REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 151 



used over 9 feet. Now about one-third of this amount is found to be 

 ample. The water users of Greeley and neighboring districts in 

 Colorado used to think their crops would burn up unless they had a 

 miner's inch of water to the acre. Now they are raising crops on the 

 same ground that are worth about four times as much with one-fourth 

 the water formerly used. They are learning that cultivation takes 

 the place of irrigation to a great extent. 



The demonstration farms established in former j^ears have been 

 maintained. These have been of great value during the past year in 

 showing, among other tilings, the benefits to be derived from the use 

 of scanty water supplies on small fields in connection with dry farm- 

 ing. At the Cheyenne farm during the past season, 54 bushels of 

 oats were raised per acre with the application of only 8 inches of irri- 

 gation water, while the crop grown without irrigation was practically 

 a failure. Alfalfa yielded 4,805 pounds of hay per acre with the appli- 

 cation of 13.3 inches, while the unirrigated field yielded only 550 

 pounds. Beardless barley, with the application of 9.7 inches of water, 

 yielded 31 bushels per acre; that unirrigated and raised on summer 

 fallowed ground yielded only 2^ bushels. At Gooding, Idaho, 8.8 

 tons of red clover was harvested from land which received only 19 

 inches of irrigation water. These results show what can be done 

 with a limited supply of water when properly applied. 



The need of investigating the questions which arise in connection 

 with the use of water in irrigation is so keenly felt by the people of 

 the West that several Western States are now cooperating with the 

 Department in the prosecution of these studies. For years the 

 States of California and Utah have given dollar for dollar for the 

 purpose of carrying on this work. The States of Idaho and Wyoming 

 are likewise contributing considerable sums for the cooperative 

 investigation of problems peculiar to these States. In time it is 

 expected that many other States will enter into cooperative arrange- 

 ments with the Department for the investigation of irrigation 

 problems. 



In many sections of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi the 

 ravages of the boll weevil have made the growing of cotton unprofit- 

 able and the producers are substituting other crops. Experiments 

 with the growing of rice have proved that it can be grown there 

 profitably. In consequence, large areas of cotton land have been 

 planted to rice during the past season and costly failures are quite cer- 

 tain to result unless proper methods are followed. These farmers as a 

 rule know but little about pumping plants, the building of levees 

 for rice irrigation, the quantity of water to apply, and the proper 

 time of application. It has therefore been found necessary to detail 

 a man to this field to devote his entire time to a study of rice irriga- 

 tion and to work out, if possible by experiments, better and cheaper 



