Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-07-19
NEW AID FOR FARMERS.
he Subirrigation System Which Saves
Both Land and Water.

For the last three months the resi-
dents of Midland and the people of the
South Plains generally have been
watching with great interest the es-
Enlistment at Midland of an irrigat-
ed farm of kind new to Texas and
the Southwest
No water is seen on this farm at
all. In Place of the usual streams
running along the bitches and laterals
the surface of the ground is unbroken
save by waving green crops. The wa
ter is all under the ground. This new
method is called ub-irrigation
Numerous crude attempts have been
made IN recent years to subirrigate
land from perforated pipes laid under
the ground. but they all eventually
proved failures mainly through inabil-
ity to prevent the holes through which
the water escaped from becoming
choked. The system in use on the
Midland farm solves this trouble in
very simple way and has at last made
subirrigation practical and successful
At Midland a well with a capacity of
only forty gallons minute is used to
furnish water to irrigate twenty acres.
a two-horse- power engine is used and
the pump is a four and a quarter
working barrel pump. The equipment
is small and inexpensive. owing to the
small amount OF water required. From
the well the water is pumped first into
$50 gallon settling tank so that all
foreign matter may sink to the bot
tom and not get into the system. The
main feed pipe running the length of
the field is four inches; from it branch
out the lateral tHo-inch pipes through
the field. These pipes are laid two
feet under the ground and the dis
tanee between the laterals is thirty
three feet. The pipes are all concrete
and a machine makes and lays them
in the ditch right on the field. AT dis
tances of three feet apart small holes
are made in the top of these concrete
lateral pipes the entire length of the
ditch; into these holes, while the con-
crete is still damp. is inserted a small
plug with an opening the size of a
pin: on top of this plug. which sticks
up about two inches. is placed a con-
crete cap which fits over the plug and
conforms tn the shape of the pipe.
Where the cap fits on the pipe just
enough space is left for the water
coming through the plug to pereelate
from under the cap and into the soil.
The points of superiority possessed
by subirrigation over surface irriga-
ton are many, the most striking be-
ing the saving in land and in water
According TO the United States Gov
eminent engineers, when twenty acres
of ground is put into surface irriga-
ton exactly one tenth, or two entire
acres, is taken up in bitches, laterals
and borders. This means that the
money spent for these two acres is
absolutely lost. because they yield not
the slightest return in crops With
subirrigation. on the other hand, every
foot OF the ground is cultivated.
Demonstrations have proven that to
subirrigate twenty acres of land re-
CURES Just one-seventh as much water
as is required to surface irrigate the
same land. over 80 Per cent OF the
water pumped on the surface land is
lost. the mai ority by evaporation ana
the rest by absorption in the ground
in the bitches before 1t reaches the
ground to be irrigated.-pallas tTex)
News.