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Show Proper Irrigation Important Factor In Farm Income, Says SCS Knowing how to applywater on irrigated land will do more . than any other single factor to j increase the farmer's income, protect the soil from erosion, conserve water, prevent loss of valuable minerals and produce greater harvests, Howard M Ivory, representative of the Soil Conservation Service in the Uintah Uin-tah Basin Soil Conservation District, Dis-trict, declares: "There is only one right way to irrigate and that is to put water into the soil to the depth of plant roots and no deeper " he says. He adds that farmers can accomplish an efficient irrigation irri-gation job if they will follow a few basic rules. First of all, the irrigation farmers should know where the water is going, how deeply it is percolating throughout the length of the run and how much is running off the lower, end of the field as waste. j r In the ideal irrigation, ; Mr. Ivory says, only as much water as is needed is turned into the border or furrow, and no waste water runs off the lower end of the field. Efficient irrigation is difficult where the, land is sloping, slop-ing, but when a field has. been properly leveled there is no excuse ex-cuse for waste water except poor management, Mr, Ivory, points out, It is wasteful to apply more water than crops can use or to let water percolate so deep that roots cannot reach it. If. an ex-, cess of water is applied, it does not stay in the root zone for use by plants, but seeps deeper and is wasted. An excess of water will not make plants send roots any deeper, deep-er, Mr. Ivory says. Plants have definite rpqting habits and soils, .more than anything else, deter-mine deter-mine the depth of roots. " "Actually, "pver-irrigation us ually decreases, crgp yields and frequently washes away soluble piant foods, such as nitrates, Mr. Ivory points out. The only exception ex-ception tp the rule that water should never percolate below the root zone is on alkali land, where an occasional extra heavy irrigation may be needed to leach out the alkali, and this procedure is effectiye cinly where adequate drainage i awured. Mr. Ivory reeemmends the use of a moisture probe to determine how deep the water is percolating. percolat-ing. A probe is merely a one-half one-half inch rod four feet long with a handle on one end,. Th tlepth of moisture penetration is determined de-termined by the ease with which the probe can be pushed down through the soil. Some farmers prefer a soil auger because n gives more positiye inhumation on the depth or penetration. When first starting to use a probe, farmers should allow the oil to drain for about two days and then check results by- digging dig-ging test holes or using a soil auger to determine how deep the moisture finally penetrated. Only i few checks will be required to show, for example, that ir the Drobe indicates three feet of saturation, sat-uration, the moisture will percolate per-colate finally to a four-foot depth. If a farmer wants to save water, he should not irrigate by the calendar, or use water simply sim-ply because it is in the ditch, but should apply water only when plants need it. A shovel or a soil auaer should be used to find out how far down the plants have used up available moisture, and then only enough water should be applied to wet the ground to this depth and no deeper, Mr. Ivory says. Having control of water all times is also imperative, the soil conservationist explains. In any irrigation plan a system of gates, turnout boxes, spiles, or other controls will enable the irrigator to control water at every place where it is applied to the land. Two common errors in irrigation irriga-tion are to have runs too long and to have furrows laid out on too steep a gradient. If runs are too long, water penetration is uneven, un-even, while if the grade, is too step, topsoil is washed away. Runs should be limited to 600 fee i and grades to 2 inches per 100 feet, depending upon type of soil and cover crop, Mr. Ivory says. Farmers can reduce irrigating time by 20 per cent or more, increase in-crease crop yields by 25 to 50 per cent, save 10 to 25 per cent of the water, and keep the soil from eroding by applying irrigation irri-gation water more efficiently, Mr. Ivory declares. - Irrigation is a full-time job I which should not be neglected,! and it should be remembered! that putting a shovel into a man's hand doesn't automatically make him a good irrigator. Setting water on a field and then going to town for a half-day is not irrigating ir-rigating efficiently, Mr. Ivory says. Mr. Ivory suggests that farmers farm-ers having complex irrigation problems consult the vsoil conservation con-servation district supervisors, or Soil Conservation Service representatives repre-sentatives in their area. |