404 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



tained by two wheels running on the ground, and the 

 belt-rope merely hauling them. A bit of plank above 

 the reservoir would come in conta<5l with a valve in the 

 bottom of each box as it arrives, thus discharging the 

 contents, so that a procession of empty boxes would be 

 going down the slope. These would nearly overcome 

 the weight of the boxes, but not the water going up. 

 Of course, there is some loss through fridlion. Mr. 

 Paddock aims to get enough power for hauling from 

 the pull of the stream upon those boxes which are float- 

 ing in the water, and if the length of the stream section 

 of the belt-rope is great enough in proportion to the 

 climb up the hill the plan ought to work. He would 

 thus have an automatic machine working something 

 like a grain elevator. 



W. W. Allen, of Centerville, South Dakota, has 

 rigged up a contrivance for elevating water from a 

 river to irrigate his fields. He has had a lot of gal- 

 vanized iron buckets made, holding about five gallons 

 each, which are attached to a large belt running over 

 pulleys, it being operated by a small horse-power. He 

 has ditches running from the river, so that he can run 

 the water very readily over his entire field. 



The Canvas Dam. — Of the home-made devices 

 for saving labor to the irrigation farmer, the canvas 

 apron, which is capitally illustrated in Fig. 96, is one 

 worthy of special attention. The advantages of using 

 canvas instead of earth for lateral dams are that it 

 saves time and labor and affords complete security 

 against the breaking away of the water during the 

 absence of the irrigator. It also obviates the necessity 

 for mutilating the sides of the laterals for earth with 



