140 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



A GOOD POND. 



The Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station 

 bulletin No. 91 contains the following valuable sugges- 

 tions concerning water storage: 



"The winter season may be very profitably spent 

 in building ponds on farms where there is not an abund- 

 ant natural water supply. A constant supply of water 

 of good quality is essential to success with live stock and 

 there are but few farms on which the present sources 

 of supply could not be improved. Water for household 

 purposes must be obtained from wells, cisterns, or 

 springs. The last are not common and the water from 

 wells is very variable both in quality and in amount. 

 The Oklahoma experiment station at Stillwater has 

 analyzed waters from wells in practically every part 

 of the territory and while" they are usually free from 

 organic contamination, a large proportion of them con- 

 tain too much dissolved mineral matter to make them 

 either palatable or healthful. Cisterns, if properly con- 

 structed and looked after, constitute a very desirable 

 source of pure water for drinking and cooking. 



Unless there is a natural stream that contains 

 water throughout the year, the source of stock water 

 is either wells or artificial ponds. Where more than a 

 few head of stock are kept and watered from a well, 

 a windmill is almost a necessity and while Oklahoma 

 has the reputation of being a very windy country, there 

 are many days and even weeks at a time when wind- 

 mills do not turn. If a windmill is depended upon 

 there must be a storage tank of sufficient size to hold 

 a supply for calm periods. Thus the outfit must con- 

 sist of a well, a pump, windmill, and storage tank if 

 this plan of securing stock water is resorted to. The 

 cost of this will vary from one hundred to three hun- 

 dred dollars and the outfit requires constant attention 

 to keep it in good working order. 



Thousands of ponds harve been built as sources 

 of stock water but very few of these ponds have been 

 properly made. Water for any use about the farm 

 should be as clean and pure as it is possible to make 

 it. Pond water at best is not ideal, but the average 

 pond is constructed with every facility for the making 

 of the water of the pond the worst possible. Cattle and 

 hogs stand and wallow in it, then drink of it or refuse 

 to do so and go without water. Then they become sick 

 for some "unaccountable reason" when there was plenty 

 of water in the pond. Too often, the pond gets the 

 drainage of the barnyard, being located solely with 

 reference to proximity and with no regard to the kind 

 of water that will flow into it. 



"A pond which is to furnish water for stock should 

 be located so as to receive its water from native prairie 

 hay land; if this is not possible, then from native prairie 

 grass pasture. More water will run off from such land 

 than from cultivated fields, it will be cleaner, and will 

 not carry with it so much sediment that will in time 

 fill the pond. The pond should be fenced so that 

 no animal can get into it and if any fence on the farm 

 is kept in perfect repair, it should be the fence around 

 the pond. A galvanized iron pipe should be laid 

 through the dam at such a point that it will completely 

 drain the pond and the end of the pipe inside of the 

 pond should be staked up out of the mud and be pro- 

 vided with a fine strainer. A cut-off may be placed 

 either inside or just outside of the pond bank and the 

 pipe should be at least a foot below the surface of 



the soil where it comes out of the bank. Nearly every- 

 one knows how to build a pond bank. The chief cause 

 of leaky ponds is failure to remove the sod where the 

 bank is to be. The sod in time rots and causes leaks. 

 On some sandy soils, the hauling of clay may be desir- 

 able but this is seldom necessary. 



"Up to this point the cost of construction of the 

 pond, where the ordinary natural advantages exist, will 

 be about the same as digging a well. If the pond is 

 in a pasture, a galvanized iron stock tank with an auto- 

 matic float valve should be conneeted with the pipe 

 just below the pond bank. If water is wanted at other 

 places on the farm, it may be piped if sufficient fall can 

 be secured and this should be taken into consideration 

 when locating the pond. 



"Such a pond as this, with a capacity of about 

 one million gallons and full of water now, may be seen 

 on the experiment station farm. It is on a hill in the 

 pasture and gets it? water from sod land above it. 

 Water is piped to ail of the feed lots, including the 

 hog pasture lots, and flows by gravity to the second 

 floor of the barn. As it runs from the faucets, it is 

 as clear as the average well water and it tastes good. 

 The cost of building the pond and of piping the water 

 for about one-third of a mile was about four hundred 

 dollars. Barring unusual accidents, it should cost noth- 

 ing for repairs and it doesn't cost a cent to operate. 

 It is possible that in time the pipes may become clogged 

 with sediment, the fall being so slight that the wat?r 

 does not go through the pipes with sufficient force to 

 keep them clean. But if taken in time, when first 

 indications of trouble are noticed, and water is forced 

 through with a force pump, the job of cleaning the 

 pipes will be a small one. This will in all probability 

 not occur in several years. 



There are few farms where a pond could not be con- 

 structed in the same manner and but few cases where 

 so much piping will be required. Ponds built during 

 the early winter have time to settle and the spring rains 

 will fill them and insure a supply of water through^ 

 out the summer. But it does not pay to neglect rea- 

 sonable precautions and the expenditure of a little 

 money in providing good water is economy of the best 

 sort." 



IRRIGATION IN INDIA. 



In strong contrast with the selfish and ruinous 

 financial policy of the British government in India 

 stands its beneficent and broad-minded program of in- 

 ternal improvement, which compares more than favor- 

 ably with our Pacific railroads and Panama canal and 

 with Eussia's Siberian highway. 



In the last forty years, says a writer in the Chicago 

 Inter-Ocean, the British government for India has ex- 

 pended $100,000,000 on irrigation works and as much 

 more on railroads. The railroads, measuring 25,000 

 miles, extend across the arid regions as well as along the 

 river valleys, and the irrigation canals water 14,000,000 

 acres of land counted as arid before the construction of 

 the canals. The question as to whether investment in 

 canals and railroads has paid is answered in the Indian 

 commercial reports just published. 



It is gleaned from these official reports that the 

 value of the products from the irrigated lands, in a 

 smgh year, exceeds the $100,000,000 expended 

 on canals and other works. The railroads have devel- 



