| Show I TOO MUCH WATER INJURIOUS S Excessive Irrigation Leaches Soil Soli or Fills It With Water to tx Exclusion l slon of Air Tillage Air Tillage Remedies The lavish use of water Is the elect meet cause of many serious Irrigation Irrigation tion difficulties In fact some of the tho most profitable and highly developed irrigation farming in this country owes its existence and prosperity to a scarcity of water supply So long as asa asa asa a farmer has an abundance of pf water he 10 almost invariably yields Ields to the temptation to use it freely even though he gets no Increase In returns as a result Where crop production IH ili dependent on rainfall and particularly when rainfall Is barely sufficient farmers soon learn the value of care fu and thorough tillage both In preparing preparing pre pre- paring the land for a crop and later whenever is possible says Field and Farm But Dut the irrigation farmer with an adequate water supply is slow to appreciate ap predate the f fact ct that thorough tillage methods abundantly repay their costIn cost In our new regions particularly the tendency to neglect tillage Is pronounced pro flounced Weeds are usually not abundant and one of the most obvious reasons for good tillage is lacking The fact remains however that In Irrigation irrigation Ir ir- ir farming good tillage pays whether the water supply is abundant or scanty Excessive irrigation leaches the soil oil or fills it with water to th tho th exclusion of air all and interferes with the of the organisms micro-organisms upon which plants depend for for their for their food supply Good tillage produces opposite results re re- A wet soil remains cold while a well-tilled well soil warms up quickly and favors plant growth It is not not sufficient to keep down the weeds by cultivation With crops cultivation should follow irrigation and the land should be irrigated no nomore nomore nomore more frequently than Is absolutely necessary This much is true even with abundant irrigation water When the water is scanty there is the added advantage that it can be made vastly more morA effective If supplemented by till tIU age As a people we have hae much to learn in the way of water economy With proper use the irrigation supply o othe of the great majority of our Irrigation districts could be used for much larger arger areas than it covers at presentA present A more judicious use of the supply would also In many cases result In larger yields to the acre and would permit the use of large areas now nosy kept too wet for crop production through the excessive use of water wilter on adjacent land Of course no one who has a water right will part with any an of It without a big compensation and I this may be done in time but as it Is b we have splashed all around altogether altogether alto alto- altogether gether too much and have wasted ou our our water wate In fn riotous Irrigation |
