| Show agricultural development OF OE GREAT BASIN DEPENDS ON CON my IN USE OF T ION WATER dy by willard gardner otah agricultural station A very small fractional part ol of th the fertile lands ot of the great basin has been brought under cultivation because ot of the inadequate supply of irrigation water atter after we have realized the highest possible efficiency so go tar far as our present knowledge ot of agriculture Is concerned there will yet remain idle a very large portion ot of these fertile lands let us hope that wo we may discover a means ot of utilizing the whole tract tor for agricultural production we can at least very seriously co consider nider the it ion ot of extending the agricula agricultural ural development ot of the arid west sufficient energy tails falls from the sun suit to evaporate approximately tour four inches ot of water from the surface ot of the ground in one week it if our average western soils are moistened to the optimum condition tor for growth of plants less than one inch ot of water will pass below the region ot of root activity in one week by wasteful methods ot of irrigation a larger amount may ot of course be forced into the deeper soil but on the other hand there is ia in reality only a fractional part ot of the solar energy used in evaporating water on land where a thrifty arop IS ig growing even when I 1 the water is made available it requires from fifteen to twenty times as much energy from the son to synthesize one pound of dry organic mat ter a ag 3 it does to evaporate one pound of water and therefore aside from that portion ot of the solar energy which 1 Is reflected away at least a fracz fractional lonal part Is utilized in the synthetic process of growth five inches of water per week should therefore be an extravagant allowance tor for leavy growing arop ot of any kind even where the r cupply Is abundant T rider ideal deal conditions where water is scarce we should aim to maintain I 1 he ustace eurlace ur tace soil sell in good physical condition and prevent evaporation from the surface ot of tho the ground in this case we should require ault such an amount of water as the plants themselves wll will transpire through their ir leaves together with the one inch allowance for flow into the deeper soil liven even with this thia very lavish allowance let us make an estimate ot of the ragni magnitude tude ot of pome g bome ot of our losses aside from conr clr mountain streams ot of various size we have very many small springs coming out ot of tho the foothills and wasting away some flowing continuously others intermittently on the tha foothills water irom from the melting snows and from the rains seeps continuously into tho the drainage channels our farsighted far sighted farmers have begun to plant their crops 0 f wheat on the side hills with excellent results without the aid of artificial irrigation others have bull built t small reservoirs tor for storing the water from these small springs irrigating gardens and in some cases larger tracts A small spring flowing at the rate of one gallon in tour four and a halt seconds or gallons per minute will cover one acre acra of et ground five inches in one week how many such springs larger and smaller are being wholly wasted or only partly utilized have you ever stopped to calculate the ratio ol of the interest on the capital invested in a small cement reservoir to the potential income from the irrigation water from such a small stream properly cared for again do you know any farmers who have access to large irrigating streams Str st creams iams who might spare a flow ot of fifteen gallons per minute or perhaps even several such small streams at the expense of a little care in tho the handling of that which rema remains insi from the very nature ot of our water sheds sheda some valleys have an unduly largo large supply ot of water and other valleys equally fertile in other respects aro are deficient shall wo we go on using excessive quantities of water where water seems plentiful and allow adjacent areas to suffer stiffer or shall we not as individual farmers beg begin in to continued on pago page eight continued from paged page one agricultural iol OP GREAT BASIN DEPENDS OX ON ECONOMY IN USK USE 01 1 irrigation WATER look toward emcie ncy in n our me 9 a ot of irrigation and as ook toward the reconstruction 0 of the natural drainage systems from our oue water sheds the watchword ot of tho the Nv estern farmer should be economy wise econ economy orny in tho the uso ilse ot of that asset which determines the destiny of 0 a commonwealth jk |
