CHAPTER VIII. 

 PIPES FOR IRRIGATION PURPOSES. 



EOPI.K who have plenty of money and little 

 water will find that the employment of pipes 

 will enable them to use whatever water they 

 have to the best advantage. The use of pipe- 

 lines for conveying water, in the place of ditches or 

 flumes, has increased much since the introdudlion of 

 certain cheaper forms of pipe. In the west pipes of 

 wood banded with iron are extensively used, as are also 

 pipes of spiral, riveted, or welded iron or steel. The 

 latter combine great strength with lightness and 

 economy. Where waters can be forced under heavy 

 pressure the use of surface pipe-lines of light pipe will 

 find a broad field of usefulness and should receive such 

 consideration as its merits deserve, especially where 

 the work of construdling ditches or flumes is of any 

 special magnitude. A large pipe-line is intended to 

 take the place of a main ditch or flume and not of the 

 distributing laterals. The advantage of a pipe-line 

 over a ditch lies in the fadl that the water supply is 

 not reduced by seepage or evaporation, and the duty of 

 a reservoir is thereby increased. The area of surface 

 occupied by the pipe-line is not nearly so great as the 

 space occupied by the ditch and embankments, and 

 thus the area subjedl to cultivation is increased. The 



cost of maintenance is less, for a pipe-line will need but 



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