176 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



Calgary, and is said to be inexhaustible. It is expected for all time 

 coming to afford moisture for the 1,500,000 acres of land under the 

 canal system, and that at the water rental of 50 cents per acre per 

 annum. When the work, now going forward, is completed, there will 

 be some 3000 miles of canals and water ways. The Company sells 

 irrigated land at 25 dollars per acre, and unirrigated land at 15 dollars. 

 The 10 dollars per acre of difference will not do more than cover 

 the cost of construction, and the annual charge of 50 cents will cer- 

 tainly not pay the cost of upkeep, but the Company looks for its 

 profit to the increased traffic which will be secured through the land 

 being fully taken up and cultivated. 



The irrigation of fields is not difficult when the engineering 

 problems have been solved, and the water conducted to the highest 

 point of the farm to be dealt with. It is brought from the main 

 canal or branch, as the case may be, by means of a ditch to which 

 it is admitted by a gate or sluice, and it is made to flow over whatever 

 area is desired in small distributing channels. These channels are 

 simply cut by the plow or spade, and the water is allowed to flow 

 out of them and spread over the surface as far as it will go. The 

 simplicity of the method is apparent, and a man can look after the 

 distribution of water over a considerable area. When a field, or 

 portion of it, is sufficiently watered, the channel is stopped by a 

 shovelful of earth, and the water is carried to another part and the 

 operation repeated till the whole crop or farm is irrigated, when, 

 if desired, the distributing ditches may be filled in. For root crops, 

 Indian corn and vegetables, the furrow method of irrigation is often 

 employed. The water is allowed to flow down a furrow between the 

 rows from which it rapidly reaches the roots needing moisture. In 

 the case of orchards long boxes or flumes are sometimes used instead 

 of furrows. In these there are holes opposite the different trees, 

 from which the water escapes, and comes in touch with the plants 

 to be moistened. 



At present, among some farmers in Western Canada, there seems 

 to be a disposition to question the necessity or desirability of 

 irrigating the land, but the testimony of many best qualified to judge 

 goes to show that farming would in some districts be very uncertain, 

 and the results exceedingly doubtful were irrigation not applied. 

 Probably it is not, and will not become necessary for the production 

 of hard winter wheats, although water might in almost any season 

 be applied to the land in autumn or early spring with advantage. 

 Possibly also in most seasons soft wheats and forage crops adapted 

 to dry land conditions may be successfully produced without 

 irrigation. On the other hand it seems undoubted that alfalfa, 

 clover, sugar beet, tender vegetables, garden and orchard fruits 

 cannot be grown profitably in arid or semi-arid districts in almost 

 any year without water artificially applied ; and if mixed farming 

 with the culture of fruit and vegetables and the rearing and feeding 

 of cattle is ever to succeed in the parts of the country to which 

 reference has been made, it would almost seem essential that 

 irrigation be pretty extensively used. In any case although the 

 ditch be not in operation every year — perhaps not even in most 



