Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1910-04-07

the character of the native vegetation
and the size and number of the hum
mocks. When creosott bushes and
mesquite trees are surrounded by
wind-driven sands. the cost may run
as high as $40 per acre.
In Salt river valley, Arizona, the
customary method of preparing the
land for alfalfa is to remove the
brush, pillow the high places and
roughly level the surface with suit
able scrapers Then the borders are
marked off from 30 to so feet apart
The spacing depends on the porcity
Of the soil, the conhguration of the
land and the head of water available
After forming rough borders by
means of four burrows thrown to-
gether to form a ridge. a disk or
spring-tooth harrow is run lengthwise
Of the lands The borders are then
crowded with a V crowder and usual
ly a leveler is run transversely to the
borders to round them of. The land
then receives a heavy irrigation and
when dry enough to work is again
disked or narrowed and seeded. Such
borders when first made have a base
of about 3 feet and a height of
foot, which settles to about 9 inches.
The length of the borders or lands
varies from one-eighth to one-fourth
mile.
The farmers on the Roswell Bench
on the south side of the Boise river
in Idaho make the levees sc feet
apart and 800 to 1900 feet long, de-
pending chiefly on the topography of
the land.
The land is first leveled with scrap
ers, then plowed and narrowed, after
which the borders are marked off
and thrown up by blowing two to
four burrows with a heavy pillow. Be
fore seeding. a homemade planner is
dragged lengthwise and cross wise of
the lands in order to fill up the hol-
lows by cutting off the high places.
The cost of preparing the land in this
way and seeding varies from $40 to
$50 per acre, depending upon the
roughness of the surface.
One of the great advantages of this
method is that it enables one man
to use a large stream of water and
irrigate a large area with a mimi
mum of labor. The size of streams
used in the Rillito valley in Arizona
varies. A head of about 100 miners
inches is turned into a plat of land
80 feet wide and takes one to three
hours to reach the lower end, $50
feet distant. Two men working / 2
hours each. with this head of water
will irrigate in "a hours 2 to S5
acres. at cost of 20 to 25 cents
per acre for each watering. In the
extensive alfalfa fields belonging tC
the Butterheld stock company OF
Wciser. Idaho. the head ditch has q
capacity of $50 to 500 miners inches
divided into three or four streams
and permitted to flow down as many
lands until the soil is moistened to {
depth of several feet Each field re
ceives three such waterings in a sea
son.
On the alfalfa fields in Yolo coun
~. Cal, the natural slope of the lane
is about / foot in 400 On the shorte
lands the heads is seldom less thar
6 cubic feet per second. but three ant
four times this quantity is often ap
piled to the longer lands. On field
we'll laid off. with good border gate
and border levees. two men can ir
rigate 20 to 40 acres in - hours tn
area within these limits depending
chiefly on the size of the irrigatini
head. In Imperial valley, Cal, tn
size of the head used varies from 81
to 600 miners inches. In using
head of 500 inches it is customary 4
divide it among five lands. With sue
. head it is not unusual for two me-
men working 2-hour shifts to il