VOL. XXVI.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., FEB. 21, 1891.
NO. 8
IRRIGATION IN INDIANA.
Grout Advantages to  be Gained From
Small Outlays.
*l'.H'.-r ri-al by  Captain J. F. Campbell, before tlu'
Parke County Farmers' Institute.;
Irrigate, from Latin irriyo, in and riyo,
to water.
Many crops have been lost in the Wabash valley, which would havo been saved
if there had Deen a good rain at the middle
of the drouth that lost us the crop. As
we cannot yet produce a rain at any time
that may suit our want, we may mitigate
the bad etlects of a drouth, at a cost far
below the beneiits that will result.
-Aliout 10 years ago, I thought of the
practicability of irrigation in this country
and I have, whilo going about my regular
work, studied the topography, with a view
to that ond. I at first thought of a grand
sprinkler, such as one of our large city (ire
engines wonld be, but later experience
and observation taught me that such a
woik would greatly waste water, for next
to no good. Water sprinkled on very dry
ground at night, greatly increases vegetable thirst next day. The rootlets and
suckers of vegetables, during the temporary wetting, build toward the moisture
only to be baked by the hot sun, soon to
follow. An artificial moisture to bo effective, must be moderate in quantity, continuous in supply and free from rapid
evaporation.
On nearly every field in this country is
an elovation, on which an artificial pond
or reservoir can be cheaply constructed,
■""• that will hold from 3,000 to 5,000 barrels of
water. A reservoir four rods square and
four feet deep will hold over 1,000 barrels.
It will require 550 yards .of embankment
and can 1j9 built on contract for §65
Larger ones can be built much cheaper in
proportion to the water capacity.
Supposca reservoir to have a capacity of
of 4,000 barrels. From an estimate furnished me by Frank L. Daugherty, late
chief engineer of the Indianapolis fire department, a force pump can be run by one
of onr ordinary portable engines, that will
throw 300 gallons per minut9, or 4,050 barrels in nine hours. Such a reservoir can
bo filled in one day, Including setting and
unsetting, at a cost not exceeding $15, if it
had to be put in on contract. One such
engine and pump can do the work of live
square miles, by beginning a little in advance of the drouth.
The water from the reservoir can be let
oirinto small, deep,narrow trenches to various parts of the field after-the manner of
irrigation iu the dry West. A better plan,
and one more economical when once prepared, would be to run the water into
small tile leading off from a main at about
right angles and on nearly a dead level,
following the contour of the field. These
can easily have cut offis arranged to regulate the How of water.
"WHERE IS THE WATER TO COME FROM?
Before answering this question I will
say that a drouth in this country seldom
lasts over three weeks. 15ut often during
that three weeks the crop and the work of
a year are lost. Two years out of three at
least, tbe seasons will be such as to require
no irrigation and for the third year often
one How of water will tide us throngh the
drouth. Therefore but little water will
bo required. To obtain that little, I find,
In looking over the country, that there is
scarcely a field of 20 acres but has the
head of a small brook convenient to it,
which by damming can be made to hold
from 5,000 to 50,000 barrels of water.
From those the water can be forced to the
.  elevated reservoir as before described.
WILL IT SUCCEED IN   CARRYING THE CROP
TflROUdH A DROUTH?
. . In reply, I will observe that it does suc-
* ceed in the dry West all tho year round.
t Why not here during a short drouth?
WILL IT l'AY?
Yes. When we have favorable seasons
our corn yields 40 to 00 bushels per acre,
some fields much more. I know of two
upland clay fields in Penn township,
Parke county, where a few years ago, in
one the corn yield was 90 bushels and in
the other and adjoining field the yield
was 15 bushels per acre, diflerence due to
cultivation. I also know of another
small piece of grouud in the near vicinity
of the before mentioned fields, about one-
tenth of an acre which yielded at the rate
of 150 bushels of corn per acre. It was a
lot where chickens had been confined.
The ground was broken, the corn sowed
and harrowed in. It came upas thick as
grass and the owner with a plow cut out
the major part, leaving rows between
furrows, with on o stalk to about six inches
of breadth each. It had no other cultivation. It soon so shaded the ground that
the summer drouth that prevailed elsewhere was not felt there. The ears were
very short, very thick and well filled.
Dtrring the year 1875, the great flood year
here, the only corn we raised was on tho
hill sides, where during an ordinary year
the yield was poor, and of a dry year
nothing; but that year it was the best
yield I ever saw on any ground. I mention these cases to show the power of our
soil to produce when the conditions are
favorable. With irrigation we may to a
great extent produce the conditions which
are favorable to production.
NOT AN EXPERIMENT
Irrigation is not an untried experiment,
it is indeed no longer an experiment. It
is one of the oldest works of man. The
greatest work of the kind antedates Solomon's Temple. This was made to irrigate
the valley of Moreb in Yemeh, Arabia. It
was a dam two miles long and 120 feet
high; was built of huge blocks of stone,
and did service 2,000 years. It broke at last,
and devasted a great district of country.
My judgment is that when we shall be
prepared for irrigation on the plan I have
given, we shall not need it one year in
ten. Why do I say this? Because, to
irrigate as I propose, each quarter section
of land must have three toil veacresof pond
water. If this were to day the case all
over the State, we should have very little
drouth. There might be periods of several
weeks duration in which there might be
no rainfall; but we should have a humid
atmosphere which would give forth a
bountiful dew every night, which would
feed vegetation and carry it prosperously
through the non-raining period.
DRY A1K AND WATER.
It is very remarkable with what rapidity a dry air will drink up water. In the
room which I occupy in the Court Ilouse
for my office are two large steam heaters.
Their combined length of pipe is 504 feet,
which multiplied by the.circumforonce of
the pipe gives 198 square feet of  radiating.
The room has 7500 cubic feet of space.
This gives 38 cubic feet of air for each
square foot of heating surface of the pipes.
When my window sash gets stuck fast, as
they have been of late,the air becomes so dry
that all the ink in my stand is evaporated
every day. When full it holds 1% cubic
Inches of ink. I was obliged to fill it
every day when the cold snap caused us
to turn on full heat.
flgln the latter part of August, or early
September 1863,1 was notifying the enrolling officers of some order from the Provost Marshall; which caused me to make
a trip that took me by every mill-dam on
Raccoon creek in Parke county from Portland Mills to Armiesburg, seven in number and the distance about 25 miles. The
streams were then fed by the springs alone.
At Portland Mills, I happened to notice
the clear sheet of water pouring over the
mill dam and it reminded me of hearing
when a boy the engineers who superintended  building the Wabash  and  Erie
canal, say that although Raccoon appeared
to be as largo a stream as Sugar Creek, the
latter flowed nearly twice as much water
as the former. Wondered how they ascertained the| quantity of How, and made a
rude mental calculation of the quantity
that was then flowing over the dam there.
I mention this circumstance to show
that I took particular notice of the
water flow. At MeGlarey's Mill
south of Hollenburg six miles below
Portland Mills I noticoJ that the flow did
not seem so great as at Poitland Mills.
At Mausfisld two and one-half miles further down I felt confident thit the quantity of flow had decreased, notwithstanding Kocky Fork and several other creeks
had been added. At Bridgeton four
miles further down the creek it was still
more apparent. Roseville seven miles
further down showed an apparent increase
over Bridgeton as it should, for tho Little
Raccoon had been added. But it appeared
to be less than at Portland Mills. At
Mecca, five and a half miles more the decrease was very noticeable, and at
Armiesburg three miles farther down notwithstanding the addition of Leatherwood,
it was very noticeable that it was less than
the flow at Portland Mills, about 28 miles
above by the stream. The dry,still air had
absorbed the water of Raccoon creek
faster than the springs had fed it. If it
had a channel 50 miles longer the water
would have been entirely evaporated, before it reached the mouth. Well, as "figures wont lie," (but those who use them
often do), if the volume of water flow increased up stream at the rate I have intimated, how much larger should the flow
be at the very head, where it bubbled up
out of the fi„t crawfish hole, than at Portland Mills?
The answer is, that probably at a point
15 miles above Portland Mills there was as
great a water flow as at Portland Mills, or
probably greater. But as we travel up
stream, the ratio of the volume of the
tributaries to the main stream greatly increase, and every time a side branch is
lopped off, the main trunk is more and
more diminished. Besides this, the channels grow narrower and the foliage on
their banks shape them more, and their
sand bars grow smaller. Thus two great
evaporating powers aregreatly diminished.
Otter creek and Lost creek, in Vigo county, go dry several miles above their mouths
for the reasons I have before given.
When the air becomes moist, the streams
rise, because evaporation ceases.
This water, evaporated by the air, if
kept in the vicinity where it is evaporated
as it very generally is during a drouth, for
there is very little wind blow at such
times, will be given back to vegetation in
the form of dew, provided that in the
night the air can be cooled sufficiently;
for a warm air will carry much more
moisture than a cold one. A degree of
moisture in the air which would be carried easily during the day, will be dropped
as dew, in the night on a certain degree of
cooling.
WATER ON EACH '*UARTER
Suppose we had to-day a five acre pond
of water on each quarter section of land in
the State, as we might easily have, you
can see plainly that we should have a much
more humid atmosphere, and having this,
we should have much less destructive
drouths, if any at all, even though there
should be no actual rainfall.
The fish which the ponds will support
will alone pay the cost of the pond.
A CASE IN TOINT.
I cite a case in support of what I say of
the beneficial effect of numerous ponds on
vegetation. During the exhaustingdrouth
of 1881 the middle and south part of our
State were dried to a crisp. The crop reports ' for that year by counties show a
falling off of about 50 per cent in tho corn
crop  in the central  and  southern  part.
But up ia the north end of the State,
where the small laknlets are numerous
though there was little if any more rainfall among the lakes than in the dry belt,
the crops suffered but little Irom tho
drouth.
I was in the Indiana Bureau of Statistics then and helped make up those reports, and hence specially remember the
circumstance. I enquired of people why
such good crop reports came from certain
northern counties, as there was no rainfall
reported from them moro than elsewhere,
and tho  presenco of the numerous  small
lakcj was given as the reason.
 _—*t_-*.	
The Bill Against Lawn Burners.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I understand thero is a bill before tho
Legislature to prevent the use of the gas
lawn-burners, which are such a convenience to the farmers in the gas belt, in
summer they do much for our fruit as
they burn the insects by the million.
Surely tho gas that is under us belongs to
us, and we have as good a right to use it,
as the wood we cut down when clearing
the ground. It will bo needed by and by
for fuel, but j ot no one doubts our right
to use it if we wish to. Surely this bill is
in favor of the trust. J. F.
Box ley.
The Hawk and Crow Remedy.
Editors Indlaua Farmer:
I would say the hawk and crow remedy
of Henry Barker, of \Vorthlngton,is a success. I have lost heavily by hawks and
crows robbing my hens' and turkeys'
nests. I have been 12 years in building up
the Plymouth Rjcks. The first day I
placed a nickels worth of strychnine in a
rabbit and tied the bait up in a tree. In
five minutes down came a large hawk*.
The next <Uy a large ilock of crows came.
In three hours I had 23 crows down; a lot
more went away sick of the falai dose.
The next day a now bait took one more
hawk.   Thanks to tH. B. for  his remedy.
Gibson Co. J. k. Clark.
gltc Ifavra,
Postal Card Correspondence
INDIANA.
Hancock Co., Feb. 14.—Roads muddy;
wheat all right so far, but this free-ting
and thawing is a little hard on it; fanners
very busy preparing wood and hauling
manure. J. W. B.
Green* Co., Feb., 14.— Farmers are having some excellont weather for cleaning
oir their land; repairing fences, etc., preparatory to doing spring work, and are
improving their time; wheat is doing
fairly well since the last rains, and if not
damaged during the next four or five
weeks we will probably have a good crop.
W. B. S.
Elkhart Co., Feb. 11.—We never before
had a nicer winter to do out door work as
we have bad so far; we have had but little
rain and but very little snow, our deepest
snow was three inches; our roads have
been frozen up all winter, so that wo had
the vory best of wheeling, till we had a
blizzard, and mercury was 10° below zero
one morning; but itis very warm now
and frost about all out of the ground; our
wheat is looking well so far; stock of all
kind is doing well; health has not been so
good for the last month. L. 1). V.
M i «..-»<> r it r.
Benton* Co., Feb. 10.—The weather is
fine, the roads are in excellent shape; the
winter here is surely grand, no ice at all,
so far and no prospects; two or three
small snows, but they lasted only a day or
two; farmers are thinking of \r.ginning to
plow, aud market gauleners are looking
around for seed; stock is wintering tine;
grass is beginning to grow and spring is
surely not far away; corn, ,'(5 cents, per
bushel, whe;tt 80 cents, potatoes (1, hay
_7 per ton and everything else in proportion. - -   F. II. P.