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Show PROBLEM OF WATER Few Farms Provided by Nature With Exact Amount Needed. It Will Be Found There Is Often Too Much or Too Little Only Remedy Is to Drain the Land Gravity Syitem Most Favored. There In hardly a farm anywhere which Is provided by nature with Just the exact amount of water for the production of the most satisfactory crop. There Is just as often too much aa there Is too little water; moreover, ot time of the year when the precipitation precipi-tation Is at Its maximum the wuter bench rises In the soil until It actually drown out and destroys the vegetation vegeta-tion It Is supposed to feed; the only way to cure this Is to drain the land io rjh lo draw the level of water down to a point where It will do no damage. Thl work Is done either by ditches or rlplng and care must be taken not to draw the water off too much. Different Dif-ferent crops require of course different differ-ent amounts of water, but as a general proposition the- water should not be flrawn any lower so the root of plants are able to reach It and draw It up for their nourishment, says the Irrigation Irriga-tion Age. Such drainage water should be made use of again tor laud lying it a lower elevation as It has many rich salt In solution necessary for Vant food which It took up while standing In the soil; thus the water drained from one farm may be used to Irrigate and enrich another farm. A gravity system of drainage Is naturally nat-urally preferable as Its operation cost Is practically nothing. There are how-iver, how-iver, localities where there ts no natural nat-ural drainage and in such case the surplus sur-plus water must be pumped. In such case the cost of pumping must be con-lldered, con-lldered, and If It ran be worked so as to store the water In a reservoir so a to use It when tho ground needs Irrigation tho pump are doing double Juty aa their work In draining the land la the first step toward irrigation irriga-tion as well. It may be truly anld that the art of Irrigation and drainage are Just now beginning to be developed, und that the next decade will see a tremendous tremen-dous advance in thl direction. The time will come when all the land that can be Inlgnted by a gravity lan will have been taken up, and then ,he reclamation of further land will necessarily depend on the ability of railing water from the deep. This will also include such land as are now watered by artesian wells which lellver water under a head at present, but the time will come when the pressure diminishes and that water aj, aJsu have to be pumped. The quel tlon whether It will pay to Irrigate land by pumping the necessary water will depend on a good many circumstances circum-stances which should be carefully con-lldered. con-lldered. As a general proposition the to', eminent should be first consulted regarding the geological formation, luantlty and quality of ground water lupply In the region under consideration, considera-tion, next the condition of the soil ihould be established, which I best lone by taking samples at different totalities to-talities and depths and have them an-ilyzed an-ilyzed In the various experiment stations. sta-tions. From this Information an approximate ap-proximate estimate of the cost of pumping can be made. Hut the proportion propo-rtion Is always one of more or less tncertalnty, a no one can definitely tate whether a ubterranean water lupply 1 permanent, like an underground under-ground river, or whether It I just a pocket. For this reason the government govern-ment should devote more, work and money to the establishment of hy-Iraullc hy-Iraullc information In the various itotes, especially In the arid and semi-r!d semi-r!d regions. |