224 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the raw materials for clothing, and many of the materials used for 

 shelter are supplied by agriculture, and it is as important to study 

 their use as their production, since the two are interdependent. 



The Department of Agriculture not only helps the farmer to make 

 two blades of grass gi-ow where one grew before, but also, through its 

 studies of the use of agricultural products as food, helps the house- 

 keeper in her efforts to make one dollar do the work of two in pro- 

 viding for the family table, so that it may meet the daily require- 

 ments for food, accord with the tastes of the family, and be reason- 

 able in cost in proportion to the family income. 



IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS. 



Sixteen years ago the farmers of the arid region were just begin- 

 ning to realize the need of more scientific and technical advice in the 

 solution of their many irrigation problems. The crude laws of the 

 western miner when applied to irrigation were proving a misfit. 

 Water rights were undefined, and water users were left with little 

 protection save through costly and long-continued litigation. Again 

 and again State legislatures tried to grapple with this difficulty, only 

 to find at the closing hours of each session that they did not possess 

 reliable information on which to base remedial legislation j^ertaining 

 to the use of water for irrigation and other beneficial purposes. 



In 189G water was used on about six and one-third million acres in 

 the West, but little was known of the quantities diverted or of the 

 large losses which occurred in conveying water through earthen 

 ditches to so many farms. 



In 1898 Congress granted a small appropriation for irrigation 

 investigations to be used wherever advisable in cooperation with 

 western agricultural colleges and experiment stations. The collection 

 and publication of information pertaining to the use of water in irri- 

 gation was accordingly begun, and there can be no doubt but that the 

 expansion and continuity of this work has exerted a marvelous effect 

 on the development of irrigation along right lines during the past 

 14 years. In that time the States of Nebraska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, 

 North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, New Mexico, and Arizona 

 have adopted modern irrigation codes based to a large degree on the 

 recommendations of this department. In all of the States named, 

 including Colorado and Wyoming, the chaotic state of affairs regard- 

 ing irrigation which prevailed 16 years ago is giving place to law, 

 order, and system. The water records are being cleared of worthless 

 claims, and valid rights are not only recognized but protected. 



DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION. 



As conclusions of value were arrived at in regard to the use of irri- 

 gation water they were set forth in bulletins which were disseminated 

 throughout the West. The results of these investigations have been 



