| Show r ENORMOUS LOSS OF WATER Not Enough Consideration Is Given to Length of Furrows Furrows Climate Climate Is Is' Is Also Factor The care in which land Is prepared for irrigation and methods of applying water bear directly upon the results obtained Wherever the furrow system system system tem Is used the length of the furrows is a matter to which not enough consideration consideration con con- has been given and the farmer who attempts to run rUll the water eighty rods in this dry country will under otherwise similar conditions get geta a very much lower duty than his neighbor who makes his furrows only half as long Eighty rods is not an infrequent length in alfalfa fields but better results with less water would be obtained if twenty rods were the limit and in some places where the soil Is sandy with underlying gravel this is too far apart for head ditches and It would be wiser to make the furrows furrows fur fur- rows only about feet long The climate and the tho length of the irrigating season also affect the duty of water In Colorado the period during during du duo du- du ring which water Is applied to the land landis is about abou one hundred days and with very little rainfall and high temperatures temperatures temperatures tempera tempera- tures prevailing the evaporation losses from the surface of Irrigated fields is something enormous Any methods o of application or cultivation which may effectually reduce such losses would result In a much higher duty for the water Poorly constructed or kept Ill canals and laterals also have much to todo todo todo do with what may be accomplished with water and the highways are getting getting getting get get- ting altogether too much of it The Thelow Thelow Thelow low general duty under many of our IrrIgation systems Is due largely to the losses which occur in getting the water wa war warter ter tel from the river to the land In this way It becomes necessary to take from the river or from the canals as the case may be a great deal more water than would be required otherwise other wise This excess water sinks away into the earth and nd disappears or or percolating percolating per per- down through underground finally reaches the lower lands or bottoms I borderIng the river and here to form swamps and alkali wastes such as we see all al allover allover over Colorado nowadays The statement state statement ment is often made that this water lost from canals or wasted by careless irrigation in the upper parts of a valley valley val val- ley finds its way back to the river to tobe tobe tobe be used further down and that in this thlE way such low lands and gravel bars barf act as reservoirs The subsoil anc and bottom lands certainly have a capacity for an immense amount of water am and the filling process begins with irrigation tion in the spring and continues throughout the entire summer r |
