1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



165 



the state made assistant game wardens 

 of the state. 



' ' The work of establishing and main- 

 taining forest reserves will have such a 

 vast and beneficial influence in the set- 

 tlement and development of the western 

 states and territories that it must be 

 controlled by a fixed policy, to which 

 matters of minor or temporary concern 

 must give way for the general and per- 

 manent public good. The one guiding 

 purpose of the administration in deal- 

 ing with forestry, with pasturage, w T ith 

 irrigation, with the land generally, is 

 to help and make easy the path of the 

 home-builder, the small ranchman, or 

 tiller of the soil, and not to let the land 

 be exploited and skinned by those who 

 have no permanent interest therein, and 

 who do not build homes or remain as 

 actual residents." 



Appropriations The Bureau of Forestry 

 for J 903- \ 904. receives for the fiscal 

 year of 1903-1904 an 

 appropriation of $350,000, an increase 

 of $59,000 over that for the present year. 

 The Division of Forest Reserves, De- 

 partment of the Interior, gets an appro- 

 priation of $375,000, an increase of 

 $75,000 over last year. 



The Division of Irrigation Investiga- 

 tions of the Department of Agriculture 

 will get $65,000 to continue its work 

 during the coming year, the same 

 amount as during the present year. 



Profits of 

 Irrigation in 

 the East. 



The rise in prices of ag- 

 ricultural lands in the 

 last few years has made 

 it necessary that farmers 

 should get the largest possible return 

 from their lands, and has created a gen- 

 eral interest in whatever will help to 

 that end. One of the aids now being 

 considered is irrigation. In the East it 

 is not, as in the West, absolutely nec- 

 essary for the raising of any crops, but, 

 like fertilizing or thorough cultivation, 

 is a means of increasing the returns from 

 land. The whole question is whether 

 it will pay. The report of the irriga- 

 tion investigations of the Department of 

 Agriculture for the year 1901 gives 



some valuable data on this question. 

 The report covers experiments in Mis- 

 souri, Wisconsin, and New Jersey. 



A series of experiments extending 

 over several years at the Wisconsin 

 Experiment Station at Madison show a 

 marked increase in yields of farm crops. 

 The average increase in the yield of 

 clover hay on irrigated land over that 

 from unirrigated land has been 2.5 tons 

 per acre ; the average increase in yield 

 of corn has been 26.95 bushels per acre, 

 and potatoes show 7 a gain of 83.9 bush- 

 els per acre. The annual cost of irri- 

 gation at Madison has been $6.68 per 

 acre, not including any interest on the 

 investment, but including all extra 

 labor. At current prices, this leaves a 

 net profit from irrigation of about $20 

 per acre on hay, $11 per acre on corn, 

 and $73 per acre on potatoes. The 

 conditions of soil and climate at Madi- 

 son do not differ from those of the Mid- 

 dle West generally, and the results given 

 above show that where water can be 

 obtained without too large an outlay, 

 irrigation as a part of intensive farming 

 is very profitable. 



Another series of experiments was 

 begun for testing the effect of irrigation 

 and fertilization on sandy soils, such as 

 are common in large sections of Michi- 

 gan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. These 

 lands are poor in plant food, and retain 

 so little moisture that all attempts to 

 farm them have failed. The experi- 

 ments included the supplying of both 

 manure and water. Manure alone was 

 of little use, as there was not water 

 enough to make the plant food available. 

 Water alone produced good results, but 

 the application of both gave the best re- 

 sults. The cost of irrigation was $6.70 

 per acre, and the net gain from irriga- 

 tion was as follows : Potatoes, $30 per 

 acre ; corn, $i per acre ; watermelons, 

 $58 per acre ; muskmelons, $45 per 

 acre. From these experiments it seems 

 that with special crops irrigation of the 

 sandy lands is profitable, but the in- 

 crease in yield of corn is not enough to 

 justify the expense of securing a water 

 supply. 



In New Jersey water has been used 

 on small fruits and vegetables, and the 

 added returns due to irrigation vary a 



