THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 93 



It is well known that with the dry, even climate and with 

 an abundance of water applied as vegetation needs, this 

 now arid waste is far more productive than the Eastern 

 states, where the crops are at the mercy of the elements, 

 sometimes having too much moisture and at other tunes not 

 having enough. 



"Irrigation offers control of conditions such as is found no- 

 where except in greenhouse culture. The farmer in the humid 

 country cannot control the amount of starch in potatoes, 

 sugar in beets, protein in corn, gluten in wheat, except by 

 planting varieties which are especially adapted to the pro- 

 duction of the desired quality. The irrigation farmer, on 

 the other hand, can produce this or that desirable quality 

 by the control of the moisture supply to the plant. He can 

 hasten or retard maturity of the plant, produce early truck 

 or late truck on the same soil, grow wheat or grow rice as 

 he deems advisable." 



"On the irrigated fields of the Vosges, Vaucluse, etc., in 

 France, six tons of dry hay becomes the rule, even upon 

 ungrateful soil ; and this means considerably more than the 

 annual food of one milch cow (which can be taken as a little 

 less than five tons) grown on each acre." 



"The irrigated meadows round Milan are another well- 

 known example. Nearly 22,000 acres are irrigated there 

 with water derived from the sewers of the city, and they 

 yield crops of from eight to ten tons of hay as a rule; oc- 

 casionally some separate meadows will yield the fabulous 

 amount fabulous to-day but no longer fabulous to-mor- 

 row of eighteen tons of hay per acre ; that is, the food of 

 nearly four cows to the acre, and nine times the yield of good 

 meadows in this country." ("Fields, Factories, and Work- 

 shops," pages 116-117.) 



