ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PHASES OF IRRIGATION. 



155 



and such list shows gains ranging from three hun- 

 dred to ten hundred per cent. But the most satisfact- 

 ory proof is seen by the returns published in the 

 census bulletins and by the progress report of the 

 Bureau of Irrigation Inquiry, because such returns 

 are of general results. 



It has been said that irrigation was a many-sided 

 subject. One important side of it relates to invest- 

 ment. The first cost of irrigation systems in 1889, ac- 

 cording to the census, was $26,611,000 and their value 

 in 1890 $94,412,000. Even the latter figure, represent- 

 ing an increase of 218 per cent, in present valuation 

 over first cost, is inconsiderable in comparison with 

 the sums that must be expended in the future work 

 of reclamation: 



NEW LANDS ARE NEEDED. 



The constant growth from internal sources of the 

 population of this country, and the rapid aggregation 

 to such increase from immigration, and from the 

 fecundity of this immigrant aggregation, tend rapidly 

 to absorb new lands and bring them into cultivation; 

 and it will not take long to fill the interstice between 

 land " under ditch " which is cultivated, and the land 

 which lies " under ditch " awaiting the husbandman. 

 The further extension, then, of the areas " under 

 ditch " is looked forward to constantly by the thought- 

 ful citizen as one of the means of gratifying the am- 

 bition of the human family for a home of each man's 

 own making. 



The fact that the area of reclaimed and reclaimable 

 land is small as compared with the territorial surface 

 of the humid regions does not diminish its economic 

 value in itself, while acre for acre irrigated arid lands 

 are worth more than humid region lands. 



The fact that the area of possible reclamation has 

 two limitations of rather severely compressing bound- 

 ary, namely, the 'measure of adequate water in the 

 immediate locality of its distribution, and the expense 

 of establishing the irrigation works; these two limita- 

 tions remove all apprehensions as to over-extending 

 this area of valuable reclamation, and keep up the 

 lively hope of constant and growing profits of such 

 enterprises. 



IMPORTANT RESULTS OBTAINED. 



The census of 1890 tells us that the average cost ot 

 providing means of irrigation to land in the arid 

 region is $8.15 per acre ; that the value of land almost 

 valueless without completed means of irrigation is 

 raised by irrigation to $48, and to $60, and to $150, on 

 the average in regions tabulated in the census com- 

 pend; that the average of yearly returns from irri- 

 gated crops is $14.87 per acre; and, profit-showing as 

 this average statement is, it does not do justice 

 to the facts, since this average is made up on 

 areas which include lands watered for pasturage only 

 as well as lands cultivated to crops. The profit of ir- 



rigation enterprise on the average, according to the 

 census of 1890, was 283.08 per cent. This is not a 

 showing of the exceptional profits of some enter- 

 prises, but the statement of average on all work of 

 this kind. Like mining ventures, some of these un- 

 dertakings are exceptionally profitable; while unlike 

 minin -, when not quickly or largely profitable, they 

 ar: .till investments in real property of growing use 

 ' ainess and of increasing profit possibility. 



In the irrigation of lands, and in the preparation of 

 such lands for cultivation, something like $200,000,000 

 have been invested. The indirect benefits of this in- 

 vestment to the country at large are many fold in 

 value the amount of such investment. 



POPULATION AND COMMERCE STIMULATED. 



It is neither the grazing nor the mining interest 

 which has contributed most largely to the influx of 

 population into the Arid West. It is agriculture in 

 all its forms which has largely contributed to bring 

 this immigration into such States and Territories; 

 and irrigation made the agriculture first possible and 

 then profitable. The 5,500,000 of population within 

 the area under consideration has not long been resi- 

 dent therein. In 1850 the total white population was 

 166,524. Irrigation, in its large expression, is the 

 growth of some twenty years only ; with its growth 

 has come the population. In 1860, we are informed, 

 there were but twenty-three miles of railroad west of 

 the Missouri ; there are now more than 40,000 miles. 

 Of telegraph lines there were none; now some 100,- 

 000 miles of electrical communication. These com- 

 mercial agencies and this gain in population have 

 gone forward part passu with irrigation as concomi- 

 tants, and partly, although not wholly, as results. 

 This, then, has been gained. A country, nearly unin- 

 habited by white people, has increased to five and a 

 half millions of people; an area, not large when 

 compared with the territorial surface of the United 

 States, but not insignificant by any rules of measure- 

 ment, an area of some eight millions of acres has 

 come into crop cultivation at greatly profitable re- 

 sults by artificial watering, and to this the irrigated 

 pastures must be added; an area of some 21,000,000 

 of acres has been placed under immediate possibility 

 of cultivation by providing canals, ditches and res- 

 ervoirs for its reclamation. Its unoccupied portions 

 are now awaiting the husbandman's industry and 

 intelligent labor to pay him back large profits for his 

 toil. 



LAND OF GROWING VALUE. 



It goes without saying that land producing crops 

 without danger of failure and crops of the best qual- 

 ity and largest quantity per acre must rise to high 

 value. The most valuable agricultural lands in the 

 world will be the irrigated farms of the Arid West. 

 This is not prophecy, but well established fact. The 



