The San Angelo press. (San Angelo, Tex.) 1897-1907, 1905-06-08
Irrigation Anomalies.

eminent reports Just as every
man, 40 matter what his BUSH
ness, thinks he knows how to
farm, so every farmer thinks he
could farm by irrigation without
learning any more Of the trade
than he already knows. How
ever, there are certain anomalies
of irrigation agriculture that
those who have been at it for
some years are just learning, and
it is u science that is still not so
very far above the kindergarten
stage.
Different plants have different
habits of life, just as have differ
ent animals, and noJ until expert
ence has shown just how they act
under different conditions can it
be known Just how they shall be
treated. Natures system Of irri-
CATION is the only one that is per-
feet, and while 1t is seldom
thought of other than simply as
supplying the water for plant.life,
vet when it comes to supplying
that water by artificial means it
is discovered that the method Of
in certain instances
is equally as important as the
water itself.
Illustrating this fact are several
peculiaritles of certain crops in
the irrigated GASES III the arid re-
giOn. One of them concerns al
falfa The roots Of this clover,
as every farmer knows, go down
several feet into the earth. The
supposition of many farmers has
been that they went down to
where it was damp, the plant thus
being less susceptible to pro-
longed seasons of dry weather
than those with more shallow
roots. But the irrigation farmer
has found this supposition mis-
leading. In certain irrigated re-
gions the land is quite porous.
acting very much like blotting-
paper in drawing the water from
streams and bitches and conduct
ing it for quite distance over
the fields. Where water is thus
conducted the process is called
"sub-irgigation," and it plays an
important part in watering most
of the crops. But alfalfa refuses
to respond proftably to any such
method of watering. No matter
how much dampness there may
be in the region of those long,
penetrating roots, the plant at
the surface will not thrive. The
water must be applied to it direct
and the irrigation that makes al
falfa grow best is that which
floods the field with water, and
allows it to soak down around the
plants themselves to the roots.
In certain sections of the irri-
gated areas the behavior of In
dian corn is even more astonish-
ing. The farmer breaks the prai-
RE for his first crop, and meets
with remarkable success. He be-
comes an enthusiastic irrigation
farmer forthwith, and sends
of his corn grown by ir-
rigatlon to his friends back East
for them to marvel at and envy.
He tries a second crop, and prob
ably is again successful, but upon
a third or fourth trial he seem to
have lost the charm, for the yield
is almost nothing. Why the land
should produce one or two good
crops and then absolutely refuse
to longer grow corn has puzzled
the irrigation farmers not little,
and they have sought various ex-
plantations for it. Many of them
have believed the failure to be
due to the exceedingly dry atmos-
phere, thinking atmospheric
moisture to be n necessary aid to
polarization, and have offered
that as their explanation of the
corn-felds.
However, the scientific reason,
arrived at after several years OBJ
at the agricultural coll
leges in the arid section, is that
the character of the soil is re-
sponsible for the failure to grow
this crop satisfactorily. The
texture of the soil seems to be Mt
fault. The difficulty is expert
enced only where the soil is of u
very loose texture, where the land
sought to be farmed is the pro-
duct of years of deposits from
tlood-waters, such as there have
been in abundance during the
past summer. The condition
obtains in several of the broad
river-valleys adjacent to erosive
mountains, and the loose texture
seems to give the ground charac-
teristics much like blotting-paper.
Where the water for irrigation
is plentiful, this soil becomes sat
urated with it, and does not drain
either readily or thoroughly.
III, ooo,>,c,o .L,,,,oh +Io co;l