People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-12-10

gardeners can subsOil, while but few
are able to irrigate. All land except
that with a sandy or gravelly subSoii
will paw to subSOil. The amount of
land with agravelly or sandy subs0il
is not very large in Sumner and ad-
joining counties. Where the rain fall
is insufficient as in. Colorado and the
western part of our own state irriga-
tion has been successfully practced,
especially is this true, in Colorado
where the cost is small; their supply
Of watercOm from the mountains:
their greatest expense is tue bitches
Tor Conveying the water onto the land;
very little expense is required after
ward for repairs. The same is true
of the greatsystem Of irrigation taken
from the Arkansas river in our
own state, the farmers using the
water along this system, understand,
are charged one dollar and twenty
five cents per acre annually.
If the farmers and fruit growers Of
this part Of Kansas could irrigate
their land at the above cost, or twice,
or even three times the amount, then
it would pay them to irigate, but
from personal experience and obServa-
tiOn am led to the conclusion that
irrigation for this part of Kansas, is
out of the question. From experience
in small way in irrigating for the
past ten years, with an ordinary ten
foot wind mill, about one hundred
and fifty barrel tank, 1000 feet of
water pipe and 200 feet of hose, l
have not been able to irrigate but a
very small amount Of ground in any
one season, and some seasons the re-
suit was anything but encouraging;
one and two years ago, previous to the
past summer, the ground and especi-
tally the SubsOil being very dry, the
weather very hot, from 80 to 100 de-
greeS, in applying the water as usual
between the rows Of vegetables, the
atmosphere so hot and all the sur
rounding surface so dry.'it seemed to
cook or Scald all the vegetables, toma-
toes being injured less than any other
kind the present season. With the
assistance of the rain fall, we have
had more and better vegetables than
for several years past.
My experience and observation in
SubsOiling has been in the two past
About two years ago Prof.
H. r. Hilton of Topeka delivered an
address on "SOil Moisture" in Yelling
ton. Many of the farmers of Sumner
county heard him and have as a result
been trying subSoiling to some extent;
all as far as | have been able t. learn.
report Yield from five to ten bushels
of corn more per acre than On ground
not subSoiled, and that too, while the
implement used being in many cases
very rude and not capable of doing
the work properly. Suhsoiliug as
practiced and understood at the
present does not consist in turning
the subsOil up on the surface, as [
was the practice many
years ago, but simply breaking up and
looSening the subSOil as deep as pos
Sible, and the deeper the better, so
that the water will readily pass from
the surface to this loose SubSOil that
acts as a reservoir retaining the
water for the future use of the plants
on the surface above. We nave in
the past had, in a very few hours,
five inches or more Of rain fall; with
the SubsOil thoroughly loOsened I6 to
20 inches deep, the heaviest rain fall
we ordinarily have, none will run off
or remain on the surface very long
after the rain is over, but will as
above stated be held for the use of
the plants on the surface.