THE IEEIGATION AGE. 



power of the natural precipitation, it is certainly proper 

 to assert that the first consideration of the irrigation 

 farmer should be the conservation of the rain and snow- 

 fall on his farm. With six to twelve acre inches of 

 water in the soil in the spring the irrigation farmer 

 does not need very much more water to mature any 



HOW TO CONSERVE THE NATURAL PRECIPITATION. 



To conserve the natural precipitation the western 

 farmers must practice fall plowing, and in the spring 

 the top soil must be carefully stirred and smoothed to 

 prevent the evaporation of soil water. Moreover, since 

 land is plentiful and water is scarce, it would be well 



Opening Flood Gate of Truckee Irrigation Canal In Nevada June 17, 1905. 



ordinary crop. On such a soil irrigation should be 

 applied only at the critical periods in mid- and late 

 summer. In short, irrigation should be supplemental 

 only to the natural precipitation. Where the rainfall 

 is high the duty of waier should be correspondingly 

 high; where it is low, the duty of water should like- 

 wise be low. 



The failure to appreciate this principle has led to 



to let a portion of land lie fallow every year, for the 

 purpose of gathering two years' precipitation for the 

 use of one corp. Were the annual crops of the West 

 planted on fall plowed fallow soils, there would be gen- 

 eral need of irrigation water only at the late critical 

 periods. The arguments against fallowing, urged in 

 the East, do not hold in the West. In the East soils 

 are fallowed for fertility; in the West for water. 



An Irrigated Wheat Field in Dawson County, Neb., on Union Pacific Railway, 



much disaster on the irrigated farms. In the interest 

 of economical, rational irrigation, every farmer should 

 be taught that the irrigation stream is only supple- 

 mental to rain and snowfall. 



FALL AND SPRING IRRIGATION. 



The best water reservoir yet found is a deep, uni- 

 form soil, such as occurs over a large portion of the 

 West. In many places much of the fall water goes to 



