THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. 19 
surface water is present in sufficient quantity and at a shallow enough 
depth to supply the necessary water for crop production at a reason- 
able cost. 
Keservoirs are either individual storage places which supply mois- 
ture for a single farm or part of a farm or they may be community 
enterprises operated by the landowners or by an irrigating company. 
Community reservoirs are sometimes filled direct from permanent 
streams and sometimes they are filled during freshets, while individ- 
ual reservoirs are frequently supplied with water by pumping; in 
this manner pump irrigation may be direct or indirect. By direct 
irrigation the water is pumped into the ditches or laterals and spread 
at once upon the fields; by indirect irrigation the water is pumped 
into a reservoir, from which it is distributed upon the field when 
needed. There are difficulties to overcome in each of the methods 
of irrigation mentioned. In utilizing water from a community res- 
ervoir it is necessary for all farmers under the ditch from this reser- 
voir to use the water at a time agreed upon by the majority of the 
users, regardless of the requirements of all of the crops to be watered. 
In case the water is not used by one or more farmers when the reser- 
voir is open, they must await the next opening of the reservoir, which 
may be several weeks later, regardless of the injury that the lack of 
water may cause to their crops. The reservoir can not be opened at 
the will and pleasure of each water user. To do so would cause a 
great waste of water, which is often of greater value than the land 
itself. 
Water from a community reservoir is usually prorated and meas- 
ured to each farmer so that he is able to obtain only his share ; like- 
wise, in using water from a stream in which the supply is limited it 
is prorated and measured, and irrigation must cease when the allotted 
number of acre-feet has passed through the gate, regardless of the 
crop requirements. If the pumping plant is a community plant 
practically the same regulations obtain as in the case of the com- 
munity reservoir, that is, each farmer entitled to water must use it 
at a definite time agreed upon by a majority of the users, whether 
his crop needs water or not. It would, of course, be too expensive 
to operate the pumping plant for a limited number of farmers whose 
crops were not in need of water at the regular irrigating period. 
The individual plant is usually more satisfactory from the stand- 
point that water may be available when needed. The expense, how- 
ever, of installing and operating individual pumping plants has fre- 
quently been beyond the means of many of the farmers in a given 
community. It is apparent, therefore, that the water supply for ir- 
rigating a sufficiently large area to insure the growing of the neces- 
sary acreage to enable a sugar mill to operate successfully is fre- 
quently the deciding factor in the growing of sugar beets. The prob- 
