THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



345 



BENEFITS OF FARMING BY IRRIGATION. 



BY WILLIAM DOHERTY, G. P. AND T. A v ST. LOUIS, 

 BROWNSVILLE AND MEXICO RAILWAY. 



No greater truth was ever propounded than that 

 aphorism credited to 0. M. Roberts that "Civilization 

 begins and ends with the plow." So conclusive, so 

 self-evident does this fact appear upon meditation that 

 it may well be considered an axiom, a truism. 



"Civilization begins and ends with the plow" be- 

 cause all things material emanate in some shape or other 

 from the soil, and because the soil is, after all, one 

 producing element, from which comes the satisfaction 

 of the desires and needs of human kind. In other 

 words, the farmer is the real producer of the wealth of 

 the nation. The millionaire, the speculator, the broker, 

 the merchant, the baker, the butcher, the candlestick 

 maker find the opportunity and the justification for 

 their respective avocations in the fact that the farmer is 

 the producer. The farmer is, in truth, the uncrowned 

 king of American prosperity. 



It therefore appears to me that it may be taken as a 

 fundamental and vital proposition that anything which 

 concerns the status of agriculture concerns the pros- 

 perity and well-being of the nation, and, accordingly, 

 anything that will serve to elevate, enhance and effectu- 

 ate the methods and consequently the results of agri- 

 culture will redound with equal and corresponding 

 benefit to all lines of activity which go to make up the 

 national life, for it may be accepted as a premise that 

 all activity in America at least, whatever be its charac- 

 ter, is depended upon and subordinate to agriculture, the 

 chiefest producing pursuit. 



Without presuming to go into detail, it will, no doubt, 

 be accepted without contradiction that the investiga- 

 tion and study in the science of agriculture during 

 recent years have dealt principally with problems of 

 climate and soil. These investigations and their results 

 have been fruitful with manifold benefits. Certain 

 climates have been positively designated as adapted to 

 particular crops. The ingredients of soils necessary 

 and especially conducive to certain crops have been de- 

 termined and methods pointed out for the provision of 

 certain ingredients that might be lacking. Fertilization 

 has been made the subject of exhaustive study, until 

 now it is pretty well within the power of the intelli- 

 gent farmer to in at least a measure control the elements 

 of the soil. 



In the case of moisture, however, a quite opposite 

 state of affairs maintains. Moisture is the one element 

 remaining from those which compose the triumvirate 

 of essentials in crop production which has yet to be 

 subjected to the control of the tiller of the soil. Until 

 it has been controlled, crop production will continue to 

 be somewhat of a lottery, a gamble, depending largely 

 upon the smile and consideration of that uncertain and 

 often fickle mistress, Dame Fortune. 



The foregoing brings me up to the point and pur- 

 pose of this discussion, namely, that irrigation is the 

 key to the realization of a controlled system of scientific 

 agriculture. 



Ask the average farmer in a locality which is yet 

 a stranger to the benefits of irrigation what his crop 

 prospects are. He will invariably reply that it all de- 

 pends upon the weather, by which he, of course, means 

 the presence of moisture at the proper moment, and 



its absence when not needed. In other words, his fate, 

 his fortune and his pocketbook lie helpless in the nervous 

 hand of Dame Fortune, to be shaken and tossed about 

 here and there by every whim and fancy. If rain 

 comes at the proper time, and in well-measured quanti- 

 ties, the crop will thrive and mature, and then if it is 

 not injured by untimely rains while it is yet in the field 

 the heart of the farmer will be made glad by the sight 

 of the rich harvest in the granary. 



But the contrary is only too frequently the case. 

 Bain comes when it is not needed or it fails to come 

 when it is needed. And if the farmer escapes a total 

 loss of his crop he may have to content himself with 

 probably half a crop or something a little better than 

 no crop at all. Climate and soil conditions may be all 

 right, but if moisture conditions are out of harmony 

 with the needs of the crop, everything will be all wrong. 



Nine times out of ten the farmer, who has suffered 

 loss of or damage to his crop, charges his misfortune to 

 the weather. 



Irrigation established and operated on an intelli- 

 gent and practical basis is the best insurance policy 

 agricultural interests of Texas, or any other state for 

 that matter, can adopt for the protection of their enter- 

 prise and activity. Promoted in localities where right 

 and proper conditions exist, where soil and climate con- 

 ditions are favorable, irrigation will establish the pur- 

 suit of agriculture upon its ideal basis and assure actual 

 and conspicuous returns year in and year out. It will 

 place within the control of the farmer the only one 

 remaining element that now gives such numerous oppor- 

 tunities for crop failure. Given favdrable conditions 

 of soil and climate and a system of controlled moisture, 

 which can be realized through irrigation, and the oppor- 

 tunities for crop failures are entirely eliminated, not 

 only from probability, but from possibility. When the 

 crop needs water, the water is turned on. When it has 

 had enough, it is turned off. Common sense is the only 

 requisite. Moisture is controlled and the farmer is 

 always sure of some sort of a crop. Not only is he 

 assured of a crop, but he is assured of larger returns, a 

 better article and, consequently, better prices in the 

 markets of the country. 



Irrigation is, indeed, a new thing in Texas. In 

 truth, generally speaking, it is a new thing in the coun- 

 try at large. Its association with the idea of desert 

 reclamation has blinded the public mind to its value for 

 regions where the need for reclamation does not exist. 

 As a matter of fact, irrigation has its value even in 

 localities where the average rainfall is considered ample 

 for crop production. 



Water is one of the most, if not the most, im- 

 portant of plant foods, not only because it is one of the 

 principal ingredients of all plants, but because without 

 it in the required amount the plant can not appropriate 

 the other foods necessary to its growth. No one will 

 question the advisability of saving manures nor the wis- 

 dom of using commercial fertilizers when the crop seems 

 to need them. Why should there not be a similar feel- 

 ing about irrigation, inasmuch as water is the most nec- 

 essary of plant foods? And yet, year after year, the 

 farmers of the country lose hundreds and hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars simply because they have not at 

 their command a supply of water when it is most needed. 

 The water, which the farmer could have provided for a 

 mere fraction of his expenditure for fertilizers, he has 

 neglected to have ready, and he often sees the hope of 



