Irrigation Enterprise in America. 829 



IRRIGATION ENTERPRISE IN THE UNITED 

 STATES OF AMERICA. 



Wonderful Engineering Achievements: Agricultural 



Disappointments. 



Ix any couuliy like ours, witli its wide stretches of arid land and 

 uncertain rainfall, irrigation figures prominently as a question of 

 great importance. It calls for skill and forethought, for an irrigation 

 scheme requires the consideration of many factors, each of far-reach- 

 ing importance. Irrigation is considered by many to be the concern 

 of the engineer only. How mistaken this conception of irrigation is 

 may be gauged from the fact that water supply is only one of the 

 following' factors, all of which are equally important in plant growth : 

 (1) oxygen, (2) light, (3) temperature, (4) water supply, (5) food 

 supply, and (6) absence of harmful factors. Then, also, a matter 

 of first importance is the type of water available for use, whether it 

 is saline (which is inadmissible) or whether it is suitable for the class 

 of soil to be irrigated. Indeed, the agricultural and chemical side 

 is of no less importance than the engineering aspect in the planning 

 of any irrigation scheme. It is to be expected, therefore, that all 

 schemes, many presenting new features in themselves, are not 

 uniformly successful and that some are failures. The story of 

 irrigation enterprise is one of varying fortunes. In fact, it is no 

 exagg'eration to say that by irrigation many thousands of acres of 

 once fertile land have been made barren, owing to insufficient thought 

 as to whether the land would hear irrigation and whether the water 

 was suitable for the purpose. A valuable object-lesson is obtained 

 from the history of irrigation undertakings in the United States, as 

 outlined in an interesting article in the " Geographical Journal" for 

 October, 1919, by R. H. AVhitbeck, Professor of Geography at the 

 University of Wisconsin, Madison. The article brings out most of 

 the troubles besetting a country which is entering upon the more 

 advanced stages of irrig-ation enterprise; in many respects we are 

 having troubles of a similar nature in the Union. Professor 

 Whitbeck's article refers to some extraordinarily bold engineering 

 schemes most diverse in character, but such engineering feats, it may 

 be added, are not confined to the United States of America. It must 

 be admitted, for instance, that for courage and diversity of engineer- 

 ing problems the most recent irrigation enterprise undertaken in 

 northern India, the great Punjab Triple Canal Scheme, is not sur- 

 passed in any other country. 



In opening his article Professor Whitbeck states that 500,000,000 

 acres in the western half of the United States are very sparsely 

 peopled, and normally produce no crops because of a lack of water. 

 In the arid south-western parts of the country the Indians practised 

 irrigation in a crude way centuries before the white man came. Then 

 the Spanish settlers employed irrigation, and the practice gradually 



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