212 



THE IEKIGATION AGE, 



account of its rough and uneven character. Many fields 

 that have been producing hay or pasture for years 

 have never been plowed because they are so stony. Many 

 more might profitably be leveled and irrigated by a less 

 wasteful method. By this method the water is carried 

 over the land from the distributing ditches, or laterals, 

 by means of shallow furrows from two to four inches 

 deep and from twenty to forty inches apart. These 

 furrows are generally made at right angles to the head 

 ditch, but often a more desirable fall is secured by 

 running them at a different angle. The aim is usually 

 to lay out the furrows so as to secure the least fall. 

 In irrigating, the water must run through the fur- 

 rows until the spaces between them are thoroughly 

 soaked, and this is where the apparent waste of water 

 comes in. The fact that the land between the fur- 

 rows is not flooded and subsequently baked by the sun 

 is a theoretical advantage of furrow irrigation over 

 flooding, but the difference in crop yield does not always 

 uphold the theory. One great inconvenience is the 

 necessity of having to drive over the furrows in cutting 

 and hauling the crop. 



The furrows are made by the use of machines built 

 for the purpose. These machines are not on the mar- 

 ket, but are usually constructed by local blacksmiths, 

 directed by the ranchers themselves. Old mowing ma- 

 chines furnish the main parts, such as wheels, tongue, 

 levers, seat, etc. Two styles of furrowing machines are 

 shown in Plate VII, figures 1 and 2. In alfalfa fields 

 the furrows are permanent but need to be opened up, 

 or "furrowed out," every spring before irrigation be- 

 gins, this being done with the same machines used in 

 making them. After refurrowing the ground is rolled. 

 It is much more difficult to get the water over the 

 ground the first time in the spring than at later irriga- 

 tions; because it is necessary to see that every furrow 

 is clear, that the water may run unobstructed from 

 the head ditch on the one side of the field to the waste 

 ditch on the other. It is clear, then, that the amount 

 of water one man can handle has its limit. After the 

 first irrigation this will depend largely on the size and 

 shape of the field, the contour of the land, and the 

 degree of economy practiced. Water should not be 

 allowed to run to waste after the ground has been thor- 

 oughly soaked, nor should it be allowed to stand long on 

 the field. On the station farm in the irrigation of a 33- 

 acre field of alfalfa a stream of about 2.5 cubic feet 

 per second was generally used. The field was irrigated 

 three times for each of the two hay crops and once 

 for the pasture crop that followed. The first irrigation 

 was May 15th. The cost of irrigation for the season 

 was about $2 per acre. 



We are in receipt of an elaborate and finely illus- 

 trated catalogue recently iss-ued by the Morris Machine 

 Works, of Baldwinsville, N. Y., builders of centrifu- 

 gal pumping machinery for irrigation purposes a& 

 well as manufacturers of stationary and marine en- 

 gines. 



This concern is the largest in the country building 

 this class of machinery and is fully acquainted with 

 the theoretical and practical requirements of the work. 



All of those interested in centrifugal pumps for 

 irrigation machinery are requested to write for this 

 catalogue, in which is contained very valuable tables 

 as well as illustrations that will make them fully ac- 

 quainted with the goods turned out by this firm. 



THE FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES AS IN- 

 FLUENCED BY THE WESTERN IRRI- 

 GATION PLANTS. 



BY J. T. RIDGEWAY, PRINCIPAL WASHINGTON SCHOOL, 

 KANSAS CITY. 



(Read before the Greenwood Club. Kansas City, Mo., January 27, 1905 ) 



The co-operative force of society compelled colonies 

 to go out from their native country, take ship, unite 

 their forces in felling trees, erect houses, rolling logs 

 from the fields, and protecting themselves against the 

 savages of their new and adopted country. 



Our pilgrim forefathers brought with them some 

 excellent principles of political and religious freedom, 

 which they had learned of the Dutch, not only from 

 direct and personal contact, but from a century, or 

 more, of commercial intercourse. Had the pilgrims 

 landed in a low marshy country as Holland, they would 

 have been better able to dyke and drain than any other 

 colony, except the Dutch themselves in New York. 



It would be an interesting speculation, had we 

 the time and space as to what a contrast in our his- 

 tory would have been made, had our early colonist 

 landed in the West, that is to say, had commenced the 

 settlement of North America on the western, instead 

 of the eastern, coast. To be sure the humid valleys 

 of our western coast would have been occupied first, 

 as the colonists had been in western Europe accus- 

 tomed to the humid condition, but these spots are 

 small in area compared to the humid regions of the 

 eastern half of North America. This condition would 

 have soon forced the population to irrigation long, long, 

 before this. The cotton gin and "king cotton" would 

 not have had such a chance to fasten slavery upon 

 the country. Invention, in all probability, would have 

 taken a different direction but of no less intensity. The 

 mountains and the widely separated valleys capable of 

 supporting life would have tended to make the colonies 

 more independent of each other without interest 

 enough to make a coherent nation as we now are. Thus 

 we might cite other speculative phases of the subject 

 under the supposed reversal. But once more ; the Baby- 

 lonians, Egyptians, and Chinese civilizations began in 

 arid regions. In fact the cradles of the different hu- 

 man races were rocked in arid countries; they were and 

 continue, with one exception, the most populous coun- 

 tries on the globe, because a human being can be reared 

 cheaper there than anywhere else. Talk as much as 

 you may, cheapness of rearing people is what makes 

 population count up rapidly. Not all of our arid 

 West has abundant water as Egypt, or Assyria, but por- 

 tions, as the Sacramento and Columbia valleys, com- 

 pare favorably with those of the Nile and Euphrates. 

 Then, as far as the power of sustenance is concerned, 

 had our settlements begun on the western coast, there 

 is no reasonable doubt our population would have in- 

 creased as rapidly as did the eastern coast in the first 

 century of our history. Agricultural scientists find by 

 ample analyses that the arid soils are richer than the 

 humid. There are no continual drainings and drench- 

 ings by the rain storms in arid regions to dissolve and 

 to wash away some most important elements that go 

 into plant life, if water comes upon it only by irriga- 

 tion. Twenty acres of land in the arid West before 

 irrigation scarcely supported one cow, after irrigation 

 support ten cows. Before irrigation twenty acres could 



