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Show ABUNDANGE OF EASYWATER By ( hoster i HuskoJl, Irrigation Kn-Riiiwr, Kn-Riiiwr, In ( 'luii't of I'lidrrKround Wufcw f)cv"Iopin'nt for I lie. OH1- ee of Irrigat ton InvosI iat ion, I'. S. Depart iunt of Agriculture. During 19 If). arran'ru'Tits wro made for the office of irrigation investigators in-vestigators of the Federal department depart-ment of agriculture and the Utah AgrjJfMiltural experiment Ktation to co-operate in linking wnlln for irrigation. ir-rigation. The work was largely experiment-si. experiment-si. Methods and equipment, wnich t Cut, No. 1. .Making Strainer had been developed in other states, were to be introduced into Utah to find out which were the best suited to local conditions and to adjust them to the most effective use. Work was done in various parts of the Btate but this article is only to tell of that done near Milford, Utah. Water Resources The underground water resources of the valley near Milford are probably prob-ably the best of any part of the state. A considerable amount of moisture as snow and rain, fall on the valley and surrounding mountains, and a part of this seeps down to the underground under-ground formation. The Beaver river riv-er flows down the valley and this brings in much water which falls in the: valley and on the high mountains to the east. A considerable portion of the water wat-er which is applied for irrigation at -s Minersvllle, Utah seeps deeply into the soil and finally appears in the lower parts of the valley. It was very noticeable during the late summer, sum-mer, that the ground water arose in the wells and low places in the valley vall-ey and moistened the rivor banks. This was while no water was being allowed to flow in the river at Min-" Min-" ersville. The water which had been applied to the fields at Minersvllle, and had soaked to great depths, had caused the water over the valley to rise and at from two to three miles south of Milford, the water arose from the bed of the river and flowed In the channel for a short distance and then disappeared. There is an average drop of 3 feet per mile between Lund and Milford, Mil-ford, Utah. This insures a slow movement of the underground water wat-er from the large Escalante desert fn Iron county, from the valley to Milford. As the slope is not steep, the distance is long and the connecting connect-ing water-boaring formation may not be of large cross-section in all places. It would require a long time for the water to make the journey, jour-ney, but it is possible for water which falls at Modena, Enterprise, Cedar City or Parowan to finally reach Milford. Water Bearing Formation Many years ago the valley at Milford Mil-ford and that for many miles, both to the north and southwest, was under un-der an ancient lake, called Lake Bon Seville, which also then covered a large part of Western Utah. The benches which were the old beach-ea beach-ea along the shores of the lake can now be seen in many places. When the water covered the valley, the heavier materials or gravel and bonlders wh(ich were iwashed' into the waters of the lake by the Beaver river and other streams, settled in the shallow water near the shores, while the sand and finer particles went into deep water. Most of this material was supplied by the Beaver Bea-ver river. The deep strata over most of the valley are alternating layers of sand and clay. As the valley filled fill-ed up, the depth of the water be-eame be-eame less and the velocity of the water of the streams entering the lake became great enough to carry the gravel out over the valley. The lavel of the lake did not remain eonstant, thus while the lake was lew, gravel was washed lower down valley and when it was high. as-Bcl and clay were deposited above tie gravel. It is thus found that a waterbearing stratem at several fcuadred feet depth consists of gravel grav-el on the upper side of the valley awards Minersville, but where it ex tends out on the valley and down of Milford, it i sand. Other strata near the surface consist of gravd for greater distnaces out from Minersville and down the valley val-ley and to the north of Milford. Water Level and lanl Suitable for Irrigation A belt of land extending south, west from Milford, occupying the wash which is the lowest part of the valley and drains large areas in Iron county, is suitable only for grazing. The L. A. and S. L. railroad rail-road runs along this salt grass flat. This land is kept moist by seepage from the upper water-bearing formations forma-tions of this land on both sides. A belt, of land east of this salt grass flat from one to five miles wide, and twenty miles long, consists of the best proven area, although with some skips, this extends ten miles farther southwest into Iron county, and also several miles north of Milford. Mil-ford. A belt of land on the western side of the valley, south of Milford, west of the salt grass flat, has not been proved as completely as that to the east, but gives promise of being, be-ing, good territory. Near the salt grass area, the water level is at or near the surface of the ground. The limiting factor in the area on which wells can profitably be used for irrigation is the depth Haskell No. 2 to water, at this time it would not be advisable to attempt to pump water which lies lower than fifty feet from the surface and of course the best propositions are where the water is near the surface. There is thus a large area on the higher part of the valley and towards Min-ersvillef Min-ersvillef where wells Bhould not be developed. This area stands as a large storage reservoir. It is underlaid under-laid by deep beds of water-bearing gravel which will supply water to the lower ground. In all there is probably an aTea, of land including J 120 sections from which water can be pumped for irrigation. During the spring of 1919, about fifty of these sections were -still Government Govern-ment land, or were held by people who were allowing their claims to lapse. There will not be nearly enough en-ough water supplied to the valley each year to allow every acre of this area to be kept under cultivation, but there will be enough to allow a considerable acerage. Water will have to be used sparingly and economically econ-omically and dry farming methods will have to be used in combination with irrigation. Crops which require the least amount of water will have to be grown. At some future time it may be necessary to regulate the number of wells put in the valley, but the cost of well and pumping has generally regulated that in other states. Soil The soils of the valley vary greatly. great-ly. From one to six miles south and southwest, the soil is much darker than most Utah soils. It has a splendid splen-did growth of purple sage and in places the black soil is twelve feet deep. To the southeast and southwest south-west of Milford, west of the . salt grass wash, are acres of more heavy soil with a growth of greasewood. Prom six to twenty miles southwest of Milford, the soil is sandy, black sage land and from one half to one and a half miles southeast of the salt grass wash and the land southeast south-east of this belt, turns to a more soil, and grows shadscale. Development The representatives of the Federal and State Governments do not claim to have discovered the underground water at Milford, nor to have setart-ed setart-ed the development They have assisted as-sisted by introducing new equipment equip-ment and methods and have freely given advice It is hoped that the assistance which has been given will encourage encour-age others to go on and develop considerable con-siderable land In the valley. The credit for starting the work must be g'iven to such progressive citizens as F. J. Berkheimer, C. C. Sloan, F. Wallen, Walter Weber, Charlie Baxter, Bax-ter, W. W. Cook, Abe Fotheringham n. R. Roper. Dr. H. C. Hunter, Tom Martin and W. W. Crone. These men labored with varying degrees of success and spent their time and money in trying to develop this country at a time when some others questioned their sanity. It is hoped that in this case the mo who made the first start will profit thereby. there-by. ! Jierkheimer AVell .Mr. Frank J. Berkheimer of Mil-, j ford had a 1U or 11 inch well 54 ft. ! deep on his land, three miles south j of Milford. This well was cased with woven galvanized wire which I was set inside a twelve-inch casing land the solid casing pulled from ar-'uuiul ar-'uuiul the wire casing. This well supplied about 300 gallons gal-lons of water per minute during the summer of 1919 and Irrigated sugar beets, grain and garden truck, j To show the advantages of a battery bat-tery system of wells, and to introduce intro-duce the wooden frame strainer into in-to Utah, it was arranged to sink another an-other well near the first one and connect the two to the same pump. The arrangements made were in brief, that the owner should furnish furn-ish the labor, board all the men, do all hauling, supply all fuel and everything ev-erything actually used upon the work and pay for all matrials left in the well. The Federal and State institutions agreed to supply free to i he owuer, the use of the well rig snd tools and skilled man tu operate oper-ate the rig and the advice of Engineers, Engi-neers, Geoligists ,and Agriculturalists. Because there is no gravel at this place below 6 2 foot depth, it was decided de-cided to make a lergfie well to give plenty of openings for the water to enter. To be sure that the large casing could be sunk to the desired depth, a concrete pit with openings to allow the water to enter, was sunk forty feet west of the well. This pit is five feet inside and six feet outside diameter. This pit was sunk through "the surface soil and the 1st water-bearing gravel to a depth of 2 8 feet from the surface. A steel casing 24 3-4 inches in diameter was then sunk through this pit to a depth dep-th of 57 feet to the clay below the last gravel. A boring to a depth of 87 feet showed only clay below 57 feet and the logs of small deep wells on opposite sides showed that more when as in this case, the gravel is very course. Log of Wells The leg of the central or first Berk heir.ier well is given below. This is practically the same as the log of his old well. I Soil 10 ft io ft Sand 2 ft 12 ft' Clay o ft 17 ft Gravel 11 ft 2S ft White clay hard 5 ft 7 in 33 ft 7 in Red Clay 3 ft 5 in .... 3 7 ft Red CI. wi Grav. 3 ft .".'.....40 ft Sand with Clay.. 1 ft 41 ft Fine Gravel 1 ft G in 42 ft 6 in Ded Clay 2 2 ft 3 in 4 5 ft Fine Gravel C ft G in 51 ft 6 'in Clay l ft 4 in 5 2 ft 10 Gravel 4 ft 2 in 57 ft Clay S7 ft S7 ft 2ml Krrklieimer Well Soil 4 ft G in 16 ft 6 in Gravel .... 1 ft 6 in 26 ft Clay 2 ft 2 8 ft Sand and Clay.... 4 ft 2 in 32 ft 2 in Clay 2 ft 4 in 3 4 ft 6 in Sand ''... ft c in 37 ft Fine Gravel 2 ft 3 9 ft Gravel 5 ft 4 4 ft Clay 2 ft S in 46 ft 8 in Sand and Gravel 10 ft 4 in 5 7 ft 2 in Clay 6 ft 6 in, 57 ft 8 in Gravel 5 ft 62 ft 8 in Clay 6 4 ft and on It will be noticed that there was quite a difference in the logs of these lvo wells. This is remarkable when it is considered that they are only 60 feet apart. The 24 3-4 inch casing was sunk to nearly 6 2 feet in 21 days, including includ-ing Sundays, when work -was not done. The wooden frame strainer were made and set in four days and the 2 4 3-4 inch steel casing was pulled pul-led in 6 hours and 20 minutes. A wooden frame strainer 18 feet long and 22 inches in diameter at the circleon the ends but only 21 inches in diameter on the rim was inches in diameter on the wire was low a like strainer 20 feet long. The h ' " '' . - 'if1 -Oft,. s, --s - . iniin. A-t'-.'.'..,.,.,l.,.'. i',., - -" - it. a Cut Xo, 2. Installing Strainer gravel would not likely be encountered encount-ered so the well was not sunk deeper. deep-er. A wooden frame strainer 22 inches in-ches in diameter and 16 feet long was set inside the 2 4 3-4 inch casing. cas-ing. An inexperienced well man had set the caging and as he preferred Haskell 3 to use his hammer more than his under reamer, the casing was stuck and parted during pulling. The wooden frame strainer had to be removed re-moved and as gravel had fallen between be-tween it and the casing the strainer had to be broken to remove it. A new well was sunk to the west of the failure and 100 feet from the old well. As experience has shown that this gravel at this well was so coarse that it did not greatly inter-fear inter-fear with the pulling of the casing. The 24 3-4 inch casing waes sunk from the bottom of a starting pit only five feet deep to a total depth of 62 feet. In pumping from the old well, it was shown that the water wat-er in the gravel lowered so much at forty away that the new 2nd well was located 6n feet from the center well. A combination boring and plunger sand pump well irg was used to sink tho large casing. The augers are to bore through the clay and for large shallow wells are the best for the work. The plunger sandpump is to remove the sand aud gravel and is ti;a best fur. that work, pcilly top strainer is the largest of its kind ever made and this is the first time two of this kind of well strainers strain-ers have been installed in one well, Cut one shows the men making the wooden frome strainer. It consists con-sists of an 8 inch heavy screen pipe for a center and a wooden frome built around it to support the No. 10 galvanized iron wire which was wound over the frame. The frame consisted of 12 2x7.5 inch pieces of lumber laid lengthwise to the pipe with the edges touching the pipe. The ends of the timbers are fastened fasten-ed to circular pieces of wood. The lower circular piece on the bottom strainer is tight but all the others have openings in the center for the pipe. The corners of the outer edge of the 2x7.5 inch timbers were cut off so that outer edges were only 1 1-4 inch wide. The strainer was wound out at the well. In places where many of these strainers are made, they have special machinery for winding them. The wire was wrapped with spaces between about equal to the width of the wire. This made the openings open-ings equal to 50 per ecu! of liie oul-side oul-side service of the .---raMier. Tl.e P,s f'-et of strainer has a tot,:! o: 2011 square feet of open'ngs between the wires, none of which are more than one quarter of an inch wide. Tha crosi-aection of the strainer might he said to be like a wheel. The pipe i is the hub, the wood staves are the spokes and the wire is the tire. Cut 2 shows the well-rig while 1 viece of the strainer was being raised rais-ed to put it into the well, ('est of ISerkhciiner Well .... I The total cost of boring three 24 inch holes, 13 feet deep to assist in onnecting the wells and of digging the starting pit was $35.90. of which .Mr. Berkheimer paid S22.60 and he two branches of the Government paid S13.30. The total cost of sinking the main 24 3-4 inch casing to nearly near-ly G2 feet was $326.90, of which Mr. Berkheimer paid $200 and the co-operators co-operators paid $1 26.90. The cost of wooden frame strainer and S inch casing for all of the new well was $303.55, of which Mr. Berkheimer paid $291.74 and the co-operators $11. S2. The cost of setting the strainer and pulling the casing was 41.33 of which Mr. Berkheimer ,)aid $21.33 and the co-operators Haskell 4 $2 0. The total cost of the last Berkheimer Berk-heimer well was $767.69. It cost Mr. Berkheimer $53 5.6 7 and the co-oper-Dioring forces of the government $172.02. It should be remembered that the men who handeled his well were new at the work and could do much better bet-ter after having more experience. Also Al-so all cost was counted, including hauling, use of auto, board and room for the men etc., which are sometimes some-times nat included in estimates of costs. Test of lierkheimer Well A six inch horizontal pump was installed in-stalled on the last Berkheimer well and equipped with such materials as could be harrowed locally. The well and pumping plant were tested and the results of the test are briefly given below. The well pumped a good second foot at a total lift of 27 feet (lift is subject to connection when the vacuum gauge is standardized.) standard-ized.) The water horse power or the power that would have been required to raise the water if the equipment was 100 per cent efficient was slieht- ly over three horse power. The actual ac-tual power used in operating this plant which was about the same as is generally found when equipment is used where found, regardless of its efficiency, was twelve and one-half horse power. This indicates an over all efficiency of 25 per cent possibly a little more. The water lowered nearly four feet in the old well, 100 feet from the well being pumped, after the well had been pumped six hours. This great lowering of the water would indicate the desirability of putting each of the wells of a battery 100 feet from the next one. The relation of drawdown, or the lowering the water in the ground, at the well being pumped to the discharge dis-charge of that particular drawdown, clearly showed that after the water lowered until four feet of the first water-bearing -gravel was dry, the loss of water from the top waterbearing water-bearing stratum was almost enough to offset the gain from the lower stra ta, even when the water was lowered lower-ed eleven feet more. In other words the gain due to the last eleven feet of drawdown was only thirty-six gallons per minute. This last eleven elev-en feet -extra drawdown increased the work to be done by 5 0 per cent. Cost of Water If it is assumed that the second Toot of water pumped from the last Berkheimer will irrigate eighty acres ac-res of land, the cost of water with the inefficient pumping plant which was used and with electric power at six dollars per horse power per month, mon-th, would be $6.78 per acre. The cost of water right would be $72.25 per acre. This allows 17 per cent interest and depreciation on $1500 investment in well, pit, pump, belt motor, transformer and short line and the use of 12 horse power for four months at six dollars per horse power per month. If the water is not lowered more than nine feet or the distance for which a corresponding correspond-ing increase in water is secured, a smaller motor can be used and the j cost of water reduced. This is the! advantage sought in connecting alii these wells to one control pump. ' -More water should be secured from j the three wells than from one. audi still the total left can be kept at a minimum. If water is pumped eight months and stored in the soil, about 150 acres ac-res should be irrigated. This would double the power bill, but not increase in-crease the fixed charges so the cost per acre would be about $5.54 and the cost of a water right $55.60 per! acre. I If a very efficient pumping plant; were installed, with every precnu-1 tion taken to handle the water oco-! nomically. the cost of water per acre) bored on SO acres irrigated should be j .J4.96 per acre and the water right I $50. It should be stated that only! those who have the very best engi-l neering advice will secure water at! this figure. By far (he greater ma-: ' iority will find their water costing j them considerable more. It is quite likely that one second foot or water in that part of the valley where conditions con-ditions are like those at the Berkhei mer place will irrigate more than SO acres. This is more likely to be the case after the alfalfa crop is two or more years old. In parts of the valley where the depth to water is greater or the draw down is greater, the cost of water will be proportionately greater and where the water is nearer the surface sur-face and the drawdown is less the cost will be less. The estimated cost of water right from the wells at Milford compares very favorably with those from many irrigation canals. In this connection it should be remembered that the following fol-lowing advantages make it possible for water from wells to cost much more than canal water and still be the most desirable. They are as follows: fol-lows: First the owner does not have to wait for his turn but pumps the water wat-er as needed and -this makes better crops. Second he pays for his water in Haskell 5 proportion to what he uses and thuB does not over-irrigate. He thus makes better crops. Third unless there is a tight clay near the surface and only then when excessive amounts of water are used, he will not water log his land and then have to put in a drainage system. sys-tem. At Milford there is no danger of water logging away from the salt grass land. Fourth he does not quarrel with his neighbor over the turn to use the water and many fights with shovels over from a canal, when cne takes more than his share, are eliminated. Fifth weeds and grass seeds are not brought into the field by the water wat-er as is the case with canal. Sixth the farmer who owns his own well and pumping plant is independent in-dependent and better satisfied, and on the average is the most piosper-ous. |