i 9 04 FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 179 



tile of this size, so the deficiency was was necessary to relay a portion of the 



made up by using 3-inch tile. It was tile. After the land had been once 



found impossible to lay the tile during thoroughly soaked and had settled, no 



the summer season, owing to the near- difficulty was experienced from filling 



ness of the water table to the surface of the drains, and it is hoped that there 



and the resulting condition of the sub- will be no further trouble from this 



soil, which was too soft to permit the source. Most of the trouble was with 



digging of a deep ditch. The work of the 3-inch tile, which is admittedly too 



ditching was commenced in December, small for use in soils of the light and 



1902, and was completed in February, silty character of the Toft-Hansen field. 



1903. The cost of ditching, tiling, and It is thought that there will be more or 

 all incidentals except the cost of pump less silting up of the tiles whenever they 

 and water wheel amounted to $16.50 are used in the sandy and white ash 

 per acre. The contract for the tile de- soils of the Fresno district, and it is 

 livered in Fresno was for 3-inch tile, recommended that every possible pre- 

 $24 per thousand, for 4-inch tile, $32 caution be taken in putting them in. 

 per thousand, and for 6-inch tile, $72 Much of the trouble may be obviated 

 per thousand. by using no tile smaller than 4 inches, 



At the time of the installation of the or preferably 6 inches in diameter, and 



drains 18 acres of the land contained too by giving the laterals such fall that the 



much alkali to produce a crop. Scat- velocity of the water will be great 



tered over a part of the tract were small enough to wash out the sand as rapidly 



patches of alfalfa and an occasional as it enters the joints. The tile on the 



fruit tree remnants of former cultiva- Toft-Hansen tract have a fall of i in 



tion. About the ist of March, 1903, 1,000, and the velocity of the water 



irrigation was commenced. The land flowing through them is not sufficient 



was divided into 30 checks, the size of to remove the sand. With a fall of j 



each check depending upon the slope of in 500, the velocity is great enough to 



the land. The largest checks, those remove practically all of the soil as fast 



on the level land, are about 2 acres in as it enters. 



extent, while on the steeper slopes they To prevent entirely the clogging of 

 are less than half an acre. The object the tile with sand and to insure the re- 

 was to divide the land in such a way moval of roots should any chance to 

 that it could all be kept under water to enter, it is thought advisable to place 

 a depth of 4 inches, and the reclamation in all tile a quarter-inch galvanized 

 was to be accomplished by maintaining strand-wire rope. Then two or three 

 the water at this depth until enough times a year, or oftener if necessary, a 

 alkali had been washed out of the soil wire brush should be dragged through 

 through the drains to enable the crop the tile in order to cut out all roots and 

 to be grown. stir up the sand and silt. Wire rope of 



During the progress of flooding many this kind can be bought for about i 



difficulties were met, among them that cent a foot. Six-inch and 8-inch drains 



of keeping the tiles from partially fill- have been in operation for twelve years 



ing with sand and silt. Precaution was in the Sunnyside vineyard, and have 



taken in laying the tile to put them in been kept in perfect order in this way. 

 so the joints would be close, hay was On July 15, 1903, after four and a 



thrown over the tile in the ditch before half months of irrigation, an examina- 



covering with earth, and a ridge of tion was made of the tract to determine 



earth was thrown up to prevent the what percentage of the land was suffi- 



water from standing directly over the ciently sweetened to grow a crop. This 



drains. In spite of these precautions examination indicates that all of the 



the soil, which is very light, was so land, with the exception of small spots 



easily moved by water that it seemed amounting in the aggregate to less than 



to enter the joints almost as readily as 2 acres, is now ready for a crop. Most 



did the water. This resulted in some of it is sufficiently freed from alkali to 



of the drains becoming clogged, and it warrant the sowing of alfalfa, but as 



