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Show By Robert S. Murdock County Agricultural Agent Gold In Irrigation Water Farmers in Duchesne County don't have to chase after a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow there may be one waiting for them at the end of their irrigation irriga-tion ditch. Only about 20 to 25 per cent of Utah's precious irrigation water wat-er is being used to produce crops. The other 75 to 80 per cent is helping to raise the water table under irrigated fields, wash plant food out of the soil and erode the surface. In the state of Utah only 1,-167,000 1,-167,000 acres are irrigated and nearly a third of this area needs more water. More than 600,000 acres or arable land are waiting to be irrigated while farmers waste thousands of acre feet of water by inefficient methods, leaky canals, poor headgates and poor water administration. Part of this inefficient irrigation irriga-tion is caused by lack of proper storage. Farmers use water as it becomes available, rather than when it is needed, because they lack ponds and reservoirs to save I it. While plants need about a third of the water in July that they use all through the growing season, and a fourth in August, melting snows provide run-off water at the rate of only 8 per cent of the season total in July and 7 per cent in August. April, May and June' run-off provides much more water that the crops need during those three months. Extra water applied early results in leaching of soil nutrients,- soil erosion, and poor drainage Answers to those problems lie in more storage, better preparation prepara-tion of present irrigation systems, more canal linings and general irrigation ir-rigation improvements. When these changes increase efficiency of water application to the soil, every farmer will claim his own "pot of gold" in better crops, more irrigated land and more fertile fer-tile soil. |