274 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



IRRIGATION IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE 



MANY sections of the 

 country are being made 

 the basis of operations in 

 irrigation work today, but 

 there are few, if any, in 

 which things are being car- 

 ried on as in the Panhandle 

 section of the Lone Star 

 State. 



Water was first suc- 

 cessfully pumped in this 

 district in the fall of 1911, 

 and after several successful 

 pumping plants had been 

 installed, irrigation became 

 the greatest industry of that 

 section. Land values went 

 up, towns boomed from a 

 population of one hundred 

 to that of five thousand in 



a single year. Now, a traveler entering this sec- 

 tion will see pumping plant after pumping plant in 

 operation and others going in on all sides. Every 

 effort is being made toward the one object of get- 

 ting more water at low cost. Land scorned ten 

 years ago is now in a high state of cultivation. 



Through the efforts of a number of more pub- 

 lic spirited citizens of that section, the Pierson 

 Syndicate was interested in the development of a 

 large tract of land covering 68,000 acres. They are 

 working on the gigantic task of developing wells 

 on every part of this land, erecting house and barn 

 on each quarter section and turning the complete 

 outfit, including pumping plant, house and barn, 

 complete for irrigation, with part of the land under 

 cultivation, over to the home seeker. The Syndi- 



cate's first purchase of en- 

 gines for their requirements 

 covered forty engines of the 

 Two Cylinder Opposed 

 Heavy Duty Type and cor- 

 responding pumps. Standard 

 practice in this district is to 

 mount the pump with a ver- 

 tical shaft and operate it by 

 twisting the belt from the 

 engine, operating engine 

 and pump at about 30-foot 

 centers. The amount of 

 water is measured entirely 

 by a U. S. standard wire 

 gauge, which, with the use 

 of water tables, enable them 

 to gauge very accurately 

 the output of the plant. 

 Throughout this section the 

 water strata lies at the depth of about 60 feet from 

 the surface. No. 5 and No. 6 pumps are used t,o 

 give a capacity of from 1,200 to 1,800 gallons per 

 minute when operated by 35 to 50 H. P. engines. 



A man is placed on each plant to oversee the 

 engine and pump and to superintend the irrigation 

 through the various ditches. This method of oper- 

 ation and installation of pumping plants has been 

 in use for upwards of eighteen months and the re- 

 sults are very gratifying. The finding of water at 

 a level so easily accessible from the surface has 

 proven a gold mine for that section. Land values 

 have risen from one dollar an acre to upwards of 

 $200.00 an acre. This is not mere real estate boom 

 or speculation ; it is actual value of the land and it 

 shows the advantage of placing a reliable engine 

 and pumping plant on irrigable land. 



A Texai Pumping Plait 



IOWA IRRIGATOR USES ELECTRICITY 



IRRIGATION by electrical power pumping is 

 1 being tried out on Muscatine Island, near Musca- 

 tine, la., by F. X. Schaefer, who has an 80-acre gar- 

 den tract. Several gasoline pumping plants are 

 also being used in this important truck gardening 

 district to guard against drought. 



A distribution system in which galvanized iron 

 piping is used, has been installed by Schaefer, and 

 every inch of the eighty acres will be systematically 

 watered during the dry season. 



Truck gardeners throughout the eastern part 

 of the state are watching the experiment with in- 

 terest, and others are expected to install similar 

 systems. The Muscatine Lighting Company is con- 

 sidering the extension of a wire through the island 

 district, thus bringing power to every farm. To 

 make the island farms droughtproof would result in 

 a saving of many thousands of dollars annually to 

 individual growers. 



A loss of thousands of dollars was sustained 

 this summer because of a lack of moisture during 

 the strawberry growing season, and to preclude the 



possibility of a melon failure, gasoline pumping 

 irrigation systems have been established on a score 

 of the largest farms. Mr. Schaefer is confident that 

 the results which will accrue from his novel step 

 will be such as to bring about the general use of 

 electricity on the island and thus safeguard the 

 richest melon producing area in the state of Iowa 

 from crop failures. 



NAMES IRRIGATION COMMITTEE MEN 



Gov. Ernest Lister has named Attorney Ira P. 

 Englehart of North Yakima, and E. F. Benson of 

 Tacoma, formerly of Prosser, as the Washington 

 members of the irrigation conference committee of 

 thirty two from each of the fifteen irrigation states 

 which was provided for at the irrigation confer- 

 ence at Denver in April. This committee is ex- 

 pected to work for co-operation between the United 

 States and the Western states in the reclamation of 

 arid lands. It will also seek more uniformity in the 

 irrigation laws of the various states. 



