Gunnison news-champion., 1920-07-16
THE HIGH DUTY OF WATER

By J. G. Wheeler in Field and Farm
There has always been considerable
difference of opinion among our Colo
RADIO farmers as 10 how much water is
required for successful irrigation. We
are just at this time beginning to
learn that there is something in the
natural law which governs the trans
pOrtation of moisture thru the stems
and leaves Of plants. This natural law
Is so absolute that il applies 20 nearly
all classes of soil and so nearly the
same in all conditions of climate that it
can be relied upon for all practical
purposes
A close observation of field practice,
however. bears out the fact that the
amount of water transpired by crops
varies somewhat with the kind of crop
grown. This appears to vary from
$50 TO 400 pounds of water to each
pound of dried or cured product; and
yet experience teaches US that we can
hardly tie up TO this rule rs the exact
relationship Of the pounds of water to
the pounds Of crop. We have learned
also that wheat requires the lesser
amount and alfalfa the larger guam
tity. We know that a fifty-bushel
crop of wheat including the straw,
stubble and roots, should produce
| about four ton of cured product. We
know that an acre inch of water
weighs ll3 tons, hence this crop should
require S.S acre inches of water to ma
ture IL.
We have noticed that dry farmers
have been growing from twenty-five
to forty bushel to the acre every al
ternate year for thirty years or more
where the precipitation has averaged
about fourteen inches,while neighbor
within q pistol shot across the canal
and under irrigation does scarcely bet
ter than this with from one to three ir-
lrigations in season-with this diff
erence, that the irrigator tries to crop
every year, but finds that after three
straight crops of wheat his land shows
failure unless rotation or fertilization
are resorted to. We sometimes see
dry farms fail to produce paying
crops, but We more often see large
areas of irrigated land brot to the
point of abandonment to mere pasture
or even not fit for that We constant
~ are reminded Of the suggestion that
when We adopt the practice of irrga-
ton we allow ourselves to believe that
the more water we can use the larger
crop returns will be.
This idea has been promoted very
largly by the efforts of the early ap-
propriators Of water from streams to
show to courts as large q requirement
as possible in the fear that later ap-
proprietors may jeopardize their sa-
cred rights to all the waters of the
stream. Then too, we have noticed
very large returns from the abundant
use of water with an increase in yield
as the amount Of water is increased,
but in these cases few years Of this
practice is followed by a sudden and
almost total collapse Of the soil power
and reclamation must be resorted to-
How then, can the terms of expression
in present contracts be reconciled
to an inch duty to an acre, the second
foot to the acre, or the weight of the
water to the weight Of the crop?
We have noted that a fifty-bushel
crop of wheat requires 1000 tons Of
water on s.s acre inches or duty rate
of about $40 acres to the second foot
flow, and which would be termed 4
high duty of water. As I have said
alfalfa hay requires nearly 400 pounds
of water to mature one pound Of
cured crop. A four or five ton crop
of hay, therefore, win require 1000