G04 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



cross-piece are also used for this purpose. They are 

 called tapoons, and in use the edge of the tapoon is shoved 

 into the bed of the ditch, which the metal should be made 

 to fit. Gates for allowing a part of the water to continue 

 on down the lateral may be easily made in either the 

 canvas dam or the metal tapoon. In this way the irriga- 

 tion stream may be readily divided. In making banks for 

 the check method of irrigation, the ground contained 

 within each check should be made as level as possible, 

 by means of a blade, or other scraper, the earth that is 

 being scraped away being left at about the location of the 

 bank. This bank can then be shaped up by a "ridger," 

 which is the reverse of a home-made "A," the side not 

 being allowed to meet at the point of the "A." This in- 

 strument drawn with the large end forward, shapes and 

 straightens the bank. The places where the banks meet 

 must be left unmade and these can afterward be filled in 

 by hand or by a special machine made for this purpose, 

 which is simply a scraper made so that its load can be 

 easily dumped in one place. For furrow irrigation, a 

 home-made instrument called a "marker," is used for 

 making the furrows. It is simply a few 4x6 timbers, two 

 or three feet long, bevelled at the lower edge and drawn 

 along parallel to each other, being held the proper distance 

 apart by a strong wooden frame. The front of the fur- 

 rowing timbers should be slanted and shod with diamond- 

 shaped sheets of iron. Furrows can also be made by 

 special hoe teeth for a common cultivator. This leaves 

 the furrows rough and loose. The furrows for beets 

 and potatoes are usually made with a simple shovel plow, 

 with or without wings, or with a small double or listing 

 plow. ."'' 



Head Gates. 



Small head gates are necessary for each main lateral 

 and sometimes a larger one for the ditch bringing the 

 water to the individual farm. When water is plentiful 

 and drain ditches are provided for carrying away the 

 surplus, these gates do not have to be very carefully 

 made, but in the end it always pays to make them well 

 and so they may be easily adjusted to allow the amount 

 of water required to flow down the ditch. For perma- 

 nent gates on laterals heading in a large canal, iron head 

 gates clamped to enough sewer pipe to carry the water 

 through the canal bank are recommended, both because 

 they are lasting and when once placed, there is less dan- 

 ger of a washout, which may cause greater damage or 

 delay than there is with the ordinary wooden head gate. 

 For the diversion of water into the different laterals on 

 the farm, small wooden boxes with head-boards running 

 between strips of wood tacked on the inside, are sufficient. 

 Holes should be drilled through the handle of the gate so 

 that it may be adjusted at any height by putting in a. 

 wooden pin at the proper hole. Sometimes trouble is 

 caused by gates not thus held dropping down and causing 

 the lateral to over-fill and flood all around it. 



Drops. 



Where the grade of a lateral is too great the water will 

 soon cut in deeply and the result is that the lateral is too 

 deep for easy irrigation. Such washed out ditches are 

 unsightly and are objectionable on other accounts. To 

 keep the water from running too swiftly when the nat- 

 ural grade is great, drops or spill boxes are necessary. 

 These are simply little falls made by setting boxes into 

 the canal. They should be so constructed that they will 

 not wash out. Cutting around them is prevented by wing 

 walls and boards placed vertically to keep water from 

 starting through or around the box. A small board dam 

 or apron, placed at the lower edge, prevents the eddies 

 from undermining or carrying away the structure. 



Culverts. 



For carrying ditches across roads, railroads, other 

 ditches, and the like, culverts made of pipe, are very suit- 

 able. Sometimes old boilers may be used for this purpose, 

 but usually clay or cement sewer pipes are found pref- 

 erable as they do not corrode. They should be carefully 

 placed in line, the joints cemented and the earth tamped 

 around them until solid. Where there is much alkali, un- 

 glazed clay pipe will only last a short time. 



(Continued on page 629.) 



SUB-IRRIGATION MADE EASY. 



Problem Upon Which Governments Have Spent Large 

 Sums Finally Solved By an American Engineer. 



FOR years the various governments of the world have 

 spent large sums of money in the attempt to solve 

 the problem of sub-irrigation, one of the most important 

 features of the development of arid lands, but it re- 

 mained for an American citizen to finally discover the 

 correct application of this vital principle. Mr. J. P. 

 Hardin, of Oklahoma City, has produced a system of sub- 

 irrigation which is meeting the demands of the farmers 

 in the semi-arid countries as well as in those sections 

 where the problem of getting water to very poor lands 

 has heretofore prevented their development. His patents 

 are controlled by himself and J. W. Thompson and the 

 system is being introduced by the Success Realty Com- 

 pany, of Oklahoma City. 



Sub-Irrigation by the Success Sub-Irrigation System, under 

 Hardin patents, is the artificial application of water to 

 land by means of porous pipes laid about 18 inches under 



ground in rows 20 feet or more apart. By this system 

 the ground is thoroughly moistened with less than one- 

 fourth the amount of water which would be required by 

 surface irrigation. Therefore the farmer who has only 

 a limited water supply can irrigate his land by sub-irri- 

 gation as well as the farmer who has a river of water can 

 irrigate his land by surface irrigation. 



The cost of equipping a tract of land for sub-irriga- 

 tion is much less than the ordinary expense of preparing 

 it for surface irrigation, and millions of acres of land can 

 be irrigated by sub-irrigation which could never secure 

 water enough to operate a system of surface irrigation. 



(Continued on page 617.) 



