Irrigation Notes

The Irrigation Review gives an interesting account of irrigation near Greeley, Coló., in which occurs the following: If a field is level to start witb, it is important to keep itsoand not créate artificial irregulacities by cultivation, "back" and "dead" furrows proving a great annoyance vvhen flooding. To avoid these the farm should be divided into a snitable number of rectangular fields and each of these plowed out one year and in the next. The small rise or hollow where the corners occur will prove a slight annoyance, but the work of altérnate years keeps the change of level within narrow limits. To not only keep the surf ace of nis farm in good shape, but to improve, it is the care of every intelligent farmer managing an irrigated farm. The action of both plow and cultivator, if carefully directed, is to improve the level of the surface, and the irrigation of rowed crops contributes to the same effect. The loóse material in the steeper parts of the rows iscarried into slight depressions and left there and in a few years these disappear. The perfect potato field is without such depressions, but a surface entirely free from them is rarely found. They are less objectionable in a cornfield, as a little flooding does it less harm than potatoes, aud henee it is advisable to raise a few crops of corn at first in such fields, even if the erop ia not profitablë. To raise a good erop of potatoes on a steep field requires great pains and ingenuity. If the surface is not wavy as well as steep, the rows can be run diagonallyacross the slope, so as not to give them too much fall, which will make the bottoms wash away and lower the water surface, so that the rows are not moistened underneath. Some farmers run the rows directly down a steep slope, and in irrigating let a tiny stream trickle down between the rows for a day or two, and thus succeed in having the moisture penétrate the rows. To get the water to enter so many rows at once requires a very level head feeding ditch or the greatest pains and ingenuity in the way of cheoks to effect that end.