Show OF DF WATER by L L M WINSOR utah agricultural college oregon short line railroad demon str atlon train lecture according to many mamy historians arri gallon gation ie Is one of the oldest applied arts one writer oven even claims that it ie lo made a distinctive feature ot of the middle of barbarism ancient egypt becaro the granary of the wot bild id as a result of natural irrigation through the overflowing of 0 the nile through irrigation Cb chaldea adea assyria and babelonia Daby Baby lonia located aa as they were in n a practically rain rainless leas country along the valley of the 7 tigris and euph rates rose to enviable prominence and dominion the CIA riese nese the romans and the moors all made use of t uon tion la in this country we find eil evidence dence of it as practiced by the ancient innab imanta of thia this continent and later in the he gardens of the old mission fathers of southern california numerous other examples to prove the import ance once of arri irritation atlon as a factor in na tion building might be cited but to the anglo axon race the art had its birth but little more than half halt a cen airy try ago this seems doubly strange when we e look into history and find that at this time over acres of land had been reclaimed by tion in different parts of the world orld perhaps can be explained on the theory ti afat at the germanic peoples have always written history much faster than they have reid re id it however this may be the first at ampt by the anglo saxons to re claim the arid wastes mastes of land was made in the summer of 1847 in the salt lake valley by a little band of mormon pioneers to them we owe the birth of the modern ait of loriga tion and the working out of the c 0 operative system as we have it in practice today the irrigation contagion soon spread and became not only the gov arning factor in the establishing of mormon towns but in the colonizing of tho entire arid west irrigation as an art falls into two lot 1st irrigation as a primary art and 2nd irrigation as a secondary art by the first we mean the using of irrigation to take the place of cullivan tion fertilization and so on and by the second we mean the using of lr fr gatlon ri water oater merely to supplement t e natural the latter Is the correct use of 0 irrig irrigation ration if a farmer uses arl dr farm aik ghods along with his practice of irrigation he can not go far wrong one of the grave mistakes made by our early irrigators Irrl gators was the india criminate use of water with the result that thousands of acres of once productive land have been rendered orn dered into veritable swamps and ackall beda beds the lamentable feature of this question la Is the fact that with ith our sixty odd years of experience some of our farmers are still following these erroneous m ghods and are ruining not onla their own farms but those of their unfortunate nelah neighbors bors by a too litoral lit oral and careless application of water this la Is especially true in some of the newer sections where a more or less heavy application Is needed for the first few years the a e Is I 1 that they do not set the brake brakes until it Is too late once a new soil toll has been moistened below the range of the plant roots it needs a great deal less water than it required to begin with the actual amount for the raa ma of any curtain crop wilt will vary only with tl e seasons cultivation and so on being the same this beng being the case it la in pos possible gIble to make an econ distribution of the water ater at ones disposal and arid use it in a way which will III not he be detrimental to the soil and in a way to result in the gre greatest idest return returns to those concerned this question is one of prime import ane ance to the farmers in this arid region and too much stress cannot be lal 1 upon it situated as v i are ID in a section where the rain und snowfall now fall Is very low we are dependent almost abao cutely upon irrigation water to in 1 crease our avi agricultural cultural possibilities tho the farming lands are almost kulim cited within the border borders of our blates but there Is a decided limit to the water w ato ir supply the question then Is not how much land have 1 39 but how bow much water have we e at our dis the state of utah represents an area of over quare square miles mile of abich only 1700 1 square miles are CUT and lees less than 1000 s square miles or under 1 sa per cent of the total are actually irrigate irrigate d I 1 idaho 13 in A similar condition 1 11 what we need then noat of all 1 Is a distribution of the water in such a way that the greatest possible re 1 turns writs can be obtained the problem Is not riot difficult of solution if it we only apply ourselves to a study of condl eions as we find them and to the in formation available in the short tim time at my disposal I 1 hope to open up I 1 A line of which will ili help ome of you ia I a your work for after ill 11 each of your individual problem problems must be solved by yourselves the amount of plant growth la Is do d pendent in a decided measure upon the amount of moisture within eer tain ain limits in the soil the th e supplying up plying mid and maent maintaining aaning of this moisture in an a amount which will III bring brin g the great eat cst return Is then our problem pr the water ater wat or found in olla soils Is la of three kinds let 1st bree e water auter or the water vater found be between veen the soil eoll pa particles panicles of a saturated soil eoll 2nd capillary ca water or that which la in s held in a thin nim film aroi round around and ach each of 0 the soil 2011 particles p clea of a moist mo 1st but not saturated soil this Is the water ater used by axy the plant pla nt in its lie growth groth ird lord II 11 hygroscopic gro water wate r which ie Is the water ater held by be he soil but which in fit n all probability prot Is not used u by the plant only aqueous leous or water plants can ran grow in a soil containing free tree water ater hence our problem is in confined acu ecu fined to the regulation of the capillary capil larf water only and to the th e conditions which w ilch govern plant growth groth grow tb there are a re three ways nays by b which soil moisture can eau escape 1st dy by sinking into deep de ep soils bolls out of reach of f the plant roots and ana escaping by under un der drainage 2nd by T evaporating from tr om the surface ird by passing through h the plant itself la in a process known know n as trans pi pir atlon ration bach lach of these losses tan ilan t an be governed to a certain extent the first by making makin S lighter applications appi ot of water at each ach e irrigation the second or surface evaporation can ca n be chick chck ed by cu the surface su reaco dent clent to form tc arm a dust duat mulch mule h thus clos clog ing up the th e opening of the t he capillary tubes ch form when hen the surface soil bo bagin b gin u to dry out and A nd tho the third or transpiration transi ration can be checked by the addition on of soil fertility fertell ty or ly 1 ordinary cultivation cul cult lation thus the lait last two can be bo gove governed go verged raed by tho the simple e mple operation of stirring st the surface murfa ce after an irrigation the thought the la Is prevalent preva cal among farmers that hat t a certain amount of ot water must mu st be used by a plant in or der to produce pro duce a certain weight eight w of 0 dry matter As t is early as 1699 9 Wp olward olard found that tha t it required less ie ss water to produce a L pound of f dry ma matter ater in A plant growing grov ivlue in it rich eoll soil 11 hero here the plant food root was evenly balanced ba lanced than in one of opposite grature later 1 in 1878 a german erman investigator ator found that the yield 3 of dry matter ws greatest where transpiration trin spir atlon was Is least ho ito also found that tha the enriching ot of the th e poll roll enabled the he t plant to produce dry d ry matter with lees less water now the question may arise rise a in your minds why A should cultivation cul decrease kiter c the tt e amount of water wa iter actually used by the plant cultivation cul per mits the air a ir and sunshine Bunsh lne to enter the soil more readily causing causin S a conse quent albe liberation of biant food which Is equivalent ent in effect to the addition of the food too d artificially that cultivation cu actually actual deu decreases eases the abou amou amount nt ot of water atef used us ed by b the plant is shown s in fit the results suits re of ex perl peri ments conducted at the t lie utah ex perl pori ment station in the vegetation house bouse certain ertain C tanks were e planted to corn an equal number of t tanks con satning the tb e same game kinds of soil were left bare fc for a check on the evalora tion from the surface forty elgut hours after att er each irrigation and then every week we eck ek half halt the surfaces su were while the other r bait half were ere I 1 kit leit a bare table no I 1 shows flows sti the results TABLE NO 1 C cultivation r vs v transpiration Trant pira alon aver a age go for three year years ye ar I 1 1 pound pounds water kinds of T cultivation aad by 1 plant long soil tt produce I 1 0 dry 14 4 hours after college collego I 1 irrigation grigat ton loam then weekly none 48 hours bourn after sample irrigation clay than V beckly 35 IS 18 hours aft after er irrigation 82 clay then weekly none As A the soil in each set of was alike and as all other conditions ex capt the cultivation were identical it necessarily follows follos that the reduced amount of water ater required to produce a pound of dry matter la in the ed pot was due to the cultivation and ita its effects there if lit then a double rea in tor for cultivating your crops you not only hold the mol in the toll soil by pro ventin evaporation from its surface but you make it lb for the mole mols lure ture retained to proda pr in some in stances more itan it an twi ewie a tz much plant growth this melnor that by the practice of cultivation you tan can make your irrigation water cover corer just twice as a much ground there la Is a marked variation in the amounts of water required for dif fe ferent nt varieties of plants for exam IT pie all other conditions being equal the he potato plant requires more than two and one half bilics the water to to produce a pound poun l of cry dry matter thai that tho the corn plant requires to be continued |