The Glenwood post., 1911-05-20
THE DUTY OF WATER

Fort Collins, March 14.-The follow
ing bulletin explaining the duty of
water'' has just been issued by the
State Agricultural college: 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 see
tion and irrigating their fields for
years. They have seen the value of
water increase year after year, and
they know that water in a reservoir is
like money in bank, and should be
used when and where it will do the
most good, and made to go as far as
possible.
Zone farmer uses certain head of
water and with it covers five acres of
his farm in day. Another farmer
uses the same head and irrigates only
2R 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.
"It 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 po'
sition of his bitches or may, during the
fall and early winter, cut off the high
spots and fill in the low spots of the
field and in this way increase the duty
of his water two, three, and even four
fold.
There are two general ways OF
speaking of the duty of water. One Is
to state the number of acres a second
foot of water will take care of, and
! the other is to speak of the number of
| acre feet of water used per acre.
1--WE used to figure that land in this
section needed l second foot of water
for every 40 acres, and in this case the
duty of water was 40 acres per second
foot. Later we raised this duty to so
acres per second foot; then we made
the duty so acres per second foot, and
| for long time it was the custom to
| provide second foot of water for
each S0acre tract. Now we are fgur
ing the duty of water to be 100 or 100
acres per second foot.
"Can we do better than this? We
| certainly can, for in southern Califor-
| mia, where water is scarce and valus
bic, they made second foot Of water
take care of 800 acres, and where sub
| irrigation, by means of underground
has reached 1000 acres per second foot.
| "This method, however, of figuring
duty is not the best by any means. for
| it presupposes continuous flow of l
second foot throughout the irrgating
season. The farmer when he irrigates
usually wants more than a second foot
head, and he uses it for few days or
weeks and then uses no water at all
| for period. Hence, the second way
of stating it, which is in acre feet per
acre, is usually the best way,
for "a hours delivers approxima tely 2
| acre feet. (tTo be exact it delivers 2
| acre feet in "a hours, IL minutes) Let
us say the irrigating period is 12O days,
and one second foot would deliver in
that time approximately 240 acre feet.
If this were applied all at once to 100
acres. it would cover it to depth Of
"a feet, and we would say that the
duty of water in this case, is "a acre
feet per acre.
'The duty of water, then. il acra
feet per acre, is the number OF acre
feet of water applied to each acre of
land. during the entire season. 1t va
ries the country over, from l acre foot
per acre, to 10 or ~ acre feet per acre.
"Why not make an experiment then,
Mr.. Farmer, and see what duty you are
getting from your water? 1t will pay
you."