599. 
Sierra Madre eastward to the prairie lands of the Missouri; rivers and 
smaller streams sweeping down from the mountain flanks and threading 
valley and plain, as arteries of the human system, constitute the grand 
physical outlines of this arid region. He stated that in France irrigated 
lands rent at $21 per acre, and unirrigated at $16. In 1856, 247,000 
acres had been brought under irrigation in that country, and since then 
the quantity had been rapidly increasing. The irrigated lands of 
Granada, Mercia and Valencia, amounting to 500,000 acres, are consid- 
ered the gardens of Spain. 
Mr. Rk. A. Cameron, of Larimer County, Colorado, stated that in his 
section irrigation has cost $7 per acre; in Utah,’$13; in Lombardy, $16. 
On an irrigated farm near Greeley, a farmer with an outlay of $48, and 
the work of one pair of lands, raised, in one season, produce which 
yielded him $4,000. ; 
Mr. A. M. Musser reported that in Utah there are now about 140,000 
acres under irrigation, and claimed an increase of rainasone of theresuits. 
Up to 1865, over 277 canals and ditches had been constructed for irriga- 
tion; of these the aggregate length was 1,0454 miles, and the total cost 
$1,776,939; average cost per mile, $1,695. The amount expended on 
canals and dams in the fiscal year ending October, 1867, was $248,000. 
The number of acres irrigated that year, 100,000; acres of wheat, 48,000; 
average yield per acre 173 bushels, (one-sixth of the crop being lost by. 
the ravages of locusts and grasshoppers;) of barley, 6,300, average yield 
18 bushels, loss one-fourth ; of oats, 1,900, average yield 20 bushels, loss 
one-third; of corn, 7,900, average yield 15 bushels, loss one-fourth; 
of potatoes, 6,300, average yield 100 bushels, loss one-fourth; of mead- 
ows, 50,000, average yield 1? tons, loss one-eighth. Of 25 canals repre: 
senting all sections of the Territory, the average dimensions are, length, 
64 miles; width at bottom, 64 feet; depth of water, 154 inches; fall, 
per mile, 23% feet; average number of acres watered by each, 1,638. 
Mr. Musser said : 
Our reclaimed alkali lands, of which we had many thousand acres, are among our 
richest, strongest, and consequently most remunerative soils. The mode of recla- 
mation is simply by leaching the land by elaborate irrigation and by repeated 
plowing ; thus exposing it to the direct influence of segregating elements which carry 
off the volatile and objectionable ingredients. When Salt Lake City was first founded 
the water capacity for irrigating purposes did not exceed 800 or 900 acres. Now be- 
tween 4,000 and 5,000 acres are successfully irrigated. At first the land was arid and 
thirsty. Subsequent irrigation saturated and settled the soil and thus slaked much of 
its early thirst. Theincrease of rain-fall,no doubt superinduced by agriculture, oceu- 
pation, and cultivation, and the numerous fruit and shade trees, like so many mulch-- 
agencies, neutralizing the drying effects of the sun’s rays and prevailing winds, has 
very largely contributed to cool and moisten the soil and to lessen the necessity for 
- frequent and elaborate watering. After successive years of watering the upper or bench 
lands, we discover that the lower lands, including much arable and about all the grass- 
lands, received about allthe water they needed through the percolating course of the 
waste waters alone. 
Mr. Benito Baco, of San Miguel County, New Mexico, stated as evi- 
dence of the necessity of irrigation, that in his county over 150,000 
sheep were lost in one season simply for the want of water. 
Mr. F. J. Stanton expressed the opinion that irrigation even in Iowa 
and Illinois would insure 25 or 30 bushels of wheat to the acre, instead 
of 124, and that ‘every foot water travels in a ditch it acquires fertil- 
ization and food-property for vegetation.” He stated that the annual 
deposit from the Mississippi had been estimated at 28,158,053,892 cubie 
feet of solid matter, exclusive of the coarse sand and gravel transported 
by the current; also that the Rhine annually carries down 1,973,433 
cubic feet. He estimated the reclaimable area in Colorado 25,000,000 
GOA 
