OCR Text |
Show WASTEFUL IN USE OF WATER Seeped or Oversaturated Lands Caused by Waste From Irrigation or Leakage From Canals. The cause of speed or oversaturat-ed oversaturat-ed land is the waste from irrigation and leakage from canals and laterals. The skillful irrigator may Insist that if no more water Is applied than is needed for growing and maturing crops, and that If the canals are so constructed that no' substantial amount of water escapes Into the earth, no land will become too wet for farming purposes, says the Denver Den-ver Field and Farm. It is true that In many instances irrigators have been unduly prodigal in the use of water, particularly when the land is first subdued and watered. The art of economical irrigation is usually learned only when scarcity of water compels its less lavish use. In any event, under present methods meth-ods some waste of water will occur under the best of management, making mak-ing draining in many places essential to profitable farming. Water which produces permanent saturation rises from the bottom of the saturated soil toward the surface. Waste from irrigation irri-gation first passes downward until a hard stratum of earth Is reached. This may be only a few feet, In which case the additions which accrue from the irrigation of a few years will bring the permanent ground water level to within with-in two or three feet of the surface, at which time Injury to farm crops will ensue. It Is not the downward movement move-ment of water alone which occasions boggy or wet areas, but the lateral movement of ground water down a slope until a flat tract or surface depression de-pression checks the flow and causes an accumulation of water, which is made known by Its appearance, but not until the lower parts of the soil have'been filled. Such depressions or level areas receive re-ceive the accumulated waste water proceeding from adjoining lands, which occupy a higher level. It will be seen that the saturated condition of the land which shows Injury is not due to the water w hich is applied directly di-rectly to irrigate it, but to the surplus which percolates from the higher lands, sometimes through considerable distances, until it reaches the lower flat or depression and Colorado now has a law providing for the organization organiza-tion of drainage districts in which the expense of putting in the drains is borne by the entire acreage. Drainage Drain-age has been carried on In the west to such an extent that certain methods meth-ods are now practiced with reasonable assurance of success. The development develop-ment along the last five years Is most encouraging to holders of seeped land. |