THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



113 



POWER IRRIGATION 



BY E. C. REYBOLD, JR. 



There are probably more gasoline engines used 

 for pumping water for irrigating purposes than any 

 other style of motive power. This is because of the 

 cheapness and facility with which small plants may be 

 installed, their relatively small cost of operation, the 

 trifling amount of attention required, and the small 

 weight of fuel to be transported. When anyone needs 

 a small amount of power intermittently nothing save 

 electric power can excel a gasoline engine, for if it is 

 kept in good condition it can be started within a min- 

 ute, making a gain of about an hour over the use of a 

 steam engine and boiler. Of course, electric power is 

 even better than a gasoline engine, as when the switch 

 is closed the motor starts, but as comparatively few 



chased for several hundred dollars, and worked hard 

 all summer. It requires so little attention during the 

 first year that it gets less than it ought to have. Fall 

 comes and there is only occasional need for the engine, 

 but it is kept ready for work at all times, with the 

 circulating tank full of water. Along comes a night 

 a little colder than usual, and the water in the jacket 

 freezes, resulting in a cracked jacket. In a very large 

 percentage of gasoline engines the jackets are cracked 

 before the first winter is over. The damage is not as 

 a usual thing serious, but it costs something to have 

 them banded and made water tight, and when the en- 

 gine returns from the hospital with a bandage around 

 its cylinder it has already been given a good start to- 

 ward the junk pile. Now this is utterly uncalled for. 

 We know that "it was not cold enough to freeze any- 

 thing" (it never is when a jacket is cracked), but such 

 excuses don't go, and you simply want to take the 

 hint and let all of the water out of your cylinder every 



Typical Ranch Home in the Mesilla Valley, New Mexico. 



farmers have electric power the gasoline engine finds 

 great favor. 



Although such an engine is the best friend the 

 farmer can have, it is lamentable to consider the trou- 

 bles and difficulties that many have with them. When 

 properly selected and cared for they will give but little 

 trouble, as is evident from the large number of plants 

 that have been in operation for many years with but 

 little expense for repairs. We know of some engines 

 that have been doing hard work for twenty years, and 

 others for ten and fifteen. We do not like to find 

 fault with our friends, the farmers, but we want to 

 simply suggest that if they would onlv give more at- 

 tention to their engines, treating them as they would 

 horses that cost as much money (if such were possible), 

 most of these difficulties would disappear. If horses 

 were treated as badly the Society for Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals would intervene, but there is no 

 such society to protect engines. A new engine is pur- 



night when fall approaches. Such neglect makes work 

 for the repair men, and expense for the fanner, inci- 

 dentally giving a hard knock to gasoline engines in 

 general, and there is no excuse for it. 



When about to purchase an engine remember that 

 you are to buy a piece of machinery that will cost more 

 than a good horse, and that there are good engines 

 and poor engines, just as there are good horses and 

 poor horses. Don't buy the cheapest engine that you 

 can, any more than you would buy the cheapest horse, 

 as the cost price is not everything by any means. It 

 will usually be found that the cheapest engines run at 

 very high speeds, and although the engines used in 

 automobiles are of this nature, it is not probable that 

 you will be able to run your engine into a garage every 

 night to be looked over, cleaned and adjusted by me- 

 chanics before you will start it next morning. The 

 higher the speed of machinery the less the cost, as 

 there is less material required in the construction, but 



