East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1919-09-20


varcr and did not reduce the yiel'
materially.
In 1918 the minimum plat received
irre-inches once In 1S days, the av
rage three acre-inches and the max
n,un four acre-inches with the re.
iuit that slightly less water was used
IN the maximum plat and the yield,
Acic not changed. The results of this
| Experiment show that on this soil type
,t over 4 acrs-inches should be ap-
'l'sd for an IRRIGATION and that the
| ,al Of orce In two weeks has al
,ayn given the greatest net returns.
When water is applied each Week the
iddfional labor cost of applying the
,aier and the additional water
'harre do not Justify the slightly in
reasod yield.
border Method of Irrigation.
A number of systems of irrigation
1ave been tried out and II was found
hat the border method was best suit
% to the local conditions A border
5 strip OF land which Is graded lev
ii from side to side and takes the
slope of the land lengthwise, the wa
ter being controlled by n dixie be-
tween the strips. This method has
como into very general use on the
sroject largely through the efforts of
the experiment farm and the local
representative of the office of dem
onstrations on reclamation projects of
thc l.. s department of agriculture.
The advantages of the system are that
1t is comparatively economical
meats of preparing land for irriga-
ton originally, that economical APP
Dlicat.ons Of water may be made with
1t and the labor of irrigation is
greatly reduced as compared with the
flooding or furrow methods. The re-
suits OF border experiments are given.
Il. The length of border experiment,
three borders, 100. ITS and $50 feet
long were used. The amount of wa
ter used on the ITS foot border was
only slightly more than on the 100
foe: border but much more water was
requii ed to irrigate the $50 foot bor-
der. Only sc acre-foot per acre was
required to run the etxra rs feet
which the IT'S foot border was longer
than the ZOE foot border while the
extra i5 feet of the 150 foot border
over the 175 foot border required
LA acre-feet of water.
Five Borders Used.
Five borders which varied from 30
to 40 feet wide at five foot intervals
were used for the width of border ex-
pertinent. The amount of water re-
auircd to irrigate them increased di-
rect.y with the width of the borders.
the 40 foot border requiring a fourth
more water than the 90 foot border.
The size of the border must be
governed by the type of soil. the
siopt of the land and the head of wa
ter available Each piece of land has
it, own peculiar conditions and the
way Il is to be laid out will depend up
on these factors but the above results
as TO size should be kept in mind.
Lysimeter Investigations.
The study of the soil moisture on
he rather sandy soil of the experiment |
far1, led to the installation of eight /
ysi:neters in order to trace more |
el.sely than was possible under field |
.onfhtiins the relation of the moisture |
20 The soil. The lysimeters are con- |
.re,e tanks 3.3 feet square and con- |
ain six feet of soil. The soils were |
aiken from the field in six inch lay
RS and placed in the lysimeters i'm
h esame order in as near the original
ensny as possible. The lysimeters
re all irrigated with the same
mounts of water, the percolation /.
arough the six feet is collected in
ottles placed under holes in the bot
,ms. With this equipment the evact
mount of water which is used by the
lahts and is lost by percolation below
,e root zone may be measured. The
arcolation water is analyzed to ascer-
III: what plant foods are leached
@ the soil and in what quantity.
Fine. Medium and Coarse Soil.
The five soil types used are fine.
ciium and coarse sand. silt and silt
am The medium sandy soil grows
D crop; soy beans in the summer and
.tcn in the winter, both crops being
Irned into the soil; alfalfa and al
;fa manured annually. The fine
ND, coarse sand, silt and silt loan
ills grow alfalfa without fertilization.
he percolation from the medium
I'D Iysimeters has each year been
.eatest from that not growing a
or, decreasing in order from those
'OWlnS soy DeanS anu N6ICtis dlIdlld
Id alfalfa manured. The percola-
on from the lysimeters growing al
liza has been lowest from the fine
md, greater from the medium sand
Id greatest from the course sand.
he silt and silt loan soils have held
| the water applied to them. The
tie of percolation from the no crop
Id from the soy bean and vetch ly-
meters increases very rapidly usual
to 10 hours after irrigation and
rs reached the maximum flow with
an hour after the first increase.
rom the maximum rate of flow the
ow decreases until the next irriga-
on. The increased percolation after !
rigation from the fine, medium and
,urse sand growing alfalfa comes 90
"a hourse after irrigation and does
ot reach as high a rate of flow as
ON the no crop and soy bean and
sich lysimeters. The results show
lat there is tendency for the per-
;ntage of percolation to decrease as
le soils are cropped continuously.
Soil Fertility.
A number of experiments are being
onducted which deal indirectly with