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Show DRAIN IRRIGATION LAND Oxygen Is Necessary to Life of Plant Rootlets. ' Drainage Is as Essential for Successful Suc-cessful Crop Raising as Is Irrigation Irri-gation Soli Must Have Some Ventilation. Irrigation does not offer complete Immunity against . crop failure, as Borne people seem to think. It has been clearly demonstrated that farming farm-ing is not made simpler by reason of Irrigation. On the contrary it has often been made more complicated. The idea that all one has to do to grow crops in the arid and semi-arid districts is to apply as much water as can possibly be obtained Is an egregious egre-gious error. Water can never take the place of cultivation and fertilization. fertiliza-tion. While moisture is absolutely aecessary for plant growth there are other essentials that play as import-int import-int parts in their development Plants must breathe and plants must eat and plants must have sanitary environments.; environ-ments.; Plant physiology teaches us that oxygen Is necessary to the life of plant rootlets since the cells of newly formed roots are filled with living cells which consist of a transparent Fig. 1. In 'Wet Soil the Roots Grow Near the Surface and Are Left Without Water Supply During Drought. lelly-like substance called protoplasm vhich manifect the various phenom-sna phenom-sna of life. Protoplasm, may exist in an active state when the plant Is growing and while in this state it requires re-quires both food and oxygen, and without it cannot live. The presence 3f oxygen in the soil is indispensable to the life of all upland plants and a method of irrigation that abandons .tillage Is suicidal. The soil must be ventilated. A crust on the surface of the soil, such as always follows irrigation irri-gation by flooding, is a great hind-drance hind-drance to its proper ventilation. The Irrigation' farmer- who fails to follow each flooding of his land by tillage, as Boon as the drying out of the soils will permit it, commits an error that in time will bear heavily upon him by at least partial crop fa,llu,re.. Another fatal mistake being made by the Irrigation farmer Is the neglect Df drainage. . Drainage is as necessary to the perfect development of the pl'ant'as' irrigation.. The Irrigation farmers of the lower Rio Grande valley val-ley have been taught this by the evils resulting from the wants 'of drainage to carry off the surplus water after flooding. They were rather slow in realizing the needs of drainage, but it has impressed Itself upon them very forcefully. A careless use of irrigation irriga-tion water is largely responsible for the appearance of alkali in the Kio Clrande valley. Alkali will never be a hindrance in the valley where a system sys-tem of drainage is installed. To avoid the appearance of alkali should not be .he prime object of drainage. A system sys-tem of Irrigation without drainage tends to raise the water table and Fig. 2. Roots Grow Deep in Well-Drained Well-Drained Soil and Are Not Affected by Drought. plants suffer as a result of the soli becoming be-coming waterclogged, making it impossible im-possible for the roots to obtain oxygen oxy-gen and the plants are drowned. The position or the water table Is important. import-ant. Where It lies deeply, plant roots may delve to a ronsiderable depth without Injury. Hut where it is shallow shal-low the plants cannot perfect a complete com-plete and sturdy root system. Drainage Drain-age will lower the water system and lncreasfl the space for a more pert'e-u development of plant root system. |
