Practical irrigation, its value and cost

New York: McGraw Publishing Company, 1908. — 242 p.The prospect of converting desert land into a flourishing country lends to irrigation an attractive aspect. Some people, carried away with the possibilities of irrigation, lose sight of the all important financial end of the question, and make extensive investment in apparatus which is unnecessary or unsuited to the work to be done. Others, from ill-advised ideas of economy, endeavor to irrigate their land without properly laying out their plant, and spend for labor alone many times the cost of a suitable installation. To speak intelligently about irrigation, we must know the cost and the value, not only of the plant as a whole, but of the individual parts thereof. These are subjects of primary importance. The actual cash outlay necessary for operation is often considered as the cost of irrigation, without making any allowance for interest or depreciation on the investment in the irrigation plant. Thus we find the popular conception that water obtained from an artesian well is supplied at no expense, while pumped water, owing to the expense of a pumping plant, is by no means so desirable. The first cost of the well is entirely lost sight of. Although it is highly desirable to avoid the expense for fuel or attendance, still the fixed charges on a deep artesian well, when the flow is small, may easily make artesian water more expensive than water pumped under low lift.