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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



METAL FLUMES MEAN DITCH PERMANENCY 



By GEORGE L. HESS 



THE use of flumes was not so prevalent in the 

 early community ditches as in the later irriga- 

 tion systems which arose out of the flat valleys into 

 the rougher country. Many of the bigger ditches 

 have been built alongside rough hills interspread 

 with draws and arroyas. Even in the smaller 

 ditches now side hill construction is prevalent over 

 the greater part of the ditch. Wood was the first 

 material employed for flumes, because it was handy 

 and moreover there was nothing else with which 



must be easy to erect and simple in construction so 

 that any farmer or ranchman can install it without 

 previous experience. A thousand or more feet of 

 smaller size metal flume can be put together in one 

 day by two or three men. Metal flumes must be 

 lasting. New and better grades of galvanized iron 

 such as Keystone metal and Tonian metal have been 

 placed on the market which resist rust and corrosion. 

 When flumes are made of these superior metals, 

 fifty or more years' life has been considered a con- 

 servative estimate of their endurance. Unlike 

 wood, metal flumes do not require any 

 attention or expensive repairs. No 

 water is lost. There is no danger of 

 breaks and loss of crops. The sub- 

 structure for a metal flume costs much 

 less than for a wooden one. With 

 the development and sale of such an 



A 9-foot flume with a concrete intake, near Laurel, Montana. 



to make them. They were used, just as were 

 the hand churns prior to the development of 

 the modern separator and are becoming a thing 

 of the past just as the modern binder has re- 

 placed the hand reaper. 



True the wooden flumes leaked sometimes 

 slightly, often like a sieve. Costly breaks in 

 the flume would wreck it, causing heavy ex- 

 pense for rebuilding and the loss of water for the 

 time required in repairing would even cause injury 

 or loss of crops on thousands of acres of land. The 

 first cost may have been cheap, but the heavy yearly 

 repair bill, loss of time in attending to the flume, 

 danger of breaks, loss of water, and necessity of 

 replacing the wooden flume frequently made it the 

 most expensive structure that has ever been used. 

 The patents issued to P. Maginnis of Kimball, 

 Nebraska, and the subsequent patents issued to the 

 Hess Flume Company of Denver made possible the 

 replacement of wooden flumes with metal. To 

 make an acceptable metal flume the following fea- 

 tures are required : It must be absplutely water 

 tight. No rivets, solder or other caulking material 

 should be used. The Hess-Maginnis types fulfill 

 this requirement by having a beaded overlapping 

 joint which is made water-tight by an inner clamp- 

 ing bar pressed against an outer carrier rod. It 



Anothei 9-foot uume with a metal apron intake on the lower 



Yellowstone federal irrigation project near Forsyth, 



Mont. Courtesy of Klauer Mfg. Co. 



improved device, flumes have come to be used more 

 largely in place of other types of construction. 

 Where seepy side hill ditches were formerly built, 

 watertight sidehill flumes have taken their places. 

 It has been found cheaper and better to flume di- 

 rectly across arroyas and low places, rather than 

 build a long ditch up to the head of the draw or 

 around the low place. Ditch lines have been made 

 straighter and shorter, saving in grade and enabling 

 higher lands at the lower end of the ditch to be 

 watered. Some ditch lines now consist mostly of 

 durable water tight metal flumes. 



The nestable clamping flumes are made in all 

 sizes, from eight inches up to twenty feet in diam- 

 eter. The United States reclamation service in 

 Colorado is now installing a flume almost fifteen 

 feet in diameter. Smaller sizes for farmers' use 

 (Continued on Page 123.) 



