Dry-Farming : A System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low RainfallWidtsoe, John Andreas
Science
Dry-Farming : A System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low Rainfall
Widtsoe, John Andreas
Dry farming
During the last few years considerable work has been done to
determine the feasibility of raising water for irrigation by
pumping. Fortier reports that successful results have been obtained
in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. He declares that a good type of
windmill located in a district where the average wind movement is
ten miles per hour can lift enough water twenty feet to irrigate
five acres of land. Wherever the water is near the surface this
should be easy of accomplishment. Vernon, Lovett, and Scott, who
worked under New Mexico conditions, have reported that crops can be
produced profitably by the use of water raised to the surface for
irrigation. Fleming and Stoneking, who conducted very careful
experiments on the subject in New Mexico, found that the cost of
raising through one foot a quantity of water corresponding to a
depth of one foot over one acre of land varied from a cent and an
eighth to nearly twenty-nine cents, with an average of a little more
than ten cents. This means that the cost of raising enough water to
cover one acre to a depth of one foot through a distance of forty
feet would average $4.36. This includes not only the cost of the
fuel and supervision of the pump but the actual deterioration of the
plant. Smith investigated the same problem under Arizona conditions
and found that it cost approximately seventeen cents to raise one
acre foot of water to a height of one foot. A very elaborate
investigation of this nature was conducted in California by Le Conte
and Tait. They studied a large number of pumping plants in actual
operation under California conditions, and determined that the total
cost of raising one acre foot of water one foot was, for gasoline
power, four cents and upward; for electric power, seven to sixteen
cents, and for steam, four cents and upward. Mead has reported
observations on seventy-two windmills near Garden City, Kansas,
which irrigated from one fourth to seven acres each at a cost of
seventy-five cents to $6 per acre. All in all, these results justify
the belief that water may be raised profitably by pumping for the
purpose of irrigating crops. When the very great value of a little
water on a dry-farm is considered, the figures here given do not
seem at all excessive. It must be remarked again that a reservoir of
some sort is practically indispensable in connection with a pumping
plant if the irrigation water is to be used in the best way.
The use of small quantities of water in irrigation
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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