12 HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



and thorough disintegration of the soil," says Professor Cassiday, of our 

 Colorado Agricultural College, "will accomplish the first step in the 

 retention in the soil of the moisture for the sustenance of flagging vegeta- 

 tion. Cultivation, too, checks evaporation, and hence currently lessens 

 the deposit of alkali on the surface. High tilth of the soil supplements 

 irrigation. This, with good under-drainage and the successful application 

 of water to plants in the free soil, and a judicious selection of varieties, 

 may be said to be the foundation of successful fruit culture in this State." 



These remarks of Professor Cassiday need not be limited to Colorado. 

 They are of universal application ; and while the people of the West are 

 to-day petitioning Congress for a grand system of surface reservoirs for 

 the Great Plains, the importance of which is too manifest to need dis- 

 cussion, let them supplement this by constructing a still grander system 

 of underground reservoirs, by plow and trench, to hold like a sponge the 

 water which falls or flows upon them, to be returned to the growing crops 

 as their needs demand. 



From an investigation of results in nearly every part of the CDuntry 

 where irrigation is practiced, with few exceptions, the verdict is quite 

 unanimous that "the duty of water" is annually increasing. In fact, so 

 uniform is this testimony that Mr. Dakin, whose able report has been sev- 

 eral times quoted from, singles out as an apparent exception to the rule 

 " Colorado alone, in situations like that of Greeley ; upon a deep, porous 

 soil, with a rapid fall and quick drainage." Here he says as much water 

 is said to be used now as was required some twelve years ago. " Every- 

 where else the verdict of experience is that water goes farther every 

 year." But this statement is qualified by another which he terms "an all 

 important principle, as to which there is no question, and which is testi- 

 fied too on every hand that the more thoroughly the soil is cultivated, 

 the less water it demands." 



The remark is made here in passing that this is strong support of the 

 proposition already advanced, that no attempt to determine the actual 

 duty of water will be very satisfactory that does not take into considera- 

 tion the "duty of cultivation." 



Professor Cassiday makes a good point when he says that "the vary- 

 ing efficiency of the duty of water in Colorado, as compared with 

 California and other countries, is largely due to our elevation, causing 

 greater evaporation of both plant and soil." But whatever may be the 

 difference, comparatively speaking, bet\veen Colorado and other States 



