FARM IRRIGATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22030, 9 February 1935, Page 16

FARM IRRIGATION

EXPERIMENTAL WORK SUCCESS IN CANTERBURY At a most appropriate time, when the rest of Canterbury is parched and dry for want of moisture, many farmers and others interested visited the Seafield experimental irrigation farm this week at the invitation of the joint irrigation committee of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and the Progress; League. They saw what remarkablet success has attended the scheme. Seafield, with its green plots and generally well-nourished look, appeared to be the: only oasis in thousands of acres oif turat-up pasture and crop la.nd.. The farm, which is on Crown land ten miles . from Ashburton* ,3b maintained by the Lands Department with assistance from the Unemployment Board, and is supervised by offioers of the Lincoln College staff. More than 250 persons attended from all parte of Canterbury. •;" ilr. R. L. James, in charge of the constructional work at Soafield, explained the 'systems of irrigation used on the : farm. The most successful, he said, was the border dyke method. The padlock to be irrigated was divided by .ridges- 40ft. apart down the slope of the land, and was flooded qiiickly between these ridges from a race along the top of the paddock. .. Under: the modified' border dyke method, grading was. done to a lesser extent. With this system it took 110 minutes to' irrigate ian acre of land as against ,o5 minutes .an acre for . border dyke irrigation* Of these two. systems, it was' purely* a question of considering the relative costs. The third method was the wild flood-ing-system, .wherp furrows were simply ploughed down the land, and water turned into them. This was much slower and used more water, .besides involving considerably more time. Mr. James added that under the border dyke system, samples, of soil taken all over each irrigated strip showed that the lower end of a strip got just as much water as the land near the headrace. This system cost anything from £2 to £22 an acre, and £lO might be considered a fairly heavy expenditure. The average cost Vas £5 to £6 sin acre. The modified system cost from £1 to £3 an acre, and the wild flooding system from 5s to 15s.