206 IRRIGATION PRACTICE 



and are a disagreeable feature on the farm. The farmer 

 finds it difficult to change to new and possibly better 

 cropping systems, without going to the large expense of 

 leveling the old levees and throwing up new ones. If 

 the soil bakes, this method should not be employed at all, 

 since water covers, for some time, the whole area. It is 

 impossible by this method to keep water from touching 



FIG. 45. Filling checks with detachable pipes. 



the crop. The relatively large quantities of water that 

 must be used by this method tend to keep the roots very 

 near the surface, and the crop will be more intensely 

 affected by adverse conditions of heat or cold. 



The check method is, next to the field-ditch method, 

 the most important method of applying water to crops; 

 |yet, its disadvantages overshadow its advantages, and it 

 is a method which, in all probability, will gradually pass 



