102 THE POTATO 



in collaboration with other members of the Agri- 

 cultural Department of the Twin Falls North 

 Side Land & Water Company, and pubhshed by 

 H. L. Holhster of Chicago. C. J. Griffith, one of 

 the foremost agriculturists in America, and at 

 present Director of Agriculture for the company 

 mentioned above, prepared the following: 



"Irrigation is the artificial application of water 

 to land. It is necessary in arid regions in order 

 that profitable crops may be grown; and it is use- 

 ful in semi-arid regions to increase their produc- 

 tion. Although most useful in arid regions, it is 

 often practised in localities of heavy rainfall, for 

 instance in the rice-growing districts of the South, 

 where the annual rainfall is from forty to sixty 

 inches. 



"The practice of irrigation is older than the 

 Pyramids of Egypt. The valleys of the rivers Nile 

 and Euphrates have an unbroken historical rec- 

 ord of more than 4,000 years. 



"In a great many places in this hemisphere 

 there are ruins of irrigation works that antedate 

 any written history, and the civiUzation of the 

 race that built them is only surmised. 



"The irrigated area of all the nations of the 

 world does not exceed 100,000,000 acres, or a land 

 area of less than twice the acreage of the state of 

 Idaho. Of this area India has 53,000,000 acres, 

 and in that country may be seen some of the most 

 expensive irrigation works in existence. 



"There are only 13,000,000 acres of irrigated 

 land in the United States, and the greatest systems 

 yet developed are in the Twin Falls country. 



"The preparation of land for irrigation consists 

 in: First, putting the land in condition for farm- 



