82 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



thirty-six inches long and nearly square in section, 

 while the area of the opening left for the passage of 

 water varies from one to twenty square inches. In 

 some localities short lengths of discarded pipes from 

 one to two inches in diameter are used. 



Fig. 12 represents a common form of tube, which 

 was designed by Mr. B. F. Knapp, of Mountainview, 

 CaJ. ' It is made of four pieces of %x3%-inch redwood 

 boards fourteen inches long, nailed together in such a 

 way as to leave an opening two and a quarter inches 

 wide and three and three-quarter inches high. On 

 one end of this box a sheet of galvanized iron 4x5 

 inches and about No. 22 in weight is fastened by means 

 of a leather washer and a 6-penny wire nail. The flow 

 of water through a box is regulated by means of this 

 plate, which revolves around the nail. The boxes were 

 made and used by Mr. Knapp to irrigate his peach, 

 apricot and prune orchards in the vicinity of Moun- 

 tainview. The water supply is obtained from a pump- 

 ing plant, with a capacity of 1,000 gallons per minute, 

 located in the orchard. Ordinary ditches in earth ex- 

 tend from the pumping plant to the upper boundaries 

 of the various orchard tracts, and the boxes are 'used 

 to divide the water equally among a large number of 

 furrows. 



Adjustable "V" scraper or crowder. 



Mr. Knapp prefers deep to shallow furrows and 

 uses a smaller number between the rows of trees than 

 would be required if they were shallow. These fur- 

 rows are made with a double moldboard plow attached 

 to a sulky frame. This implement loosens the soil 

 to a depth of ten inches and makes a large and well- 

 defined furrow. When it is desired to loosen the sub- 

 soil of the orchard and allow the irrigation water to 

 penetrate to a considerable depth a subsoiler made by 

 the local blacksmith is attached to the plow and also 

 to the sulky frame. This combination loosens the soil 

 to a depth of fifteen inches. Water turned into fur- 

 rows of that character is speedily and readily distrib- 

 uted to the deeper roots of the tree without any ap- 

 preciable loss by evaporation. Soon after the water 

 is applied the soil is smoothed over with a spring- 

 toothed harrow. When the boxes are properly set and 

 the furrows run, the work of irrigating is much less 

 than by the common method and not more difficult 

 than when costly appliances are used. With the com- 

 paratively large boxes herein described the water may 

 be divided with fair accuracy among from 10 to 100 

 furrows by properly controlling the openings. 



At the time of the writer's visit to the locality, 

 July 31, 1903, two men were irrigating a 28-acre field 



of sugar beets on an adjacent farm with boxes loaned 

 bv Mr. Knapp. The water was conveyed from Mr. 

 Knapp's pumping plant through an 8-inch canvas 

 pipe and delivered at a corner of the field of sugar 

 beets. From there it was carried in rather a steep 

 supply ditch across the end of the field. The volume 

 carried was about sixty miner's inches and was divided 

 among about half as many rows of beets. One man 



Tube for diverting wa ter to furrows. 



inserted the checks and the boxes and the other looked 

 after the distribution of the water in the field. While 

 the water was retained by one canvas dam, a second 

 canvas dam was inserted 50 to 100 feet below, the 

 distance depending on the grade, and a box was placed 

 opposite each furrow. 'When the beets were irrigated 

 as far as the first dam it was removed to a point be- 

 low the second one nad the operation of putting in 

 boxes and irrigating repeated. . An extra supply of 

 boxes was kept on hand, so that there was no neces- 

 sity to use other than dry boxes. 



In the nurseries at Fresno, Cal, a similar device 

 is used in irrigating nursery stock. The stock is set 

 out in rows four feet apart and seldom more than 500 

 feet long. A furrow from three to four inches deep is 

 made on each side of a row of young trees and about 

 nine inches from their base with a small walking plow 

 drawn by one horse. Water is conveyed to the nur- 

 series in ordinary earthen channels, but the distribu- 

 tion is made by small wooden boxes made of common 

 pine lath. The opening is so small that there is no 

 need of a gate. One of these lath boxes placed with . 

 its center two inches below the surface of the water in 

 the supply ditch would discharge 0.7 miner's inch; if 

 placed three inches below the surface, 8 / 8 , and if four 

 inches, a trifle more than one miner's inch. The prac- 

 tice on the orchard referred to is to place them about 



Tube for lateral bank. 



two inches below the surface and to divide this stream 

 equally between two furrows. It requires about twelve 

 hours for this small stream, 0.35 miner's inch, to reach 

 the foot of the rows, 500 feet distant. The cost of each 

 tube in place does not exceed 3 cents. The. nursery 

 stock is irrigated every two weeks from June to Sep- 

 tember, inclusive. 



