The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1920-09-18
Cites Successful Pump Irrigation
Irrigation Expert Writes of What is Being Accomplished In
Grass Valley, Humboldt County, Nevada
BY Newton Hibbs

vi n brauley II DOnneTC ldTmS III GTdSS NduSy hCiS
are some remarkable demonstrations of land reclamation by
pump irrigation. Some of the crops produced on these tracts
of reclaimed land cannot be excelled any place in the world.
The lesson afforded by these examples should be worth a mil
lion dollars to Humboldt County.
On the Bradley farm a third crop of Alfalfa is being har-
vested that cannot be beaten for yield and quality in any coun-
try. Alfalfa is now recognized as the king of crops, and alfalfa
production is the best possible standard of measurement of land
values from an agricultural point of view. This crop gives a
positive value of 5000 an acre to the Bradley farm and to the
general character of the land of which it lisa representation.
The Bohnert farm, like the Bradley farm, demonstrates the
success of pump irrigation by crop production of alfalfa and po-
tatoes. Seventy acres were irrigated on the Bohnert farm by
pumping water 20 feet from one well. Two acres of potatoes
of the seventy acres of crop will pay the whole seasons cost of
irrigation water. The example of these two farms should be
worth a million dollars to Humboldt County Pictures of these
crops should be displayed on the show screens.
Pump irrigation, wherever generally practiced, has dem
onstrated to be more economical and satisfactory than the aver
age gravity systems of the country. The first cost of water
rights is much more than the cost of pumping plant installation,
and the fees of maintaining bitches and reservoirs often are a
greater expense than pumping water for irrigation; and a SUBJ
surface water supply is more constant and reliablethanthevary
ing flows from precipitation. photographic surveys have prov
en- that many thousands of acres of Government land in Hum
boldt County could be irrigated from underground supplies of
water by an average pump lift of less than 20 feet. 1t is a
mathematical proposition that one gallon of ffteen-cent oil will
lift water enough twenty feet high to cover three acres one inch
deep. Any farmer knows that two inches of rainfall every ten
days through the growing season would afford moisture suff-
cient to produce a good crop. The actual fuel cost of pumping
water twenty feet high is only five cents an acre-inch. Thirty
acre-inches can be supplied to the growing crop twenty feet
high for only $1.50, which would be two inches every ten days
through five months of a growing season. All costs of water
for the most exhaustive crop would be less than three dollars
per acre for the season.
Almost every irrigation district in the world has had spec
ial Encouraging conditions of soil and climate to beovercomebe-
fore maximum crops became dependable. Some of the best
projects in the country were abandoned by the early farmers
who failed to produce crops by irrigation methods learned in
other districts. Nevada soil and climate present difficult prob
lens yet to be mastered before general success in crop produc-
ton is assured. An identical condition caused the total aban-
dOnmaut of one nrOiect in California. IRRIGATION reform made
that district one of the richest in the State a few years later.
The scientific use of Nevada's available water supply would
greatly advance the agricultural interests of the State. The
water requirement of one ton of wild haydn Nevada is five times
that required to produce a ton of alfalfa hay. The irrigation
of the river-bottom soils which waste the water into underlying
gravel has created the fanacy that ordinary cultivated crops re-
qure excessive amounts of irrigation water 1t Is a fact, how
ever, that the crop demands for water are practically uniform
under varying soil and climatic conditions. The upto-date
farmer conserves the soil moisture under all crop growing pro-
cesses. The scientific farmer never wastes irrigation water by
drainage or evaporation. Three acrefeet Of water will pro-
duce a crop under any soil or climatic condition If the applica-
ton is made by a scientific irrigator,