CHAPTER XXIII. 

 WINTER IRRIGATION. 



^TT^ HIS subjedl is a matter which has become of 

 * paramount importance throughout the arid 



^^«l region during the past decade, and we can see 

 on every hand the beneficent influences of the 

 system wherever it has been conscientiously carried 

 out. The possibiHty of storing water in the soil dur- 

 ing winter is better understood yearly and the pradlice 

 is rapidly becoming more general. Right here it must 

 be understood by those unacquainted with the circum- 

 stances that the great plains of arid America are prac- 

 tically snowless throughout the winter months, and 

 for this reason the running of water during the milder 

 hibernal days is a very easy and simple task when the 

 supply is available. In parts of Kansas it has been 

 found possible to store enough water in the soil by 

 winter irrigation to mature the summer's crops. In 

 Colorado it is quite common to give all kinds of plowed 

 land a good wetting early in winter and often again in 

 midwinter. There are large ranches in Wyoming 

 with a limited supply of water on which irrigation is 

 systematically given to hay land in the winter to sup- 

 ply moisture for the coming crop. Such pra(5lice en- 

 ables the owner to double the amount of meadow from 

 which to cut hay. The land supplied with moisture 

 in the winter is not necessarily irrigated during the 

 summer months, and the summer supply is used on 



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