94 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



tion to this empire of 77,000,000 acres it is 

 estimated that there is upward of 150,000,000 

 acres additional land in the hands of farmers 

 which could be brought into profitable culti- 

 vation by the use of drains. 



Too much water is as disastrous, unless 

 remedied, as not enough. Irrigation in the 

 humid East has been urged as an insurance 

 against dry seasons, and already the move- 

 ment is well under way. During the past few 

 years there have been put through to com- 

 pletion drainage projects in New York State 

 which aim to impound the water which exists 

 in superabundance in the spring for use as 

 irrigation in the dry summer months. It is 

 a fact worthy of notice that drainage has be- 

 come a necessity even in the arid regions of 

 the Far West, regions where farming can- 

 not be practiced at all without expensive irri- 

 gation systems. In the single State of Colo- 

 rado upward of ten per cent, of the irrigated 

 area has been abandoned because of swamps 

 formed by the seepage of water to the low- 

 lands. In the past it has been found more 

 expensive to drain these districts than to con- 

 vey water to new ground for irrigation; but 

 with the advancing price of land and especially 



