Irrigation was another problem common to all and important because no kind of farming was possible without it. Thomas Judd is given credit in histories of the Dixie area in Utah for engineering a number of irrigation projects. William A. Terry was also instrumental in working out the system that has been used with some changes to the present day. With each purchase of land each purchaser also bought shares in one or more of the two irrigation streams, Lund and Home Ranch, according to the location of his fields. An irrigation company was formed that held regular meetings to take care of administrative problems and work out a schedule for water turns that would be fair to all. One member was designated as "water master" to take care of the secretarial duties for a small fee. As has been described in another section part of the Lund stream was taken out for home lots and gardens. Field turns were on a twenty-four hour schedule so each farmer had to spend part of his time irrigating at night. Irrigating with a large stream is hard, exacting work at best. Sometimes a turn lasted several days and nights and when, as often happened, two streams came at the same time, the pressure was extreme.
In Nevada mining has always taken precedence over agriculture so, for a number of years, Nevada Consolidated Copper and later Kennecott controlled the Water Canyon stream but made no use of it. At length Oliver Peacock and his sons filed a claim for its use. This, with the spring high water from Rowe and Eph creeks that flow into it, waters considerable acreage between Lund and Preston that was once brushland. Joe Peacock and Van Gardner use this stream today.
Some, with fields on the west side also had shares in the White River stream which was under the Preston Irrigation Company. With years of drought White River dwindled until it could not be depended on and was only useful for an occasional bonus at spring runoff time. To supplement the existing water supply and also bring new land under production pumping wells were drilled. George Terry made an attempt to dig an artesian well with horses and a scraper at his west side White River field about 1915. He got a flow of water but the idea was soon abandoned perhaps because the pumps used then were not as efficient as they are today. Lafayette Carter states that in 1941 he had the first well drilled and cased. After that a great number of wells were drilled in the Valley not only in the Lund and Preston fields but quite a number in the Cove area. Also considerable brushland between Lund and Preston is now under cultivation because of pump wells. One of the most modern of these is a new field on the highway east of Preston where a sprinkling system has been installed by Eddie Mangum operating the Glen Lane ranch.
Also about this time the people began tp dig or drill wells for culinary water. In the beginning they had all used water from the main stream. This was pure at the source but livestock roamed freely and some of the corrals were located along the border of the stream so, to make the best of the situation, they dipped their supply of water early in the morning when it was comparatively clear. One duty of the water master was to turn the water into the lot irrigation ditches for an hour early in the morning to give the people who were not on the main stream an opportunity to get their water.
Their wood-burning kitchen ranges were made with a reservoir by the oven. This served as a water heater and several trips with two large buckets were required to fill it each morning. The inevitable teakettle on top of the stove, with its cheerful hum, was filled as the water was used for cooking or whatever. Various receptacles were filled with water for drinking and general use and one of these was likely to be a large wooden barrel set outside in a shady spot and wrapped with burlap that was kept wet to take advantage of any cooling breeze. A dipper hanging nearby was handy if not sanitary. One such barrel became an institution. It stood in the shade of the trees on the south side of the Harrison home across the street from the church and school and since no provision was made for water at the school, recess found a line of eager children awaiting their turn for the dipper.
Windmills were used to pump the water from the first culinary wells as well as livestock watering wells both in the pastures and on the range and a few attempts at irrigation wells. But the people soon found that the wind didn't blow as much, or at least as predictably as they had thought so they turned first to gasoline or diesel fuel and eventually many to electricity. Some few windmills, especially for the livestock wells, have continued in use and perhaps the search for more and cheaper forms of energy will result in an increase in their use.
Another modern innovation was cementing most of the canal through Lund. This was also attempted for the Home Ranch stream in the fields but when this didn't hold up a pipeline was installed which is still under construction. A plan under consideration at the present time is to pipe all the irrigation water including the home lot water, but this would probably involve a government grant and at this point is merely a matter for discussion. At one time a proposal was made to drill in the area of the Lund spring to try to increase the flow. This was voted down because some considered it too risky but in 1978 a phenomenon occurred which to my knowledge has not been explained. There was a sudden noticeable increase in the flow of water from the spring. For the eighty years of which we have record the stream had remained at much the same level although during times of drouth it did not always water the same acreage adequately. This increase, whether caused by a rise in the underground water level or the release of an untapped source by the drilling of wells nearby has remained at a high level through the 1979 season.
Hay, grain and potatoes continued to be the important crops in the Valley which is more or less true even today so it is fitting that a part of this section on industries should review methods and development of each.