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Show 1 FARM DY IRRIGATION There Arc Three Principal Reasons Rea-sons for Many Failures. Many Make Mistake in Aaiumlng That by Uat of Largs Quantities of Wir Careful Culture Is Not Nscesiary. (By M. K. LAYNK, Houston, Tr ) The three principal causes of failure fail-ure In farming hy Irrlitallou are over-planting, over-planting, under-cultlvatlon. Improper application of water, an.l these apply to all classes of Irrigation. Many people make Rrave mistakes In assuming that hy the use of large quantities of water In Irrigation It Is not necessary to cultivate aa carefully care-fully aa when ths water Is applied through rainfall. This Is a mistake and one that the beginner Is llahie to make. First, one must uso good Ju'ugment In applying the water ao as not to scald the plants aud cause the ground to bake or become hard and packed, thus damaging the crop Instead of benefiting same hy Irrigation, lonlng your time, cost of producing the water and damaging the laud, losing Interest Inter-est on the Investment and deterioration deteriora-tion of your plant. Water should be applied, In deep, narrow furrows between the rows of truck or tries (preferable by sub Irrt gallon), permitting the water to sub-Irrigate sub-Irrigate as much as possible. Never allow ttie water to nod the stirfiir of the Rround, excepting on rice aud possibly pos-sibly alfalfa or small grain crops, If It can be avoided. As soon as the water has been taken up by the soil and the ground Is In good tillage condition, con-dition, you should cultivate, filling the furrows, keeping at all times a good loose mulch, auch aa advocated In the Campbell system of dry farming. This will prevent evaiKii atlon, leaving the soil In a gm)d. productive condition. It la best, when possible to do so, to apply the water. In the evening or early In the nirfrnlng, especially on truck. You will remember when nature applies ap-plies the water the clouds usually shade the earth, cooling same after the rain, and the clouds usually continue con-tinue to shade the earth until the soil has properly absorbed the moisture; otherwise scaldud crops are tho result. re-sult. Always follow watering with care ful cultivation, as soon as the soli Is in favorable condition, bearing In mind that weeds consume water nnd sap the strength of the soil and that the sun will absorb the water unless the loose mulch Is retained. In other words, use as little water as possible pos-sible and much cultivation aud then good results will follow. In thla way will reduce the coat of Irrigation, owing to the lens amount of water used, and your land w in remain In excellent ex-cellent condition. The usual method of applying water: wa-ter: Flood the ground with too much water, little cultivation and sometimes some-times none. The result is baked and packed soil, plenty of weeds, yellow and dwarfed plants, and Irrigation pronounced a failure when It Is the Irrigator and his methods, or a lack of method, that is the failure. In order that It may be clear, you will see that a reasonable amount of water, properly applied, keeping a good moist subsoil, gives the desired results, while much water Improperly applied at an Increased cost means no crop but plenty of weeds and land left In poor condition. Ily pumping water from wells or streams, wh-re the lift Is from 50 to 100 feet, and the careful use of same, a handsome profit can be realized, depending, de-pending, of course, upon the local conditions, con-ditions, kind and number of crops produced pro-duced pr annum and-prices received for same. We can assure you that, In our opln Ion. backed by years of actual field work, the American people are Just filtering the greatest development In the Irrigation linn tin world has ever known, and much of the water used for same Is being obtained from the underflows, subterranean rivers, sheet or ground water, all of which are supplied sup-plied by the rain or snow from the mountains. In tuauy Instances the rain falls upon porous formations, such aa sand or gravel, iioroua rock or boulders, disappearing beneath the earth's surface In said formations, passing through the earth, and In some Instances the water appears miles away at the earth's surface In the form of a spring or an artesian well that Dows of its own accord and pressure. |
