1014 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The problem is an important one and is a very live issue 

 today. These swamp lands are scattered over a wide area 

 of the eastern, southern and middle west states, much of 

 it being near to very good markets, so that, for instance, 

 the one million acres of swamp lands in the state of Illinois 

 along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers could be transformed 

 into 50,000 productive farms of 20 acres, each capable of 

 supporting a family in comfort. This swamp land, when 

 drained, is very rich and will yield abundant crops, so that 

 20 acres of the land intensively farmed provides a compe- 

 tence. 



One danger in reclaiming swamps must not be over- 

 looked, and that is that the water is not drawn off too low. 

 Just recently the writer was informed that in some districts 

 along the Kankakee river which have been drained at great 

 expense 1:y tiling several years ago, the ground has become 

 so dry that the farmers are discussing the problem of irri- 

 gating their holdings. In such case the outlets of the drain 

 tiles should be plugged until the soil has its required water, 

 or in other words, the water bench should be raised suffi- 

 ciently to bring the water to the roots of the plants. 



Investigations should be made from the scientific point of 

 view into the various phases of drainage so that this subject 

 could be approached by the layman with greater assurance 

 of success. 



Agriculture is, without a doubt, one of the 

 Agriculture oldest vocations, dating back to the very 



Old origin of man, as his livelihood at all times 



and has depended upon the exercise of this 



New. very work. Yet with all of these thousands 



of years of experience the methods of the 

 farmer have been so simple and crude that up to fifty years 

 ago the tilling of the soil was done just about the same 

 as hundreds of years ago; nay, even at this day one may 

 travel through the republic of Mexico and other modern 

 countries and see the breaking of the ground done by the 

 aid of a sharp stick of wood, just as the practice had been 

 handed down from father to son during innumerable gen- 

 erations. 



But a great change has been wrought in this direction, 

 beginning about the middle of the last century, when chem- 

 istry was rapidly developing into a practical science, delving 

 into the mysteries of organic life and laying them bare. 

 Also the construction of machinery made marvelous progress 

 and farming machinery of every kind made its appearance 

 and was welcomed by the American farmer in particular 

 for its labor saving qualities. Still the farmer was working 

 on in the dark, so to speak, being principally governed 

 by precedent and hearsay, and little progress was made 

 except by a few scientists regarding the life and food of 

 plants and how the soil produces crops. The fact that the 

 operations taking place in the ground and in the air are 

 chemical processses of the most intricate kind can readily 

 serve as an excuse that the details thereof were not found 

 out by the farmer but by the chemist in his laboratory. 

 The great principle in chemistry that no atom of matter can 

 either be created or destroyed has its particular application 

 in practical agriculture, calling attention to the fact that 

 every pound of crop taken from the soil leaves that soil 

 that much poorer, further that different crops require differ- 

 ent ingredients for their formation, which teaches that al- 

 though a soil may not be able to produce one kind of crop 

 it still may be capable to produce some other crop of which 

 it contains the raw materials. This also implies the useful 

 princ'ple of crop rotation, whereby a soil brings forth differ- 



ent crops in succession without being impoverished, to all 

 appearances. Furthermore, with the founding of so many 

 agricultural experiment stations the farmer may even go 

 so far as to send a sample of the soil in which he wants 

 to raise a certain crop to the nearest agricultural experiment 

 station for analysis, and after a chemical test he will be in- 

 formed for what crop the soil is best suited, and also what 

 kind and quantity of fertilizer will be required to add to 

 the soil to produce a certain crop. 



Such scientific methods have also been extended to the 

 raising and taking care of all kinds of farm animals, so that 

 today the well-informed farmer is getting more for his labor 

 and investment than ever before, and the new conditions 

 have clearly revolutionized farming, so that the farmers of 

 fifty years ago would be utterly out of place today in the 

 modern applied agriculture. 



But this is not all. Some of the greatest wonders have 

 been wrought by the scientific application of water to the 

 deserts, making them bring forth abundant crops, thus re- 

 claiming millions of acres furnishing homes for hundreds 

 of thousands of happy families and adding to the general 

 welfare and wealth of the nations. In this way irrigation 

 has been and still is a mighty force in this world, trans- 

 forming barren and arid countries into lands of plenty, 

 peace and happiness. 



Through an oversight we failed to give 

 An credit to Shop Notes Quarterly for the 



Oversight splendid article which appeared in our 



in July Issue July issue, entitled "Electricity on the 



Corrected. Farm," and which through the kindness of 



the above named publication we were en- 

 abled to present to our readers. 



Shop Notes Quarterly, which is published by the Popular 

 Mechanics Company of Chicago, is a wide-awake journal, 

 and those who want up-to-date information along mechanical 

 lines will do well to subscribe for it. 



That 'our neighbors in the West Indies 

 Cuba Wants are also waking up to the possibilities and 



to Be necessities of irrigation is evidenced by 



Benefittedby the fact that the Cuban government has 

 Irrigation. appointed a commission of consulting en- 



gineers to formulate plans for an irri- 

 gation system in the province of Pinar del Rio. The 

 commission consists of one American, one Cuban and one 

 English engineer, and Mr. D. C. Henny, consulting engineer 

 of the United States Reclamation Service, stationed at Port- 

 land, Oregon, is the American engineer appointed by the 

 Cuban Secretary of Agriculture. 



It shows that the Cuban government is embarking upon 

 a truly beneficial mission and it will lose nothing by it, even 

 though it follows the example of the United States govern- 

 ment. This move on the part of the Minister of Agriculture 

 shows better than anything else could the progressive policy 

 of the present administration in the republic of Cuba, and is 

 a splendid guarantee of permanent peace and prosperity for 

 that country. 



In this connection it may be stated that many other 

 countries are also developing their dormant agricultural re- 

 sources by investigating the irrigation possibilities within 

 their domain. Among them Mexico, Canada and the Philip- 

 pine islands are particularly of interest to us. Much new 

 development may be looked for in these countries during 

 the next four or five years. 



