THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



271 



velocity above the gate should also be made as small 

 as practicable. 



The cost of these orifice headgates in Imperial 

 Valley is given by the Superintendent of Mutual 



Water Company No. 1 as about $20. The items 

 making up the total are: lumber, about $9; labor, 

 exclusive of excavation, about $8; excavation and 

 incidentals, about $3. 



SOME SEEDS FLY; OTHERS USE PARACHUTES 



This Article Is Written Especially for Boys and Girls, But Any Man or Woman Will Find It Worth Reading 



SOAIE seeds make journeys with wings, and 

 others travel from place to place by attaching 

 themselves to the clothes of men or the hair of 

 animals ; still others make their journey in the stom- 

 achs of birds. These are facts that will interest 

 young people who are taking an interest in agri- 

 culture and are working in a garden at home or at 

 school. According to the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture's specialist, the seed as the 

 starting point in the life cycle of a plant may well 

 be studied first by young gardeners. 



The seeds of tne maple tree are particularly in- 

 teresting. They are provided with wings, and 

 when they become detached from the parent tree a 

 gentle breeze will carry them a considerable dis- 

 tance from the branch to which they were attached. 

 There are many forms and modifications of the 

 winged seed, as the linden, the hornbeam, the elm, 

 and the pine. These are all common trees, from 

 which seeds for illustrative purposes can be secured. 



Some seeds also are provided with parachutes 

 or umbrellas, not for protection from rain and 

 storm, but for purposes of locomotion. The seeds 

 of the thistle, the milkweed, and the dandelion in 

 fact, the seeds of all plants which have a cottony 

 growth are provided for these aerial journeys. 



Besides these, some seeds are provided with 

 hooked appendages by which they can attach them- 

 selves to the clothing of men or to the hair of ani- 

 mals, so that they become transported from place to 

 place. Other seeds have hard seed coats, or shells, 

 which are covered in many cases by edible fruit. 

 The fruits are eaten by birds, but the seeds are not 

 digested, and in this way become distributed from 

 place to place. The groves of cedars which are 

 characteristic of the landscape in many sections of 

 the country, it will be noted, are chiefly placed along 

 the lines of fences or fence rows. The fruit of the 

 cedar is an edible one, but the seed is not digestible, 

 and in this way the existence of these hedge rows of 

 cedars is explained. Cherries, grapes and other 

 fruits are to a considerable extent disseminated in 

 like manner. 



The hard nuts of our nut-bearing trees are not 

 used as food by birds or large animals, but are 

 usually sought by squirrels and small rodents, 

 which are in the habit of gathering and burying 

 them in various places or storing them in large 

 quantities for winter use. The result is that a con- 

 siderable percentage of those which are buried in 

 this manner are never rediscovered by those hiding 

 them, and in time nature causes the hard shell to 

 crack open, and the warmth and moisture of the 

 soil brings the germ contained in the kernel into 

 life and a tree springs into existence. It will he- 



noted that the nuts which were buried by the squir- 

 rels did not germinate immediately after being 

 buried, but waited until the warm weather of the 

 spring came before they put forth their tender 

 shoots. This is not because they willed it, but be- 

 cause the hard outer walls of the shell would not 

 admit the air and water to the germ, so as to stimu- 

 late its growth. 



It was necessary that the shell be frozen and 

 broken by the action of the frosts and the weather 

 before the moisture could gain an entrance to cause 

 the swelling of the germ. This peculiarity, when 

 taken advantage of commercially, is called stratifi- 

 cation. Seeds with hard shells, such as cherries, 

 peaches, plums, and the like, have to be stratified 

 that is, they must be planted in the fall where the 

 plants are to grow or they must be packed away in 

 boxes of sand in a position where they will freeze 

 and remain frozen during the winter in order that 

 they may germinate the following spring. If seeds 

 of this character are stored and kept dry during 

 the winter they will not germinate if planted in the 

 spring. Seeds with thin seed coats, however, like 

 peas, beans, etc., if treated in like manner, will be 

 destroyed by the action of the cold, and no plants 

 will result from planting them in the autumn. Such 

 seeds must, from the nature of the case, be retained 

 in a dry and comparatively warm place during the 

 winter season, in order that their vitality may not 

 be destroyed. 



NEW KANSAS COMMISSIONER 



J. W. Lough, of Scott City, Kans., has been 

 appointed Irrigation Commissioner of Kansas by 

 Governor Capper. Mr. Lough has made a success 

 of irrigation on his own broad acres in Scott county. 

 He has tapped the underflow, and made it pay, in 

 dollars and cents. Visitors at the Kansas State 

 Irrigation Congress last September were much in- 

 terested in Lough's place near Scott City. Mr. 

 Lough showed them his alfalfa fields. He obtained 

 about two tons an acre for each of his four cuttings 

 of alfalfa last season. 



BACK UP TWO RIVERS 80 MILES 



The New South Wales government is investi- 

 gating an irrigation scheme which will back up the 

 waters of the Clarence and Mitchell rivers for a dis- 

 tance of 80 miles. Being close to the junction of 

 the two rivers and having precipitous hills on both 

 sides, the site for the dam at Gorge is ideal. 



