WHAT HAS BEEN DONE BY IRRI- 

 GATION. 



From the census office, Washington, D. C., we have received the 

 following in regard to the work: 



The preliminary work of the census office in collecting data relative 

 to the arid and sub-humid regions shows that during the past ten 

 years vast areas have been reclaimed by irrigation, both by ditching 

 from running streams and drilling for subterranean waters. 



Where only a few years ago the sage brush struggled for existence 

 in the midst of a waste of alkali and sand, today are fields of waving 

 grain and blossoming orange- groves. Hundreds of miles of canals and 

 ditches have been constructed; hundreds of wells have been sunk, and 

 thousands of acres of land have been cultivated in zones where once 

 the desolation of Sahara reigned. 



Moistened by fresh waters and fertilized by the rich silt of the 

 swift mountain streams, once trackless wastes and desolate valleys in 

 the arid Southwest, have become as fertile as the famous Valley of 

 the Nile, and send forth crops of endless variety and exceeding 

 abundance. 



Irrigation is intensive farming. Where the water supply is ample, 

 it is sure farming. There are no failures, and crops are enormous. 

 The experienced irrigator is like the trained engineer with his hand 

 on the lever. The movements of his hand regulate the amount of 

 water supplied to his fields as those of the engineer conti*ol his engine. 



In most of the irrigable sections of the West, fertilizers have 

 never been used, although the land has been constantly cultivated for 

 over two centuries. In many sections fields may be seen which have 

 yielded successive crops of wheat for forty years and show no dimi- 

 nution of productive strength. 



Wonderful progress is shown in the methods of constructing 

 canals, dams, and pumping machinery, and in the manner of distrib- 

 uting water. Modern inventions in machinery have greatly lessened 

 the time, labor, and cost of construction and management and made 

 possible many gigantic enterprises of land reclamation and water 

 utilizatio*. 



Mountains have been tunneled and whole rivers have been lifted 

 from their beds and spread over the valleys precisely as wanted. High 

 up in the ranges and on the elevated plateaus immense storage reser- 

 voirs have been constructed to impound the flood-waters of the streams 

 so that the thirsty land below shall not suffer during the long rainless, 

 summer. 



