OWNERSHIP OF LANDS IN THE ARID REGION. 



149 



and that the water which can be taken from the lower 

 Colorado in Arizona and California will be that which 

 is caught in the deep canons and cannot be taken out 

 upon the upper lands, and that this supply will be 

 equally divided between Arizona and California. 

 Second, it has been assumed that the water of the 

 upper Columbia will be divided between British and 

 American territory in proportion to the area of catch- 

 ment falling within the two countries. 



In a former article the conclusion was reached that 

 if all of the water supply of the arid and sub-humid 

 regions could be used, it would be possible to irrigate 

 75,000,000 acres of land ; but it was further stated that 

 it would probably not be practicable, for reasons 

 therein given. But in the above table and in the dia- 

 gram it has been assumed that the whole of the water 

 will be utilized. The fact is that the extent to which 

 the supply will be utilized will depend very largely 

 upon local conditions, especially the character of the 

 crops and proximity to the great markets. 



We have spoken of humid, sub-humid and arid 

 lands. The sub-humid lands are intermediate in 

 climatic conditions between the humid and the arid, 

 and really constitute their connecting link. It is not 

 possible to draw accurate lines between these limits. 

 While irrigation is practiced on arid lands and sub- 

 humid lands, yet the sub-humid lands, falling between 

 the two extremes, are actually cultivated in part by 

 irrigation and in part by dry farming, as it is usually 

 termed in the West. 



DRY FARMING IS PRECARIOUS. 



The preceding map shows the relations between the 

 arid and humid regions by exhibiting the regions 

 where dry farming is carried on and how they merge 

 into the humid regions. The area of dry farming in 

 the sub-humid regions is extensive, nearly equal to 

 that carried on by irrigation in the sub-humid and 

 arid regions. The extent of this dry farming will 

 ultimately be greatly increased, so that the agricul- 



tural resources of the sub-humid lands will be much 

 enlarged, and the great, dry West will depend in 

 part on irrigation and in part on dry farming. But in 

 general it may be stated that dry farming within the 

 arid and sub-humid regions is precarious, and that it 

 ought not to be depended upon exclusively, but only 

 as an adjunct to farming by irrigation and to stock 

 farming. 



From the above tables it will be seen that, taking 

 the arid and sub-humid regions at large, the area of 

 lands in private ownership exceeds the water supply, 

 but that generally throughout the arid region there 

 are lands in private ownership which cannot be irri- 

 gated. Often tracts of land have been taken up with 

 the expectation of irrigating but small portions there- 

 of ; and only small portions of the Spanish grants can 

 be irrigated. Thus it is that there are lands widely 

 scattered throughout the arid region in private own- 

 ership which cannot be irrigated, and, on the other 

 hand, there are in the aggregate several million acres 

 of land in government ownership which can be 

 advantageously irrigated. But there are very many 

 valleys in which the lands in private ownership which 

 can be irrigated exceed the water supply. Often in 

 this case the water is not used because the irrigating 

 works have not yet been sufficiently developed there- 

 for. Whether in such cases the water supply should 

 be held for the use of the owners of the lards or 

 whether the yet uncontrolled waters should be 

 diverted to lands now in the hands of the govern- 

 ment, is a problem worthy of consideration by the 

 people who have acquired lands and by the people of 

 the United States at large. 



A LONG SIPHON. 



According to Indian Engineering, a long siphon 

 has lately been added to the water supply system of 

 the Nusseerabad cantonment in India. The water is 

 drawn from a well in the overflow channel of a lake; 

 a weir below the well preventing any serious fluctu- 

 ations in the water level in the latter. Until recently, 

 the water has been pumped by bullocks from the well 

 into a main leading to the cantonment. Toward the 

 end of August this method of supply was discontin- 

 ued and a siphon service put in. It is an eight-inch 

 pipe, about four miles long; lowest depression is 

 about thirty feet. 



A large irrigation enterprise is about to be under- 

 taken in Mexico. A contract has been signed with 

 Engineer Scougall for works consisting of a dam six 

 miles above the junction of the San Juan and Rio 

 Grande rivers, and some 100 miles of canal and 

 laterals, which will, when completed, permit of the 

 irrigation of 500,000 acres of good cotton land. 



