106 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



WHERE OIL AND WATER MIX 



L. J. Cunniff . 



In the West and Southwest, where nature has 

 been just a little niggardly in supplying rain, the 

 best crop producer is a mixture of oil and water. 



The Cause. 



Big irrigation projects have been adding such vast 

 areas to the farm domain that the importance of 

 irrigation by pumping is not recognized as it should 

 be. 



Of course, it is only possible to irrigate by 

 pumping where an ample under-flow of water can 

 be secured, but there are thousands of acres of land 

 in the West and Southwest that can be easily irri- 



The Effect. 



Oil-Turn Motor on the Farm of G. G. Fuller, Pumping at the- 

 Rate of 300 Miners' Inches per Minute and Burning 

 *'Stove Tops" for Fuel. 



gated in this way. There are very few regions 

 where a supply of water that will raise to within 

 forty or fifty feet of the surface cannot be reached 

 by a shallow well. 



The cost of irrigation by pumping compares 

 very favorably with irrigation costs when the water 



is obtained through some uf the big project com- 

 panies. \Ve illustrate on this page an outht belong 1 - 

 mg to G. G. Fuller of Phoenix, Arizona, which cost 

 less than $6,000 and which supplies water to a 440- 

 acre farm at a cost of less than $7.50 per day. 



The entire cost of putting down the well, the 

 Oil Turn motor, oil supply tank and wagon tank 

 are all figured in the $6,000. Fuller's outfit will 

 pump 300 gallons of water per minute, raising the 

 water thirty feet. When operating at full capacity 

 the motor will consume about sixty gallons of oil, 

 which costs about $3.30. It will take $1.20 for lubri- 

 cating oil and $3.00 for an engineer, which makes a 

 grand total of $7.50 for a ten-hour day. 



The cost of a pumping outfit must not be looked 

 upon as an expense. It is an investment and a good 

 one at that. A farm, where such an outfit has been 

 intelligently installed, is worth and will sell for 

 just that much more. Irrigated land in southern 

 California that will not bring $1,000 per acre is 

 looked upon with suspicion. 



Before going into irrigation, however, it is only 

 good business to compare the value of the increase 

 in crops that may be reasonably expected with the 



30-60 Oil-Pull Tract' .r on the Ranch of Dr. White Near Plainview, 



Texas, Pumping 2,333 Gallons per Minute. The Tractor 



Is Here Lifting the Water 75 Feet. 



cost of an irrigating outfit. Fuller figures that his 

 alfalfa crop brings in a net profit of $36.90 per acre 

 after taking out the irrigation and other costs. He 

 allows eight per cent on the money invested in the 

 plant and ten per cent for depreciation of the plant 

 itself when figuring profits. There is plenty of land 

 now idle in the West and Southwest that will bring 

 just as big returns with the same treatment. 



In buying a pumping engine, reliability is the 

 first thing that should be considered. An engine 

 that cannot be depended upon at all times is worse 

 than valueless for irrigation purposes, so while it is 

 well to keep an eye on costs, a cheap irrigation 

 engine is often the most expensive purchase that 

 can be made. 



When the volume of water used in irrigating is small, 

 there is a much greater percentage of waste than where the 

 volume is large, as there is a much greater chance for 

 evaporation and more opportunity for other wastes where 

 the water is supplied slowly. Because of this the larger 

 the pumping outfit employed the greater the economy 

 shown. 



Tractors can often be very advantageously used for 

 pumping power in irrigating small plots of land, as tractors 

 may be put at other work when not pumping. The oil 

 tractor shows practically the same operating costs as the 

 oil motor. Both burn the low grade oils equally well. A 

 tractor will of course cost a little more, but this increase 

 is more than off-set by the ability of the tractor to haul, 

 plow, seed or thrash when it is not working at the pump. 



