44 
Colorado Experiment Station 
for subirrigated land, 24 inches. In July of 1916, I dug a hole in un¬ 
productive land near Mosca and found the water-table 36 inches from 
the surface. Eater a sample of water was obtained from this place 
and a more careful measurement made of the depth of the water- 
plane, 37 inches. Southwest of Alamosa, I made a boring and did not 
find free water at 4 feet. It is difficult to reconcile the success gener¬ 
ally had with subirrigation in which the water-plane is intentionally 
held within a short distance of the surface and the failures on land 
with a lower water-plane, if excessive water be the cause of unpro¬ 
ductiveness as is claimed. Facts such as those just cited lead natur¬ 
ally to a doubt in regard to the correctness of the assertions made in 
this connection. 
Other facts lead to a similar conclusion regarding the insufficiency 
of the high-water plane to explain the cause of the unproductiveness 
of these lands. One of these facts is the results being obtained by 
flooding without other than the natural drainage of the land. In some 
instances a fair degree of success has been obtained with alfalfa by 
this method, just as marked as by drainage, perhaps more so. The 
trouble is not to maintain the plantation of alfalfa but to get the seed 
to come up and to establish the young plants. When once established 
the alfalfa does fairly well, some of it very well. These facts indicate 
a trouble at the surface of the soil and mot an excess of water that 
drowns the plants. Some ranchmen are seriously considering these 
facts. I do not know to what extent such views prevail among the 
people but some of them do not accept the seepage theory as the 
principal cause of the trouble which prevails throughout many thou¬ 
sands of acres—from 400,000 to 500,000 
I do not wish to leave the impression that I have not found any 
cases in which the water-plane in unproductive land was not higher 
than 36 inches. I have found it very near the surface, but nowhere 
within 12 inches, that I can recall. I have found the water-plane 
high, within 18 inches of the surface, in very unexpected places and 
under conditions which we would judge to be favorable for drainage, 
i. e., in sandy soil with a good fall in one direction. This instance is 
interesting for several reasons. It was a desert claim. Irrigation was 
effected on a small scale by artesian wells. The person who had taken 
up these claims had made an honest effort to comply with the govern¬ 
ment’s conditions to obtain a} patent to the land. He had failed ac¬ 
cording to the authorities and the patent was withheld. The party had 
sunk 17 wells on this tract of land. He had diked several pieces of it 
and turned in his artesian water. The first year or two he had good 
results, the next 4 or 5 years everything failed and the land was en¬ 
tirely barren during the past summer. I cannot state that these diked 
sections were seeped. I think that they were not, but other areas, 
