184 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



THE ARKANSAS VALLEY. 



BY D. V. BUBRELL. 



The irrigated section of the Arkansas Valley tribu- 

 tary to Rocky Ford, Colo., was once a part of the great 

 Colorado Desert. The native grasses are Buffalo and 

 Gramma grass on the sandy loam soil and a species of 

 Bunch grass on the heavy low soil. Nearly all the soil 

 is a sandy loam. 



We depend entirely upon irrigation to produce our 

 crops. Sugar beets are the main product, of which we 

 now grow to supply four large sugar factories and sev- 

 eral more factories are to be built this and next year. 

 Alfalfa is also very extensively grown. It produces an 

 average of three crops a season and in all yields four 

 to five tons per acre. 



The Rocky Ford cantaloupe has done most to make 

 Rocky Ford known throughout the United States. 



The production of this melon for eastern market 

 in car lots began ten years ago and has now reached the 

 extent of 800 to 1,190 cars annually. The largest out- 

 put for one year, 1,190 cars, amounted to about twenty 

 million melons. 



I plow as early in the spring as the land can be 

 worked, using a reversible plow which throws the land 

 all one way thus avoiding back furrows and dead fur- 

 rows. As soon as a strip as wide as the harrow is plowed 

 it is harrowed thoroughly, first with the teeth straight 

 to stir deep as possible, then with the teeth slant to 

 crush small lumps and leave a fine well settled seed bed. 



The land is then cross marked in rows six feet 

 apart and furrows run with the slope of the land six 

 feet apart, using an 8-inch single shovel plow. 



The seeds are then planted on the border of the 

 furrows in hills ten to twelve inches long, ten to twelve 

 seeds to the hill. If the furrows run north and south, 

 plant on the east side of the furrow; if east and west 

 on the north side of the furrow. This allows the sun 

 to warm the soil near the hill to best advantage. 



A small stream of water is then turned into each 

 furrow and allowed to run until the surface of the soil 

 shows the moisture two or three inches back of the hills. 



After three days the surface of the hills is raked 

 carefully with a garden rake, taking care not to disturb 

 the seed. As soon as the plants are well up they are 

 carefully hoed and loose soil drawn well up to the lower 

 side of the leaves. Any missing hills are replanted. 

 They are again irrigated the same as before. Then as 

 soon as the ground is dry enough, which is usually about 

 three days, the furrows are cultivated in and the melons 

 thoroughly cultivated both ways, shallow close to the 

 hills, but deep away from the hills. The cultivator is 

 immediately followed by a harrow to level and leave a 

 loose mulch on the surface. The hills are again hoed 

 as before and again if any are missing they are 

 replanted. 



Furrows are again run as near the hills as possible 

 and not cover the leaves. They are again irrigated and 

 the furrows plowed in and cultivating continued until 

 the vines have grown so long that it is necessary to 

 run the last furrows which are to be left through which 

 to irrigate the crop until harvested. They are usually 

 irrigated about every two weeks. 



Through our growing season the days are very 

 warm and the nights cool, the temperature varying about 

 thirty to forty degrees. This condition causes the plant 



to become accustomed to extremes of heat and cold 

 and produces the highest possible state of development. 



A sandy loam, sunshine every day, cool nights, 

 water to be applied when needed and kept away when 

 not needed and climatic conditions permitting cultiva- 

 tion to be done at the right time are the advantages 

 which make this the ideal melon growing section. 



The production of Rocky Ford cantaloupes through- 

 out the United States in 1905 amounted to 6,920 car 

 loads, practically 'all of which were from seed grown 

 at Rocky Ford. 



A FARMER'S IRRIGATION. 



There is at least one man in the rain belt region 

 of the United States who has solved the drouth problem, 

 and in overcoming his drouth nightmare he has some- 

 what unexpectedly discovered that every year brings a 

 drouth, to a greater or less extent.' "I have put in, 

 as you see," he said to me, "a simple plan of irrigating 

 some of my land from a little stream running through 

 the place which I thought would give me crop insurance 

 during dry years ; but it has taught me that never a year 

 goes by that there is not some period or periods of 

 greater or less extent that a watering does not greatly 

 increase the crop. I can observe accurately, because I 

 have my irrigated crops growing practically alongside 

 those which get only rainfall for their watering." 



This farmer's discovery of the efficiency and ease 

 of irrigating was in a measure accidental. A little stream 

 which showed a capacity in July of about six cubic 

 feet per second, or say, 2,500 gallons a minute, which 

 is a much smaller stream than the figures would indicate 

 to the unwary, runs with a slight fall through a piece 

 of rich bottom land and at one point near its lower end 

 had been dammed by the boys to form a bathing pool. 

 Several . years ago, while in the midst of a destructive 

 drouth which was burning up the crops even on this 

 usually moist bottom land, the farmer raised this dam 

 by throwing in earth with the help of a plow and scoops, 

 and crudely flooded several acres of cabbages, melons and 

 some recently planted late corn. The result was so satis- 

 factory and the idea of overcoming nature so fascinat- 

 ing, that the next year, after the spring high water sea- 

 son, a more substantial dam was put in at the head of 

 the field which enabled the flooding of the entire bot- 

 tom, with a little rough surveying to find the levels. 

 The yield is stated to have been enormous, and while 

 the farmer's tendency has been to over-irrigate, he is 

 learning more than he ever knew before about the great 

 productive capacity of land which has enough water at 

 the right time, and also the great response which comes 

 from heavily manured soil when well supplied with 

 water. His dam is a cheap affair, built entirely by labor 

 on the farm, and largely reconstructed each year. It 

 has no . storage capacity, the irrigation depending en- 

 tirely upon the regular flow. The Furrow. 



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