The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1917-07-06

In most parts of the state the crops
have already been sowed, but in many
sections there is new land that must
be prepared for irrigation. For
ease and economy in handling water
on irrigated crops, too much stress
cannot be laid on the preliminary
preparation of the land for the crops.
After the land is cleared the pre-
paration of the soil depends some
what upon the method of irrigation
followed and this in turn depends
upon the contour of the land and
crops to be raised. There are several
methods used but the greatest pro-
portion of irrigated land in this state
IS irrigated by the flooding method.
Other methods that are used are the
furrow, corrugation, basin, border,
etc.
Removing Brush.
Lands which produce native grass
es, low cacti, small sage brush, rab-
bit brush or other similar small yege-
tatlon can be plowed without first re-
moving the vegetation. After the
blowing the large plants can be re-
moved and burned. Tracts which
produce heavy sage brush three to
five feet tall in clumps from five to
eight feet apart are fore difficult to
prepare for irrigation. Brush of this
kind may be partly cleared by drag
glng back and forth over it heavy
steel rail, or a heavy timber, shod
with a sharpened steel shoe. This is
dragged back and forth over the same
strip after which the loose brush can
be raked into piles and burned The
brush that is not torn out is grubbed
out by hand. Some companies make
a sage brush grubbing attachment for
road graders. This consists of Sc
ries of heavy teeth that pull up or
break off the brush.
Grading and Leveling.
After blowing, the land must be
leveled and graded in order that the
water can be distributed uniformly.
The Importance of doing this work
thoroughly cannot be emphasized too
strongly as much labor and time can
be saved in irrigating by having the
land we'll prepared The Fresno
scraper is an efficient tool in NOV
ing dirt from the humps into the low
eight feet wide and IS to 20 feet long
has been used with much success. The
leveler is made of 2 by s or 2 by 10
Two pieces of the length
desired are set on edge and are con-
nected by three cross pieces also set
on edge, the one to the front and the
one to the back being slanted back
ward one inch for each two inches in
width. The center cross plank is set
vertical. The leveler must be firmly
braced.
After the preliminary leveling is
done water can be turned on to the
land which will show up the high and
the low places. After this flooding,
the final leveling is done by scraping
the high places into the lower basins.
Flowing and Seeding.
Back burrows and dead burrows
should be avoided as much as possible
in blowing land for irrigation. This
can be accomplished by the use of
the twoway pillow or the reversible
disc pillow, where the disc is neces-
sary.
The way in which the seeding is
done can be made to assist in distri
buting the water in irrigation. For
billy land the drill rows can be run
around the hills nearly along contour
lines by running parallel with the
supply bitches and as the water is
flooded on the land the burrows will
check the velocity and help distribute
the water uniformly over the land.
For almost level land the rows can be
run down the slope to help distribute
the water and there will be no danger
Of forming gullies on account of the
water following the drill rows. To
run the rows across the hillside helps
avoid cutting of the field by gullies.
For further information on irrigat-
ing land, write for experiment station
No. 20, to the state agricul-
tural college, BOZeman, Montana.