314 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



meet the conditions as we find thein. The important, the leading fact 

 in this connection is that we have water to irri<j^ate with. Some one 

 has shown the proportion of the arid west which it is possible to 

 find enough water to irrigate by illustrating the arid belt as a 

 twenty acre field and the irrigable portion as a single furrow plowed 

 through it. True, we cannot irrigate even the larger portion of the 

 lands needing more water, indeed only a very small portion of it. 

 But instead of the few mountain streams of Colorado or Arizona, 

 look at our inany streams! Observe our reservoirs in the form of 

 ten thousand lakes and the not insignificant government reservoirs! 

 No other state in the Union probabl}^ has so much water near lands 

 needing more or less irrigation. Last year Mr. Frost, on the part of 

 the Minnesota delegation to the National Irrigation Congress, in 

 offering inducements to the association to meet in this state, offered 

 each member a lake if they would come to the North Star State. 

 People generally have an erronous notion regarding irrigation 

 ditches and viaducts and think the water inust have a high head. 

 In reality irrigation is easiest done and may be most cheaplj' pre- 

 pared for on land nearly though not quite level, and with greater 

 cost on rolling or rough lands. During the past three years mj' 

 duties in seeking locations for the two new experiment farms gave 

 me the opportunity to inspect many portions of the state, especially 

 in the northeastern section. There are many places where irrigation 

 may be profitably done and, I believe, will in time be extensivelj"^ 

 practiced. The larger possibilities are along the rivers, where large 

 tracts of comparatively level lands of open and peaty soils lie not 

 so high above the rivers but that ditches brought from some miles 

 up stream will carr}'^ water to the land. Similar opportunities also 

 exist along smaller streams. Occasionall3^ a lake lies in such a 

 position that its waters can be conveyed by the natural gravity, or 

 ditch, method to the land. All over the state are innumerable op- 

 portunities for irrigation in a small way by elevating the water 

 from streams, lakes and even wells upon the soil, and in some por- 

 tions of the state artesian wells supply comparatively small 

 amounts of water for irrigation. Elevated reservoirs, especially for 

 intensive farming, as with vegetables and smallfruits, will pay un- 

 der many conditions, and when the water must be elevated directly 

 upon the land or into reservoirs this can be done by ineansof wind- 

 mills propelled by our abundant winds, steam pumps driven by 

 burning our cheap soft woods now so improvidently wasted, gaso- 

 line pumps or even by hydraulic rams taking advantage of water 

 falls. 



Irrigation can only be made to pay where the conditions are favor- 

 able. The man who goes to the top of a high hill, builds a reservoir, 

 digs a well and erects a windmill, too often makes an illustration of 

 how best to discourage irrigation. Even where windmills are to be 

 used, the lift should be short, and this needs particularly to be em- 

 phasized if wood or other more or less expensive fuel is to be used 

 for power. Lands but little above the level of the water in lakes^ 

 streams or wells should be chosen. There is an abundance of these 

 lands, and only in rare cases will it pay to elevate the water more 

 than twent3^-five feet. Much more can be accomplished where the 



