178 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



means a loss to the community of a million dollars, or, rather, under 

 better or more successful management of the water, the net return 

 of the community might have been $1,000,000 more during the season. 



This is by no means a fanciful idea. The study of ditch manage- 

 ment and crop production in irrigated regions shows that in many 

 instances there has been a shortage of water at a critical time, due 

 to lack of forethought or, skill on the part of some one. 



The average fanner does not appreciate what this has meant to 

 him, as he is apt to rarely figure out these larger matters with any 

 degree of precision, and has been accustomed to disappointments in 

 his crops so often that he regards such matters as inseparable from 

 agriculture. If the crop looks fairly well he frequently goes no 

 deeper. Possibly never having seen a full-crop production under 

 excellent conditions he has no standard by which to judge. 



This matter was well illustrated by an experienced irrigation 

 manager who examined one of the large projects in Wyoming where 

 the farmers for several years had been what they considered fairly 

 successful. They had raised profitable crops and had succeeded in 

 getting along with constant temporary repairs to the main canal. 

 He took the history of a single season's operation and number of 

 days that the canal was out of service through accidental but pre- 

 ventable breaks, and figured on a conservative basis what would have 

 been the crop products had the works been maintained in excellent 

 order by skilled men. He showed that had fire swept through the 

 country and destroyed every visible improvement in the towns of 

 the vicinity the loss to the entire community would have been less 

 than had actually resulted from preventable failure to operate the 

 canals properly. The spectacular view of a burning barn or store- 

 house rivets public attention upon this definite loss, but the gradual 

 and unimpressive delay in development of the crop day by day is not 

 noticeable. While all of the neighborhood would rush to aid the 

 owner of the- burning barn, yet no one knows or apparently cares 

 while the valuable fruits or other crops are being imperceptibly 

 reduced in value to a far larger degree. 



FERTILIZERS. 



One of the fallacies which must be continually met and overcome 

 with these new men is that by applying water artificially to the soil 

 the processes of farming are made easier and that there is no need 

 of applying fertilizer. Statements are often made in popular publi- 

 cations to the effect that the irrigating streams not only furnish to 

 the plants the needed water but also bring fertilizers and enrich the 

 soil. The Nile Valley, in Egypt, is frequently cited as an instance 

 where it is alleged that through centuries agriculture has been prac- 

 ticed without impoverishing the soil, the rich mud left by the river 



