American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1909-02-20
IRRICAT0RS AND
DRY FARMERS
Former Taught by Experience
of the Latter.
Cultivation May Save Trouble Of Extra
irrigation Advantages to Dry
Farmers Of Conserving
Flood Water.

experiment station of the Agricultural
department of the University of Wyo-
ming, who will deliver an address before
the Third Trans-Missouri Dry Farming
Congress, which meets at Cheyenne,
Wyoming, February %, "a and 25, will
say, in part:
The conservation of water goes very
much further than simply. the best use
of what moisture naturally falls on the
farm. This great Western country has
been built up almost entirely by irriga-
ton up to this time Irrigation is now
receiving great impetus by the opening
of many large projects, hundreds of
thousands of acres of land in various
parts of the West being reclaimed from
desert conditions to the most productive
agricultural lands simply by applying
the waters of the streams and storing
or conserving the food waters that
would otherwise go to waste. The
general irrigation proposition is too
large to take up in a little talk of this
rAiid, buS SiiSiC 10 pilt SiCht AOdeoiC VI
irrigation that applies to dry farm lands,
as it is usually understood Irrigators
are beginning to acknowledge that the
dry farmers have taught them some
thing. In dry farming talks and arti-
cles, cultivation has been so emphasized
that the irrigator begins to wonder if
cultivation for conservation of soil mois-
ture would not apply to his lands if
he could not save the trouble of an
extra irrigation by narrowing at the
proper time to retain the moisture in
the ground Many irrigators are now
using such methods with success.
! There is one point where believe the
dry farmer can use with advantage the
experience of certain irrigators, and
that is by conserving food waters, or
pumping from underground supplies
where this can be done If farmer
owning 100 acres can conserve enough
water in a small reservoir, or can pump
enough water either by Windmill or
gasoline engine to irrigate, say, five
or ten acres, he has great advantage
over his neighbor who has no surplus
supply of water, and may even be COM
PEELED to haul water several miles
for domestic and stock watering pur-
poses. There are several advantages
in this method of farming, one of the
advantages being that there is always
enough water to drink and that it is
good to drink, not heated and stale, as
it is when it has stood few days in a
tank wagon in which it has been hauled.
The home can be made attractive.
and the American people, as a rule, are
not satisfied unless their homes can be
made attractive by the growing of
trees, perennial shrubs, wind-breaks
for their fields. and vegetable garden.
Many of these may possibly be grown
without irrigation, but it is question
whether very many will take the neces-
sary time and care to grow trees and
shrubs around the house by dry farm
ing. The small supplementary reser-
voir or pumping plant also means crop
insurance. It. may turn the scale be-
tween success and failure in dry year
There are crop failures in the East and
in all probability there will be occa-
sional crop failures in the West, but
when irrigation water is available to
grow crops on five or ten acres, this
little area put in very intensive crops
may enable the owner to tide over
bad year. There is a further advantage,
especially where a tank is put up high
enough in the air to have running water
in the house. This means that the
farmer can have many of the conven-
fences of town life, at the same time
having the advantages Of the country.
Running water may be Of extreme
value in case Of small fire starting,
and any farmer who has the opportunity
of locating his farm to obtain piece
of land adjacent to food water rayine
or with an underground water supply,
will make a mistake unless he does
locate on such land and take advantage
of the possible water supply, either by
putting in small earth dam to CON
serve food water or light pumping
plant to raise water from below to the
required level