The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1916-05-11
IRRIGATION
A Chautauqua Paper Read At The Last Meeting
of The Circle
By E. E. E.

very ancient: tnere is evidence TO snow that
works for the storage and distributing of
irrigation water were constructed in Egypt
as early as 1000 B. c. Extensive work,
intended for irrigation on large scale ex-
listed In time of remote antiquity, also in
Assyria, Persia, India, Ceylon, China and
| other parts Of the East, as well as in Peru
and Mexico and in the Southwestern United
States, New Mexico and ArizonaI. In all
OF these regions irrigation is necessary for
successful agriculture because the rainfall is
insufficient for needs of ordinary crops.
Irrigation is also required even in humid
countries for crops such as rice and cram
berries which require a large amount Of
water
Water for irrigation is derived from, first:
Natural streams, springs and lakes; second,
wells; third, storage of storm waters.
The simplest and most common method
of securing water for irrigation is to divert
1t from streams by means of dam, and a
ditch, or canal, running along the sides of
|
fall of the valley or the stream is slight,
however, the canal may wind along close to
the stream for miles before any extensive
area lies beneath the canal in position to
receive the water it carries. 1t frequently
happens that a diverting dam, or one or
more large storage reservoirs must be pro-
vlded. In a number of instances SUBJ
merged dams have been built across the
valley of a stream whose water disappears in
summer. The practice is to build reser-
voirs and headworks, generally at the high
est point consistent with good location for
both these structures and the upper portions
OF the conduits leading from them. Ar
tesian wells are most important source of
supply for irrigation in many western Sec
tions of this country. In California,
Kansas, Nebraska and other states very
fair supplies may be obtained from COM
paratively shallow wells by pumping. In
California water is sometimes developed by
| tunneling into hillsides, where pumps were
used and they have generally been simple
in construction and of small capacity In
very few instances steam pun ping ngines
are used, particularly where large quanti-
ties of water are to be lifted to considerable
height. This is true in California, Hawaii
Islands and elsewhere, where large areas of
land are irrigated by immense pumping
plants. Pumping is increasing, of late,
with the development of water from wells
and with the demand for water to irrigate
land that cannot be reached from existing
low level canals, and in rice irrigation in
Louisiana and Texas. In many instances
water can be secured in this manner at less
expense than by gravity, since it permits
the utilizing of near by sources thus avoid
ing long and costly canals. On the eastern
slope of the Big Horn range in Northern
Wyoming the usual method, and the cheap
in the source of supplies and departing just
sufficiently from the natural contour of the
country to insure flow of water. When
they first started to irrigate in this region
such bitches were little more than single
burrows or channels that might be formed
by pillow. and in fact, most of them were
made by blowing and later turning up the
sides and different outlets with shovel and
to- day there are hundreds of miles of irriga-
ton bitches and canals along the slope of
this range of mountains. | know one
ranchman, living at Parkman, Wyoming,
who has rs miles of such bitches and
canals on his own ranch.
In rolling or hilly country, canals may
have to follow roundabout routes to main
tain their level, thus adding greatly to their
length, and it has been found to be cheaper, |
or, when stream or valley is encountered, |
even necessary to continue the line of the |
canal changing the construction to an
elevation fume, or else substituting pipe |
or inverted siphon laid on, or in the ground |
This has been found to be necessary, not |
only in Wyoming but on the Huntley |
Project in Montana in Yellowstone Valley, |
which is fifteen miles East of Billings.
The fumes on and about the Huntley |
Project in the first few years after the
irrigation had started were made of wood,
with rectangular cross sections but in the last
two or three years steel has been employed,
particularly in preciptous rocky locations,
or, where crossing streams or deep ravines.
The ordinary fumes of boards or plank are
subject to leakage. To avoid this and
also to give channel better adapted to the
flow of water, wooden slaves are now en-
ployed, formed into semi-crcular, or
other shape, designed to give curved bot
tom. The slaves are held in place by
steel rods, or bands, so arranged that they
may be frightened by turning nuts. The
steel fumes are made of steel Plates riveted
together. Most of the fumes in this valley
/ have mentioned rest on mudslls or tim