Weekly journal-miner., 1911-08-02
PUMPING PLANTS ON
 DRY FARMS INCREASING

v settled by so-called "dry-farmers" may be gleaned from the following article in the current issue of Field and Farm Denver
 Sinking wells into water bearing strata to secure domestic and irri- gation supplies is now being resorted to as never before. New and broad CT conceptions of the relations of sub terranean water to irrigation have prevailed. Individual irrigation under takings have been recently established very largely upon wells and pumps or upon flowing wells, wherever they
 can be had. During the last three years there have been perhaps ten
 times as many pumping outfits set
 up for irrigation as had been err,
 ployed during the whole earlier ir-
 rigation of this state.
 Large irrigation companies have
 sunk groups of wells and pumped from them into their distributing ditches
 and. fumes. Individual irrigators
 have sunk wells and bought pump
 ing plants when the ditch water fail
 ed and have now learned the superior
 ity of home supply, to be drawn up
 just when it can be used to best
 advantage. and often to be had for
 much less than the rates of the ditch
 companies. Large regions which had
 never secured irrigation systems have
 been forced by drouth to seek water
 and having found it below ground
 ample quantities they will not
 fail in the future to use irrigation
 as a supplement to the rainfall.
 Many of these plants are eertifu-
 gal pumps run by steam. These are
 the larger plants, fifteen to forty
 horsepower and in some instances more and the size of the pumps rang es from four to twelve inches. Most of the smaller pumps are run by gasoline although several use crude oil and many of them are also cen trfugal. Some of these are deep well pumps and they are very satis- factory in raising water from great CT depth than 100 feet. From 100 to 200 feet they work admirably. !. The cost of pumping differs mater ially with the different kinds of . wells. Figuring from what may be a safe average of the actual cost of fuel, No. pump, centrifugal with gasoline as power, at seventy feet depth will cost about s day. This should result in 600 gallons minute 36.O0O gallons an hour, or 360,GO0 gallons a day of ten hours.
 Such stream of water is calcu- lated to irrigate about five acres day to a depth of little more than two and hrdl cmfwy cmfwmf than 21a inches. A better and safer would probably be four acres a day to a depth of about two in ches. But, generally speaking, il 8 safe to say that at a cost of s an acre land can be irrigated two or three times at $6 an acre annually Q and it is certainly worth the money in dry seasons like the presen-. The average cost of a plant is about sl.- 200. In many cases the cost will be only a fraction of that given. But even the higher figures are below the cost warranted by the saving of a crop, as the experience of individuals has shown Over large areas of the country windmills are used as motors for irrigation pumps and careful ae counts of their efficiency are avail able. They unquestionably serve an excellent purpose under favorable con ditiOns up to the limits of their ca pacIty.
 Gasoline engines are being used even up to a capacity of 5000 gal Ions of water a minute, but the or dinary plants are less than one-tenth of that Crude-oil engines are also used and steam plants using small stationary and portable engines are pressed into service, while electric motors, along long-pOwer circuits from generators at waterfalls or other great sources of power, are being fully employed. Instance of the prof itable employment of all these agen- cies are abundant all over the arid region. Of course such an installa- ton calls for reservoir So that a good head can be retained and always