226 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ALFALFA STACKS. 



in upon unbroken lands by the square 

 mile, but are being planted, subsoiled and 

 watered, and are yielding surely and 

 abundantly. A maximum crop beats a 

 stinted crop. A maximum crop every year 

 beats a fair crop occasionally, when the 

 rain happens to fall just right. 



Irrigation is the only insurance that 

 provides against droughts, hot winds and 

 frosts and that pays to the policy holder 

 annually the full face of the policy and 

 pump irrigation is the most reliable of all. 



COST OF IRRIGATING VALLEY LANDS. 



Millions of acres of valley lands now 

 held at $5 to $12 an acre, having under 

 them the most reliable of all inland water 

 supplies, can be supplied with pumping 

 plants at $5 to $10 an acre, and can be 

 irrigated with an annual expense of $1 to 

 $5 an acre (power, repairs and interest), 

 and be made to pay ten per cent, net on 

 $100 to $200 per acre, and often several 

 times these figures. The pump irrigator 

 is free from monopoly control of water, 

 from canal and reservoir management and 

 from the vexatious and costly delays re- 

 sulting from water supply uncertainties 

 and canal failures. He erects his own 

 pump on his own premises, pumps his own 

 water into his own reservoir, irrigates at 

 his own pleasure, and does his own su- 

 perintending and adjudicating. 



While the millions of acres of high 

 lands must be devoted mainly to alfalfa 

 and cattle, the man who is fastened there 

 by other business than farming can, by 

 pumping water, grow at least the garden 

 produce necessary for family consumption 

 and perhaps sell some to his neighbors. 



For each locality and for each size of farm 

 in each locality there is but one style of 

 plant, one kind of pump and power and 

 one size of reservoir that results in the 

 best capitalized pumping investment and, 

 while the writer has been collecting and 

 tabulating data on this subject from ex- 

 periments and actual results on high and 

 low lands for two and a half years, the 

 relative merits of the various pumping 

 plants is intentionally omitted from this 

 article. 



While the purchasers of high lands on 

 the plains, "unsight and unseen," are 

 losers, I am convinced beyond question 

 that lands in the Arkansas valley or any 

 other valley having as reliable an under- 

 flow, are among the best investments in 

 the country at present prices. They must 

 be worth $50 to $100 an acre when sup- 

 plied with pumps and people; and when 

 the water supply and the cost and advan- 

 tages of pump irrigation become better 

 understood, the valleys will be contin- 

 uous gardens, vineyards and orchards; the 

 high lands will be pastures of native grass 

 and alfalfa. In British India three million 

 acres are irrigated with water pumped 

 from wells. In the United States of 

 America, and not alone upon the plains, 

 pump irrigation is in its infancy. 



[NOTE. The author requests us to state that the 

 photo of the Way mire reservoir on page 190 and the 

 reference thereto on page 186 were inserted by us with- 

 out referring the matter to him. En.] 



DITCH FROM FKIZELL'S KESEKV OIK. 



