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Show WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD IRRIGATOR. i i , . - ' John G. Hall. .With us in Colorado, and I am told the ,s,nmc difficulty arises in other localities, lo-calities, when farming is carried on ;by irrigation, the question of getting a good and efficient man to spread the water is a" serious one. A man possessing the knowledge, in the first place, of how to run out the ditches in a field of small grain for instance. Before he can do this he must be a practical irrigator. He must We able to know frorni looking at the land to o irrigated fiom what quarter or direction di-rection the water will cornc onto this 1 elevation -or that, .elevation, and be able to runHheditchcs in the field ac--cordingly. His 'ditches" must be run onto the high placcsalso .have a fall of at least an inch and one-half to a hundred feet. . The eld saying that water wilDrun up hill in nn irrigated country is untrue. un-true. Water can be delivered from one hill to another by means of a dyke, siphon, pipe or trough, -providing the place of delivery is lower, if higher it requires pressure to deliver it to a higher point. Great care must be taken to get the ditches where all the ground can be covered with water, (also not to plow up any more crops than is absolutely necessary, keeping, if possible, the ditches along roadsides, fences, etc. Now with the ditches properly run on a piece f ground the next question ques-tion is to get a sufficient quantity of water to travel over the land faster than the spot which is being irrigated will consume it. With the water turned on it is customary to run it night and day until the field is irrigated. irri-gated. In my experience I find the greatest difficulty is in finding a man that has a disposition to do the required work What is the required work? Get up at four ojclock in the morning, go out and change the water from the place it has been running all night. Irrigate the short runs in day time, leaving thc.lpng runs for the night; shoveling out the ditch; shoveling up the ditch banks; putting in wing ditches to reach a high spot, or doing whatever necessary to improve the condition. Stay with the water until nine or ten o'clock at night, up again at four in -the morning. These are the duties required of a good irrigator. irriga-tor. A man of this type is worth from ten to twenty dollars a month more than an ordinary man, who is afraid all the time that he is doing too much for his employer. The writer of this article has carried car-ried his blankets into the field and partially .slept for a short time within forty .rods of his own house so that the water could, be changed every hour during the night in time of scarcity. In conclusion I wish to say an irrigator irri-gator possessing the knowledge of irrigation and the qualities mentioned (above is a jewel and a blessing to his employer, at lmost any price-Irri-gntion Age. |