THE IRBIGATION AGE. 



331 



ing out spots in the levee the water may be following, 

 such as sticks, roots, weeds, clots or something that 

 makes a bad bank. The breaking of a big levee of 

 loose, dry earth may compel you to run back to shut 

 off the water and then wait several days for the ground 

 to dry enough for repairs amounting sometimes to half 

 a day's work with man and team for want of a little 

 care by one man. 



Levees of this kind must generally be made with a 

 good carrying scraper with material taken from all 

 over the check, so that there is no deep trench left at 

 the base. Many are made by scraping only a few feet 

 from the base and leaving such a trench, but it only 

 wastes water, causes alfalfa to scald on some soils by 

 having the water on too long, and is apt to jar machin- 

 ery coming over the levee, or to run a mower knife into 

 the ground. Levees may, however, be started by a 

 ridger and built up with a scraper. 



Where levees are to be broken up after each irri- 

 gation they need only hold long enough to wet the soil 

 deep enough. For wetting new ground to plow for the 

 first time, two shallow furrows run in opposite direc- 

 tions so as to throw the dirt to a central ridge will 



are to have an inlet for each one or whether some are 

 to be supplied with water from the checks above. 

 When water has been in a check long enough it should 

 be discharged, and the best place to do it is often into 

 the next one below, provided there is enough left to do 

 the work there, and if there will not be enough left it 

 may be better to turn in a little more so as to utilize 

 the first part instead of throwing it away in a waste 

 ditch. Where you have land enough you should pro- 

 vide a place to use up waste water at the lower end 

 with something like an alfalfa patch for the cow, or 

 a blackberry patch or some tough thin? that will do 

 fairly well even under bad irrigation. But your crops 

 may be too valuable to allow any water to be wasted 

 or badly used, and if you are flooding the best way to 

 use it is by discharging one check into another as fast 

 as the first is wet enough. 



This is done by breaking the check at the right 

 time, and for checks that are not to be permanent this 

 is the best way. But where they are permanent you 

 are liable to cut the levees too much unless well pro- 

 tected by vegetation. If they are so protected it will 

 be quite a job to cut them quickly enough and also 



Central Avenue, West, Albuquerque. 



last long enough on most soils. Or if the soil can be 

 scratched up when dry with a cultivator to get earth 

 enough, the ridger may be better. For all orchard 

 or garden work where two -or three hours soaking will 

 suffice, the ridger is the cheapest way of throwing a 

 levee if the ground is loose enough. If the water is to 

 stand six or eight hours some patching of the levee by 

 hand may be needed. But all earth put into such levees 

 beyond what is needed is only that much more in the 

 way of plowing and cultivating. 



A ridger is simply a box sled with converging run- 

 ners. The ordinary size is made of a couple of two by 

 twelve plank about two feet apart at one end and four 

 or five at the other, the whole decked over so that a 

 man can ride on the top, and five or six feet long. It 

 is best to shoe the runners with iron and make the 

 whole thing strong. This is dragged by horses with the 

 widest end foremost, scraping the loose earth from 

 an area of five feet or so and squeezing it out through 

 the two foot opening. If this does not gather earth 

 enough a larger one is generally put ahead of it. A 

 ridger sways some but that is a matter mainly of 

 looks. It can be prevented by a long beam stretched 

 along the top or by a rudder in front, so fixed that it 

 does not hurt the ridge. The openings left in the 

 ridges are filled with shovel or hoe. 



The next thing to consider is whether these checks 



quite a task to repair them so that they will not break 

 the next time before you are ready. A gate at the 

 lowest point is therefore the best thing in such a case 

 and it should be marked with a stick or something ~-j 

 that the first blockhead that runs a mowing machine 

 will not smash it and the machine too. Such gates 

 should have an overflow at a certain height. 



Another way of making checks feed each other is 

 to have the water pass around at the upper end of the 

 slope on which they lie. It is there so shallow that it 

 will not cut much and a whole line may be taken care 

 of in this way. This does not discharge the water 

 remaining in the check so that there will be waste 

 unless the whole series of checks is filled very quickly. 

 If the ground is pretty flat and tight there will be 

 little waste and it is a good way to use up night 

 water when you do not want to stay up. 



Another good way to use up night water and do 

 it without danger of breaking checks from getting 

 too full is to have them strung along a ditch with the 

 sills of the gates about level with the bottom of the 

 the check and also near the bottom of the ditch. 

 When properly set such gates allow the water to pass 

 in to a certain depth and then flow on. Several 

 acres may in this way be irrigated over night with 

 two feet of water. Considerable is wasted, of course, 

 for it stands in each check while flowing on to the 



