38 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



in which the expenses are so large that a few mistakes mean failure 

 for the settlers, and the failure of the settlers means the failure of 

 tint enterprises. 



The Ollice has realized fully the «rravity of the situation and there- 

 fore has devoted the greater part of its attention for the last few 

 years to collecting information as to the best methods of performing 

 all the agricultural operations peculiar to farming under irrigation, 

 and placing this information within the reach of the new settlers in 

 the arid region. This has been done by publishing in popular form 

 bulletins on the preparation of land for iirigation, the building of 

 ditches and ditch structures, and applying water to the principal 

 crops of the irrigated farms; by lectures; by personal advice when- 

 ever possible; and by cooperating with the state experiment stations 

 and with private parties in the maintenance and operation of experi- 

 mental and demonstration farms. Such farms have been maintained 

 during the past year in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, 

 Nevada, Colorado. Wyoming, and North Dakota. 



AVhile the leading feature of the work has been the aiding of settlers 

 in the newer regions, none of the other lines of work carried on in the 

 past has been abandoned. 



Tank experiments to determine the quantities of water lost by 

 evaporation under different methods of ai)plying water to crops and 

 ditFerent systems of cultivation were continued, and tanks put in at 

 several additional points. 



The work of demonstrating the advantages of irrigation in sections 

 Avhere crops can be grown without it has been continued and ex- 

 tended. In the Willamette Valley, Oregon, which has a very heavy 

 annual rainfall, the practicability of irrigating through the summer 

 drought has been thoroughly demonstrated and the practice of irri- 

 gation is being extended rapidly in that valley. 



At Cheyenne and Newcastle, Wyo., and Eads, Colo., in the so- 

 called "dry-farming"' region, the last few years have been seasons 

 of much more than normal precipitation, yet the farms nuiintained 

 at those jooints have demonstrated beyond doubt the practicability of 

 irrigating small areas with pum^^ed water. In years of unfavorable 

 precipitation the value of the small irrigated areas will stand out 

 much more clearly. 



While the semiarid region has been enjoying an abnormally heavy 

 precipitation the Atlantic States have been suffering from annual 

 droughts which have created a great interest in irrigation, this interest 

 extending from the Lakes and the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of 

 Mexico. From this section there has been a strong demand for 

 advice as to methods of using water, and for the last two seasons 

 an expert has devoted his entire time to this section, giving advice 

 to farmers and conducting demonstrations in cooperation with farm- 



