Irrigation for the Farm, Garden, and Orchard by Henry Stewart

Author:Henry Stewart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: O. Judd company
Published: 1893-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

0 H A P T B K XVI-

IBRIGATION OF ARABLE LANDS.

Few of us ever consider tliat the larger portion of the arable surface of the United States is doomed to comparative sterility, unless brought under systematic and permanent irrigation. West of the 100th meridian of longitude, almost to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and from our southern to our northern boundary, stretches a vast tract of land, rich in every element of fertility but moisture, and useless for the purposes of agriculture in its present condition. But while the immense tract is arid in its climate, and for all practical purposes it may be said to be absolutely rainless, yet there flows, across or beneath its surface, the water-shed of a vast and intricate range of mountains, snow-clad during a part or the whole of the year, and which divides it into two portions. It needs but to capture this water, and spread it over the surface, to insure abundant and certain harvests. It may surprise a farmer, used to depend upon the changeful seasons of the Eastern part of the country, to learn that upon these arid lands there may be grown luxurious crops of grass, grain or roots, with the greatest certainty ; that in this climate, tbe farmer who has brought the waters beneath his yoke, has secured literally and naturally the fulfillment of the promise, that seed-time and harvest should never more fail, while he himself enjoys it only in part and accidentally, and occasionally fails completely to realize it. But this is the fact, for drouth and aridity are entirely subjugated by means of irrigation, and are, strangely enough, only sources of anxiety and loss in those districts were rain falls, and the farmer is subject to conditions of climate which he can neither foresee nor control. Seed-time and harvest are only sure where irrigation is systematically used by the cultivator.

But the irrigation of lands of the character under consideration, can only be profitably undertaken by the combined effort of a community. The necessary engineering works, such as dams, canals, sluices, water-ways, and aqueducts, can only be constructed by means of ample capital, and for the use of numerous farmers, cultivating in the aggregate many thousands of acres. In such cases, the total cost divided among the farms to be irrigated, would leave for each one a sum far less than that needed to clear a farm of equal size from the forest. The actual cost of irrigating works of a permanent character, has been found to range from so small a sum as $1 per acre, upward. That is, a community of farmers, numbering some hundreds, may construct the necessary dams, canals, sluices and feed-gates to irrigate 10,000 to 50,000 acres of land, at a total cost not to exceed $5 per acre, where the conditions of water supply, character of soil, and surface of the land are favorable. To clear an acre of average timber land, will cost $12 to $25 per

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.