2 12 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 



productiveness therefrom, and this will vary with cost of land and the 

 market value of the produce. This must of course be borne in mind 

 in answering the question whether irrigation will pay in any part of 

 the state. Twenty years ago the cheapest irrigation did not pay for 

 the general market, because land that did not need irrigation was too 

 cheap elsewhere. But there is no more good land to be had for the 

 asking, or even for a moderate price. The money, then, that must 

 now be put into expensive land may be profitably put into cheap land 

 and the residue used in irrigation. That is practically the condition 

 that much of western Kansas has nearly or quite reached. 



The fall of snow in this "semi-arid " region is usually light, though 

 sometimes excessive. Because of the rolling surface and the almost 

 incessant winds, what snow falls is rarely evenly distributed, and is 

 thus of little service in moistening the ground. The season, from the 

 higher altitude, is a week or more later than in the eastern part of the 

 state, and killing frosts occur later than with us. April and May are 

 usually wet months, the rainfall in the majority of seasons being suf- 

 ficient to germinate and nourish crops. Unfortunately, however, the 

 dryness of the winter is often such that wheat is killed before this 

 time. In June, while the rainfall is not abundant, it is generally suf- 

 ficient up to the middle of the month. Beginning with the latter part 

 of June and continuing into September, few or no rains are the gen- 

 eral rule, together with continued hot, dry winds from the southwest, 

 which parch and burn almost everything that is not supplied with 

 moisture. In September there is usually rain again, and vegetation 

 becomes green. In only one of the six summers I have spent on the 

 plains have I not known the prairie grass sufficiently dry to burn in 

 the early part of July. During July and August there are frequent 

 attempts at rain, but the clouds seldom shed more than a few drops of 

 moisture to the ground. So dry is the atmosphere that a slight shower 

 will lower the temperature remarkably. I have known the thermom- 

 eter in a single day in July to fall from 104 ° to 42 ° . The maxi- 

 mum temperature for this season is from 94° to 104°, but some- 

 times getting up to 108 ° or even higher. As a result of this excessive 

 heat and dryness, storms are apt to be violent, and hailstorms are 

 more frequent and more to be dreaded than in eastern Kansas. This 

 is to be taken into account in the problem of water storage; the fifteen 

 or eighteen inches of annual rainfall is of much less service than it 

 would be if so much of the water did not immediately run away. 



The question of irrigation in western Kansas resolves itself into the 

 solution of three principal problems, viz: the utilization of surface 

 water by empounding and distribution; the utilization of the water of 

 streams by ditches; and the use of ground-water by means of the 

 pump. 



