362 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



bulletin represents in a general way the entire West. 



The most prevalent mode of preparing the surfaces 

 of fields, laying out and building lateral ditches, and 

 wetting the soil in the following-named localities have 

 been described : 



State. Locality. 



Washington Yakima Valley. 



Utah Cache la Poudre Valley. 



Colorado Salt Lake Basin. 



Nebraska Western Nebraska. 



Nevada Truckee Valley. 



Kansas Western Kansas. 



Montana Gallatin Valley. 



i Santa Clara Valley. 



California 



San Joaquin Valley. 

 Southern California. 

 Imperial Valley. 



Much more space has been given to California than 

 to any other State. The reasons for this are not far 

 to seek. In climate, topography and soil products it 

 possesses a wide range. As a result there is not only 

 great diversity in the kinds of crops produced, but 

 also in the manner of preparing the land for irrigaiion 

 and supplying it with moisture. 



THE USE OF SCRAPERS. 



Scrapers are in great favor for leveling land 

 throughout California. In the Imperial Valley they 

 are handled by Cocopah Indians, who work for $1.50 per 

 day and boards themselves. 



The scraper most commonly used is strong, port- 

 able, and has a wide range of use. It loads quickly 

 ;ind loses buf little in transportation. After the load 

 is dumped the team may be turned readily, and when 

 empty the scraper is drawn with sagging traces, it 

 has. however, the following disadvantages: (1) The 

 sudden strain on the team and the dumping bruises 

 the shoulders of the animals; (2) skill in handling is 

 necessary to rapid work and experienced help is usually 

 difficult to find; (3) the laborers object to the constant 

 lifting in loading and dumping; (4) large hummocks 

 are often full of limbs and roots of mesquite: mes- 

 quite mines, so called, will catch' on the blade of the 

 scraper, making it impossible to load until' the root 

 is removed. Leveling with the scraper is more expen- 

 sive than with the other implements yet to be described. 

 However, hummocks ten to twenty feet in diameter and 



Using Hiu'k Scraper. 



PREPARING LAND FOR IRRIGATION CLEARING AND LEV- 

 ELING LAND IN IMPERIAL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. 



The land in Imperial Valley has a uniform grade 

 of from two to six feet per mile, which is well adapted 

 to irrigation, but the removal of "mesquite mines," 

 sagebrush, and greasewood on the top of hummocks 

 taxes the ingenuity of irrigators. Sometimes the work- 

 men remove the brush from the top of a hummock with 

 mattocks. This method is slow and expensive, and 

 the workman is often obliged to dig for a long time 

 to remove a single gnarled root. A better and cheaper 

 method is the use of a railroad rail to each end of 

 which a team is hitched. The rail should be bent to 

 'a V-shape, thus giving much greater power in cutting 

 and tearing up brush when dragged over and back. 

 The brittle branches are broken off below the ground, 

 or the shrubs are pulled up by the roots. The brush, 

 which is quite inflammable on account of an oil which 

 it contains, may be burned at once. The land is then 

 ready for leveling. The implements most commonly 

 used are the scraper, the rectangular leveler, and the 

 planer. 



five to ten feet high can be removed in no other way. 

 But if such heaps of earth are numerous their removal 

 will not be profitable for ordinary crops. Land of 

 this character has been leveled with the scraper at an 

 average cost of $3 to $5 per acre. No attempt is made 

 to have the land perfectly level ; the farmers are satis- 

 fied with a uniform slope. 



THE RECTANGULAR LEVELEIi. 



Land on which the hummocks are more or less 

 uniform in size can be more cheaply and quickly lev- 

 eled by means other than the use of the scraper. An 

 implement in favor in Imperial Valley for the reduc- 

 tion of these humocks is a rectangular leveler. This 

 machine (Fig. 1) is large and strong enough to re- 

 move hummocks, shrubs, roots, and all. It is a rec- 

 tangular frame thirty feet long and twelve feet wide 

 made of four by twelve-inch timbers, preferably Ore- 

 gon pine. The twelve-foot timbers, six in number 

 and six feet apart, except No. 4, are spiked or bolted to 

 the thirty-foot side timbers and have iron tightening 

 rods beside them. Scraper No. 4 is attached to hang- 

 ers in such a wav as to be moved up and down by a 



