102 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



toward the east. Here and there a vagrant 

 rain cloud finds its way in and out among 

 mountain passes, to bring peace and plenty to 

 some well-favored valley, and occasional 

 pockets among the high hills are fed by melt- 

 ing snow drawn from wide areas. 



It is among these inter-mountain valleys 

 that the Gleaners have sought to impound the 

 scant waters that fall from the heavens and 

 make the land fertile by irrigation. It is 

 roughly estimated that less than ten per cent, 

 of the continent included in the geographical 

 divisions known as the Far Western and the 

 Pacific States is susceptible to agriculture of 

 any type. Not because of lack of land, but 

 because of lack of water. So scant is the 

 water supply that government engineers 

 agree, when the last ditch has been dug, less 

 than fifty million acres will have been added 

 to the cultivated land of the nation by means 

 of irrigation. The engineers have been paring 

 down their estimates for many years. In the 

 beginning it was believed that over one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five million acres could be 

 reclaimed by water. In fact, the land area 

 susceptible to irrigation aggregates a total 

 considerably greater than that figure. But the 



