IRRIGATION OF FlKlyD CROPS. 207 



The irrigator will find that new land requires more 

 water the first year than the second. Grain is irri- 

 gated two, three, or four times, according to circum- 

 stances. As we have said before, the best results are 

 secured by using a moderate quantity of water. A 

 Mexican irrigates four times and gets twenty-five 

 bushels of wheat to the acre. An American irrigates 

 three times and gets thirty-five to forty bushels. 

 Another farmer irrigates twice and gets fifty-five bush- 

 els to the acre. An ordinary laborer irrigates fifteen 

 to twenty-five acres in a day, though much more can 

 and is often done, while thirty to fifty acres are irri- 

 gated by some farmers. 



Wheat.— This crop should never be sown on low 

 land — not even second bottom — but always on high 

 land, plateaus, or mesas. Where drainage is naturally 

 good a deeply mellow soil is not the best, as some ad- 

 vocate. A good seed-bed is absolutely essential, but 

 the surface in rainy se(5lions should be left quite rough 

 for winter wheat, because it prevents the roots from 

 being broken and dried out when the heaving of the soil 

 in the early spring takes place; and the ground should 

 never be rolled where spring wheat is sown, in arid 

 climates especially, because the heavy west winds will 

 cut the crop entirely off. 



It is always best to germinate sown wheat if possi- 

 ble without resorting to the expedient of irrigating it 

 up, as is sometimes done by careless farmers. The 

 ground should be in good moist tilth before the seed- 

 ing is done, and if the rains have not been of sufficient 

 quantity to supply the necessary moisture the field 

 should be given a good flooding of from six to ten 



