Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-01-29

ne COuld get PICK and shovel into
f, it. Once it had been loosencd for
chilly, battery of trenches" as the
naturalist calls them was dug Each
trench, which ran exactly with the
contour of the land, was two feet
wide and four feet deep.
The trenches were 4 rod apart, and
connected with each other by shall
low trenches running the long way
of the hillside. which were Is inches
deep. When the work was finished,
the hillside had been terraced. and
Kellogg was ready for the finishing
touches. Into each trench. three feet
OF rock was piled. This was covered
with six inches OF hay and then the
entire surface covered over with
earth. The lS-inch trenches were en-
tirely filled with rock.
The work was done now and the
naturalist sat back to wait. He had
begun his work in the spring of 1912
and finished it that fall. During the
winter he was gone from his home,
making the Orpheum circuit from
which he has lectured for several
years. Before he left California,
great blotches had begun to appear
on the terraced lano, showing the
presence OF moisture. When he re-
turned there last spring he found that
there was a little brook running down
the hillside. His trcnched sail was
moist with constant moisture that
welled up from the earth and ready
for planting.
This fall from fruit trees. vege-
tables and garden stuff OF all kinds
planted last spring he gathered a
phenomenal harvest and from his
Icaretaker on the place he knows that
the garden is still in bloom. There
was one patch of cucumbers IL feet
square. He gathered over 1000 big
cucumbers in few months from it.
His tomato plants, set out in April,
began fruiting in June and have been
at work ever since. They have pro-
duccd hundreds of bushels of toma-
oes and are now in bloom with both
green and ripe fruit on them.
- 3lit trees. set out-in March, had
attained by fall a comparative growth
OF three years. Water cress had
sprung up abaundantly near the
brook, and mimuius, which will only
grow as a u.r vlu- there is six
feet of water, was in bloom all sum
mer long.
The best way that | can explain
this method of sub-irrigation in order
10 bring it forcibly to the popular
mind is to use the example of the
water pipes in the cellar basement
which begin to sweat on the hot days
of the summer" explained Mr.. Kcl-
logg. in an interview. The water is
trying to get out of the pipes con-
stantly.
so it is that the water is. trying
constantly TO get out of the earth.
When these horizontal wells are
built, the rock with which the trench
es are filled acts as the pitch which
draws out the water. The covering
OF hay and earth over the rock makes
the rock sweat and soon the water
has been drawn to the surface by
capillary attraction.
This same system of sub-irrigation
where natures does all the work, once
the trenches have been built, has
been tried with equal success in
logg. Land which was purchased
for Sl4 an acre is held today for
$1,000 an acre. The system will work
with equal success in Colorado, or
any other state, according to the nat
uralist, the only prerequisite being a
certain drop in the land. 1t can be
used where there is drop only OF
a quarter of an inch but in that case
five acres must be put in to get a
good stream. 1t works best with a
decided drop and Kellog's land shows
a drop OF three feet to the rod.
What | do is to aerate the ground
and to pull the water out OF it. says
Kellogg. There is water everywhere
You can see it out on the desert when
coyotes, waiting for their prey to die,
will go off few feet from the place
where the animal is dying and begin
to dig. In a few minutes they will
be tapping up water. That is be-
cause their ears are attuned to catch
the pitch the vibration of the water.
and they can locate the exact spot
in which they must dig to find it.
A man might dig in every spot
around it and not locate the right
place.
"Oncc ground has been prepared
in this way, the work on it is done
for al time. There is never any
plowing. 1t cannot freeze and it is
perpetually moist. Men constantly
are spending millions of dollars in
venting new plows and then laboring
for months at a time in using the
plows. All that is done away with
by sub-irrigation.
"On the ordinary irrigated farm
the farmer turns moisture over the
surface OF his land. Part of it sinks
into the soil and bakes in hard
crust and the rest is absorbed by the
sun. 1t is both a foolish and an un-
natural process.