OCR Text |
Show WATER IS VALUABLE Liquid in a Reservoir Is Like Money in a Bank. Should Be Used Only When and Where It Will Do the Most Good and Made to Go sa Far as It Possibly Can. How many fanners arc there In the country who know what Is meant by the term "Duty of Water?" Not many. Yet they have been living in an arid section and Irrigating their fields for years. They have seen I lie value of water Increase year alter year, and th-y know that water In a i'-servolr Is like money In a bank, and biiould be used when and where It will do the most good, and made to go as far hh possible. One fanner uses a certain head ol water and with It covers II v.- acres ol his farm In a day. Another farmer uses i he Mime head and Irrigates only j2'j acres with It. The duty of the I water In the hands and on the land I of farmer No. 1 Is double the duty In the hands and on the land of farmer I No i It liehooves every farmer, then '0 I know what duty he Is getting out of ! his water, and. If he finds that he Is I not up to the standard, he may take I the necessary steps to Improve the position of his ditches or may, during the lall and early winter, cut off the j high spots and till In the low spots of ! the field and In this way Increase the i duty of his water two. three, and even 1 fourfold. here are two general ways of speaking of the duty of water. One Is to slate the number of acres a ! second foot of water will take care of, and the other Is to speak of the nuui-i nuui-i her of acre feet of waler used per ( acre. j We used to figure that land In this seel ion needed olie second foot of wa-. wa-. I ter for i very 40 acres, and In this case ! the duly of water was 40 acres per ' second foot. Later we rulseii this duty to (In acies per sei -olid foot; then j we made the duty SO acres per second loot, and fur u long time II was the , ciihiom to provide a second foot of ( water Tor each SO acre tract Now we are figuring (he duly of water to be 1 ',im or U'l) acres per second loot. ' i Can we do heller (ban this? We ' j certainly can, for In southern Call fornia. where water Is scarce and val-i val-i uahle, they make a second foot of a- ter take (are of :!' acies. and where sub Irrigation, by means of under- 0 ground pliK-s. Is Hied, the duty la f.ome cases has readied 1.000 ucn-a per second foot. ., This method, however, of figuring duty Is not tho best by any menus, for It presupposes a continuous Uow ol e one soepnd foot throughout the Irrl-d Irrl-d gatlon season. The fanner when he Irrigates usually wants more than a second foot head, and he ueH It for a lew days or weeks and then uses no J water at all for a (wriod. Hence, tho 1 second wny of stating It. which Is In ' acre feet per acre. Is usually the best t way. A second foot of water running for It 21 hours delivers approximately two l acre feet. (To be exact, It delivers , two acre feet In 21 hours, 12 minutes ) us say the Irrigating period Is 120 I days, and one second foot would deliver de-liver In that time approximately 2tO acre feet. If this were applied all at ! once to 100 acres, It would cover It to a depth of 2 4 feet, and we would ay that the doty of water In this case Is 2 4 acre feet er acre. The duty of water, then. In acre ' feet per acre. Is the number of acre ' cet of water applied to each acre ot J land, during the entire season. It - varies the country over, from one acre ' foot per acre, to 10 or 12, acre feel per I acre. . |