20 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



trinsic advantages of irrigation concern and are within 

 reach of the farmer of the humid region quite as much 

 as his fellow in the arid climate; and in many, if not 

 in most, cases his water supply will cost him less, and 

 when once applied will never be given up. There can 

 be no doubt that when the available waters of the 

 humid region are examined in regard to the supplies of 

 plant food they are capable of giving to lands irrigated 

 with them, they will be found to be nearly, if not 

 quite, as valuable in this respec5l as those of the arid 

 region. 



Another suggestion along this line presents itself 

 right here : As there is no material diif erence in the cost 

 of cultivation of an acre yielding ten bushels of wheat 

 and another acre yielding sixty bushels, it must be 

 evident that the man who gets only ten bushels pays 

 six times as much as does the man who pioduces sixty 

 bushels. The profits to be derived from ' ' the new 

 agriculture, ' ' as irrigation has aptly been called, comes 

 not alone from the annual return from the watered 

 acres, but from the constantly increasing valuation of 

 the land itself. Many individual instances could be 

 cited, especially in regions devoted to fruit culture, 

 where the returns are almost fabulous. I^ands which 

 were worth from two to ten dollars an acre have by 

 the expenditure of from ten to twenty dollars an acre 

 in the construdlion of irrigation works become worth 

 $300 an acre and upward. The same lands set out 

 with suitable varieties of trees and vines have sold 

 within five years of planting at $1,000 or more an acre. 

 So valuable are irrigated lands in Spain that they sell for 

 $720 to $880 an acre, which is ten times the price of 



