People's voice., 1897-07-22

draulic ram. Windmills furnish thl
most practical power FOR small irriga
tiOn plants, but for anything Of an a
all extensive character hot air ant
gasoline engines furnish the cheap,
est and nest reliable power for rails
ing water. For pumping very large
volumes Of water, steam or strOnl
head of water for large turbines are
the only powers.
The prospective irrigatOr, in select
ing his plant, must know the amount
of water needed, the accessibility tt
repairs, the cost Of fuel and the intel
ligenCe available to operate the plant
Hand power was the first used To
raise water so far as we can read the
history OF the ancients. Then came
animal powers. Both of these meth
OdS are practically obsolete in this
country except for irrigation on a
most limited scale. A modern adap-
tatiOn of the old Persian wheel is now
on the market which enables two
horses TO irrigate from two to five
acres a seasOn-lifting the water not
over twenty feet.
The chief objection to windmills in
many partSO Of the country is the irreg-
ularity Of the wind. This does not
apply in the prairie country, however,
and by utilizing storage reservoir
this uncertain element is entirely
done away with. The amount of work
a windmill can do depends upon the
wind, the size of the wheel and It's
location. An average velocity of six
miles an hour is required to drive a
wheel. Winds exceeding this velocity
are available for at least eight hours
a day in this country. According to
the figures Of the windmill experts. a
ten-fOot wheel with l6-mile an hour
wind will raise twenty gallons of
water twenty-five feet in a minute.
A 16 foot wheel will raise Sixty-fve
gallons of water twenty-five feet in a
minute. If the water is to be raised
fifty feet the results are about one.
half as large. The cost of operating
a l6-foOt wheel, including interest on
the first cost and every other possible
item, is about p cents an hour.
Drive wheels should not be relied
upon to supply water for a mill, and
their use has led to many dissapoiDt-
ments. The well should be dug and
an ample supply of water guaranteed,
so as to utilize the power of the mill
to its full capacity. In the selection
of pump the irrigator will be guided
by the amount Of water to be lifted
and the depth of the well. The wind
mill makers are the best men to con-
suit for this, as they desire to secure
the greatest results possible with the
mills they sell. The pump should be
not less than three inches in diam.
eter.
Windmills average in cost from $50
to S4OO. Storage tanks may be built
for from SlOO and upward. On an ay-
erage a tlve.inch pump will discharge
25e cubic feet an hour. A fve-inch
pump will irrigate six acres if run.
ming constantly, or two acres running
one-third of the time. The average
mill will irrigate direct from one to
three acres. If assisted by a reser-
vOlr it will irrigate from three to ten
acres. In theory, a twenty-five foot
mill, working eight hours a day for
l2O days, will raise forty acre feet of
water twenty-five feet, and if storage
for One-half this amount is
twenty acres can be irri.
gated with this mill. There is one
taree-mill plant and reservoir at Lar.
ned, Kan, which irrigates sixty acres
successfully.
1t is the small irrigator of limited
means who is seeking most earnestly
for way to mitigate a threatened
drought. He does not in any case
contemplate a large and expensive
plant such as would be built by a
wealthy company seeking au invest
ment in irrigation projects. This
small lrrigatOr, therefore, has nothing
to do with the expensive turbines or
steam plants Of the big ditch compan.
les with thousands of dollars Of capi-
tai at their command.
Hot air aud gasoline engines
are coming into favor, however, espe-
cially in the west. Their cost has
been much reduced, their operation
is better understood and their effect
iveness for the work desired better
appreciated. They are snail and
compact, easily put up and can be
operated by unskilled labor. Hot air
engines are still expensive, however,
costing about 800 to each acre irri.
gated, first cost. Gasoline engines
cost from s4OO to 5000 for one large
enough to irrigate ten to twenty
acres. This is ahont e9n ror ooro o..