THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



were yet to come as bad seasons as had gone before. 

 But the average was pretty good good enough at any 

 rate to satisfy John Smith. 



All this was before the multi-colored railway 

 folder made its appearance in the Smith household. 

 Then things changed rapidly. 



"Why, indeed," asked Smith, paraphrasing the 

 somewhat differently worded query of the pamphlet, 

 "should I stay here on this worn-out, scrubby sixty 

 acres when I can raise more crops and make more 

 money and do less work in Sunny California on irri- 

 gated lands?" And the answer came a short three 

 weeks later with the removal of the Smiths, together 

 with such of their household goods as they could not 

 bear to leave behind, from the old farm in Indiana to a 

 ten-acre patch in the widely advertised Heart's Desire 

 Valley in Southern California. 



It may be said in passing, Smith had been unable 

 to find a buyer for his Indiana farm a fact which 

 convinced him of its worthlessness. 



According to all good rules of established parables, 

 John 'Smith should have prospered exceedingly and 

 made untold wealth in Heart's Desire Valley. But he 

 didn't. To be sure, he raised quite as big crops as the 

 advertisements said the land would produce. But 

 after he had shipped his carload of early cantaloupes 

 he found the expense bill was 87 cents bigger than the 

 check the consignee sent him for his produce. 



Presently a big city, 300 miles away, determined 

 to increase its water supply to provide for the day 

 when it should have doubled twice in population. The 

 watershed on which the Heart's Desire Eiver had its 

 source was chosen as most suited to the city's future 

 needs. The government suddenly took a hand in the 

 little game which was progressing merrily and entirely 

 unbeknown to the settlers in the Heart's Desire Valley. 

 Thousands of acres of tree-less land were withdrawn for 

 a forest reserve land on which Smith's cattle had 

 grazed free. The great city viaduct was to have a right 

 of way across this reserve. The Heart's Desire River 

 was to be reduced 75 per cent in flow, the government 

 announced at length. 



And Heart's Desire Valley looked more like an ant 

 hill kicked open by a careless range heifer than the 

 liappy, prosperous community it had resembled. 



John Smith got out with the clothes on his back 

 and returned with his family to the old farm in In- 

 diana in a chair car. They had traveled West in 

 style in a "tourist." 



MORAL. 



Ifs better to raise turnips with rain in Indiana 

 than cantaloupe with irrigation in California if the 

 Reclamation and Forestry departments of the Govern- 

 ment are allied against the settler. 



The Art of Irrigation 



CHAPTER Six 



By T. S. VAN DYKE 



If your soil is not too hard and tight and you do 

 not apply the water too deep or too often you can hardly 

 fail to find flooding profitable in spite of the sickly 

 appearance of things at first. At the same time you 

 may have a strong suspicion that the growth is not 

 what it should be or that the quality of the product is 

 not first class. 



Well, who told you that you must flood ? It is not 

 always the best way and is generally the worst way to 

 irrigate. If you have a rich vegetable mould its loose 

 character and the stimulus of the nitrogen in the 

 humus may enable it to overcome the effect of flooding. 

 For garden work the same can be done by plenty of 

 stable manure well mixed into the soil. An amount 

 that would burn up almost anything under dependence 

 on rain can be put in with safety and for many crops 

 it can be used raw. On the desert it is so difficult to 

 rot it that it must generally be used raw. I have found 

 turnips, carrots, radishes, lettuce, beets and corn thrive 

 wonderfully under six inches of raw stable manure. 

 The same killed onions, tomatoes, peas and beans, made 

 potatoes and cucumbers sick no matter how much water 

 they were given, stimulated melons to an early crop 

 and began to kill them before it was fully picked, etc. 

 But all stand a much larger quantity of manure than 

 under farming with rain alone, no matter how badly 

 it is worked in. With such fertilizing I find flooding 

 indispensable for most things on the desert, for the top 

 soil must be sealed over to close out air spaces, which in 

 dry air and under a hot sun will either dry out the 

 seed before it sprouts or kill it afterward. This cannot 

 be done by rolling, for the ground dries too deeply in 

 spite of it and if planted deep enough to avoid that 

 then it is too deep for most things. By flooding I can 

 plant seed only an eighth of an inch deep and get a 

 perfect stand, where without it I cannot get one per 

 cent of slow seeds like carrots or lettuce, no matter how 

 deeply planted or how well rolled. One should experi- 

 ment at once on these things even though in a land of 

 considerable rain, for deep planting may retard growth 

 even where it does not stop it. I find melons just cov- 

 ered stronger and better plants in every way than those 

 covered two inches. By using seed sprouted under glass 

 I can get sixty per cent with one irrigation. After that 

 they are safe for a month if the ground has been well 

 filled with water. 



Still there are good reasons for flooding which 

 you may not be able to ignore. But first let us con- 

 sider a modified form of it flooding with moving water 

 and commonly called irrigating in "Lands." 



So far we have considered only standing water 

 confined bv levees on all sides. But if a narrow strip 

 be confined on only two sides by levees such strip may 

 be made quite long, provided the slope is great enough 

 to keep water moving after it is well filled with vegeta- 

 tion. These are very popular in many sections and 

 where the slope is so great as to make good checks ex- 

 pensive they are the best form of flooding. They are 



