The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-10-29

Mr.. Editor:- In a late issue of the
Daily Record J. ]. Hagerman discussed
very important subject, and one
that should interest the farmers of
the entire valley, namely: The Duty
of Water | would like to emphasize
what he states at the risk of being
called down by such men as George
Davis. That would not make me feel
very bad, since he even called the
''Parson" down. ]. ]. Hagerman re-
quires no defense from me. But for
the benefit of those who feel inter
ested | wish to discuss the most i'm
portant part connected with the duty
of water, and that is the duty of the
man who owns or applies the water
and what | state has been gathered
from over thirty years actual expe-
rience in applying water to nearly
every variety of crop grown in the
United States.
In the first place / want to suggest
to George Davis that he send back to
any one of the rainy states and get
statistics of the rainfall for any one
season that they have their best
crops, and | will venture a guess be-
fore he gets the report that it will
not be over 80 inches. That would
be a rainfall of 215 inches for each
month, and for a humid and cloudy
country would he more than suffi-
-cient Too much water on any crop
has the same effect as too little, be-
sides waterlogging your laHd which
largely takes the life out of it, just
as waterlogged wood will not burn
well. / have never found any reason
to change the language of a state
ment l made in Colorado over twenty
years ago. and that is the least wa
ter you can use in raising a crop so
long as you do not let it suffer, the
better your crop will be.
/ shall call attention to some of the
ways that water can be wasted. The
man who runs water the length of a
forty-acre field is wasting it rapidly,
as he will use from II to Is inches
each irrigation if the grade is light.
A forty-acre field shoussJ be divided
into three sections, with some bor-
tiers to prevent it spreading too much.
Get the water on and off again as
quickly as possible, because if water
stands still or runs very slow natural
ly it percolates down and down until
it strikes hard strata. Then it moves
along and comes to the surface on
some of your neighbors' land and
partly destroys its value.
Another way in which lots of wa
ter is lost is trying to run water thru
filthy bitches, where moss. weeds and
grass are allowed to grow. You will
save time, money and water if you
Operate with clean bitches. There is
also a tendency to construct all
bitches too deep in the ground, espe-
cially the small laterals. The bottom
should be as near level with the land
irrigated as possible. If the bottom
is one or two feet deeper than tne
land part of the water moves so
slow that 1t sinks and is lost. 1t is
of the greatest importance to have
the water move as rapidly as possi
bile in the direction you want it to
run. Such crops as are in rows, espe-
cially -.orn and Irish potatoes 1 adop-
ted the system over 20 years ago of
running water through only each al
ternate row, and I know it increased
the yield of my potato crop about
one-third.
In making burrows, if your soil is
rough and cloddy, drag a piece of
green cottonwood in the furrow be
hind the plow or 10 inches thick
and Is or 20 long. 1t will break the
clods and smooth the furrow so that
water will run through in half the
time This is done in the best fields
OF Colorado. Also If you win plow your
land four or five months ahead Of
planting you viii find that it is great
saving of water, besides you will get
a much better crop This is Camp
!bell's success. You never want to lose
sight of the maia point, the one that
makes the rest of the work easy. and
that Is plow your land only when in
proper condition. and in a mild eli
mate such as we have here with wa
ter you can get it In that shape any
day I'm the year Also make your land