Show u t 1 FIT FOR irrigation many blany crop failures attributable to faulty leveling mac machinery henery necessary for proper preparation aton of land Is simple and ine penalva should always do be in order or by J IL sQuint ts new now mexico agricultural 4 rul tural college more crop on irrigated landi lands may be traced to faulty leveling than to any other cause under the lh control of the fanner farmer poorly lee 1711 led landa lands are expensive to irrl g gite tte both with regard to the amount of water and the amount of labor re quiren and in addition the plants la in the different parts of the field are EO to unequally watered that unsatisfactory crops are the result the machinery necessary for leveling on the mall small farm Is simple and inexpensive and should be kept in order that all spare thuie of men and team teams can be used to the best beat advantage on the small farm all that is 13 necessary la Is a smi scraper a plow and a plank drag in leveling le the first thine thing to do la Is to decide just bow how the land can bo be put into shape by moving the least amount of dirt A good way to begin is to 10 bet stakes to represent borders and see how they may be located in order to obtain the best beat results if la Is not necessary that an entire field be level bit only that the soil within a border be eo so and each bord cr er may drop lower or rice rise higher than the one adjoining without any serious inconvenience in either seeding or harvesting borders should not be spaced too wide forty five to sixty feet will be a good width if the field la is at all sloping and it Is not best to make them more than feet apart even when the land Is level locate lacate each border definitely and mark it by throwing up a couple of furrows or in any other way that la Is conven convenient lent then beginning the high end of the field work out the first border taking all 11 excess dirt from the high places and spreading it where needed in the low place S in sandy soils the borders should cot not be more than or feet la in length but on clay soils no limit need be set et tor for the length for the location 0 of f the borders especially it if they are long it la Is almost necessary that a le leel ea be used those may be pur chased tor for about 18 to 20 perma nent borders should be built at the t time me of leveling these should be just high enough to control the movement of water and should be wide enough to prevent any danger of their being dragged down by ma chinery or washed down by the running water A convenient and very satisfactory way to build such bordera borders Is in to drag up the dirt with a scraper and deposit it along the lines of the border where it should be smoothed into the desired shape if the border borders are built with a broad base and slowly sloping sides crops can be grown along the aides sides and top without any difficulty the base of such bordera borders should not be leas less than eight to ton ten feet wide after all borders and the checks or cross borders are complete it is best to go over each section of the field and true up all slight inequalities that may have been missed in the first leveling here again the level la Is of great value aa as it points out these errors much more closely than the bet best trained eye if there Is free and abundant supply of water and the field will not need it for come rome time it is well to give it a trial irrigation making a note of all the points that are either low or high and correct ing chefe as soon aa as the soil Is dry one thing that must bi bo boroo borne in mind Is that where any large amount of earth Is it hilled into a low place the level of the land will be destroyed by this soil oil settling after the first few irrigations unless allowance la Is made for this and a slight excess of toll soil I 1 Is moved in this la Is bard hard to estimate and for this reason it Is well that the field be not seeded to a permanent crop like alfalfa the first belr after any derided decided leveling the grains are perhaps the best crops to try on newly leveled fields they do not oc cupy the soil for a great length of time and can stand an excess of water in any place that happens to in be low perhaps better tuan wan a majority of the crops grown in this region then too the surface is left in an excellent condition for correct ing slight inequality a in level that may yet remain hen these corrections ions are made the soil soft should be to ready to put in alfalfa or any other crop that will be on the land for years alth no fear of drowning out the lower levels great advantage in operation results from the use of well built boxes and gates for the turn outa outs and other control of water A subsequent bulletin will treat of these more fully |