146 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



nine rain, either alight one or a powerful one, at pleas- 

 ure. If I wish to throw water over the tops of the trees, 

 I use the nozzle instead of sprinkler. I run the pump 

 from 7 A. M. to 6 P. M. without stopping, using less 

 than one-half cord of wood in eleven hours. I find no 

 bad results from applying the water in the hottest sun- 

 shine, but would if I applied it through an open hose. I 

 think the sprinkler method of applying water requires 

 less help than any other I have seen, and is without any 

 danger to fruit or trees. The fireman can manage the 

 sprinklers within reasonable distance of the pumping 

 station. For other portions only one man is ever needed 

 and it is light work for him." 



While using the hose in irrigating fields with an un- 

 derground pipe system to supply the water costs more at 

 the .beginning, it often proves loss expensive and much 

 more satisfactory in the end. A field irrigated in this 

 way is illustrated in Figure 53. 



Hillside Methods. In irrigating hillsides great 

 care should be exercised lest much of the best soil as 

 well as the manures applied be washed away. With 

 slopes at all pronounced, great care should be taken to 

 draw the irrigating furrows across the slopes in such 

 direction as may insure a proper flow without the danger 

 of washing. No definite rule can .be given for this, but 

 a little experience and training of the eye, to judge of the 

 proper declivity to insure a safe flow of water, will soon 

 tell the careful cultivator in what direction to run his 

 irrigating furrows, if the water be applied in that man- 

 ner. A study of Figure 54 gives one a practical idea u 

 to how these furrows may be run and manipulated. 

 Flooding from one furrow to another is a very simple 

 matter and only requires a little experience on the part 

 of the irrigator. 



Backsetting. -^ In Western Kansas a primitive 

 system of sub-irrigation by damming a stream in a fiat 



