4 
IRRIGATION AND METEOROLOGY. 
that these exceptional conditions plav in our agricultural successes 
and failures is worthy of attention. 
While the settlement of all new countries produces a greater 
or less disturbance of existing conditions, the transformation 
wrought in the arid region by the development of its agriculture 
by irrigation is without a parallel. The wide spread belief that 
this has or is likely to result in a material change in our climate 
has aided in the agricultural development of the eastern part of 
the state where irrigation is not possible. The question of a 
change of climate can onlv be answered by careful observations 
running through a series of years. To give data for this work, as 
well as to obtain a record of the climate of some of the important 
agricultural districts of the state, auxiliary stations were estab¬ 
lished the present season at Akron, Eastonville and Grand 
Junction. The first two being in the rain belt region, and the last 
on the western slope. The record for July appears in this bulletin. 
The rainfall record at Akron, is worthy of especial attention. 
IRRIGATION EXPERIMENTS—DUTY OF WATER. 
During the present season an accurate record has been kept of 
the volume of water used in the irrigation of two plats on the 
college grounds, in order to obtain data for an estimate of the 
“duty” of water. The college farm is not adapted to the conduct 
of experiments of this kind, the surface being uneven and the lo¬ 
cation of the numerous laterals such, that the area irrigated from 
each can not be clearly defined, an essential requisite. The original 
intention was to have one test consist in the measurement of the 
water on a field crop under ordinary cultivation; the other to be 
on the garden. In the test on field culture, however, I was re¬ 
stricted, by the difficulty before mentioned, to a portion of the ex¬ 
perimental ground of Prof. Blount, composing G.05 acres. This is 
divided up into plats of 42 rods, each planted with the various 
field crops, cons'sting of wheat, barley, oats and corn. The loca¬ 
tion of this plat is all that could be desired. The surface is even, 
with a gentle slope to the east. It is too high to be affected by 
seepage, the only water reaching it coming through the lateral 
where the measurements were made. The soil is stiff clav. 
The record was kept by means of an automatic register, which 
recorded the depth of Avater passing over a weir placed in the 
lateral. The record after it Avas begun being continuous. The 
