326 Irrigation and Drainage 



Such a pumping plant as this would easily irrigate 10 acres 

 12 inches deep and 5 acres 24 inches deep without the aid 

 of a reservoir, and with the aid of a reservoir the area could 

 be made 15 acres or 7.5 acres, according to amount of water 

 used. 



For the field irrigation on the Wisconsin Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station farm, we have used an 8 -horse -power portable 

 steam engine driving a No. 4 centrifugal pump. Soft coal at 

 $4 per ton has been used for fuel, and with a lift of 26 feet, 

 drawing the water through 110 feet of 6-inch suction pipe and 

 discharging it through varying lengths of the same pipe up to 

 1,200 feet, the coal consumed has been at the rate of one 

 ton for an average of 80,210 cubic feet, or 22.1 acre-inches. 



At the above rate the fuel cost of an acre -inch of water is 

 18.1 cents, making 12 inches of water amount to $2.17 per acre, 

 and 24 inches $4.34 as the cost for fuel. 



Willcocks states that taking the mean of some 60 observa- 

 tions carefully made in the delta and Upper Egypt, the actual 

 discharge obtained for a 4-meter lift is 480 cubic meters per 

 horse -power per 12 hours, taking the 8 -horse -power engine as 

 the standard, and he italicizes this statement : ^A discharge of 

 480 cubic meters per nominal horse -power per 12 hours is the mean 

 in Egypt." 



He also estimates the cost of working a 10 -horse-power 

 engine in the interior of Egypt as follows : 



$ 



Driver and stoker, per day 15 .73 



Oil, etc., per day 05 .24 



Coal, away from canals per day 1.00 4.84 



3^3 of 10 per cent per annum on cost of engine, 



for depreciation, repairs, etc 10 .48 



Total 1.30 $6.29 



The amount of water pumped by the 10 -horse -power engine 

 to a height of 13.12 feet is 3.891 acre -feet, which from the 

 above table makes the cost per acre -foot $1.62 where the ground 

 is covered to a depth of 12 inches, and $3.24 per acre where 

 the depth is made 24 inches. 



