IRRIGATION 247 



Machinery for elevating water. Much is being done 

 to devise methods of elevating water by machinery. 

 Steam and gasoline engines and windmills perform 

 the great bulk of this work. In the rice-growing regions 

 of Texas and in arid regions, large engines are used to 

 pump the water from streams or reservoirs, or from 

 wells, thus, in some cases, directly supplying vast tracts 

 of land when the crops especially need the water. In 

 other cases the water is pumped into reservoirs to be 

 available when needed by the crops. Windmills and 

 small engines are often used on farms to utilize a small 

 amount of water from wells or other sources to irrigate 

 the farmstead and perchance a small area of fields. 

 Especially is this advantageous in dry regions where 

 most of the land is used for pasturage, or is subject to 

 years of serious drouth. Here the limited acreage of 

 irrigated land greatly aids in tiding over the dry years, 

 as well as adds to the products in the years of more 

 ample rainfall. The storage of pumped water and its 

 distribution through open ditches is carried out much 

 as in case of water secured by gravitation. 



In Figure 143 is shown a farm with four large fields, 

 A, B, C and D; three small fields, E, F and G; and two 

 very rich fields, H and I, from a reclaimed swamp, the 

 surface of which is practically on a level with the water 

 in the adjoining lake. All fields are fenced. The area 

 surrounded by the line, K, incloses all the land which 

 drains into this low area. The stream, P, P, receiving 

 the water also from the stream, S, S, was not well de- 

 fined from T to T. If straightened and deepened be- 

 tween these points, and if the earth excavated be used for 

 an embankment, U to U, the water can be carried 

 directly to the lake without longer flooding the flat area. 

 Since the flat area receives only the water from its own 

 surface, and from small parts of fields, B, D and G, and 

 since the subsoil is too dense for seepage water to come 



