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Show Water Economy Information Program Notes Soil Irrigation Requires Proper Uniformity (Editor's Note: This is the final article in a series of three prepared pre-pared by the Iron County Soil Conservation District and the Iron County Record in regard to water conservation.) Last week the discussion dealt with the subject "When and How to Irrigate" and suggested tests were pointed out. This week two equally important subjects will be treated: (1) Uniformity of Irrigation, and (2) The rate at which the water enters the soil. (1) Uniformity of Irrigation should be obtained: If the depth of moisture is very irregular the irrigator should try to determine the cause and correct it if possible. pos-sible. Your Iron County Soil Conservation Con-servation District can be helpful help-ful in determining this. Maybe the irrigating stream is too large or too small, or the length of run needs adjusting. Maybe the land should be leveled, or if this is too costly, sprinkling irrigation may be the answer. (2) The rate at which the water wa-ter enters the soil or the intake rate affects the efficiency of irrigation. ir-rigation. There are many things which affect the intake rate. Six of these problems are briefly discussed dis-cussed here. The texture or particle size of the soil. Usually the coarser the soil the faster the intake rate. Soil compacted when wet, by farm machinery, cattle or tillage practices will slow down the intake in-take rate. Pore spaces created by earth worms, decayed plant roots, deep rooted crops, such as alfalfa and sweet clover, increase the intake rate. Unstable and alkali soils decrease de-crease Intake rate. The quality of the irrigation water affects intake rate. The so called "soft" water causes the soil to become unstable and decreases intake rate. Farmers who Intend to irrigate ir-rigate with water from tile or open drains should have the water wa-ter tested before using. To summarize this series: Any farmer or Irrigator who desires to aecomDlish conservation irrigation irriga-tion should have an understanding understand-ing of soil moisture, should know when and how much to irrigate;, should obtain uniform irrigation' and should do those farming practices that will Increase the intake rate of the soil on his farm. |