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Show Water depth? ! Look at soils By LYNN J. ESPLIN Iron County Extension Agent Last week a new progam was introduced in the Record to help farmers, home owners and gardeners with their summer irrigation scheduling. Now in order for a farmer or home gardener to do a good job of irrigating his crop, lawn, or trees and shrubs he must know something about his soil. Soil is divided into three main types or textures: 1. sands, 2. loams and 3. clays. Sandy soils take in water rapidly but hold only about one inch of water per foot of soil depth. Light frequent irrigations are required. Loam soils are a combination of sand, silt and clay. They hold about 1.5 inches of water per foot of soil depth, therefore you can go longer between irrigations than with sandy soils, but you must apply more water each' irrigation. Clay soils hold the most water, approximately 2 inches per foot of soil depth, and generally take in water at a slower rate than the first two types. Keep in mind that the crop water use is the same regardless of the soil type. You need to irrigate when half the available moisture is gone out of the effective root zone for the crop. If you have questions call 586-8132. Water use for last week was . .77 inches for Cedar-Parowan Cedar-Parowan and .71 inches for Beryl-New Castle area. I r ' - ' - t If ; I ? - v lAJ f -" Valley View Medical Center Administrator Ad-ministrator Dahl Gardner rides his way to better health. Actually, he is taking a bicycle ergometer test as part of a new program at the Center. The program is being instigated because health care prevention is easier and less expensive than cures. |