104 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



compete at better than even terms with the 

 Reapers who have gone before them. 



Both the federal government and the vari- 

 ous states have spent large sums in encourag- 

 ing and establishing irrigation enterprises, and, 

 in all projects in which they have lent a hand, 

 it has been with the idea of ultimately mak- 

 ing them cooperative. Yet, in spite of official 

 subsidy in irrigation as in drainage projects, 

 less than sixteen per cent, of the total four- 

 teen million acres irrigated in 1910 was due 

 to federal or state aid. The bulk, about 

 eighty-four per cent, of the whole, had been 

 constructed by individual, cooperative or com- 

 mercial enterprise. 



Irrigation, then, will finally add about fifty 

 million acres to the area of improved farm 

 land. This means another state, a trifle larger 

 than the State of New York. Although irri- 

 gation was the first phase of the reclamation 

 movement to get under way, it showed signs of 

 lagging about the time of the last census, be- 

 cause of over-development. "Ditch" farming 

 presents new and intricate problems to the 

 farmers who elect to glean by that method and 

 requires intensive methods and corresponding 

 large outlay of capital. This is one explana- 



