CROP ROTATION AND IRRIGATION 123 



South of Yellowstone park in the Wind river mountains of 

 Wyoming rises Mount Union in majestic grandeur. Three 

 streams take their course from this peak the Missouri, the 

 Columbia and the Colorado. Embraced in the branching arms 

 of these streams is the industrial future of a region greater in 

 extent than any European nation save Russia. Could this vast 

 district be reclaimed for settlement, it would be a task second 

 to none in the realm of social economics, for here millions of 

 people could find homes. Within this region is contained prac- 

 tically all that remains of the public domain. The only ele- 

 ment lacking to make the land valuable is moisture. New in- 

 fluences are at work to remedy this, the bitter failures of 20 

 years ago have been largely forgotten, and a second wave of 

 settlement is sweeping over the plains. Rather slowly and un- 

 willingly public attention became fixed upon irrigation. While 

 the water supply is sufficient to irrigate only a small fraction 

 of the arid domain, approximately three-fourths of a billion 

 acres, several million acres are already under irrigation, and 

 there is a good prospect that many more millions will be irri- 

 gated in the future. At present this area forms potentially the 

 best part of our national heritage. Although most of the land 

 would be typical for raising wheat, and the completion of the 

 irrigation works which the government now has under way will 

 add millions of bushels to the annual production of wheat, the 

 better adaptability of other crops to intensive cultivation under 

 irrigation will doubtless soon render it unprofitable to irrigate 

 wheat extensively. The introduction of irrigation will make 

 possible the growing of diversified crops in some sections where 

 wheat alone can now be profitably raised. Where the supply of 

 water is insufficient for irrigation, the only remedy is the devel- 

 opment of drought resistant crops for dry farming. One of the 

 greatest of these is durum wheat. If there is water enough to 

 irrigate but one acre of ground on the dry farm, this will make 

 a green oasis with shade and foliage for the farmer 's home, a 

 pleasant contrast to the monotony of the gray and dusty sum- 

 mer plains with their shimmering waves of heat. 



