ELWOOD MEAD ON IRRIGATION 



[Read at the Farmers' Congress, Aug. 21.] 



Elwood Mead of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 delivered an address on irrigation. He said in part: 



"As the result of less than a half century of effort and experi- 

 ence, irrigation has changed arid, desolate plains producing nothing 

 but cactus and stunted grass, into orchards and gardens, created cities 

 like Salt Lake and Los Angeles, and dotted with rural homes, many 

 valleys where once the live stock industry was supreme. From being 

 an experiment there is not now an arid state or territory in which the 

 products of the irrigated farms do not rival in value those of the 

 mines or factories. Looking at these achievements the question may 

 well be asked whether or not there is any need of state or national 

 aid to promote the success of this industry. If people, to whom at 

 the outset the whole subject was strange and new, have succeeded so 

 well, cannot the complete utilization of western land and western 

 rivers be left to unaided private effort? 



"It is the opinion of those best informed that the present hap- 

 hazard development cannot continue. The area now irrigated is now 

 larger than the state of New York, every acre of which has been 

 watered from one to six times each year. The canals and literals 

 which distribute this water are many thousands of miles in length, 

 and require in their management during the growing season an army 

 of men to protect and regulate headgates, patrol their banks and ad- 

 just the measuring boxers of users. The success or failure of these 

 canals is a matter of local interest. Much of the money expended in 

 their construction came from the East. 



"Already the claims to water amount in the aggregate to many 

 times the supply. Every transaction which has thus far had to do 

 with their disposal has been marked by a lavish prodigality. Ditches 

 have diverted more than was used, the owners have claimed more 

 than they could divert, and the courts have given the claimants titles 

 to more than the ditches could carry and often many times what the 

 highest floods would supply. In the absence of definite information 

 of the quantity needed to irrigate an acre .of land, or of the volume 

 which streams will furnish, the ignorance or greed of the speculative 

 appropriator has its opportunity. 



"We can most surely end this state of things by showing how 

 much water is needed and when it is used. To do this on a large 

 scale is expensive. To have the results accepted as a guide to legis- 

 lation and as a basis for the important transactions, they must be 

 made by men of capacity and experience and cover a wide range of 



