ID this type of farm BRIDGE, please - Page 10

 


Quite likely.  In most of the world where ditch irrigation is used no
pump is involved.  Methods of getting water from the ditch to the field
generally require the ditch water level to be higher than the bottoms
of the furrows in the field.  To get water across the ditch bank there
are siphon tubes, removable barriers as simple as a plank, etc.

    Una

 



or, if they used a pump initially at ground level, it would be less
efficient since it had to do a lot of "sucking".  With the bridge in place,
they could easily put the pump in the water, driven by a shaft from the
motor on the bridge.

I concur that the bridge was probably reused from some other purpose.

 

On Wed, 26 May 2010 12:02:52 -0700, MNRebecca wrote:


You mentioned in your op that the ditch is along/on the property line.  
It would seem that to irrigate farm A, it would have been simpler to put
the pump on the bank and run an intake pipe up from the ditch. But say
both farm A and farm B wanted to irrigate. The bridge and a single pump
might have been the more frugal solution.

(Yes, I know that's a stretch.)  

 



Flood irrigation.  A system where you divert the stream into a series of
irrigation ditches that water the fields passively without the use of
pumps.  In Phoenix AZ, some people have their lawns done this way
instead of using city water.  The system was developed by the Anasazi
who no longer inhabit the region.  The only down side to that are the
stinking minnows that wind up in the yards.

 



Of course there would have been.  Watering can be moved out of the ditch by
hand very easily using a simple syphon method and that is common enough even
today.  See pic on this cite:
http://www.pump-zone.com/piping/piping/siphons-and-the-siphon-effect-that-sucking-sound.html