IRRIGATION. 



415 



While the irrigated lands have never and can tuner compete with the 

 rest of the country in agricultural values yet they afford the only 

 remaining opportunity for the creation of homes, and they insure the 

 highest type of agricultural and social development. The small irri- 

 gated farm, with intensive cultivation and the suburban conditions 

 made possible under the circumstances, is the most attractive farm 

 life, and the owners and cultivators of these farms form the most 

 stable and substantial class of citizens, so that, although the numbers 

 and the area may be relatively small, yet the opportunities are great. 



Fig. i.— Map of irrigated and irrigable areas. [The solid black spots are the irrigated areas, the 

 dotted areas are the localities where irrigation may he extended] 



It is estimated that by the construction of storage reservoirs, by 

 diverting large rivers, and by sinking deep or artesian wells, it will 

 be practicable ultimately to irrigate nearly ten times the area now 

 cultivated by irrigation (tig. 4). There is a wide margin as to the 

 probable acreage, and it has been placed at from 60,000,000 to 

 100,000,000 acres ultimately reclaimable within two or three genera- 

 tions. The amount, however, will depend wholly upon the treatment 

 now accorded by Congress to the public lands. By leaving matters as 

 they are, only a small proportion of this extent will ever be irrigated, 



