The age-herald., 1898-09-03
Wat CT for Crops.

water in Alabama. In the gravelly lands of Jefferson county very large part of the rainfall is absorbed by the coarse soil of the valleys before reaching the streams. while the bed and banks of the streams even absorb much before they empty into the rivers. In the prairie lands of Maren- go, on the contrary the rainfall runs rapid ly over the compact surface into creeks, that are wet weather creeks only. and thus reach the rivers in great volume. There are consequently no lagoons or pools of standing water in Jefferson county, while in the prairies hole dug in the ground. a few feet deep, will hold water, perhaps, the twelve months through, even if the creeks with a fall to drain it off are gone dry meantime.
 The farmer who blows deep in the prairie is satisfied with the supply of moisture that rises from below, generally speaking. In other words, dry seasons rather than wet suit the prairie farmer. The rainfall has been unusually abundant in Jefferson for two months past and yet the common remark of the Jefferson farm CTS who come into town now is "the land is making all it can" in cotton, peas, yams, turnips and autumn crops.
 Artificial irrigation, regulated by the judgment of each farmer and applied to small areas selected by himself would leave
 
 of fertility in the soil and judicious use of the blow, so far as Alabama agriculture is ,conoerued Let us reflect for a moment upon the wealth of Alabama in surface water. In the majority of counties in the state there is abundant water generally distributed to irrigate hundreds of farms in the dry spells that liable to come every year and yet leave a supply adequate to turn the machinery necessary to gin and manufacture into textile all the cotton of those and less fortunate neighboring coun- ties The water that now goes to the sea and returns can be delayed to increase the crops of cotton two or three fold every year and can be harnessed to wheels which will manufacture the multiplied bulk of the staple so as to treble or quintuple its sell ing price to the producing farmer. The farmers already own the water Nature has given it to them in trust. It is their privilege under the divine rule, to organize to lift the supply into tanks or reservoirs and store it there for distribution as grow ing crops demand. Organization to lift irrigating water from branches, creeks and rivers will multiply the yield of their fields. Organization to build annexes to the ginneries now in operation where the cot ton can be taken, loose, from the gin, with the staple unbroken by the compress, to the spindle and the loom will prove so eff 9ective that cotton growing must be a source of prosperity to the small farmers of Alabama far beyond the reach of the small farmer in the plains of the west. Our cotton farmers must rise to their op- portunity to sell their own textile instead of their own raw cotton.
 The cotton plant does not require a sys- tenn of irrigation which floods the land four inches deep three times in the growing season, which is the system in the arid lands of the west for irrigating wheat and corn. Cotton farmers know that heavy dews give almost sufficient moisture for cotton on good land. A system of irriga- ton for cotton that would apply to the plant at short intervals, say few days, a few thousand gallons of water to the acre, might be tested cheaply resulting in the study and appreciation of a reform in cotton culture of great value.
 The first requirement in the radical re- form of agriculture by the use of irrigation, would seem to be in the organization of farmers to put it in motion. Quite likely a portable steam farm engine might be use ful for lifting the water from the stream to the reservoirs. In addition to the cost of the engine would come the expense of the hire of the practical engineer to locate the reservoirs among the farms. All of these outlays would fall lightly on tine body of Q dozen farmers who might unite to take advantage of the project, but would be impractcable with a single farmer. It is probable that most of the common labor in the execution of the proposed reform would be found on the farm interested. In the arid lands of the west, eastern money builds the irrigating canals, etc.. and sells the water to the farmer who pays. The Alabama farmer whose land is on or near a stream can practice irrigation without falling prey to the plutocratic vice-royal- ty of water owners of the east