Show AIR IRRIGATION FOR i I THE GROWING OF CROPS Success of an Indiana Farmer In Reclaiming Land on a Clay Farm Will V Hooker attorney who fol lowIng a severe Injury In a Monon wreck several years ago returned to the sod as a farmer to restore Ills shattered nerves has attracted the at ontlonof the department of agriculture agricult-ure at Washington and the Indlca Ions aro that the credit will bo given to him of being the father of u now method of Irrigation and drainage Secretary Wilson and his experts are watching the results that are following lowing tho trial of Hookers discovery or new system on his farm two miles cast of Broad nipple Ind lie Is succeeding In accomplishing ho feat of making twoand some times tin eo blades grow whore one grow before of raIsing 88 bushels of corn on land that for years averaged between 30 and 40 bushels of growIng grow-Ing GO bushels of oats to the acre while his neighbors are growing only 25 or 30 and of rehabilitating and reInvigorating re-Invigorating poor misused clay land According to the exports of tho department de-partment of agriculture at WashIngton Washing-ton ho Js doing this by methods that are absolutely new and that while expensive are profitable The Rooker farm lies on the olo vated water shed between Fall creek and White river In fact tho rainfall parts on his farm and flows to tho different outlets The section is so elevated that though it is ten miles from tho heart of Indianapolis one can see the tall buildings and the state house dome Th land possibly at one time just after tho forests had been cut off of the elevated section might have been very productive but It has washed In recent decades and left only a thin clay soil over a clay shale Long ago most of the fertility was carried Into the lower lands by I the processes of nature or was lost by I Improper farming and today a great I deal of tho country around the Rooker farm has been left to underbrush In talking with a representative of tho Indianapolis News Mr Rooker saidWhen I bought the farm there were a few tile drains under It ordinary ordi-nary three and four lnch tiles laid 18 inches to two feet under the surface A half inch of water set most everything every-thing swimming kept the ditches running run-ning full and contributed to the lakes which had formed on the tableland because be-cause there was no outlet from them I began to > run some more tile i ditches and In doing so It occurred tome to-me that perhaps tho ditches were like bottles In some respects YoC > fill a bottle with water and turn It upside up-side down What Is the result Does the water run out No only as air seeps In As the air gets into the bottle bot-tle and the bubbles come to tho top the water gurgles out If one would wish the water to run out freely ho mould make a hole in the bottlo to admit tho air Just so I reasoned with the tile drains They were to an extent airtight air-tight and ran back from tho outlet to a dead wall It occurred to me that the other end of tho tile should be brought to the surface and left open so tho air could get into tho drains I did this and put some blocks of wood over tho tiles which I brought up well above tho surfaco of the ground The pine blocks were laid so as not to shut out the air I left them there for somo time and one day as I was passing oneof them I went over and lifted it up It was very dry weather and very hot I was anfazed to find that the block of wood was as wot as though It had been soaked in a creek I thought somo local condition might be responsible respon-sible for it so I wen to the other tiles and examined tho blocks over them All were the samesoaked I throw the blocks away and began to study I went to the outlet and found that a current of air was flowing into tho tile as unmistakably and steadily stead-ily as tho water flowed out of them following wet weather 1 began to experiment and have brought forth what I and tho agricultural agricult-ural department call atmospheric irrigation ir-rigation Irrigating the soil by air I have taken up all tho old tile drains and have laid larger ones running from four to twelve Inchesand havo placed them at a depth cf not less thai five filet In any place and from I that to nIno foot under the surface of the ground What is the result 7 Well thero It Is and he motioned to the field on his 80ncro farm My corn crop last year ran 88 bushels to tho acre and though this crop was planted on Juno 15 this year after some of my neighbors neigh-bors had cultivated their fields twice It is a perfect stand and I believe that it will run 100 bushels to the acre I have cut my 25acro field of alfalfa twice and It is blooming a I third time nowIator ho walked into the field and It came high abovo his I knees My oats crop last year ran Gl bushels to the acre and this years crop which 1 will cut next week Is a good one This roadunder which the tiles runIs an ordinary dirt road that used to be almost Impassable but now It Is a good road oven In tho spring whore It runs between my two 40acro tracts I havo put from 72 to 75 under every acre of the farm that I havo drained thus far and my net earnings last year off of the G5 acres 15 being in woodswas 1600 This is net I paid my tenant and his helper tho a a ° I 1 3 l 1LR YG UlY t I l aad l + i j 4 One End of a Drain Is Seen Protruding from the Ground Through This Passes the Air from Which Moisture Is Absorbed by the Soil usual usual wages for farm help and had tho ordinary expenses of a farm fa deduct from the gross I believe that the new system of drainage and atmospheric at-mospheric irrigation pays Finding that my tiles ran water as ordinary drains when there was need of tho water having an outlet and that they took In air in dry hot weather I began to figure on the proposition of mud and soil Why not havo flvo six seven eight pr nine feet of oxidized clay Instead of a mere skimwhy not make my farm a great sponge to absorb all tho water that might fall on It and to suck up this water from great depths by capillary attraction when It was needed I put In a new drain with the air vent at a minimum depth of five feet In somo places It was nine feet deep The result was satisfactory I took up all of tho old shallow drains and havo put down larger ones at the low or level I now have these ditches with laterals every GO feet over most of my farm and tho remainder of tho work will bo completed next year Mr Rookor says that his drains do not begin to flow In the spring until tho shallow ones of hIs neighbors havo gone dry and that they then flow away Into tho summer and when they do stop the air begins to flow into the drains and tho Irrigation of thq land through the heated dry season begins Notwithstanding the heavy cost of such a system of drainage Mr Rook or thinks it very profitable and believes be-lieves that oven the most misused soils in the state can be reclaimed and made productive Tho dralnago and atmospheric Irrigation will not of themselves do It but fertilizer says Rooker completes the soilrestoring trinity Rookcr feeds all of his crops and hauls tho manure out into tho field every daywInter and summer He boards from 20 to GO city horses and mules through the winter on his farm not only for the seven dollars a month a head that ho gets for keeping them but for tho soil enriching en-riching manure which ho thus gets to spread on his soil He also feeds a large number of hogs and thus markets a great deal of his corn on tho hoot |