The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-02-23
WASTE OF WATER.
A Matter which Should be Investigated
by Farmers Everywhere.

W Ehrshorb Es'ohyW"oAos
The value OF irrigation for crops Il
never fully appreciated, nor the var
ious modes fairly understood, unit
one has experience in them. Profes
sional treatises on the subject are help
full, and a study of them necessary tt
best results, but little practice, with
good judgment and some genius, are
of much more value; besides, one never
comprehends the usefulness nor the
practicability of it under the many ant
various circumstances where it nigh
be practiced, until he has gone and
done it himself. I remember many
places in the Eastern States where
not only irrigation OF gardens ant
lawns, as we'll as great fields, is prac
ticable, easy and cheap, but call tc
mind many a household where they
pump and draw all their lives every
drop Of water used, and for all their
stock, and where the "dry spell" cuts
off their garden stuff and the grass
dies into brown patches and the shrub
berry suffers in the front yard, all be-
cause they never had attention called
to a source of supply OF water, abund.
ant, clear and excellent, so near and SC
located that few days work would
bring it to the very door; where a
beautiful spouting fountain and re-
treshing pool with pretty fish playing
in it and bordered with magnificent
water plants might take the place OF
the dusty chicken-wallow; and grass,
green and fresh all summer, that OF
unsightly weeds. / know many a
place where q lovely brook might be
brought to the farm buildings, and
after supplying, by pipes or troughs,
every other need could be SO turned as
to carry every particle of useless slop
and refuse and offensive matter away
to the fields and meadows. where ii
would be useful; contributing at the
same time to the cleanliness and health
fulness of the surroundings and to the
cultivation of refined habits in the
growing family. If every farmer who
may chance to read this, all over the
M anu IJttoUSEh cUiUCS, Co
pecially the southern part of the coun-
try, where almost all of them assume,
without thought that their only de-
pendence for watered fields is the
clouds-if they would look over the
geography of all the land around for a
mile or two, and take water level
along to examine the grades of the
surface, the majority of them would be
surprised to find that living brook
might have been flowing for an age
past through their fields and by the
house and barns and to the lawn and
gardens, and even to furnishing an
abundant and refreshing drench OF
water to whole fields of crops strug-
Cling through protracled drouth.
The commonest error is to presume
that irrigation is not needed to any i'm
portant degree, and therefore not prac-
ticable, in those regions subject to reg
ular rains; to suppose that the practice
is costly and, therefore, it would not
pay, is also not necessarily true. ]
could find dozens Of places in almost
every community where, il several
farmers would join, water might be
had for all future time for q few days
work with plow and scraper on the
supply ditch, and the irrigating bitches
made in few hours with the plow
alone. And then when the "dry spelP'
is at hand, one man with judgment
could turn the water into three, five, or
even ten and more acres every day, to
the JOY and gladness of his heart in
watching the thirsty soil drink it in,
and to behold the grateful countenance
of the parched crops as they put on
holiday attire and start afresh toward
the goal OF bountiful fruition. am
we'll acquainted with the regions OF
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois where tile
draining has almost redeemed the land
and made it habitable, and l do
not hesitate to say that even in
those very regions, at least a par
tial system of irrigation, in the
most practicable places, would pay
as great profit on the cost as the
draining, and even in the more un.
sections, the advantage OF
water in every field, added to the
other, would in time make the practice
generally popular. There is many
village and town could have pretty,
babbling brook flowing in every gutter
IL they only knew it, and it is surpris-
ing to me, now that look back, to see
how people and places are blind to
their advantages. One needs to spend
u season where water is appreciated,
md its value and various uses discov-
ered, to get his eyes opened to the
blessing of having plenty of it every
control. Take the aver
age farm of the Middle, Western and
Southern States where house and barns
water is pumped for every purpose,
add where only the best Of them are
provided with ponds in the fields, and
the owner, if he could have a brook
where he could want it, would place
value on it of $500 to $4,000 or more
and the selling price of the farm would
be increased to that extent by provid-
ing that almost priceless boon-''living
water for stock in every field" The
possibilities almost everywhere are
great; the practicability in thousands
and thousands OF cases would astonish
all who would investigate the matter.
j. G. Irwin, in N. Y. Tribune.