easy plowing and when the 

 roots are filled with sap and can be cut easily. It can 

 then be collected in piles or windrows by means of 

 a hay rake, or a harrow, and burned. It is probable 

 that two plowings will be necessary for a complete re- 

 moval of the brush and a sufficient loosening of the 

 soil to permit of crops being planted. 



In case the brush is too large to permit of the 



