Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1895-10-16
FARM IRRIGATION.
Amount of Water to Use-FreQuency of
Irrigation-When to Irrigate.

i
Irrigation-When to Irrigate.
At the Utah station for number of
wears the matter of farm irrigation has
been the subject of experiment and OBJ
servation. In bulletin reporting re-
salts, A. A. Mills, under the head,
s4Amount of Water to Use, : makes it
appear that: /. In clay soil the maxi
mum yield of both wheat and straw was
obtained by saturating the soil approx
mately two feet deep at each irrigation,
Or covering the ground with $685. inch
es of water during the season. 2. On
this soil there was decrease of crop
where either a greater or less amount of
water was used. 3. This maximum
yield was brought about by the use OF
%. SO acre inches per acre, which is
equivalent to cubic foot per second for
~ hours nearly 4. On clay soil con-
tanning more sand the yield of grain
(wheat) increased as the water increased
up to 40 inches, while the maximum
yield of straw was produced with 10
inches of water. s. On clay soil contain
ing little sand timothy gave mixed re-
salts, though where the maximum
amount of water, Al, inches, was used
the yield was the greatest. s. On clay
soil containing more sand, the first
crop of clover increased steadily and
rapidly. from the use OF AZ inches OF
water up to 1919 inches.
AS regards frequency of irrigation, re-
sults indicate that y ON poor, gravelly
clay soil the greatest yield of grain
twheat) was obtained by irrigating ev-
a.1y six days, while the greatest yield of
straw came from irrigating every IL
days; (2) there is very little difference
II. the total yields from plats irrigated
every g. 8, 10 or Is days respectively;
80 on better clay soil containing some
a4nd the maximum yield of both grain
and straw was on the plat where water
was applied every 10 days, the yields
Calling off uniformly where the interval
was either increased Or decreased; az
OH poor, grayelly, clay soil the highest
yield IF timothy was obtained from ir- |
rigating every nine days; 90 on better
clay soil containing some sand the high
EST yield of clover came from irrigating |
every Is days.
Intimately connected with the pre-
vious subject is the number of times to
irrigate and when to do this. To test
this two sets Of experiments were made
---one with spring wheat and one with
fall wheat, With spring wheat nine plats
were used. On three of them the grain
was allowed to s'burn' or suffer for
water before the water was applied.
The other six were irrigated from one to
i've times, the first three being irrigat
ed from one to three times Conclusions
arrived at were q on poor, gravelly,
clay soil with spring wheat the maxi
mum yield of both grain and straw
came from irrigating three times; (2)
there was uniform increase i'll yield
from one irrigation up to three irriga
tions, then decrease from four and five
irrigations; 90 by allowing the grain
TO become burned" before water was
applied the yield decreased by nearly
one-half, and this, too, whether the
number of irrigations was one, two or
three; "a this decrease in yield was
brought about by deferring the first ir-
rigation only about two weeks after the
usual irrigation; (5) by irrigating fall
wheat just after seeding in the fall and
a. no other time there was but about
Si,ree-fourths Of a bushel per acre in
crease over no irrigation; (6) irrigating
fall wheat but once in the spring gave
Ill increase of more than 45 per cent
over that not irrigated; ~ the yields
IS Ga1 14o !
that not irrigated up to that irrigated
three times; 49, the fall and the spring
wheat irrigated three times each yield
ed practically the same.