American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1911-02-25
MOISTURE FOR CROPS
treat Want of Farmer Is Water
During Dry Spells.
MANY Localities IN West Where Suo-
ply Of Water Can be Obtained for
Irrigation, Defying Drouths
and Assuring Big Crops.

Mr.. H. Fl. Lyon says: Il had rath.
er see the government assist in soly.
ing some Of our problems of water.
supply, than to see so much money
going into irrigation and other
schemes at enormous distances from
our markets." Owing to the fact that
copious rains have frequently fallen
soon after great battles, in which
there had been heavy artillery firing,
1t was generally believed that the fir
Ing OF heavy guns caused the mois-
ture with which the air was laden %
DE condensed into drops, and fall to
the earth, producing rain in a dry
Time. In order to test this belief,
congress appropriated several thous-
n dollars, which was expended dur
Ing a great drouth In Texas by army
ohcers, writes ]. H. Ingram in the
Country Gentleman. The heaviest
guns were fired continuously for a
week and brought no rain.
L great want OF farmers Is mois-
ture in their fields when rains do not
come at the proper intervals, and
their crops suffer or are utterly de-
stroyed. The person who could dis
cover an efectual remedy for the Sc
we're drouths to which most of u
country is subject would be a greater
benefactor than the inventor OF the
steam engine or electric telegraph. A
Wisconsin writer says: "A sufficient
amount Of moisture stored up In the
earth would supply this want (rain in
a dry time) even If no rains fell from
The time Of planting crops until bar
vest time"
Had he said a sufficient amount OF
water stored up on top OF the earth. l
could have agreed with him. In Colo
RADIO, Utah and California. where they
can obtain a supply Of ate on top OF
the ground for irrigation, they can
defy the drouths and raise good crops
every year. Water where it can be
turned on the fields when needed is a
sure thing. Capillary attraction. or
the wonderful rise of the ground wa
ter to the surface, in spite of the at
traction of gravitation. is of immense
value to agriculture when assisted by
the c~ultivator; but there is a limit be-
yond which 1t will o work, and a
reservoir of water a few feet under
his fields would be of nc use to the
farmer unless brought Z the surface
by a pump.
Thre are places where there are
abundant supplies of water stored ID
the earth; but the crops suffer as bad
there from drouth as in any region
Of our country. In Kalamazoo. Mich.
there is a large extern OF country un
derneath which there is an ~inexhaust-
ible supply of water which, when
tapped by artesian wells, rises nearly
to the surface. The city of kalama-
ZOO. containing 5000 inhabitants. is
supplied by artesian wells. The
is underneath the valley like a
shallow lake, and is forced up nearly
to the surface. when tapped. by the
pressure of the rain water descend
ing from the surrounding hills. The
bountiful reservoir is too deep for
capillary attraction to draw it up.
and when the writer "a there du-
ring an August drouth there was no
green to be seen in the meadows. and
the grass in the city park had TO be
watered to keep it alive.
There is water enough under the
great Desert of Sahara. Wherever ar
wells have been bored a plenti-
full supply has been found. and If ca
attraction could bring ii up.
p 1ro uAt,Ij ha No Sacnrr -ka-a avail
plowed nine inches deep will re-
tain all the rain water it is capable of
absorbing. and as much as If plowed
Of course clayey soils will re
more than sandy. When the rain
has sunk much below the depth
we usually plow. it has escaped be-
yond the power of capillary attraction
bring it back TO the surface. |
been in coal mines in Pennsyl-
Tania, from which the team pump
was working night and day hosting
,ut a stream of water nearly enough
o turn a mill. and yet the farmers
nea- by were suffering for lack
IF it.
Capillary attraction often receives
'redit for moisture which II does not
but which is supplied by con-
iensation of the moisture in the at
nosphere-like the condensation of
drops on the outside of the ice
pitcher. You break the crust that
formed on the surface of your
,orn field. and expose the cooler earth
the air coming in contact with
hat cooler earth imparts moisture TO
t. The condensation is not so APP
,arent as in the case OF the ice-wgter
because the soil absorbs ii,
which the pitcher does not. The gov
rnment has tried to get ain by fir
ng cannon and failed. 1t is extreme
V doubtful whether il could get any
.rater-supply for Mr.. Lyon except BY