IRRIGATION. 413 



ernment, the great land owner, should construct and maintain the 

 reservoirs as it does other public works. He says that this is properly 

 a national function, and that it is as right for the National Government 

 to make the streams and rivers of the arid region useful, by engineer- 

 ing works for water storage, as it is to make useful the rivers and 

 harbors of the humid region by engineering works of another kind. 



There is a widespread demand on the part of the citizens of the 

 country, the owners of this vast domain, for the adoption by the Gov- 

 ernment of some policy leading to the ultimate reclamation of the 

 West, such as will permit the largest possible number of homes. 

 The labor organizations see in this an outlet for overcrowded condi- 

 tions; the manufacturing, jobbing, and transportation interests of the 

 country appreciate the overwhelming importance of this great home 

 market; the more intelligent farmers see here opportunities for 

 homes for the younger members of their families and recognize that 

 the agricultural prosperity of the country rests largely upon increased 

 growth of manufactures and consequently enlarged demand for prod- 

 ucts. The one discordant note is from the comparative^ few who 

 do not understand that the development of the Western lands must in 

 any event proceed slowly, and that the agricultural products of the 

 arid region do not and never can compete with those of the East, 

 since the character of the crops and the time when placed upon the 

 market differ widely from those of any other section of the country. 



The importance of this potential competition is overstated by some 

 Eastern farmers. They do not appreciate the fact that wheat, corn, 

 and other staple products of the East are not raised by irrigation, save 

 for the most limited local consumption, and never will be, because the 

 cost of cultivation under irrigation is such that only the highest priced 

 products can be raised. The citrus fruits and the green and dried 

 fruits differ from those of the East, and have in no respect reduced 

 the price or limited the product of apples, peaches, or any other fruit 

 of the Eastern States. For sugar beets the arid climate has been 

 found especially suitable, but the amount raised under irrigation, even 

 under the most favorable circumstances, can not influence the sugar 

 market, being infinitesimal in comparison with the product of cane 

 sugar of Louisiana, the Hawaiian Islands, or Cuba. 



The fear of some of our Eastern farmers that the development of 

 the arid West will further reduce the value of agricultural lands and 

 products arises from a complete misapprehension of the subject. The 

 great increase in farming area in the United States was from 1860 to 

 1890, in what is known as the North Central Division, including the 

 States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 

 Iowa, Missouri, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. The 

 improved area increased from 52,000,000 acres to 181,000,000 acres, 

 the principal increase being in Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Nebraska, 



