THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



113 



THE PRIMER OF IRRIGATION. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1903. BY D. H. ANDERSON. 



CHAPTER X. 



LAYING OUT OF THE LAND METHOD OF PLANTING. 



Generally speaking every farmer has his land under 

 his eye and knows what to do with particular portions 

 of the ground. He will plant wheat in this field, 

 barley over yonder, further along he expects to have 

 a patch of rye. 



In the case of vegetables he follows the same prac- 

 tice and plants his cabbages, his beets, turnips, etc., 

 wherever the fancy moves him. It is a haphazard 

 manner of farming, and to it may be attributed fail- 

 ures which have been ascribed to the elements. From 

 what has been heretofore said it must be apparent that 

 there is something in soil and in the manner of plant- 

 ing which it would be well to heed ; indeed, which must 

 be heeded if success be desired and a crop assured. 

 True, plants will grow if the seed be thrust in the 

 ground; that is, after a fashion; and so will an ani- 

 mal grow if kept alive after a fashion, but the pro- 

 duce in both cases will be scrub. 



The time is coming, if it has not already arrived, 

 when farmers will be able to produce as much from 

 half an acre of ground as from an acre, and better 

 crops. Too much land is as great a bar to success as 

 too little, for in the former case there is too much 

 trusting to luck, whereas in utilizing nature for the 

 purpose of wresting products from the bosom of the 

 earth there is not the smallest element of luck; it is 

 all pure science, knowledge, ability, etc. A man with 

 the trifling commercial business keeps an account of 

 stock, his books show just what he has on hand, his 

 sales and purchases. His inventory shows where his 

 varieties of goods are located on his shelves. But when it 

 comes to a farm, which is never a small business, no 

 books are kept, no account of stock taken, and the 

 location of his crops are retained in his mind's eye. 

 More than that, quality is little regarded, the varieties 

 of soil are not considered, and plants requiring one 

 kind of soil are fed on a kind they do not flourish 

 in. This is the common rule. 



Take any tract of land, large or small, and when 

 the crop is growing there will always be spots where 

 the plants are thin, sparse and sickly. Failure of proper 

 cultivation? Not at all; nothing but failure to prop- 

 erly lay out the land so as to know what it is suitable 

 for. The pollen of a sickly plant spreads as far as 

 that of a good healthy one, and poor results are attrib- 

 uted to poor seed, etc., when a little care and fore- 

 thought might have made the crop uniform and the 

 results satisfactory. 



This is preparatory to the subject of laying out 

 the land, for upon doing that properly depends the 

 success it is always desirable to attain in every species 

 of farming for profit. If profit be not the desideratum, 

 then why go to the trouble and labor of farming? 



The proper laying out of the land is always of 

 great importance, and where irrigation is practiced it 

 is of the highest importance. Water runs down hill 

 and it also soaks into the soil seeking the water table, 

 and this water table is always receiving additions 

 through the constant or periodical application of irri- 

 gation water, and rises to do damage. 



Hence, drainage is to be considered as well as the 

 slope of the land. The first thing to be done is to pre- 

 pare an outline of the land, its boundaries. If a square 

 tract the matter will be easy, for any sized square may 

 be laid down upon paper and then measured off into 

 acres or parts of acres to suit the convenience. A map 

 of one's land is a necessity nowadays, and it is not dif- 

 ficult to prepare one. It is the farmer's diagram of 

 the location of his stock, equivalent to the shelves in a 

 store of merchandise. It tells him the location of his 

 crops, the nature of the soil, his ditches and all their 

 ramifications, and if anything goes wrong he can im- 

 mediately put his finger on the point of trouble and 

 go at once to correct it. 



To prepare a map of the land measurements must 

 be taken, and these measurements are expressed in tables 

 universally adopted and can therefore always be relied 

 upon as uniform. To begin with, an acre of land, 

 whatever its shape, contains exactly 43,560 square feet, 

 and after an outline has been traced upon paper, lines 

 may be drawn from side to side and these lines crossed 

 by other lines drawn from top to bottom. The map 

 will then be covered with little squares which may be 

 any part of an inch in size, but representing a given 

 quantity of land; say one inch square on the paper 

 represents an acre of ground; then if you have a farm 

 of 100 acres your map will be ten inches square, if the 

 land is a square, but whatever the shape of the land it 

 will contain exactly 100 square inches. Not a very 

 large map, but very convenient, for on it may be ex- 

 pressed the exact location of crops, even to a small cab- 

 bage patch, ditches, farm buildings, orchards, vines, 

 etc., etc. Of course any scale to the acre may be se- 

 lected instead of one inch. If the farm is large then 

 make the scale one-half inch to the acre or even less, or 

 if small make the scale two inches or more, to allow 

 of the least details. 



If it is desirable to make an accurate estimate of 

 the amount of land in different fields under cultiva- 

 tion, the following table will be of assistance : 



10x 16 rods equals 1 A. 70x 69.5 yards equals 1 A. 

 8x 20 rods equals 1 A. 220x198 feet equals 1 A. 

 5x 32 rods equals 1 A. 440x 99 feet equals 1 A. 

 4x 40 rods equals 1 A. 110x369 feet equals 1 A. 

 5x968 yards equals 1 A. 60x726 feet equals 1 A. 

 10x484 yards equals 1 A. 120x363 feet equals 1 A. 

 20x242 yards equals 1 A. 240x181.5 feet equals 1 A. 

 40x121 yards equals 1 A. 200x108.9 feet equals 1 A. 

 80x 60.5 yards equals 1 A. 100x145.2 feet equals 1 A. 

 100x108.9 feet equals Ya, A. 

 25x100 feet equals .0574 A. 

 25x110 feet equals .0631 A. 

 25x120 feet equals .0688 A. 

 25x125 feet equals .0717 A. 

 25x150 feet equals .109 A. 

 2178 sq. feet squals .05 A. 

 4356 sq. feet equals .10 A. 

 6534 sq. feet equals .15 A. 

 8712 sq. feet equals .20 A. 

 10890 sq. feet equals .25 A. 

 13068 sq. feet equals .30 A. 

 15246 sq. feet equals .35 A. 

 17424 sq. feet equals .40 A. 

 19603 sq. feet equals .45 A. 

 21780 sq. feet equals .50 A. 

 32670 sq. feet equals .75 A. 

 34848 sq. feet equals .80 A. 



In measuring land there are three distinct opera- 

 tions to be performed: Taking the dimensions of the 

 tract; delineating or laying down the same on a map, 

 and calculating the area or superficial contents. All 

 the tables applicable to land measurements will be 



