Bent County register., 1888-12-01

I canal Dy tne farmers OF nelghDor-
hood, and from it each one takes his
share of the supply. The user con
trlyes to conduct his water along the
highest side of his farm IN a smaller
lateral, whence the stream is distrib-
uted over his fields by flooding; or
conveyed IN small channels between
the rows of crops. Crops are usually
supplied with water three times from
the middle of May until about the
first of August A skillful man can
irrigate from eighty to one hundred
and twenty acres of grain during a
season, and can ego over" eighty
acres in eight or ten days. In the
fall another irrigation usually takes
place, SO that the ground may be in
condition the following spring to
germinate the seed. Very rarely Is
| fall gram sown in Colorado.
Frustrated by neither drouth nor
food, the husbandman is able to ma
ture his crops to perfection, to accel-
crate or retard their ripening, and to
brag harvest to suit his conveience.
ply applying water he can keep half
of his field green while he harvests
the other half, The growth of gram
is almost marvellous. In parts of the
fsta4o so1,l Sid &c -. "a 49,.
Eve feet tall, with heads in proper
ton, are common. The grain itself
is perfect in quality and usually over
weighs. But alfalfa (for lucerne)
I and leguminous plants yield the most
astonishing results. Alfalfa is the
most beautiful, wonderful and profit
bic crop raised in the Rocky noun
tain region. A Geld of it, with its
sweet sented, purple blossoms, ls a
perfect garden of beauty and per-
fune. 1t is a kind of clover and
highly nutritious; it grows about two
feet high, and being Parental, its
roots reach down usually five feet
deep. Alfalfa is FIRST harvested in
June; then water is applied, and in
four weeks it is cut again; the water
is reapplied and it is ready for anoth-
er harvest a month later. Each cut
ting of good crop will yield two
tons. 1t is worth in Colorado from
81 TO $40 per ton. 1t will be seen
that irrigation Is simply an increase
1t assures certainty of return for
the wears work.
4 In passing from the subjec, of ir-
rigation in Colorado, attention should
be called TO the surprising effect of
the canals on the volume of stream.
It would seem natural that, if the
full capacity of river were directed
into channel, there would be no
supply for ditches lower down the
stream. With this in mind, the peo-
pie of western Kansas and Nebraska,
realize tae necessity of irrigation.
are inclined to complain because all
of the water in the eastern flowing
streams of Colorado is appropriated
before reaching their border How
ever, both experiment and theory
show that their fears are groundless.
The state engineer of Colorado gives
the result of his investigation of this
subject 10 hls report for 1ss5-s6. be-
fore there was any expectation of in
) ter-state contention, and when the
people of these parts of the plains
more remote from the mountains had
no thought of the necessity of irriga-
! ton fer their region. He made the
} experiment in the Caohe-la-P -Poudre, >
stream of northern Colorado, and
, says: Starting with a flow of 127,-
! 500 cubic feet per second in the can
, on, before any water ia draw into
| canals, the volume at the lower point,
, after supplying fifteen canals, had in-
creased to 2l4,5os feet per second,
showine an addition of more than
, two-thirds of the original amount to
, supply canals further down the val.
= ley" The reason for this is. that all
{ the water Withdrawn from the river
: for irrigation gradually seeps back
2 into it, making steady and reliable
5 current. But for this fact, the water
: would rush down the sandy beds OF
3 the rivers in torrential streams, dis
j appear quickly, and be of slight avail