Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1907-06-28
WILL EXPERIMENT
On College Farm Irrigation
To be Tried.

! A. P. Slower, irrigation engin.
Ieer appointed by the United States
) agricultural department to con.
duct a series of irrigation expert
ments in the Willamette Valley,
has been in Corvallis the past
week, and out on college farm the
work of installing an irrigation
lplant is going on.
The site selected is on the wes-
tern part of the farm, along the
C. & E. railroad, where small
hop yard has heretofore beer op-
Grated. The work is cooperative
with the national department of
agriculture, and is under the per-
sonal supervision o. Mr.. Slower.
The water for irrigatiug purposes
will be pumped from Oak Creek
by means of a gasoline pump
which is to be ready for use in
few days.
Six acres of land is to be devo-
ted to the experiment and a series
of crops will be grown consisting
of hops, potatoes, corn, alfalfa,
clover and vetch. A part OF each
OF these will be carefully irrigated
and a part will be left to grow
with only the help that nature
gives, and comparison of the
two crops, irrigated and unirriga-
ted, will then be made. The ex-
periments will cover a period of
years and much valuable data
will, tits expected, be thus OBJ
tanned. relative to the value of
irrigation in the Willamette Val.
ley, the amount of water necessa.
ry, the expense per acre, the ef-
feet on the soil, and much other
information of useful nature.
This year, owing to the late
ness of the season when the plant
is installed, the experiment can
only be tried on potatoes, corn
and alfalfa, two acres of corn and
a halt acre each CT pota -oes and
alfalfa.
The results of the experiments
will be watched with deep inter-
est by all farmers and residents
generally throughout the state, as
great things may be in store for
the Valley under proper irriga-
ton, and the O. A. G. expert
ment station will, by this work,
be able, in a few seasons, to give
out valuable data for the benefit
of the. public.
Mr.. Slower is to conduct ex-
periments in Linn county, also,
as related in Wednesdays Albany
Herald. which says: ''Mr. Slower
has selected site mile south of
this city for his experiments, after
having made temporary arrange
ments to- do the work at Eugene.
lStover was in Eugene last fall
and selected a site for the expert
| ments on the Henderson farm
near the Willamette river. four
miles below Eugene, and agreed
to dothe work there. He returned
this spring prepared to begin, but
the farmers living in the vicinity
would not. cooperate with him
and as the citizens in general
: seemed to lack interest he has
tcome to Albany.
"Mr. Slower has selected a trac
I of I 80 acres, south of this point,
where the Lebanon railroad bran
ches off from the main line auo
bordering on the Santiam powel
: canal, from which the water fol
irrigation will be taken.
The experiments will begir
5 this week on a tract of alfalfa ane
: cl, yer and as soon as a patch o
vetch on the place is cut the wa
ter will be turned onto it to see i
a second crop can be obtained
While the land selected for ths
g experiment is Lot so rich as tha
; at first selected near Eugene, th'
: water is handler and the cost O
Z the work will not be so great"