THE NORTH PLATTE VALLEY 377 



no expensive construction, the alignment following the outlying gravel 

 knolls along the bluff that borders the valley, occasionally intercepting 

 these or encountering short stretches of Brule clay. In the quality and 

 extent of irrigable lands and their favorable juxtaposition to econom- 

 ical canal alignments, the North Platte project is favored in its dis- 

 tribution system as well as in storage facilities. 



The average rainfall over the irrigated area will probably not exceed 

 thirteen inches per annum. The mean temperature is 45°, the maxi- 

 mum 98°, and the minimum — 20° Fahrenheit, and the length of the 

 growing season is sufficient to mature most of the crops raised in this 

 latitude, including corn. The principal crop at present grown is 

 alfalfa, with some corn, oats, wheat, sugar beets and potatoes. The 

 principal supply market is Omaha, but Denver, Kansas City and St. 

 Joseph are contributory. The greater part of the produce will be 

 marketed in the west, unless demand and supply shall be sufficiently 

 disturbed to unsettle their present balance. 



Taking eighty acres as a unit and assuming the total area to be irri- 

 gated under the North Platte project as 300,000 acres, there will be 

 3,750 farms. Assuming that the average family consists of five per- 

 sons, we have 18,750 persons occupying these lands. 



Adding to these the merchants, blacksmiths, carpenters, doctors, 

 clergymen and others, with their families, for whom this population 

 will provide patronage, the total becomes approximately thirty thou- 

 sand persons, exclusive of a probable additional population employed 

 in canning factories. This community will be based upon good homes 

 on the land, free from tenantry and collectively participating in the 

 natural opportunity upon which each irrigator depends. The popula- 

 tion at present inhabiting these lands is small, numbering not more 

 than a couple of thousand persons. 



This work of the Reclamation Service with its promise of partial 

 relief from the urban congestion that threatens the nation is carried 

 forward by moneys received from the sale of public lands. These 

 moneys are restored to the government by the water users and all possi- 

 bility of initial tenantry is prevented by the stipulation that tracts 

 exceeding a certain size, between 'forty and one hundred and sixty acres, 

 must be subdivided and sold to persons who will use them to obtain a 

 livelihood before water will be placed on the land. 



It has been well said that the safeguard of a nation is a large pop- 

 ulation of working farmers, owning the land they use, and as a means 

 for the partial accomplishment of this desirable condition, the work of 

 the Eeclamation Service deserves commendation. 



