26 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



WATER PENETRATION IN THE GUMBO SOILS OF THE BELLE FOURCHE 



RECLAMATION PROJECT 



The gumbo soils, which cover over 7,000,000 

 acres in South Dakota, recent investigations on the 

 Belle Fourche Reclamation Project establish, swell 

 so rapidly when wet as to make the top layer nearly 

 impervious to water. For this reason after a field 

 of this soil has once been covered with water, little 

 benefit can result from having water continue to 

 stand on or flow over the soil. Because of this 

 action of these gumbo soils, O. R. Mathews, assist- 

 ant Dry-Land Agriculture Investigations, Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, makes, in U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture Bulletin No. 447, the following recom- 

 mendations regarding the treatment of these soils 

 under irrigation and dry-land conditions : 



(1) Water should be applied only when the 

 surface is dry. 



(2) The quantity of water absorbed will de- 

 pend upon the dryness and consequent cracked con- 

 dition of the surface soil. 



(3) After a field has once been covered with 

 water, little further absorption takes place, and no 

 benefit can result from having water stand on or 

 flow over the soil for more than a few minutes. 



(4) The depth to which the water will pene- 

 trate depends upon the depth to which the soil has 

 been dried and cracked. 



The following points apply to the cultural 

 practices for these gumbo soils under either irriga- 

 tion or dry-land conditions: 



(1) No particular method of cultivation will 

 be superior to others in influencing the quantity of 

 water absorbed, since this depends upon the degree 

 to which the surface soil is dried and cracked. The 

 soil after harvest is usually so dry that penetration 

 takes place very readily, and any ordinary quantity 

 of rain that falls is absorbed regardless of the cul- 

 tural treatment. 



(2) Since the dry soil is naturally broken up 

 to depths as great as would be reached by either 

 deep plowing or subsoiling, these operations can 

 be of no great benefit in water absorption. 



(3) Some method, such as dynamiting, by 

 which the soil below the cracked area could be 

 broken up, might result in a temporary increase in 

 the depth to which water could easily penetrate. 

 The natural swelling of the soil, however, would 

 cause it again to become compact every time it was 

 wet. This would make it necessary for the opera- 

 tion to be repeated each year, which would involve 

 an expense too great for this method ever to be 

 considered seriously. 



NATIONAL FOREST ELIMINATION 



As a result of recommendations of the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, based upon approved classifi- 

 cation reports submitted by the Forest Service, 

 19,840 acres of land have been eliminated from the 

 Routt National Forest in northwestern Colorado 

 by a Presidential proclamation. This action is in 

 accordance with the policy of putting all lands in 

 the National Forests to the use to which they are 

 best suited. The area in question is located in what 

 is known as Ham's Creek Basin, or Elk 'River Park, 

 about 25 miles north of the town of Steamboat 

 Springs, and consists chiefly of grassland with a 

 small amount of scattered woodland. 



The elimination comprises practically a solid 

 block from 6 to 8 miles long and about 4 miles wide. 

 Approximately one-third of the entire area is al- 

 ready alienated and in private ownership. Forest 

 Service reports on the classification of the area 

 show it to have little value for watershed protec- 

 tion or other National -Forest purposes. The 

 greater portion of the soil itself is more or less 

 adapted to cultivation, but on account of the high 

 elevation and unfavorable climatic conditions it is 

 believed that the area has only a low value for prac- 

 tical agriculture. 



A classification of practically all the National 

 Forests is being made by the Forest Service in 

 order to determine the character and suitability to 

 agriculture of the land which they contain. 



CORRESPONDENCE 



Editor THE IRRIGATION AGE: 



One of my neighbors has shown me a copy of THE 

 IRRIGATION AGE sent to him and I wish to have my name 

 entered on your list of subscribers. Enclosed please find 

 check for $1.00 in payment of subscription. 



I heartily endorse the action of the executive committee 

 in making THE AGE official organ of the National Federation 

 of Water Users' Associations, as it will give us a wider court 

 in which to plead our cause. If we ever obtain justice, un- 

 biased by political exigencies, we must get it by an appeal to 

 the highest of all tribunals in this country, the court of public 

 opinion. Heretofore we have been fighting an unequal battle 

 chiefly because the Reclamation Service, at our expense, has 

 been maintaining a very competent press bureau, which has 

 been devoting its energies to misleading the public and mis- 

 representing the settlers. Why, just a few months ago a 

 Reclamation official is reported to have told an audience in 

 New York City that the only chance left for a poor man was 

 to take up a reclamation farm and he tried to create the belief 

 in the minds of his hearers that $500 was ample capital. And 

 then our dear beloved director will declare that the trouble 

 with the projects is that we have too many men with no 

 experience and little capital. 



Press agents make a campaign for that kind of settler* 

 and the director insults them because they yield to the blan- 

 dishments of the press agents. 



So more power and a wider circulation to THE IRBIGA- 

 TION AGE. 



H. E. CULVER, Fort Shaw, Mont. 



If you want to keep in touch with all sides 

 of the Reclamation Problem send $1.00 for one 

 year's subscription to the Irrigation Age, 30 

 North Dearborn street, Chicago. 



