Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1911-06-22
WATER Is VALUABLE
Liquid in a Reservoir Is Like
Money in a Bank.
Should Be Used Only When and Where
II Will Do the Most Good and
Made to Go - Far as II
Possibly Can.

How many farmers are there in the
country who know what is meant by
the term DUTY of Water?" Not
many. Yet they have been living in
an arid section and irrigating their
fields for years. They have seen the
value of water increase year alter
year and they know that water in
reservoir is like money in bank, and
should be used when and where 1t will
do the most good, and made to go as
far as possible.
One farmer uses a certain head or
water and with it covers five acres OF
his farm in a day. Another farmer
uses the same head and irrigates only
2l4 acres with it. The duty of the
water in the hands and on the land
of farmer No. ! is double the duty In
the hands and on the land OF farmer
| No 2.
II behooves every farmer, then TO
know what duty he is getting out OF
his water, and If he finds that he is
not up to the standard, he may take
the necessary steps to improve the
position of his bitches or may. during
the fall and early winter, cut off the
high spots and fill in the low spots or
the field and in this way increase the
duty of his water two, three, and even
fourfod.
There are two general ways OF
speaking of the duty of water. One
is to state the number of acres
second foot of water will take care OF,
and the other is TO speak OF the mum
Der of acre feet of water used per
acre
We used to figure that land in this
section needed one second foot of wa
ter for every 40 acres, and in this case
the duty of water was 40 acres pei
second foot Later we raised this
r duty to 60 acres per second foot; Their
we made the duty so acres per secont
: foot and for long time II was the
, custom TO provide a second foot o
water for each S0-acre tract Now W.
are figuring the duty of water to b.
4 100 or 1870 acres per second foot
a Can We do better than this? W.
certainly can. for in southern Cali
fornia. where water is scarce and va
q liable. they make a second foot OF wa
n ter take care of 800 acres, and wher
q sub-irrigation, by means of under
ground pipes. is used, the duty i
@ some cases has reached 1000 acre
o per second foot.
O This method however, OF hgurln
+ duty is not the best by any means, 10
o 1t presupposes a continuous flow {
one second foot throughout the irr
$ cation season The farmer when b
s irrigates usually wants more than
e second-foot head. and he uses 1t for
ID few DAYS OF weeks and then uses y
l, water at all for a period. Hence, tn
" second way of stating IT, which is
acre feet per acre. is usually the bel
way.
A second foot of water running Il
sr "a hours delivers approximately t"
IS acre feet (To be exact, 1t deliver
r two acre feet in "a hours. IL minutes
re Let us say the irrigating period is /.
Or DAYS. and one second-foot would d
ID liver in that time approximately 2
* acre feet. If this were applied all
IN once to 100 acres, 1t would cover II
w a depth of "a feet. and we wou
ut say that the duty Of water in IN
rh case is "a acre feet per acre.
ed The duty of water. then. in ac
'p- feet per acre. is the number of &C
he feet of water applied to each acre
Cd land. during the entire season.
Id varies the country over. from one &C
er foot per acre, to 10 or u acre feet p
as acre.