830 Journal of the Department of Agricultlre. 



spread with the influx of population. By 1889, 54,000 farms, having 

 a total area of 3,600,000 acres were under irrigatioi\ ; but the 

 areas were not' large, and the construction work was of a temporary 

 character, the undeitakings being carried out and managed by the 

 settlers themselves, or groups of them working co-operatively. Tlie 

 first settlers had the choice of land, and selected, of course, that 

 which could easily be irrigated. The method often took the form 

 of a crude dam thrown across a stream from the mountains, flowing 

 across an alluvial stretch whose soil wanted water only to make it 

 productive. Some undertakings, however, required a large amount 

 of capital and were managed by commercial enterprise ; but it often 

 happened that they were over capitalized and that the profits of the 

 company were studied rather than the service to th.e farmers. 



The following extract from the United States Census, 1910. 

 shows the acreage irrigated by various classes of enterprise in 1909, 

 and shows that nearly 90 per cent, was cairied out under the condi- 

 tions referred to above, viz. : — 



Percentage of 

 Class of Enterprise. Total Acres 



Irrigated. 



1. U.S. Reclamation Service 2.9 



2. U.S. Indian Service 1.3 



3. Carey Act enterprises 2.1 



4. Irrigation districts 3.8 



5. Co-operative enterprises 33.8 



6. Individual and partnership enterprises 45.5 



T. Commercial enterprises 10.6 



100 



Representing a total of 13,738.485 acres.* 



Of the other four methods of conducting irrigation enterprises 

 (vide Nos. 1-4 in the foregoing table), only one — the U.S. Reclama- 

 tion projects — has had any considerable development. The Reclama- 

 tion Service (and from the term " reclamation " it must not be 

 inferred that land which has been ruined is necessarily implicated : 

 the word is more often used in the sense that good land lying idle 

 through want of water is being reclaimed for the service of man) for 

 carrying out irrigation works by the Government with money received 

 from the sale of public lands, began its undertakings in 1902. Thirty 

 great projects, scattered over a wide area, were undertaken, each with 

 at least one major engineering problem for whose solution there was 

 scarcely a precedent, and each with its own difficulties of labour, 

 transport, and climate. Professor Whitbcck gives the following 

 examples : — 



" In North Dakota, in the Williston unit, the engineers found it 

 impossible to secure water from the Missouri River by gravity 

 methods, but lignite beds existed on Government land a few miles 

 away. Here they installed a modern electric generating plant, using 

 the lignite for fuel, and sent the current to a pumping plant installed 



* According to the 1918 Census, the irrigated area in the Union of South Africa was 

 938.823 acres, and tlie area irrigated and irrigable was 2.318.056 acres. 



