BOTANY AND IRRIGATION. 



AN INTERVIEW WITH MR COVILLE, UNITED 

 STATES BOTANIST. 



As the years roll by the country will see millions of dollars saved 

 to the farmers of the west, and millions more made. The advocates 

 of irrigation for the west claim that the carrying out of their propo- 

 sition would create a vast empire where is now the great American 

 Desert. Seventy million acres of arid land is the amount estimated 

 "by the Geological Survey as susceptible of irrigation with the present 

 surface water-supply of the arid region. 



"This utilization of all western waters would increase the arable 

 area of theUnitei States less than 10 per cent", said Mr. P. V. Coville, 

 the Chief of the Division of Botany of the Department of Agriculture, 

 "and while it would open up a new channel of vast possibilities, I 

 think that we are working along lines which will add almost as much 

 to the nation's development as would the stornge ;uid utilization of all 

 her western waters. What can a work of su<*,h magnitude be r 1 Why 

 the finding and introduction of plants adapted to the hundreds of mill- 

 ions of acres of land of the arid belt which must always remain arid 

 even after every drop of water has been conserved by means of stor- 

 age reservoirs and otherwise. Although the opening up to settlement 

 through irrigation of between 70,000,000 and 100,000,000 acres of land 

 would create thousands if not millions of homes, yet there will always 

 remain these vast tracts of arid and semi- arid grazing lands which 

 while useless for most crops, will produce certain plants in profusion. 

 Most of the western lands are fertile. All they need is water; if not 

 water then some crop which will thrive on the light rainfall they re 

 ceive; not sufficient to keep alive ordinary crops. We are finding such 

 crops and I think we will eventually cover this arid area with plants 

 of various sorts which will yield millions of tons of additional forage 

 and grain for western flocks and herds. The Department of Agricul- 

 ture has explorers all over the world searching for such plants. For 

 every acre in Arid America, north or south, of high or low altitude, 

 there is a counterpart in the- Old World, and the Old World is full of 

 expprience. In Russian Turkestan, in Arabia, on the borders of the 

 Sahara, the varied conditions are exactly similar to those of different 

 parts of our western territory and in these ancient lands they have 

 grown arid-land crops for thousands of years. Every acre of the new 

 West has its double in the old East. Our men are hitting upon valu- 

 able things from lima to time, and when something of use is discover- 

 ed, theDepartment makes it its business to see to its distribution. It 



