The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-10-29
SELF-PUMPEDWATER
Hydraulic Ram Best irrigation
System for Small Farms.
Small Stream May Be Capable Of
Watering Good Sized Tract OF
Land-Open Up Great Posi-
biIities for Cheap Supply.

OF the various irrigation systems
draulic ram, where it can be applied
is perhaps the most attractive. The
use of the ram pre-supposes the pres,
ence of a waterfall; not necessarily a
cataract, but stream Of water with
fair fall, which might, as an en-
ample, be used for running grist
mill, says the American Cultivator.
The stream may be very small
one, and still be capable of irrigating
good-siZed tract. In various irri-
cation plants the water is pumped up
by rams into reservoir excavated
on a clay hill, or made by throw
ing a dam across ravine, and thus
backing the water up into a little
lake, its situation being higher than
the land to be irrigated. The water
thus accumulated for months is held
until needed, when it is run through
open bitches on 10 the fields below
the reservoir level. A tiny stream
having flow of so gallons a minute
and fall of 20 feet will operate a
ram that will pump $4,000 gallons a
day to height of 100 feet above the
ram. This amount of water stored
as stated, will furnish all the neces-
sary irrigation for from ten to fifteen
acres. A ram of this size takes its
water from four-inch drive pipe.
The improved rams of to-day open
up great possibilities for cheap water
supply. Their first cost is very
moderate, and they pump by water
power, requiring no attendant. They
are manufactured of large capacity,
and can be relied upon for pumping
water to any desired elevation for ir-
rigating comparatively high lands.
They are made from a one-inch size,
using three gallons minute, to du-
pick 12-inch ram, using two 12-inch
drive pipes. One of the latter placed
on a stream having flow Of 1900
gallons a. minute, which is, by the
way, very small creek-with 20
foot fall-will pump nearly 100000 gal
Ions day to a height of 100 feet
above the ram. Such creeks or
branches with nearby irrigable lands
are very plentiful in any of the billy
sections of the country, and where
they exist should be recognized as the
basis of certain wealth. It may be
necessary to construct small canal,
just as in the establishment of the
old-fashioned overshoot mill wheel. In
fact, old, abandoned mill sites, where
much of the work has already been
done, can sometimes be utilized Any
amount of fall, from four feet up to
40 feet, can be utilized. Incidentally,
water for house and stock can often
be provided
1t may, therefore, pay to look into
the question of water supply on the
farm and to figure out a plan to use
this greatest of natural resources. The
certainty of production and the great.
ness of the yield under irrigation
make it worth while to go to consid.
cradle trouble to benefit by the water
supply, If the farm is so fortunate
as to have good-sized one. Even the
flow from a good-sized spring may be
utilized. In the west every opportu-
nifty for using water in this wav is
quickly grasped, and it is an astonish-
ment to the eastern traveller to see
with what ease and at what little ex-
pense he could have always used the
waters of the small stream flowing
through his farm back home.