30 



IRRIGATION. 



the irrigation needed to make the dry plains of India 

 fruitful is accomplished. But by far the most import 

 ant sources of water for irrigation are rivers and streams. 

 In these there is an abundant supply, and there is gener 

 ally ample provision for elevating the water, by means 

 of dams with canals or by water wheels, to the highest 

 portion of the adjacent land which is to be irrigated. 



The scope for the utilization of rivers and small streams 

 in irrigation in the United States is of vast extent, and 

 the statement which has been made that there are 500,000 

 homesteads in the country that could be brought under 

 a partial or complete system of irrigation, does certainly 

 not overestimate the reality, but on the contrary is doubt 

 less greatly below it. It is for every cultivator of the 

 soil to closely scan his own resources in this respect, 

 wisely determining to turn them to account as soon as he 

 shall have discovered their existence and perceived how 

 to employ them. The cost of works for irrigation will 

 be greatest where the area to be irrigated is the smallest, 

 as for instance in gardens and market gardens ; it will be 

 least in the case of meadows, where the distributing 

 canals are permanent in character, and between these ex 

 tremes upon arable lands, where for each crop the surface 

 must be disturbed, and furrows for spreading the water 

 must be made anew at each plowing. The cost will also 

 vary greatly, as the facilities for procuring and elevating 

 the water may differ. But it may be accepted as beyond 

 doubt that there are few gardens, market farms, orchards, 

 or meadows that might not be brought under a more or 

 less systematic irrigation, and few localities near the 

 borders of rivers in the great Western plains, or other 

 rainless localities, in which the present arid desert may 

 not be redeemed and made to blossom and become fruit 

 ful beneath the beneficient influence of the fertilizing 

 waters which now flow uselessly by them. 



