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Story
August 21, 1923
The Forrest City Times And Herald
Forrest City, Saint Francis County, Arkansas
What is this article about?
US irrigation using electric motors produces $500M in annual crops from 19M acres of desert land in the west and southwest, with efficient modern methods contrasting primitive ancient techniques like the shaduf and sakiyah still used in Egypt.
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Motor Big Help in Irrigation
Drives Pumps That Water Great Tracts of Otherwise Utterly Desert Land.
Many Millions in Products
According to reports issued by the United States Department of Commerce, the irrigation of farming lands in this country has resulted in annual crops averaging in value $500,000,000, produced from soil which would otherwise be entirely barren. Nineteen million acres are under irrigation in the west and southwest, and the crops include a great variety of cereals, fruits and vegetables. The total capital investment in irrigated land amounts to $700,000,000.
Nowhere in the world are the methods of irrigation more modern or more efficient than in the United States. Centrifugal or reciprocating pumps are in use on all irrigating systems, driven by various forms of energy, steam, gasolene or electricity. The electric motor, which can be controlled from a distance, has come into much prominence for this work within the last ten or fifteen years, until now some of the most successful farms which depend upon irrigation are using electric motors for their pumps.
Electrical Irrigation Efficient
The Shasta valley, in California, yields annual harvests of $480,000 from land irrigated entirely by electricity. The Prickley Pear irrigation project, near Helena, Mont., where the General Electric Company installed three 600-horsepower motors, is producing big harvests of peas, oats, wheat, potatoes and alfalfa.
Along the Snake River, in Oregon and Idaho, there are several electrical pumping installations, some of which elevate water as high as 150 feet and irrigate as much as 15,000 acres of ground.
Modern American Style.
Egypt Irrigates by Sweat
This is all in strange contrast with Egypt, where the unprogressive farmers irrigate their fields by the same toilsome, ineffective methods that were used thousands of years ago. A favorite device is the shaduf, operated by men, or the sakiyah, operated by oxen.
The shaduf consists of a leather bucket, holding about two and a half gallons, suspended from a weighted pole fastened to a horizontal rod between two uprights. When a man's weight is thrown upon the bucket the latter is lowered into the water, and upon being filled the weighted pole lifts the bucket high enough to allow it to be emptied into a trough or channel. The workers go on duty for two hours at a time, and two men will lift about 1,800 cubic feet of water in ten hours.
Crude Egyptian Irrigation.
Drives Pumps That Water Great Tracts of Otherwise Utterly Desert Land.
Many Millions in Products
According to reports issued by the United States Department of Commerce, the irrigation of farming lands in this country has resulted in annual crops averaging in value $500,000,000, produced from soil which would otherwise be entirely barren. Nineteen million acres are under irrigation in the west and southwest, and the crops include a great variety of cereals, fruits and vegetables. The total capital investment in irrigated land amounts to $700,000,000.
Nowhere in the world are the methods of irrigation more modern or more efficient than in the United States. Centrifugal or reciprocating pumps are in use on all irrigating systems, driven by various forms of energy, steam, gasolene or electricity. The electric motor, which can be controlled from a distance, has come into much prominence for this work within the last ten or fifteen years, until now some of the most successful farms which depend upon irrigation are using electric motors for their pumps.
Electrical Irrigation Efficient
The Shasta valley, in California, yields annual harvests of $480,000 from land irrigated entirely by electricity. The Prickley Pear irrigation project, near Helena, Mont., where the General Electric Company installed three 600-horsepower motors, is producing big harvests of peas, oats, wheat, potatoes and alfalfa.
Along the Snake River, in Oregon and Idaho, there are several electrical pumping installations, some of which elevate water as high as 150 feet and irrigate as much as 15,000 acres of ground.
Modern American Style.
Egypt Irrigates by Sweat
This is all in strange contrast with Egypt, where the unprogressive farmers irrigate their fields by the same toilsome, ineffective methods that were used thousands of years ago. A favorite device is the shaduf, operated by men, or the sakiyah, operated by oxen.
The shaduf consists of a leather bucket, holding about two and a half gallons, suspended from a weighted pole fastened to a horizontal rod between two uprights. When a man's weight is thrown upon the bucket the latter is lowered into the water, and upon being filled the weighted pole lifts the bucket high enough to allow it to be emptied into a trough or channel. The workers go on duty for two hours at a time, and two men will lift about 1,800 cubic feet of water in ten hours.
Crude Egyptian Irrigation.
What sub-type of article is it?
Curiosity
Historical Event
What themes does it cover?
Triumph
Misfortune
What keywords are associated?
Irrigation
Electric Motors
United States
Egypt
Agriculture
Pumps
Shaduf
Sakiyah
Where did it happen?
United States (West And Southwest, Shasta Valley California, Prickley Pear Near Helena Montana, Snake River Oregon And Idaho), Egypt
Story Details
Location
United States (West And Southwest, Shasta Valley California, Prickley Pear Near Helena Montana, Snake River Oregon And Idaho), Egypt
Story Details
Irrigation in the US uses modern electric motors to water vast desert areas, yielding $500M in crops from 19M acres; contrasts with Egypt's ancient manual methods like shaduf and sakiyah, which are inefficient and unchanged for thousands of years.