Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1913-06-28
DAM THE DRAWS
Plant Trees and Summer FaIIow

do YOU know that there are good
many terms we use in the English
language, that we use without COM
prehension? We say things and use
terms without even guessing or hav-
ing the least conception of the real
thing Standing on the streets of
Colorado Springs, one day, 1 said to
policeman, Glow far is it up to
the top of Pixies Peak?" He said,
From where we are now it is Ia
miles" L looked up toward the top
and thought to myself, "Well, l
guess not. 1t is not as far from here
to the top of that mountain as it is
from Ness City to Ransom They
must have some other measure out
here" / said to the policeman:
"Well, it surely doesn't look it. :"
He replied, "You walk it and you
from here to the cog railroad depot
and nine from there to the top.
Well, you know some people won't
take the word of anybody, and / hap
pened to be one of that stripe. So,
L boarded street car and paid three
| fares to get to the cog depot. Then
/ took my feet, one at a time and
L climbed that steep mountain.
When L arrived at the top eight
hours later, / said that policeman
knew what he was talking about 1t
is good nine miles, sure as you are
born, if no more.
This illustration serves my pur-
pose. We talk about dams, but we
do not really know the meaning.
talk about the benefits, but do l
use language strong enough to get
| the full meaning of the term? So if
you don't believe me, L can assure
you of one thing, that / know it is
nine miles from the depot in Mani
tou, Colorado, to the top of Pixies
Peak, and / have just illustrated how
i proved it, -See2 -. ..s,s
] All will not learn as / did; they are
not too lazy, but their breath is too
short. So, all will not learn the val
ue of a dam as L have, they are not
too unconcerned, but they lack faith.
| So, to ginger up your faith bit is
the object of the following iliusbra-
| tion.
1
urement, my largest dam, out north
east of town, holds l3 and fraction
over acre feet of water, and that an
acre foot is an acre a foot deep in
water. or in other words, if you will
take a spade and dig up an acre OF
ground foot deep and fill it with
water you will have an acre foot.
Well, Mr.. Brown says that my dam
will hold 13 and fraction acres.
For good measure let's drop the frac-
! tion and call it 13 acres; that means
lot of water now let see.
| An acre foot of water weighs lis
tons. If you have a team that can
pull two tons or forty hundred and
could bring four loads day from
! this dam to Ness City it would take
IA days to empty the pond provided
you hauled a little better than two
tons at each load. Now don't think
you have taken it out when it was
full, but when their lib of it, or one
acre foot If the pond was full it
would take six months to haul the
water, or 1872 days Quite job.
| Now, let's look at it from another
angle An acre foot of water, means
q, 154 gallons, or SAB barrels. Our
merchants sell stock tanks, and the
size is usally 20 barrels 1t would
take 81 of these tanks to hold
an acre foot of water, and then you
would: naSe enought water left to fill
a tank holdiag-12 barrels.
| Do you begin to see the idea, then
1 III
pond supported by this one dam
holds 353 thousand gallons of water
1t holds 7,O6O barrels of fifty gallons
each. 1t will fill 323 stock tanks
holding 20 barrels each If we con-
1 fine this water in a ditch two feet
deep aud four feet wide, it would
have to be 80 miles long to hold this
pond. 1t would reach from here to
Dighton. Now remember this is one
pond.
1t takes 20 inches of rainfall at the
proper season of the year to raise a
good crop, but an acre of crop only
needs seven inches of actual water TO
make it good. So the engineer tells
US that an annual rainfall of 20 inch
es means that the crop uses seven
/ inches; the balance of the rain of
I6 inches runs off, is eyaporated or
wasted in one way or another So,