178 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



tied to a stake, so that it remains in exactly the 

 same position in which it grew. On the top of this 

 box the top soil or shallow seedbed has been washed 

 away and the scanty root development is shown, 

 none of these roots penetrating the hard, compact 

 subsoil, but spreading out on its surface, evidently 

 reaching for some opening in the hard substance 

 where additional food could be obtained. 



There is something mysterious about the man- 

 ner in which plants, through their roots, prowl about 

 in search of food, and these pictures show this as 

 clearly as anything that has ever been brought to 

 our attention, and nature, in these photographs, 

 illustrates her greatest of all lessons, the method of 

 plant life searching for sustenance as clearly and 

 distinctly as an animal scents the ground for its 

 food or prey. 



Mr. Shryack has performed a great service in 

 this experiment and has demonstrated more clearly 

 than would be possible in any other way the bene- 

 fits to be derived from deep tilling; in other words, 

 fining the soil sufficiently deep to allow the plant 

 roots unobstructed entry into the heavily laden 

 humus beds of the lower soils. 



mm 



lit 



4 '*.' *' 



This Picture and Results Prove the Claims of Recognized Authorities. 



It illustrates, also, that in this sort of cultiva- 

 tion the theory advanced and exploited by our old 

 friend, Mr. Campbell, of holding moisture in the 

 soil by top mulch. 



Judging from these pictures, we would say that 

 deeply cultivated soil, where the moisture is prop- 

 erly held in a position where it may be reached by 

 the plant roots, may be made to produce from two 

 to four, and possibly six times the crop volume that 

 is possible under the ordinary system of tillage. 



Experiments have recently been tried on land 

 in the Panhandle of Texas that have clearly demon- 

 strated the possibility of working that soil with an 

 outfit similar to that produced by the Spalding Till- 

 ing Machine Company. 



This concern has made great strides within the 

 past year or two in introducing their machines and 

 have now arrangements with two large manufac- 

 turing concerns who cover, one the central states, 



and the other the Pacific Coast states. One of these 

 concerns is located at Denver, Col., while the other 

 is in Albion, Mich. The parent company, the Spald- 

 ing Tilling Machine Company of Cleveland, Ohio, 

 is at present preparing a shipment of several car- 

 loads for South Africa. A representative of British 

 South Africa has been in this country studying ma- 

 chinery during the past six or eight months and has 

 ordered for his government these machines, which 

 will, no doubt, prove of great benefit to the farmers 

 in that country. 



Judging from the results obtained through ex- 

 periments in the field and those illustrated here- 

 with, it is reasonable to suppose that a majority of 

 manufacturers of plows will eventually find it neces- 

 sary to produce something that will till the soil 

 deeper than is possible under the ordinary system. 



The editor of THE IRRIGATION AGE contemplates 

 a study of this subject and will, through the assist- 

 ance of Mr. Shryack, present from time to time 

 articles showing other experiments and work ac- 

 complished. 



Our next article will likely treat of the experi- 

 ments carried on in the Panhandle of Texas, where 

 it has been almost impossible to raise crops, owing" 

 to the inability of the ordinary plow to get into and 

 turn over the baked soil of that region. 



THE SUCCESS OF IRRIGATION. 



The remarkable strides which have been made 

 within the past decade in the reclamation of the 

 arid West and in the creation of a land-owning 

 citizenship in a region which, up to that time, was 

 considered worthless, is attracting the attention of 

 the civilized world. During the past year, as shown 

 by the recent official reports of the Director of the 

 Reclamation Service, almost a procession of repre- 

 sentatives of foreign governments and distin- 

 guished engineers and financiers passed through 

 Washington, going to and returning from a visit to 

 the works which are being built by the Government 

 and by corporations. 



The success attained in our arid West has stim- 

 ulated other countries in which are situated similar 

 lands naturally fertile, but unproductive because of 

 lack of moisture. 



It is curious to note that from the very coun- 

 tries in which irrigation has been practiced success- 

 fully for hundreds and even thousands of years 

 these experts are coming to the United States, the 

 latest of all countries -to take up irrigation, in order 

 to study the system which has been developed by 

 American genius and ingenuity, and to learn the 

 fundamentals of the effective and economic handling 

 of such work, the standards for which have been 

 developed by our own Government. These investi- 

 gators have come not only from the Mediterranean 

 countries, but from South Africa, Australia, India 

 and South America. After spending days or weeks 

 studying the system of organization, methods of 

 construction and of cost keeping, they have reported 

 that there is no other part of the world in which 

 this work is being conducted on such an extensive 

 scale or with more pronounced success. 



