The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-02-16
KNOWLEDGE
OF IRRIGATION
"Elektra," Strauss New Piece
Which New York Il Cabling
About, Is Hideous and Ghastly
Greek Tragedy in Which
Mime. Mazarin Does Great
Acting.

Some Of the experiences of a new
conner in an irrigated section and his
many trials with irrigated farming
are set forth in recent issue Of the
Farm Journal, by Dwight S. Ander-
son of Wapato. Excerpts from his
story follow:
Sometime ago, Jacob Bicycle, in
commenting on recent drought
which had ruined a crop at Elmwood,
sighed for an irrigated farm. AS 1
happen to be located in an irrigated
district, and am an irrigating farmer
Cor, as we call it here, an irrigating
rancher), should like to make a
few remarks that will, perhaps, make
Jacob somewhat more contented with
his lot.
In the first place, 1 will admit that
under irrigation ten acres will raise
as much as twenty in the east. That
is undeniably true. But, on the other
hand, an irrigated farm demands
three times as much work. last
spring l broke in twenty acres on the
Yakima Indian reservation. I had to
build ditch one mile and an eighth
to lateral to get the water This
took two weeks. When the ditch was
done you may think that then there
was nothing to do but put in my crops.
Not SO! That was only the beginning
of the trouble.
The first time that l turned water
into my ditch it b. oke in a dozen
places, and | had to fix the ditch. You
would be surprised how fast the
water, breaking through a hole in the
embankment, will carry the dirt along
with it. The velocity increases as
he opening is enlarged, and if you dc
not reach the spot within a few min
utes, you will have a weeks work
ahead of you For the first few weeks
a man on horseback patrolled the
ditch while the water was running
1t was not until the first of May that
| succeeded in getting any crop into
the ground.
OF course it is some satisfaction tc
| know that the second year the dixie
settles and becomes stronger; and il
| is, too, some satisfaction to know
that you are not likely to have a tota
| failure of crop through drought. But
you can easily have failure through
watering too much or too little. Fol
example, potatoes are not by any
means the hardest thing to raise bach
east, but they are the most difficult
under il irrigation. The potato will tax.
second growth with the creates
ease, and if you do not water jus
enough-not too much, not too little
you will have, at the end of tn,
season, punches of knots on which
Will hang often as many as twent,
small potatoes. Surely we have ou
oompensations for the eternal use O
our shovels in irrgating, and one o
them is exemplified by the fact tina
l sowed timothy and clover on Jul!
18th, and got a crop Of half a ton t.
the acre on the first of November.
In Kansas a man farms with
horse in Arizona with a shotgun
and in Washington with a shovel. Gu
here, you never see rancher at worl
without his long-handled shove
thrown over his shoulder.
have said nothing whaueve
about the great amount of work re
quired to level land for irrigating, O.
the fact that in most irrigated coun
tries there Is a shortage Of water II
July or August. usually when 1t i
most needed. At those times the waite
is divided, and one man gets 1t onl.
for two or three days at time, or
in some cases, two or three hours. l
Is then that the irrigator gets GU
his thinker. and contrives ways to us
water two or three times. to make i
un up hill (Which feat, by the way
can be and Is done) to catch hi
neighbours waste water, and. in SOM
cases, to steal 1t at night by opening
his headgate when he has no right t.
do so. / do not know which is worse
To stare at the clear blue sky in tn
east and pray for rain. or to see tn
water that could save your crop o
hay from burning up, running in
, neighbours ditch. And sometimes tn
!, ditch tender in your district has ia
vorites. and there Is no use to com
plain.
, do not mean by all this to say tina
, irrigation is a failure. for 1t is not
, but l should like eastern farmers t
, know that when you get an advantag