REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 107 



demonstrated four great needs of the irrigated West, namely, 

 (1) more settlers; (2) information and assistance that ^Yill enable 

 settlers, both old and new, to make a better and more economical 

 use of their water supply; (3) investigations for the purpose of 

 reducing the cost of pumping and storing of water, of preventing 

 the losses and Avastes in distribution and application, and of bringing 

 about a higher duty of water in all irrigated sections; and (4) 

 information regarding better methods of reorganizing irrigation 

 enterprises and operating and managing irrigation systems. 



The great need of the irrigated West to-day is not more projects 

 but settlers for the projects that are completed or will be completed 

 within the next few years. The period from 1899 to 1909 saw more 

 than G,000,000 acres brought under irrigation; yet, making a liberal 

 allowance for the lands that will probably never be profitably irri- 

 gated, the enterprises on July 1, 1910, were able to supply water 

 to more than half as much more land; and if the next 10 j^-ears is 

 to see two-thirds of the area in projects but not irrigated in 1909 

 irrigated, 12,000,000 acres must be settled and irrigated. In the past 

 the farming regions of the Mississippi Valley and the irrigated sec- 

 tions themselves have furnished a large percentage of the new settlers, 

 but in the future projects must look more and more to the cities and 

 more densely populated sections of the East for their settlers. The 

 chief irrigation work of the department in the future, therefore, 

 must continue to be the furnishing of information regarding the 

 conditions and possibilities of the different irrigated sections, the 

 cost of obtaining land and water, and the cost and best methods of 

 preparing the land and distributing, applying, and conserving the 

 water, as the success of the individual settlers and the development 

 of the irrigated sections will depend largely upon the newcomers 

 getting properly located, knowing in advance the problems and 

 difficulties to be encountered, and being properly advised and assisted 

 in starting and carrying on their new work. 



The average cost per acre of irrigation systems increased 77 per 

 cent and the cost per acre of operation and maintenance 182 per cent 

 in the decade 1899-1909. Further irrigation development, except in 

 comparativeh'^ few cases, will be possible only by the construction of 

 still more costly works or by the installation of pumping plants. In 

 but few sections is the water supply sufficient to i-oclaim more than 

 a small part of the arable land, and thousands of acres of lands will 

 never be reclaimed until a higher duty of water is brought about by 

 the conservation of the flood and out-of-the-season flow of streams, 

 by the introduction of hotter methods of distributing and applying 

 water, and by the reduction of the waste and losses due to seepage, 

 evaporation, and the applying of water in the wrong stages of crop 

 growth. The data that have been collected and the experiments that 



