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Show WELLS FOR IRRIGATION Three Absolute Essentials Given for Water Source. Deeper the Water Is In Well the Greater Will Be the Pressure Casing Should Be Constructed Construct-ed From Top to Bottom. In giving three absolute essentials for any good artesian or irrigation well, H. M. Madison in the Texas Stockman and Farmer, says: We say absolute essentials, for we cannot conceive of there being a good well without having these three characteristics. char-acteristics. Stated briefly, they are as follows: First The well must be completely complete-ly cased from top to bottom. Second The casing must be so set that not only Is there no leaks, but there cannot arise any around the outside of the pipe. Third With the fewest exceptions strainers should be put in well. There are good reasons for each of which are herewith given. A column col-umn of water one Inch square weighs a little over one-half pound to the foot. Water standing two hundred feet in a well would weigl- nearly 100 pounds to the square Inch, In other words the pressure of water standing 200 feet deep in a well would be nearly near-ly 100 pounds to the square Inch. This is a pressure fully as great as is carried In any stationary boiler. It Is easy to see that the deeper the water in a well the greater will be the pressure. Where water stands 1,000 feet in a well the pressure is about 500 pounds to the square inch, a pressure so great that no boiler ever built would sustain it, and If applied to the strongest steel boiler now built would blow It Into atoms and scatter them for over a mile carrying death and destruction in the path. Now stop and think for a moment. The pressure at the bottom of a 1,000 foot well Is nearly 500 pounds. Suppose there was a hole or vent in the side of the well, wouldn't that water wa-ter be forced out through It. But here in southwest Texas it 13 scarcely scarce-ly possible to drill a well without going through sand, gravel and loose soil. If there is no casing put In the well is not the enormous pressure pres-sure of water going to drive much of It out through this sand, gravel and loose soil? Government and other reports show that an average of one-half of the water of an uncased un-cased well is lost by being driven out through the sand, gravel, loose rock and soil In the strata through which the well is drilled. In many wells there is even a greater loss than this. Let us put It a little differently. As uncased well that will Irrigate 100 acres would if cased irrigate 200 acres. Or put It still differently, one cased well will do the same service serv-ice that two uncased wells will do. It does not cost as much to case a well as It does to drill one, so there Is no such thing as saying it will save money to leave a well uncased. un-cased. It would seem that an absolutely abso-lutely sufficient reason has been given for saying that the complete casing of a well from top to bottom Is essential. It would also seem that on account of this enormous water pressure inside in-side the casing that it is plain If there was any leak around the out-lide out-lide of the casing the water would be forced through this leak and then Into the sand, gravel, loose rock and soil around the outside of the casing. There would not be so much forced through to be sure if there was no casing, but there would be a loss. Sometimes this loss is as great as to cause the public to think there Is a falling water supply. There is a way to prevent this leak age around the outside of the casing. It Is usually called setting the casing cas-ing In lead. We are not going into an explanation of this just here, but tuffice it to say no contract ought ever to be let or signed for drilling a well that did not fully and clearly specify the casing was to be set in lead In such a way there was and could not be any leakage around the pipe. There are some special cases where flaxseed are used to stop leakages, leak-ages, and there are others where the pipe can be set in cap rock so well there will be no leakage. But set it must be so there is no leakage, this Is the second essential of a good irrigation ir-rigation well. |