Water From Wells Or Streams

Categories: Soils, Fertilizers and Irrigation

One of our neighbors insists that water from a well is, in the long run,

very hard on the land, and that irrigation water is much to be

preferred.



There is no characteristic and permanent difference between waters from

wells and waters from streams so far as irrigation is concerned. The

character depends upon the sources from which both are derived. Some

wells may carry too much mineral matter in the form of salt, alkali,

etc., and some stream waters sometimes carry considerable alkali. For

this reason some wells may be better than streams and some streams

better than wells. There is no general rule in the matter. Your neighbor

may be right as applied to your location, and may know from his

experience that the well water carries too much undesirable material.

That could only be determined by analysis, and the analysis must be made

when the water is rather low, because during the rainy season, or soon

after it, the water may have less mineral impurity than later in the

season when it may be more concentrated.







Shall He Irrigate or Cultivate?







Our soil is of an excellent quality, and I feel if the moisture were

properly conserved by suitable methods it could be made to produce

fruits or some other very much more profitable than from hay and grain

crops.



Whether you can grow deciduous fruits successfully without irrigation

depends not only upon how well you conserve the moisture by cultivation,

but also whether the total rainfall conveys water enough, even if as

much as possible of it is conserved. Again, you might find that thorough

cultivation will give you satisfactory young trees, but would not

conserve moisture enough for the same trees when they come into bearing.

This proposition should be studied locally. If you can find trees in the

vicinity which do give satisfactory fruit under the rainfall, you would

have a practical demonstration which would be more trustworthy than any

forecast which could be prepared upon theoretical grounds.