The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1895-05-02
T. T. SWEET. in Dakota Farmer.

u L = GHAN ~ 'oeNNN
Believing that the only element lack
ing in our fair State, TO make the soil
produce bountifully and with certainty,
each season, is water, | determined
last spring to try in a small way what
irrigation would do. While | was not an
experienced irrigator, | had seen some
thing of it in Colorado between 1877
and 1885, during which time | lived in
that state.
| have a beautiful level tract of 200
acres of land on the James river bot
tom. living about twelve feet above the
surface of the water in the stream, and
sloping gently from the banks o. the
river; an ideal field for ~irrigating. L
laid off twelve acres for a patch of po-
tatoes, and five acres for Germ, and
determined to pump water on that
amount Of land from the river if it
proved TO be necessary. The ground
was plowed early, about six inches in
depth. 1t should have been at least
ten. The blowing was followed up
each dav with the harrow, and after
the piece was finished, it was twice
thoroughly cross-dragged. The pota-
toes were planted about May list with
an Aspinwall planter. The seed was
cut to one and two eyes, except very
small potatoes which were planted
whole, and put in the ground to the
depth of four inches, n piece TO the
hill, thirteen inches apart. The rows
were forty rods long, running at right
angles to the course of the river, with
4 gradual descent of about a half inch
to the rod in the direction from the
stream
Weeds appearing in about a week
after planting, the ground was
thoroughly narrowed, which vas con-
tinued at short intervals until the
plants were about three inches high.
The first cultivation was with an or
binary four shovel riding corn plOw,
and the second with a riding disk corn
c%ultivator, which hills the potatoes up,
leaving a shallow furrow or ditch be-
tween the rows, just right for cOnven-
lent irrigating. Owing to my pump
being delayed | did not get to irrigat-
ing until June Goth, which was fully
two weeks too late, as the ground had
become quite dry and some of the pota-
toes had commenced to blossom. The
| pump was a No. ) Horizontal Centri-
fugal pump, made by the American
! Well Works, Aurora, Ills, and cost
laid down here Sl4O: water is raised by
| the pump to the height of fourteen
feet, being drawn through t~wenty-fOur
feet of six inch suction pipe, n dis
charges directly into the main ditch
leading to the field about Sev~enty-tive
yards away. The pump is rated at 1850
| gallons per minute, with a speed of $50
revolutions. but as | ran it at over COO
it did considerably more work; esti-
mated it at about $500 gallons. or near
ly a barrel a second. At first the pump
was run by twelve horses and a COM
mon horse power. The work was a
little harder than threshing grain,
for the feed was there all the time.
For the second and third irrigations a
fourteen horse power t~hreshing engine
was used, which gave much better sat
isfaction. About 1900 pounds of soft
coal was consumed per day of ten
hours.
The bitches were made with a com
mon sixteen inch plOw, turning out
four burrows and leaving a dead fur
row. from which the loose dirt was
thrown out with a shovel. The main
ditch, only seventy-fve yards in length
led to the field and emptied into d
lateral ditch, at the head of the rows
of potatoes, that is the lateral ditch
-. .,ul& n--1Ar 80 Cha ,Nntntnn
rows. 1t had a fall Of about one
ing boards together in the shape of a
V was put in the lateral ditch, raising
the water and causing it TO flow into
the small bitches or burrows be-
tween four or five rows of potatoe.
One man attended the gates, keeping
an even flow into the burrows between
the rows, and another man followed
the water down the rows, preventing
it from damming, overlooking, and
breaking from one furrow into another.
As soon as the water had wet the
ground thoroughly, and flowed the
entire length of the lows, the head
~irrigator removed the gate, having
previously put in another to- water the
next FIVE or six rows, and SO on until
the whole field was gone over.
The expense was for coal, engineer
and two irrigators. About three acres
was a good average days work of ten
hours.
Three or four days after the first
irrigation the potatoes were cultivated,
but were not cultivated after the sec
ond and third irrigations, which neg
lect, | suspect, made a great difference
in the yield. They were watered the
last time July 25th, the hot windy
day hat burned everything up all Owe
the northwest" The corn ground was