1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



71 



what it is at present. The most extra- 

 ordinary increase was from 1875 to 1885. 



This wonderful increase of improved 

 acreage in the North Central Division 

 alone of over 130,000,000 acres in thirty 

 years (the population of the whole United 

 States being less than half of what it is 

 now) has had an effect upon land values 

 such as can never again take place. 

 There is no other area of agricultural 

 land comparable to that of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley. In arid regions there are 

 vast tracts which ultimately may sup- 

 port a larger population, but these can- 

 not be brought under cultivation with 

 anj'thing like the rapidity of that prac- 

 ticed on the fertile prairies. Even with 

 millions of dollars available, it will not 

 be possible to conserve water for the 

 arid land as rapidly as the increasing 

 population demands new farms. 



At most, water can be conserved for 

 60,000,000 acres, or possibly 100,000,- 

 000 acres. To do this will require one 

 or more generations. Streams must be 

 carefully measured year after year, reser- 

 voirs survej'ed, foundations examined 

 b}' diamond drill or excavation, plans 

 and estimates prepared, contracts let 

 and masonry structures built, tunnels 

 dug through the solid rocks, and a 

 thousand operations successfully per- 

 formed before water can be had. Then 

 the ditches must be dug, the laterals 

 laid out, the ground cleared, and the 

 soil plowed and leveled. There can be 

 no greater contrast, as far as time is 

 concerned, than is offered between this 

 necessary long preliminary work and 

 the conditions on the fertile prairies of 

 Iowa, where men have merely to drive 

 the plow and plant the seed. 



It is now too late to speak of western 

 competition with eastern farms. This 

 competition and its disastrous results to 

 the far East has long since taken place. 

 The cultivation of the prairies of Iowa, 

 Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas 

 revolutionized argricultural values and 

 put them on a firm basis from which 

 they can no longer be shaken. The 

 Mississippi Valley now sets the stand- 

 ard, since the area of new land in the 

 country which can be brought under 

 cviltivation in an}- one year is almost in- 

 conceivably small when compared with 



that now cultivated. The increase of 

 population in the United States is from 

 2 to 3 per cent per year. The increase 

 of irrigated area has been less than one- 

 tenth of I per cent per year of the im- 

 proved lands of the country. By the 

 most strenuous exertions it will be im- 

 possible to increase the area of irrigated 

 lands up to 1 }K-r cent of the improved 

 lands of the country, or le.ss than one- 

 half the rate of increase of population. 



In Oklahoma, during the past few 

 years, there have been approximately 

 13,000,000 acres taken up, much of this 

 being cultivated. The rush here has 

 brought about the most rapid develop- 

 ment of modern times ; and yet the 

 throwing open of this land has had no 

 perceptible effect upon farm values else- 

 where. It will be impo.ssible, under 

 the most Utopian climate, to bring 

 under irrigation 10,000,000 acres in the 

 same period for the reasons before stated. 

 If, therefore, the great rush to Okla- 

 homa, far exceeding that which can 

 ever again be made, had no perceptible 

 or immediate effect, upon land values, 

 how can the throwing open annually of 

 a less amount influence the East ? 



It must not be suppo.sed for a minute 

 that because the increase of irrigated 

 lands will be relatively so small as to be 

 inappreciable in agricultural values their 

 importance is correspondingh- limited. 

 While the irrigated lands have never 

 and can never compete with the rest of 

 the country in agricultural values, yet 

 they afford the only remaining oppor- 

 tunity for the creation of homes, and 

 they insure the highest type of agricul- 

 tural and social development. The 

 small irrigated farm, with intensive cul- 

 tivation and the suburban conditions 

 made possible under the circumstances, 

 is the most attractive farm life, and the 

 owners and cultivators of the.se farms 

 form the most stable and substantial 

 class of citizens ; so that, although the 

 numbers and the area may be relatively 

 small, yet the opportunities are great. 



In short, it must be confessed that 

 the agriculturists who talk about com- 

 petition are far behind the times. They 

 have awakened only when the disas- 

 trous effects which they anticipate have 

 become a matter of history. 



