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Show GET WATER BY A WINDMILL Small Areas May Be Irrigated In This Way Centrifugal Pump Is Recommended Recom-mended as Best Every farmer could afford to pay from $1.50 to $6 an acre for the increase in-crease in yield that irrigation would give. That is the estimate placed on the cost of irrigating small areas, by H. B. Walker, drainage and irrigation engineer with the Kansas Aricultural college. A centrifugal pump Is the best adapted where a great amount of water wa-ter is required. A three-inch pump will require a four to eight horse power engine to pull it. Oil is the cheapest fuel. The coal a steam engine would burn would exceed more than three times the cost of oil fuel. An ordinary ordi-nary engine burns a pint to two pints of oil for each horse power every day. If a patch to be irrigated is less than two a-i es, a windmill can be used to good advantage. It should have a 40 to 60 foot tower and the wind wheel should be 12 or 14 feet in diameter. The wind cannot always be had at the time the water Is to be pumped, so a reservoir must be used. It is a good plan to have a reservoir in any system sys-tem where the well supply is limited. The soil soaks up too much water as It runs down the ditches In small streams, so the water is pumped into large ponds, and at the proper time the field or patch is covered at once. In this way, the water gets to the plants quickly, instead of wastins by seepage and evaporation. Sources of water by irrigation are rivers and natural water courses, wells and stored storm water. Their Importance is In the order named. Before Be-fore you buy your machinery for irrigation, irri-gation, be sure of your well. It must be never failing, even in the severest droughts. The depth of the well should not be more than 80 feet. If it is deeper than that too much power would be required to lift the water. |
