Abstract: Based on a lot of infiltration and irrigation experiments on farm field， the saving water mechanism of surge furrow irrigation was analyzed and its irrigation efficiency was estimated in this paper． In surge furrow irrigation， soil intermittent infiltration has characteristics of reducing of infiltration rate, increasing of furrow advancing discharge and reducing of furrow roughness，which makes the advancing velocity of furrow flow increase, so that the surge furrow irrigation can save water comparing with traditional furrow irrigation． According to the experiment results， the mean advancing velocity in total supply time and the irrigation uniform coefficient were increased by 9 %～22 ％ and 18 %～23 ％ respectively， and the irrigating water quota was decreased by 8．3％～18．2％ comparing with traditional furrow irrigation．