The Winslow mail., 1911-04-15
SIPHON PLAN BEST
Allows Water to. Flow Gently
Without Erosion.
BY This Plan Ditch Banks Are Not
Disturbed and Harden Until There
Is No Danger of a Break-Soil
Is Thoroughly Soaked.

l had two seasons experience as an
trrigator in California before l tried
irigating in Idaho, writes Miller Pur
Wis in the Breeders Gazette. On the
benches in the foothills of the coast
range in northern California, where
the soil is reddish clay, we simply
cut the ditch banks, regulate the
flow through the cut by laying two
stones in the opening and let the wa
ter run for day or two, never think
ing Of erosion. l tried this in Idaho
and within a few minutes all the wa
ter in the service ditch was going
down one lateral and washing deep
channel through the ash soil.
Then someone told me that the
best way to do was to make long
box-like tube by mailing the edges of
four plastering laths together and
sink this in the ditch bank. I was
told this would prevent the water
from washing it's way into one lateral
and make it possible to divide evenly
the water among all the laterals in
the field. I made lot of these lath
boxes but they did not work on my
kind Of soil as the fields were too
steep. A couple Of young chaps, who
remembered something about physics,
concluded that they could carry the
water over the banks of the bitches
in siphons. They bought some ordi-
nary gaspipe three-fourths of an inch
in bore, cut 1t into f1ve-foot lengths,
bent the pieces over a wagon wheel
and tried them out Then they imme-
diately got busy making more siphons.
I then tried the siphon plan and the
water that came down the service
ditch became so gentle and obedient
that it went wherever l wished, in
any quantity l wished and with the
least possible erosion of the land It
gently flowed through the pipes and
trickled across the fields, soaking the
soil thoroughly without carrying more
than small quantity with it. I have
watched irrigators trying all sorts Of
plans to prevent erosion in this soil
but not one Of them works so we'll as
the siphons
Necessarily my various service
bitches must run down hill, making
deep into the soil until the water in
the ditch is not available. To pre-
vent this we use canvas dams or
checks. These are simply widths Of
common canvas fastened to a strip.
They are long enough to reach well
shows the manner in which the can
vas is fastened to the cross bar so
as to allow surplus water to run out
at the center of the ditch. In using
these checks the bar is laid across
the ditch, the canvas spread on the
bottom and little earth puddled
along the edge. Each check raises
the level of the ditch, kills" the cur
rent and prevents erosion, also max
ing it easier to use the siphons by
raising the level Of the water. The
same illustration shows the siphons
in use, where two checks are close
together Just here the grade pitches
down quite steeply and on the left be-
tween the two checks is shown the
upper end of ditch which runs steep
ly down hill. 1t was necessary to run
the ditch here to get below the crater
shown in another illustration and it
will be seen how steep the land lies.
To save wasting land the ditch was
run around this pile Of lava rock and
comes to a dead end. By raising the
cross bar in one Of the checks more
water can be held back, or lowering
it will let more water through the
opening in the check. 1t was neces-
sary to regulate the flow of water
very nicely. If too little came down
the siphons would draw the water out
and stop. If too much came down
the dead end-of the ditch would over
flow
By this system the ditch banks are
not disturbed and soon harden until
there is no danger of a break By
putting the siphons in deeply or less
deeply the flow of water they deliver
can be regulated. There is no danger
that the water will wash out the
ditch bank where they are set and
the flow is so gentle that the light
soil is not carried down the ditch
Cuts in the ditch bank must be filled
as soon as one irrigation is finished;
lath boxes must be reset at every ir-
rigation and often several times dur
ing one irrigation, but siphons can be
moved from place to place at any
time and are always ready to work.
Since they have been introduced here
more and more ranchers are putting
them in.