PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ARID REGION. 9 
corner where the survey has not yet been completed, the amount of land 
which it is possible to redeem by this method is about 2,262 square miles, 
or 1,447,920 acres. Of course this amount does not lie in a continuous 
body, but is scattered in small tracts along the water courses. For the 
purpose of exhibiting their situations a map of the territory has been 
prepared, and will be found accompanying this report, on which the several 
tracts of irrigable lands have been colored. A glance at this map will show 
how they are distributed. Excluding that small portion of the territory in 
the southeast corner not embraced in the map, Utah has an area of 80,000 
square miles, of which 2,262 square miles are irrigable. ‘That is, 2.8 per 
cent. of the lands under consideration can be cultivated by utilizing all the 
available streams during the irrigating season. 
In addition to the streams considered in this statement there are 
numerous small springs on the mountain sides scattered throughout the 
territory—springs which do not feed permanent streams ; and if their waters 
were used for irrigation the extent of irrigable land would be slightly 
increased; to what exact amount cannot. be stated, but the difference would 
be so small as not to materially affect the general statement, and doubtless 
these springs can be used in another way and to a better purpose, as will 
hereafter appear. 
This statement of the facts relating to the irrigable lands of Utah will 
serve to give a clearer conception of the extent and condition of the 
irrigable lands throughout the Arid Region. Such as can be redeemed 
are scattered along the water courses, and are in general the lowest lands 
of the several districts to which they belong. In some of the states and 
territories the percentage of irrigable land is less than in Utah, in others 
greater, and it is probable that the percentage in the entire region is some- 
what greater than in the territory which we have considered. 
The Arid Region is somewhat more than four-tenths of the total area 
of the United States, and as the agricultural interests of so great an area 
are dependent upon irrigation it will be interesting to consider certain 
questions relating to the economy and practicability of distributing the 
waters over the lands to be redeemed. 
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