460 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



There are many localities in the east, especially in 

 hilly countries, and oftentimes along the side of a river 

 valley, where a terrace rises to a considerable hight 

 above the flood plane from which water is continuously 

 but slowly oozing from the ground to such an extent 

 as to keep it swampy and unfit for agricultural pur- 

 poses. In many such cases the water can be led out 

 by underdraining upon lower lands and stored in res- 

 ervoirs to become warm, and then applied to the sur- 

 face for irrigation, at the same time rendering the land 

 from which the water has been withdrawn fit for cul- 

 tivation, as described previously in this book. Besides 

 the deeper artesian waters which are available in many 

 localities for irrigation purposes, there are a larger 

 number of places where flowing wells of the artesian 

 type may be sunk and their waters used for the irriga- 

 tion of small areas. In these cases the water may 

 often be raised to a hight of several feet above ground 

 and thence led away to .where it would be valuable for 

 irrigation in either a kitchen or market garden. Often 

 such wells will supply the equivalent of a i-inch 

 stream flowing four miles an hour, which is water 

 enough to irrigate to a depth of four inches every ten 

 days 2.42 acres of land, or about five times the area a 

 3-inch piston pump with a 12-inch stroke will raise 

 when working eight hours a day and making thirty 

 strokes a minute. 



The Eastern Duty of Water. — The amount of 

 water needed for irrigation varies within wide limits, 

 being affe(5led by the climate, weather, kind of soil, 

 variety of crop, manner of application of the water, and 

 by the ciiara<5ler of cultivation which the field receives 



