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<br />Uuring the great irrigation era which was triggered in about <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />of energy to bring another 18 to 22 inches of water from the aqui- <br /> <br /> <br />fer, so that crop yields could be doubled and tripled. <br /> <br />1946 by the natural gas-fired motor and the rural electrification <br /> <br />movement, irrigation grew in the nine counties centering around <br /> <br />Lubbock from near zero to 1,847,400 acres within 15 years. This <br /> <br /> <br />was nearly 60 percent of all available cropland. Almost 30,000 <br /> <br />wells were in operation in this nine-county study area, drawing <br /> <br />IIn th,:. nn~ll;::jl~ loI;::jtQr' Tht:a no:::", 1I0:::r.V' .f"n,.,. ~""""O::'>"'I"\ .;........;.....+.......1 ......... <br />-.,. P"_ _;)_. ._._ .._~_.. ,.._ I"".......~ J'-"" IV' ""'.d"'l.&~'- III '~U",{;\.I nQ,:) <br /> <br />1959, but nearly 1 ,BOO ,000 acres were irrigated through 1979. <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />. <br />. <br /> <br />Cotton has been the big irrigated crop, always around one million <br />acres. Grain sorghums was second with about 600,000 acres, but it has <br />declined in recent years to less than 100,000 acres. Corn, soybeans, <br /> <br />wheat, hay and small grains made up another half million irrigated <br />acres more or less each year. The nine-county area is fast becoming <br /> <br />a one-crop cotton economy, as has been proven dramatically by <br /> <br />1981 plantings, <br /> <br />The volume of groundwater, with virtually no additions from <br />natural recharge, has been declining almost from the beginning of <br />irrigation in 1946. It was a "thin" aquifer to begin with here <br />in the southermost reaches of the Formation, and many wells south <br />of Lubbock have gone from 10-inch and eight-inch to four-inch and <br />two-inch wells, a situation called "weak" water. Some wells have <br /> <br />gone dry, and the southern counties -- Lynn, Terry and Garza <br /> <br />have been adjusting to a gradual transition to dryland farming for <br />nearly 20 years. <br /> <br />II-2 <br /> <br />I <br /> <br /> <br />Arthur D Little.lnc I <br />