OCR Text |
Show MOISTURE FOR CROPS Great Want of Farmer Is Water During Dry Spells. Many Localities .n Wett Where Supply Sup-ply of Water Can be Obtained for Irrigation, Defying Drouths I and Assuring Big Crops. Mr II. M. I. yon says "I had rath 1 rr seo the government assist In solving solv-ing some of our problems of water-supply, water-supply, than to see so much money going into Irrigation and other schemes at enormous distances from our markets " Owing to the fact that copious rains have frequently fallen soon after great battles, In which there had been heavy artillery tiling. It was generally believed that the bring br-ing of heavy guns caused the moisture mois-ture with which the air was laden to be condensed Into drops, and fall to tha earth, jcoduelng rain lu a dry time. In order to test this belief, congress appropriated several thousand thous-and dollars, which was expended during dur-ing a great drouth In Texas by army oitlcers, writes J. H. Ingrain In the Country Cenlleman. The heaviest guns were fired continuously for a week and brought no rain. Tl.u great want of farmers Is moisture mois-ture In their fields when rains do not come at the proper Intervals, and their crops suffer or are utterly destroyed. de-stroyed. The iersou who could discover dis-cover an effectual remedy for the severe se-vere drouths to which most of our country Is subject would be a greater benefactor than the Inventor of the steam engine or electric telegraph. A Wisconsin writer says: "A sufficient amount of moisture stored up In the earth would supply this want (rain In a dry time) even If no rains fell from the time of jilantlng crops until harvest har-vest I hue." Had he said a sulllcleiit amount of water stored up on top of the earth. 1 could have agreed with him. In Colorado, Colo-rado, 1'iah and California, where they can obtain a supply of water on top of tlip ground for Irrigation, they can defy the drouths and raise good crops every year. Water where It can lie, turned on the Ileitis when needed Is a sure thing. Capillary attraction, or the wonderful rise of the ground water wa-ter to the surface, In spite of the attraction at-traction of gravitation. Is of Immense value to agriculture when assisted by the cultivator; but there is a limit bo-yond bo-yond which It will not work, and a reservoir of water a few feet under ' his fields would be of no use to the farmer unless brought to the surface i by a puniji. ' Thre are places where there ar abundant supplies of water stored In the earth; but the crops suffer as badly bad-ly there from drouth as In any region 3f our country. In Kalamazoo, Mlcl... here Is a large extent of country un-lerneath un-lerneath which there Is an inexhaust ble supply of water which, when " apped by artesian wells, -rises nearly o the surface. The city ,,f Kulama- f :oo, containing IS. nun Inhabitants, is " ully supplied by artesian wells. The vater is underneath the valley like a (J hallow lake, ami Is forced up nearly 0 tie surface, when tapcd. by the iresKurc of the rain water descend- ' ng from the hurroundlng hills. The (., ountlful reservoir Is too deep for u aplllarj attraction to draw it up, ml when the writer was there du w lug an August drouth there was no a rcen to be seen In the meadows, and fli lie grass in the city park had to I: H, ntcri'd lo keep It alive ' ()( There is water enough under the rent Desert of Sahara. Wherever ar-slan ar-slan wells have been bored a plenti- i ;l il supply has been found, ami if ca-illary ca-illary attraction could bring it up. n, jere would be no desert there. Level n, iinl plowed nine Inches deep will re iln all tho rain water It is capable of bsorbing, nnd as much as if p lowed ivper. Of course clayey soils will re in more than sandy. When the rain ater has sunk much below the depth e usually plow. It has escaped be ,a nd the jiower of capillary attraction 1 bring It back to the surface. I " ive been In coal mines in IVmisyl tula, from which the steam pump n as working night and day hoisting I it a stream of water neatly enough I turn a mill, and yet the farmers' ' s" Ids ma- by were suffering for lack It. as Capillary attraction often receives ' edit for molstut-f which It dix's not ,n pply, but which Is suj.plied by com 1 n-atlon of the moisture in the at sphere like the condensation of far e drops on the outside of the be -1 (her. You break the rust that'"' s formed on the surface of your 1 rn field, and exiwise the rixilcr e-.rth ! low. the air coming in contact with I la at cooler earth Impatts molstute to ' ton The condensation Is not so ap 1 rent as In the ras of the h e wa'c- I to cher. because the soil absorbs jr. fro ib h the pitcler does not The gov I !iment has tried to get rain by fir : iiinmm and failed It is extreme I "I" doubtful whether it could get any i H fersnpply for Mr I.yon ex.ept ,:. Iter igatlon. : ;.lei |