THE IKKIGATION AGE. 



177 



and requires great care to prevent the ends from be- 

 coming jammed and bent and dents being made in 

 the body of the pipe itself. 



Pipes in common use cost all the way from 9 to 

 17 cents per foot, according to the weight of iron used 

 and their diameters. 



The pipes, when in use, are joined to the cement 

 stands by short pieces of canvas hose of somewhat larger 

 diameter than the pipe. This permits the irrigation 

 of several rows of basins from one stand, and also 

 makes it possible to connect with ease a line of pipe 

 which has been connected by sections for the lower 

 tier of basins with the nearest stand regardless of 

 whether the stand be an even pipe length away from 

 the upper end of the connected pipe or not. 



METAL TROUGHS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PIPES. 



In the place of the pipes just described some or- 

 chardists have adopted metal troughs and have much 

 success with them. In making the basins prior to irri- 



FURROW IRRIGATION IN THE YAKIMA VALLEY, 

 WASHINGTON. 



The furrow system of irrigation is employed for all 

 crops in a portion of the Yakima Valley, Washington. 

 This is due to the fact that flooding causes the surface 

 to bake slightly because the soil is so finely divided 

 that the particles run together when the surface is 

 saturated with water. Irrigation by small furrows, 

 which produces wetting of the surface by capillarity, 

 has been found better adapted to this character of soil. 



,. i. 



Making Furrows with Single Shovel Plow. 



gating, channels are formed between the tiers of basins 

 by the levees which are thrown up to form the basins. 

 Troughs are placed in the channels and make possible 

 the quick distribution of a stream to a long tier of 

 basins, preventing loss of water in distribution. 



Eectangular flumes made of galvanized iron, about 

 No. 22 weight, in so far as delivering the water is 

 concerned, are effective. They are quite expensive, 

 however, are bulky and awkward to handle, and are 

 easily damaged. The sections are ten feet long and 

 are made of 30-inch iron. The troughs shown in the 

 illustration were comparatively new, yet the edges and 

 ends are considerably damaged. 



A much better and less expensive trough is the 

 triangular one. These troughs were made of ordinary 

 black corrugated roofing iron. Each strip of iron ten 

 feet long and thirty inches wide, made two lengths of 

 troughs. The corrugations make the troughs quite 

 rigid and able to withstand considerable rough hand- 

 ling. The troughs are light and as they nest nicely one 

 man can easily carry from eight to twelve at a time 

 in distributing them. As the square troughs will not 

 nest conveniently, two or three lengths are about as 

 many as a man can carry. 



HEAD DITCHES. 



In laying out head ditches choose the side of- the 

 field from which the most uniform slope can be ob- 

 tained. Turn four furrows together; then with the 

 same plow, or, if the ditch is to be small, with a large 

 single-shovel ditch plow, plow out the center, cutting 

 only a little deeper than the original surface. The 

 head ditch should be divided into levels by means of 

 drop boxes if the surface has much slope, so that the 

 water can be taken out through spouts into the irrigat- 

 ing furrows. But the attempt should not be made to 

 carry the water too far on a level, as this will make 

 the banks so high on the lower end that they will 

 break. Drop boxes cost about $2.50 each when put in 

 complete. Nothing will take the place of the shovel 

 and hand work in dressing up a head ditch. The sides 

 should be sufficiently strong where the water is raised 

 above the surface to be reasonably secure from breaks; 

 for a, break will more than offset the extra care required 

 in strengthening the ditch banks. The ditch should 

 receive special care until the banks become hardened 

 and silted. A rough estimate of the cost of head 

 ditches is $10 for eighty rods, in addition to $2.50 

 each for the drop boxes. 



(To be continued ) 



