farm of the Colorado Agricultural College is thus unfortunately situated and water is brought by a flume a thousand feet long.

It is not uncommon to see two

ditches crossing each other, one by a flume. Such cases occur when two ditches cover the same ground, one being higher than the other. Some of the ditches come to be of large size; many are from 15 to 25 feet wide on the bottom, and from 25 to 40 on top, and carry from 300 to 500 cubic feet of water per second, a quantity sufficient to irrigate from 16,000 to 25,000 acres of land. The High Line Canal taken from the South Platte river is an example of one of the largest in the northern part of the State. This is 40 feet wide on the bottom to 60 to SO on top. 7 feet deep, and

with a slope of 21 inches per mile carries 1,130 cubic feet of water per second, which will irrigate about 55,000 acres. This ditch is about 90 miles long. In the southern part of the State are several of equal or greater size.

The method of irrigating most generally used in Colorado is known as the flooding system, the name including all methods by which the water reaches the roots of the plants by soaking from above. Ditches are run in the direction of the main slope with a plow, at a distance varying with the nature of the soil and other conditions, from one rod to eight or ten, as in the figure below.

Fate

Furrows

These are temporary laterals which need to be renewed each year. Two men and a team, with a plow, can furrow out about forty acres per day. Water is distributed from these by simply cutting the banks with a hoe or spade, and letting the water flow out and spread over the surface as far as it will go and sink deep enough to afford sufficient moisture to the roots of the growing grain. The expense, by this method, is comparatively slight, but must be repeated each year. One mar can attend to the irrigation of several acres at once, and to about 80 acres during the

season.

In the check system, a variety of the flooding system, small embankments, one or two feet high, are raised, forming a kind of dam, behind which the water

is held until it soaks into the ground, as shown below:

These embankments may be of broad enough base to offer no impediment to machinery, when they would be among the permanent improvements of the farm. The cost of these on an extensive scale would be not far from six dollars per acre. As yet, this is too expensive for Colorado lands, though much used in older countries.

Most land requires some further preparation in the way of smoothing, for in case of inequalities so that the water is distributed unequally, the crop will ripen unevenly. The land desired by the irrigator must have an even slope, the slope preferred being from 3 to 15 inches per hundred feet.

In Italy, where land is very valuable, fields are put in a permanent form for irrigation, the ground, being graded so that it slopes from each distributing ditch. Between two slopes is a smaller drainage channel. The manner of grading is shown in the section of the following figure:

Sec

These modes of preparation are too costly for anything but high-priced lands. The only extensive trial of it, in the valley of the San Joaquin River, in California, proved a failure with the loss of a large fortune.

In the case of hoed crops, water is allowed to run between the rows in small streams, and soaks laterally to the plants. More water is needed in this method and more haste in application. One man can attend to the irrigation of 40 acres during the season. In some soils the same principle may be applied with grain crops; a mere rill of water every 10 to 20 feet sufficing to irrigate the field by the absorption of water.

Water has a definite market value, and is to a certain extent sold like other property. There are many ways of measuring and selling used in different localities or by different ditch companies. The legal measure is the inch, which is the amount of water that will pass through a hole an inch square under a head of five inches, a five inch head being measured from the top of the orifice to the top of the water, and the orifice being six inches high. This amount varying with many other conditions is not an exact, though a very convenient measure. The quantity is measured in the court decrees in the definite measure of cubic feet per second. It takes a continuous flow of about 1 cubic feet per second to irrigate 80 acres. The price for the amount sufficient to irrigate 80 acres, which is not a definite quantity, is from $700 to $1,300. If water is rented by the year the cost for general farming is usually $1.50 per acre. For market gardening the cost is greater.

But all contracts with the ditch company are subject to the amount of water in the ditch. If there is not enough to supply all consumers all must take a diminished share. The ditches of the State appropriate 43,546 cubic feet, which at the value of $750 per cubic foot, makes the water privilege of the State worth over $30,000,000.

The farmer, then, who wishes to irrigate must first purchase or rent his water, a lateral ditch must be constructed from his farm to the main ditch, and the lateral ditches dug.

Wheat and other cereals are usually watered twice during the season, the spring rains being depended on to bring up the crops. Sometimes they are irrigated three times, and under favorable circumstances once, about 12 inches of water being applied each time.

Corn and potatoes are usually irrigated twice. Potatoes require the most care as a slight excess will kill them.

Alfalfa or lucerne is the principal hay crop. This will grow without water and stand one or two cuttings, but by watering the yield is trebled.

A great degree of practical skill, which can be learned only by experience, is necessary in irrigation. Water should not be applied before it is needed, for a too rank growth may be induced, nor too late, or the crop may be stunted. The old fariners pride themselves on knowing just when to irrigate and how much water to apply. The details vary with every soil, both as to quantity and to time of application. Each farmer has to study the peculiarities of his own soil.

The cost of the actual work of irrigation varies with several conditions. With cereals perhaps an average cost would be 10 to 15 cents per acre for each irrigation, or 25 cents for the season. For hoed field crops the cost is usually about twice as great.

Besides these expenses, the owner of a water right is subject to an annual charge for maintenance and superintendence of ditch, the amount of which must depend on local conditions, but which may be estimated at 30 cents per acre annually. The total additional cost due to irrigation per year varies from fifty cents to three dollars per acre, but usually does not exceed one dollar and fifty cents.

The question of irrigation is destined to be a much more important one with us than it is now. We seem far removed from Colorado practice, where irrigation is a necessity. But though happily not a question of necessity here, it may after all in many places be a profitable practice. Many countries as favorably, and perhaps more favorably situated than Michigan, have expensive systems of irrigation, and find it pays as an investment. India has works costing millions of dollars. Italy is perhaps in amount of rainfall more like Michigan in climate, yet it is found profitable to go to the expense of extensive works of irrigation. The production per acre in money value is almost doubled. The production of hay is nearly three times as great. The farmers can afford to pay a high rent for water and make more money by its use. They cannot afford to do without it.

Market gardeners in this country are beginning to find the value of an artificial supply of water and occasional waterings. Whether general farmers would find it profitable would depend upon the local conditions affecting cost. Many places in this State have streams of rapid fall, from which water can be obtained at comparatively small cost by the construction of ditches, whose use would be profitable, considering the returns obtained from the cost involved, to the farmers so fortunately situated as to be able to apply their waters economically.

39

BOUNTY ON SORGHUM SUGAR.

Mr. Daniel Root, of Hudson, Michigan, submitted the following statement of the manufacture of sugar from sorghum cane:

In May, 1884, I planted 40 acres of amber cane, drilled in with superphosphate, in rows four feet apart, the canes standing about 3 inches apart in the rows. I cultivated it the same as corn.

It grew well till mid July, when dry weather checked it. As we had no more rain till late in September, I got but about half a crop, eighty gallons per

acre.

I began working up the first of October, using a five-roll mill and neutralizing the acid in the juice by milk of lime.

I then heated it to 210° F., skimmed it, and drew off the clear juice into the evaporator by a swing pipe; then added sulphurous acid till it would redden blue litmus and boiled until it reached 228° F., when I ran it off into the cooler.

Part of the syrup I boiled till it tested 234° F., when the lower two-thirds granulated into mush sugar, the upper one-third remaining as molasses. The mush sugar yielded five pounds of sugar per gallon, and we made altogether 6,000 pounds of sugar like the sample sent to you.

DANIEL ROOT.

Mr. Root's affidavit to the above statement, and the certificate of Dr. R. C. Kedzie that the sample of sugar sent for testing contained 92 % of crystallizable cane sugar, are on file in this office.

By resolution of the Board of Agriculture, based upon the above facts, Mr. Root was declared entitled to the bounty provided for by act No. 268, statutes of 1881, entitled "An act to encourage the culture of sugar cane and the sugar beet and the manufacture of sugar from the same."

This is the second time Mr. Root has received the bounty under this act, the first occasion being for a crop grown in 1882. No other applications under this law have thus far been made.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETINS.

The following act to provide for the publication of useful information derived from experiments made in the different departments at the Agricultural College, as passed by the State Legislature, was approved May 11, 1885, and ordered to take immediate effect:

SECTION 1. The people of the State of Michigan enact, That the State Board of Agriculture be and they are hereby authorized to provide from time to time, in bulletin form, for dissemination among the people of this State, and through the medium of the public press, the results of experiments made in any of the different departments of the Agricultural College, and such other information that they may deem of sufficient importance to require it to come to the immediate knowledge of the farmers and horticulturists of the State.

SEC. 2. The several professors of chemistry, zoology, botany, agriculture, horticulture, and veterinary science shall each at least twice in each year, not excluding the President and other professors, prepare for publication an article embracing such facts as they may deem of public importance, a copy of which shall be simultaneously sent to each and every newspaper published in the State, and to such persons as the State Board of Agriculture may think proper; said professors to so arrange that at least one of said articles shall be sent out as above provided the first week of each and every month in each and every

year.

SEC. 3. The Board of State Auditors shall, upon the approval of the State Board of Agriculture, audit the accounts for printing, stationery, and postage incurred in the publishing and disseminating of said bulletins, and the same shall be paid out of the general fund: Provided, that no account for printing the same in any newspaper shall be allowed.

In accordance with the above law the following bulletins have thus far been issued in succession:

BULLETIN NO. 1.-CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT.

EARLY AMBER CANE AS A FORAGE CROP.

Two years ago the attention of the farmers of our State was called to Minnesota Early Amber Cane as a factor in solving the agricultural problem of our light sands where grass fails to produce a satisfactory crop. The fol lowing article was published in the leading papers of our State: