172 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



levers, can be adjusted at various angles, and loads and 

 dumps automatically on uneven surfaces. The wheels 

 on which the supporting platform rests are sixteen 

 inches in diameter, fourteen feet apart, and the cutting 

 blade occupies exacftly the same relation to the soil 

 that the bit of a plane does to the wood. It shaves 

 it off and sweeps the loose earth along until a low 

 place is encountered, when it slides out from under the 

 blade and fills the cavity. The very same reasons that 

 make this valuable to the farmers of the arid regions 

 commend it to the husbandman of the humid states, 

 for his fields are just as uneven, they encounter more 

 moisture in a year than the irrigator ever applies, and 

 crops suffer exacftly in the same manner from the un- 

 even application of moisture. 



Importance of Grading. — Leveling should be 

 the first step toward cultivating by irrigation. If one 

 is going to use water, common sense will suggest that 

 provision should be made for using it properly, so as 

 to get the full benefit. Thousands of acres have been 

 pracftically ruined by overwatering, or, in other words, 

 by watering without leveling. Days and weeks of 

 time are spent by farmers struggling to put water on 

 the high places, drowning the lower parts and skimp- 

 ing the higher levels. A good watering should put on 

 the ground enough to cover the whole surface at least 

 three or four inches deep. It is evident that if one 

 portion is over three inches higher than others, there 

 is too little water covering the high spots and far too 

 much flooding the sags. As soon as the earth fails to 

 absorb the water it begins to dissolve the alkaline salts 

 and bring them to the surface. 



