The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-03-01
RECLAMATION
Edited by Prof. w. w. Mclaughlin, Logan, Utah

carry water IN Dig neaOS. by uSlllS lue
large heads you can irrigate the ground
more rapidly, thus saving in the guam
tity of water wasted by seepage, and
also have better control of the per-
centage of moisture you wish to put
in the SOIL Under long canals where
there are numerous users of water, or
where the water is divided into sew
eral heads, the waste is very large. The
soil is over-saturated and in many
cases the land is ruined
The system of delivering water to
individual users in a constant flow of
small rivulets is a bad practice. The
time flow system would be much bet
ter, delivering the water in large heads
for short periods. Generally 60 to 70
per cent of the water diverted from
streams by open canals and distributed
by lateral bitches is lost before it is
stored up in the soil for use by the
vegetation. Water is too valuable to
allow this kind of waste.
In the Inland Empire we find the
amount of water used in different dis
tricts to run from one-half to four
feet the acre, but why the growers use
this amount of water few, if any, seem
to fully understand The fact is most
people use three to four times as much
water as is necessary and do good
deal of harm to their soil and also to
the crop by an unbusinesslike and
really ignorant use of a valuable guam
tity. The soil is a sponge, which will
only retain a certain amount of moist
ure. If more water is supplied it SIM
ply teaches down and is lost or runs
away carrying with it fertiliZing ele-
ment of the soil which is in solution,
and only those which are in solution
principal value of water is to make the
fertilizing element soluble.
Greater irrigation would work won
ders in large portion of the arid belts.
The question of pumping water for ir-
rigation is a problem of the present
time in irrigation development. The
opportunities for gravity irrigation are
largely exhausted. There has been in
the past, and is yet, a general preju-
dice against pumping. The opposition
is due more to ignorance than anything
else. The use of cheap machinery is
also responsible for the general belief
that the pumping of water for irriga-
ton is impracticable and too costly.
All over the arid region will be found
abandoned pumping plants, and when
swer. 1T costs too much to pump the
water" The trouble is not with the
pumping system, but with the system
of pumping. The cost should not be
more than So an acre, but there are
scores of instances where it cost from
$12 to $14.
Water wheels, current motors, have
been in use in China for more than
5000 years, and in all that time there
has been no marked improvement in
their efficiency, though thousands Of
types have been constructed and tried.
They are a crude and burdensome
means to get power, and under the most
favorable conditions they give only
fraction of the power of steam. Taking
the facts into consideration, may say
too that the windmill is an ingenious
contrivance, from an irrigation stand
point, to waste power and money as a
general rule. However where the lift
is low, wind conditions favorable and
natural, inexpensive reservoir avail
able, a small tract of land may be wa
tered, but in 80 cases out of 100 it is a
delusion and waste of money.