Show CLEARING SAGE BRUSH cheapest and best way Is to use gang plow leveling land for irrigation Is next important step preliminary survey should be made to determine the slope land covered with scattering sage brush can be cleared in several ways if the eoll Is soft and not too stony the cheapest and best way la to plow the sagebrush out take a 16 inch riding plow a gang plow Is better remove the mold boards and use only the share and of the plow keep the share sharp and in sharpen ing it draw the point down a little so that it will hold well in the soil this plow will cut off most of the brush without turning it under because the mold boards have been removed after the soil has been plowed the next step Is to rake up the sagebrush in this case the rake need not be so sub ly made as for use on land which has been railed or dragged oft en a strong sulky horse rake will sut it the land Is level and a hay crop Is to be seeded no further plowing Is necessary although it generally pays in the long run to plow after clear ing it economies of time or money do not interfere in any event we would give a disking and a cross dragging to fine the surface land covered with short scrubby sagebrush Is cleared i most cheaply by grubbing out with a mattock or grub hoe A mattock drawn out thin and wide on its hoe side Is preferable sagebrush has I 1 only one main or tap root and the blow should be so directed as to strike it about an inch under the surface where it will cut off easily it Is a simple matter to rake up the brush cleared by hand and an ordinary hay rake will do the work satisfactorily land cleared by hand will be difficult to plow because all the roots have been left in the ground the plow will have to cut them oft and the roots will later inconvenience the rancher by clogging up the harrow are other methods of clear ing sagebrush and many machines have o 0 invented for the purpose A number of these are successful but the ordinary man who has a limited acreage to clear finds it inexpedient up loo much of his capital in machinery of this kind it costs 6 or 5 an acre to clear and plow sagebrush band leveling new land after the sagebrush la cleared off Is a hard process to reduce to adequate de as the leveling depends up on the nature of the tract and to give the general rules about the work would be only touching the high places however there are a few sal jaent features that can be laid down as general axioms the first ot these Is that water will not run up hill and the second is that it will run down hill this seems simple but is not as simple as it seems water turned into a ditch that has too much fall will cut the soil away and will pass through SQ rapidly that at will not scrape out well on the aldes the whole proposition in level ing Is to strike the happy medium between these two extremes small lumps should be taken oft with a drag or float this instrument Is generally made of two 26 a or 28 s thirty feet tong for side pieces placed on edge ten or twelve feet apart to which Is attached three cross boards one near each end of the side pieces and tho third near the middle the boards near the ends should not extend below uhe edges of the side pieces while the board should extend an inch or below the side pieces the po llalon of these cross boards will de apon the eoll as they must range fl so as not to clog nor dig in so deep as to make it impossible to pull four to six horses will be required to haul I 1 bib drag the small knolls and bumps having been smoothed ovan the next step Is to decide which way across the land the water Is to be run it Is not possible to determine this with the naked ye and a preliminary survey be made to determine the gen eral slope in leveling with the drag there will not be excessive hauling of dirt it tl e tract Is to be leveled to the draw which meana that the natural contour of the land will be adhered to as closely aa possible the literals laterals late rals will not run straight with the compass but the water will be taken out of the head ditches along the crest of the ridge and turned into the small ditches which running at the proper fall will take the water over the land and discharge it into the waste ditches after the soil has been watered |