March, 1909.] 



217 



Miscellaneous, 



themselves what is best for their land 

 and not be dependent on the wits of 

 others or live on the imports from 

 foreign countries, but become self-de- 

 dend ent.— Natal Agricultural Journal, 

 Vol. XL, No. 12, December, 1908. 



IRRIGATION IN NATAL, 



By Jambs Pbnisto.v, Weenen. 



We have several irrigation settle- 

 ments in Weenen county— Winterton, 

 Weenen, and Tugela Irrigation Works, 

 and the Mooi River Works, and there is a 

 lot of irrigation going on at Mudeu. At 

 the latter place there are seveial men 

 who go in for irrigation in a sensible 

 manner and also a few in Weenen and 

 at Winterton, but the great majority 

 just turn the stream of water on to 

 the land at the highest part and 

 divide it, or let it divide itself and 

 allow it to run, doing at the rate of 

 perhaps an acre a day ; and some even 

 go as far as letting the water run 

 night and day. In conversation, these 

 men will say " they let the water sleep 

 on the land." 



It is hard to calculate the amount of 

 damage done to the land by such 

 practices. A few remarks on the proper 

 mode of irrigation may be of some use to 

 the new settlers ; and at the same time 

 if some of the old settlers would give 

 the right way of irrigating a trial I 

 feel confident they would soon f orsake 

 the old method, which only benefits 

 one class of the community, viz., the 

 manufacturers and merchants who sell 

 fertilisers. Besides this, it ruins the 

 land, making the crops uneven and 

 generally washing all the best of the 

 land to the lowest corner of the field. 



In the first place do not have too 

 strong a stream in the plough furrow ; 

 just what it can carry nicely without 

 overflowing is enough. The furrows 

 should be from ten to fifteen yards 

 apart. This depends greatly on the 

 amount of fall there is. On some land 

 the furrows can be as far as twenty 

 yards apart. Now, take fifteen yards 

 —always judging by the lay of the 

 land— down the furrow and put a sugar 

 bag half full of earth in the furrow, 

 and stop any water that overflows 

 with a spadeful of earth. The water 

 will, of course, soon fill the furrow and 

 should move steadily over the land to 

 the next furrow. Now remove the bag 

 of earth and place it a few yards lower 

 down the furrow. By keeping steadily 

 at this an energetic man can irrigate 

 three acres a day and do it well, leaving 

 the ground in the same condition as a 

 good rain would, 



But the furrow one is irrigating from 

 must not be too long or it will wash 

 deep. This can be avoided by having a 

 furrow on tbe outside of the land and a 

 cross furrow through the land. It is clear 

 water that does the most harm to the 

 land. When the river is full or very 

 muddy is the best time to irrigate ; 

 one can see the reason why by taking a 

 glass of the muddy water and letting it 

 stand for a day or two ; there will then 

 be a silt at the bottom of the glass, 

 which will give an idea of the amount 

 of silt which would be left on an acre 

 of ground. When irrigated with muddy 

 water by the above method there is no 

 washing away of the soil, as each time 

 the obstruction in the furrow is removed 

 the water just sinks away. Now in the 

 old way consider the amount of seed 

 trodden down by the men who are irri- 

 gating : every time one of the men puts 

 his foot down he drives the seed a foot 

 to eighteen inches at least into the mud, 

 where it has not the slightest chance of 

 ever working its way through the soil. 



Many people will say irrigating turns 

 mealies yellow and spoils them. That 

 is the case when the land has too much 

 water, i.e., been badly irrigated. Pro- 

 perly irrigated water can never do 

 damage to mealies, and irrigated pro- 

 perly at the right time makes a great 

 difference in the number of muids per 

 acre. Again in irrigating land before 

 ploughing many people will plough the 

 land before it is dry enough. One can 

 easily test this : take a spade and dig 

 out a spadeful he^e and there ; if it is fit 

 for the plough, on turning over the 

 spadeful the ground should, though 

 moist, crumble and divide easily at the 

 touch of the spade. Furthermore, where 

 crops are planted in line, irrigating and 

 the horse hoe must go hand in hand. 

 Alter each time the land is irrigated, 

 just as soon as it is dry enough, horse 

 hoe the land and use the same test as 

 for ploughing land, after irrigation, 

 mentioned above. Land horse hoed at 

 the proper time after irrigating will 

 do without water for a much longer 

 time than land irrigated and not horse 

 hoed. 



In properly laid out land one should be 

 able to do many acres of land without 

 getting his feet wet, but in uneven 

 ground one must have a native with 

 him to irrigate patches that are left 

 owing to the unevenness of the land; but 

 make him do it as quickly as possible 

 and get him out of the wet ground as 

 soon as you can, By the old method one 

 will often see a white man with trousers 

 turned up above his knees and two or 

 three Kaffirs walking about in the wet 

 ground and making it more fit tor 



