IRRIGATION. 



By F. H. Newtcix, 

 Hydrograplier, U. S. Geological Survey. 



With the cessation of Indian wars and of daily news of frontier 

 strife, the people of our country have come to regard the United 

 States as settled and no longer affording opportunity for notable 

 expansion of internal resources. It is true that the frontier of civili- 

 zation has disappeared as regards the United States proper, and inter- 

 est in the warfare between the white settler and the savage, or native 

 occupant of the soil, has been transferred to outlying possessions. 

 Civilization in its march across the Mississippi Valley to the Rocky 

 Mountains has reached the Pacific coast (PI. I), but in so doing took 

 rapid strides across a third of the continent and left but few footprints 

 on its course. Now, at the beginning of the twentieth century, when 

 we come to take account of the progress made, we are surprised to find 

 that one-third of the whole United States remains vacant land, still 

 belonging to the people as a whole and at the disposal of Congress. 



The question may well be asked, Why is it, with the keen desire for 

 land ownership possessed by the American people, that this one-third 

 of the United States should be left untouched? The soil is known to 

 be as fertile as that of any part of the globe, and the land laws are 

 extremely liberal, so that there is no difficulty in securing title, and 

 farms can be had almost for the asking. 



The anomalous condition exists that although one-third of the 

 United States proper, excluding Alaska and outlying possessions, 

 consists of vacant public land (as shown in fig. 1). yet there is no 

 longer an outlet for the homeseeker upon these lands. In the past the 

 vast unoccupied public domain has served as an outlet for surplus 

 labor and has afforded scope for the energies of thousand* of young, 

 able-bodied men, who, while without financial means, have had the 

 ambition to become landowners and to grow up with the increasing 

 development of a new country. 



After the close of the Civil War and at times of great industrial 

 depression, when men sought an opportunity to earn their daily living 



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