THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



245 



The experience of R. P. Tjossem, of Washington, 

 in reclaiming alkali land proves that it can be done by 

 underdrainage and subsequent irrigation. He has tried 

 mole drains and box drains two to two and a half feet 

 deep, also box drains four and a half feet deep. His 

 draining was not done systematically, but experiment- 

 ally, and was continued over a field of seventy-two acres 

 in a random way. He discarded the shallow system of 

 draining early in the work and adopted four and a 

 half feet as the minimum depth at which drains should 

 be placed. He is now of the opinion that five feet is 

 preferable. 



He irrigated liberally, and by subsoiling, turned 

 the surface soil down as deeply as possible and irri- 

 gated again. The land was seeded as rapidly as pos- 

 sible, the completeness of the reclamation being indi- 

 cated by the growth of. the crops planted. Some parts 

 of the field were soon producing a paying crop, while 

 other portions were more stubborn and required further 

 irrigation and cultivation. At the end of five years 

 the entire tract produced a profitable crop of alfalfa 

 and timothy. In the sixth year only small spots re- 

 mained which failed to produce a good average crop 

 of grass. This field at the beginning was badly affected 

 with alka-li, and is described as absolutely barren, black 

 alkali being prominent among the salts. The drainage 

 was meager and experimental. The field is now pointed 

 to by neighboring farmers as an example of the success- 

 ful reclamation of alkali land by underdrainage. The 

 cheapest and most effective methods and the details 

 which practical farmers desire to know are not as fully 

 demonstrated as they will undoubtedly be later on. 



The filling of ditches in fields to be irrigated should 

 be done carefully, and every precaution should be taken 

 to make the earth solid over the drains. There will be 

 difficulty in passing irrigation water over a field con- 

 taining underdrains until the earth over them has be- 

 come well compacted. 



PREPARING LANDS FOR ', IRRIGATION AND 

 METHODS OF APPLYING WATER. 



From Bulletin 145, courtesy United States Department of Agriculture. 



Mfi/INGLMENT f JS 'TJ. 5. ~PUMF> 



(Continued.) 



GRAIN. 



There seems to be the same excessive use of water 

 in the growing of grain as with alfalfa. The most 

 common practice in the Truckee Valley seems to be to 

 irrigate grain from six to eight times, some men using 

 ten, fiften, and even twenty irrigations. 



It is easy to over irrigate grain when it is young. 

 The results upon the station farm the past season were 

 fairly satisfactory from three and four irrigations. 

 Wheat yielded forty-six and forty-eight bushels per 

 acre and oats from sixty-five to seventy-five bushels 

 per acre yields above the average results of common 

 practice. The first irrigation was May 27, before which 

 many fields in the valley had been watered two or 

 three times. 



The furrow method is used almost exclusively in 

 the irrigation of grain. Here it is more essential that 

 the space between the furrows should not be flooded 

 than in the case of aifalfa, because the young grain 

 does not always make sufficient growth to shade the 

 ground before the first irrigation. Last spring the 

 grain upon the station farm practically covered the 

 ground when first watered. After the grain is suffi- 

 ciently grown to be in danger of lodging, it should not 

 be irrigated when the wind blows. 



To facilitate handling the water it is best to run 

 a smaller ditch or furrow parallel with the head ditch, 

 into which water is turned at convenient intervals from 

 the head ditch, these intervals to be determined by the 

 number of furrows that can be filled by the head of 

 water in use. For instance, referring to Figure 31, 

 if the head of water is about what can be carried by 

 ten furrows, put a tappoon across the ditch between 

 A and B, open the ditch at A, and fill the space between 

 the ditch bank and the land at X. The water is thus 

 turned into the first ten furrows. When this part of 

 the field is sufficiently wet, first put in another obstruc- 

 tion at Y, put in a tappoon between B and C, make 

 an opening at B, and close up A. The water is thus 

 turned off from the first ten furrows and into the sec- 

 ond ten. In some cases it is better to have water run 

 from two or more openings in the head ditch at once, 

 depending upon the amount of water used and the 

 fall of the head ditch. 



Making and breaking dams in the head ditch and 

 making and closing breaks in its bank are not in keep- 

 ing with the best irrigation practice. In permanently 

 laid out fields the ditches should be provided with boxes 

 or with "back flows" for the control of the water. When 

 water is first turned onto the land the flow from the 

 first box should be so regulated by raising or lower- 

 ing the gate that the flow will fill the desired fur- 

 rows, and so on down the ditch until the water is all 

 in use. 



The furrow method of irrigation is especially 

 adapted to crops planted in rows, such as corn, potatoes, 

 roots, and other vegetables. Here the ground may and 

 should be stirred by the use of a cultivator of some 

 sort as soon as it is dry enough after every irrigation, 



and new furrows should be made for subsequent irri- 



" +359-M gations. 



