1898 Report on Water Supply and Irrigation

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
WATER-SUPPLY
AND
IRRIGATION PAPERS
OF THE
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

No. 13

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

CHARLES D. WALCOTT, DIRECTOR
IRRIGATION SYSTEMS IN TEXAS

BY
WILLIAM FERGUSON HUTSON

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1898

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At the head of San Saba River, in Schleicher County, William L. Black has been irrigating since 1894 with a plant consisting of a 6-horsepower engine, pumping 580 gallons per minute, or 1.29 second-feet, and a 6-foot overshot wheel with a capacity of 167 gallons per

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minute, or 0.37 second-foot. The latter is run day and night, no reservoir being provided, and the total area irrigated is 50 acres, in corn, potatoes, and sorghum. With his water wheel he uses four 10-inch cylinders worked horizontally, and with the engine a link-belt box elevator, which gives satisfaction. Farther east, in Menard County, on San Saba River, is a pumping plant owned by Emile Vanderstucken and consisting of an 18-horsepower steam engine operating by a belt a Menge centrifugal pump with a capacity of 1,167 gallons per minute, or 2.60 second-feet. The total cost of the plant was $1,500. No reservoir is used, the water being carried in a flume to the highest point on the land and distributed by ditches. On account of the abundance of rain in 1897 it was used but very little, In 1896 it was operated from March to September, irrigating 100 acres and making good crops, with practically no rain.

The following description relating to the condition of irrigation in the vicinity of Menardville is taken from a statement prepared by Mr. Robert S. Dodd, of Brady, Texas, county surveyor of McCulloch County. This method of agriculture has been a great success in this vicinity, as is evident to anyone passing through the county examining the fields and conversing with the farmers. The system has not always been successful, but early failures were mainly the result of inexperience and arose from accidental and not from essential defects. Mistakes have been gradually remedied, and by well-directed energy and enterprise great improvements have been brought about, progress being still made toward even better methods.

On crossing San Saba River 5 miles below Menardville, the traveler enters upon the irrigated part of the narrow valley lying between the river and the low hills, and is impressed by the signs of energy and activity. The fences are good and in repair; the gates have two hinges and swing clear of the ground; the fields are clear of grubs and clean of weeds; the ditches are straight and well shaped and clean; the cotton as seen when visited stood 28 to 30 inches high all over the fields, of good color and as clean as possible. The corn was 10 feet high or over, and the dark green of its leaves was accounted for by the water running in the furrows at its roots. To the right was an orchard of peach trees filled with fruit, and beyond this a stubble field already plowed and harrowed, ready for reseeding for another harvest. Near this field stood the stacks, the proof of the success of that crop at least, yielding their stores of grain to the efforts of the busy crowd about the thrasher. The active movements of the men at work there and in the neighboring fields, and the rate at which the teams traveled carrying the grain to the barn and returning to the field, showed that the success apparent everywhere was due to systematic, well-directed effort-the kind of effort that men put forth when reasonably certain of the reward of their labor. Such animation men do not display when disappointment and failure year after year have sapped

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their energy and made them cynically hopeless of success, when under "dry farming" they have degenerated into the almost brutish attitude of contentment with surroundings that could be improved and toleration of losses that might be avoided.

All the way from the river to Menardville the road passes through irrigated farms showing success in proportion to the amount of care and labor expended on them. The vegetable gardens, the orchards, the green lawns, and the flowers and vines around the houses make this valley the picture of contented prosperity. The farmers with whom conversation was had gave many facts applicable in contrasting their methods and results with those of the dry-land farmer. They raise from 1 to 2 bales of cotton per acre, the difference in yield depending largely on how much damage the worms do in a given season and how much rain falls in August. The drier this month the better the cotton crop. On new land with few worms and a dry August 2 bales would be expected. Their corn yields from 40 to 80 bushels per acre. One man suggested that a light rain or shower was needed when the pollen was ripe in order to obtain the best results. Oats yield from 50 to 80 bushels per acre. During the years from about 1888 to 1895 the farmers irrigating in Menard County were raising from 1 to 2 bales of cotton to the acre, 40 to 50 bushels of corn, and 80 or more of oats, while in contrast to this them- neighbors without irrigation were working perhaps equally as hard, bringing together what little cane and fodder could be raised to save the stock from starving to death, and producing only enough marketable stuff to keep the interest on the mortgages paid up, and perhaps not even that.

These beneficial results are produced by a little water and a deal of hard work. The water rate is $2 per inch, and 1¼ inches will irrigate an acre of their land, so that $2.50 per acre and a little extra work make the difference between one-third of a bale of cotton and 2 bales; between no corn and 40 to 50 bushels; between 80 bushels of oats and a dead failure.

It has been proved by experience that one man can not give proper attention to more than 25 acres of this irrigated land. He will need help in cultivating if he plants corn and cotton, but could tend rather more land put in small grain. He will require for these crops a little over an inch of water per acre, and will need to turn the water on about every twenty days.

At Menardville corn and cotton are irrigated by running the water down the furrows between the rows from openings in the ditch. The amount of labor required for the operation and to make the water run properly depends upon the general level of the field and the care with which the furrows are laid off with regard to the slope. Small grain and fodder crops are laid off by throwing two furrows together, back to back, as a border, every 8 or 10 steps, to hold the water, and flooding the land between these borders. Some farmers use an Acme

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harrow to finish off the land after planting, running it between the borders so that the small furrows left by it help in directing the flow of the water.

As to the amount of water required per acre, one man who irrigates 40 acres of land uses 40 inches of water, and occasionally needs a little more. On another farm they use 15 inches of water on 12 acres of garden truck. On the upper part of the ditch above town the water is measured and distributed by the inch; that is, if a man wants 20 inches of water, the gate opening on his ditch is set for a 20-inch flow and so remains through the season, giving him his 20-inch constant flow. From town down they use the water in rotation, as, owing to a mistake originally made in laying out the distributaries, the use of water above interferes with the flow below. So they alternate every seven days, those above using all the water that reaches them for that time, and then the lower owner having all the water for the next seven days; this farmer, having some 500 acres under irrigation, distributes the water over them as necessary.

The amount of water required for an acre of ground here is more than that needed for sandy fields. The soil at Menardville is a clayey loam containing a large proportion of lime. Both soils require the same amount of water for the first irrigation, but the sand packs and requires less at each succeeding irrigation, whereas it is claimed that the limy loam seems to rise instead of pack, and requires as much water for the later irrigation as for the first.

The ditch which supplies these farms is nearly 10 miles long. The dam is built across San Saba River some 4 miles above Menardville and returns to the river some 5 miles below the town. The charter was obtained by the Vaughan Agricultural and Improvement Company in 1874, and the ditch was built soon after. It is claimed that this company put $12,000 in the work. This was excessive, an extra expense being incurred by the refusal of right of way in one instance, forcing the company to make a cut 16 feet deep and several hundred feet long. Further, the methods of work were rude and costly. Wheelbarrows were used to move the dirt, and in the cut the dirt was thrown on staging and passed from man to man. There are 97 shares in the company, valued at $180 each. One year $1,200 was spent in improvement; another year $1,000 in the same way; but the ditch pays all running expenses, cost of improvements, and 10 per cent on the shares at the above quotations.

The grade of the ditch after construction was found to be irregular and unsuitable, so work has been done each year-cutting and filling, to reduce the slope above Los Mores flume to a nearly uniform grade of 30 inches to the mile. At the flume is a fall of 14 inches in 128 feet. At the point of the mountain where the ditch curves with the hill and runs through rock it is lessened in size and has a much steeper grade. The grade of 30 inches to the mile was established

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experimentally, and satisfies as nearly as possible the necessity of avoiding silting on the one hand and erosion on the other. The ditch runs through coarse gravel part of the way, and there is a heavy loss from percolation.

The straightening of the ditch, reduction of the grade, and tightening of the dam have given an available flow of water sufficient to irrigate 2,000 acres of land, which is the amount estimated to be under irrigation from this ditch at the present time. This taxes the flow to its full capacity.

The dam is built of rough limestone quarried at the spot, averaging, where seen on the front of the dam, 2 by 3 feet by 10 inches, laid in courses without cement. The blocks are tied by bolts fastened to a log under the dam at the bottom and passing up through the dam and fastened at the top by taps to cross-ties lying along the top. The dam is slightly concave and is about 200 feet long and 5½ feet high at the middle of the front, with an irregular batter. It is 13½ feet wide on top at the center. It rests partly on rock, partly on gravel, and is backed with earth with a slope of nearly 2 to 1. The water stands within a few inches of the top of the dam and runs over at every rise in the river. There must be 10 or 12 feet of water passing over it at times, judging from the high-water marks. Below the dam is a pile of loose bowlders which holds the leakage through the dam and forms a water cushion to receive the fall. The dirt is washed from the back of the dam at every high rise, and is at once replaced when the rise goes down, by scraping the dirt from the north side of the river. The dam backs the water up about 500 yards, the deepest hole being about 15 feet. The water is taken out on the south side 100 or more yards above the dam and carried in a cut to the sluice gate a little below the dam.

A section of the ditch made a few hundred yards below the sluice gate gave the following: top, 15.2 feet; bottom, 8 feet; depth, 2.7 feet; wetted perimeter, 16.5 feet; area, 29.83 square feet; maximum surface velocity, 2.17 feet per second; mean velocity, 1.54 feet per second. The velocity was measured for 100 feet above and below the section, where there was no very, great difference in the dimensions of the ditch. The fall of the surface was found to be at this point 0.1 foot in 195, or 1 foot in 1,950, or 2.7 feet in a mile. This, with a coefficient of N=0.03, would give a velocity of 1.57 feet per second, which is very nearly the observed velocity of flow. This gives a discharge of 46 cubic feet per second, or 2,300 inches, estimating 50 inches to 1 foot.

Taking the estimated acreage irrigated as 2,000 acres, we have from our calculated flow a little over 1 inch per acre, which is the allowance in actual use, as above stated, and a water duty of 44 acres per cubic foot per second of flow for the water entering the main ditch. These measurements were made at but one point and can be considered as only approximate for the whole ditch. For accuracy they should be

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repeated at a number of points and proper allowance made for percolation and leakage. In general, the estimate is that three waterings of 4 inches will make a crop. From the above it is readily seen that before a calculation can be made with any degree of certainty as to what water is necessary to irrigate a crop in this country, there must be further experiment and careful consideration and comparison of soil and subsoil, percolation, evaporation, and the best method of applying the water to the crop. The duty at Menardville is, under the present system, 44 acres per cubic foot of flow per second, or a trifle under 1¼ inches per acre.

NOTE:  While I strive for accuracy in all transcriptions, please be advised that typing errors may be present.  I would suggest you always verify my online information with a copy of the actual record.

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