2O6 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



April 



process of reclamation will be expensive, Santa Fe Railroads alone 62,000,000 



and it is proposed that the farmers who pounds of livestock, 48,000,000 pounds 



take up these lands shall pay the cost of livestock products, and 14,000,000 



of the irrigation construction. This pounds of poultry, a total of 124,000,- 



feature makes the proposition a vastly ooo, showing that there is likely to be 



different one from the foregoing. There many a day before the arid states pro- 



need be no fear either that any other duce sufficient of certain staple products 



policy will ever obtain in the West for for their own consumption. It pays 



the reason that the money returned to them better to follow a more intensive 



the government will be wanted for use line of farming. It might be thought 



in reclaiming additional lands. Every that a farmer who could raise 100 



western interest would at once oppose bushels* of wheat per acre would be 



any legislative attempt that might be satisfied with such a yield. There are 



made to allow settlers to have this land farms in the Yakima Valley, Washing- 



and water privilege without paying for ton, where a greater yield has been and 



the latter. can be produced, and yet the farmers 



do not think of raising wheat, because 



LANDS TOO VALUABLE FOR GENERAL f { * 



CROPS. 



rofitable 



And this leads up to the second phase 

 of the question. The lands will be too 

 valuable to be used for the growing of 

 such general crops as wheat and corn, 

 which might compete with the products 

 of the eastern farmers. They will be 

 planted in fruits and other crops which 

 will be' more profitable, as is done to- 

 day under western irrigation. Moreover, 

 the long and expensive railroad haul 

 across the Rockies prohibits eastern ship- 

 ment of such general crops. Only those 

 things which allow for a large profit 

 can be so shipped. 



The only crop to which any great 

 acreage is devoted is the forage crop 

 the cultivation of alfalfa. This is grown 

 all over the West, to which region it 

 seems peculiarly adapted. On it cattle 

 and sheep are raised and fattened for 

 the eastern markets. Its yield in the 

 southwest is enormous five, six, seven, 

 and even eight cuttings are made an- 

 nually, each one equal to a heavy crop 

 of clover, to which plant the alfalfa is 

 a first cousin. 



THE DEMAND OF THE ORIENT. 



There is also an urgent demand in 

 the unlimited markets of the Orient for 

 every pound of food products which the 

 Western States can raise above what 

 they need for their own consumption. 

 California is the most highly developed 

 of the states using irrigation, and yet 

 last year there was shipped into that 

 state over the Southern Pacific and the 



A THOUSAND CAR-LOADS OF 

 FRUITS. 



FANCY 



California sends East every year one 

 thousand car-loads of oranges, lemons, 

 dried apricots, prunes, raisins, wines, 

 etc. , and the placing of these products 

 upon the eastern markets is not a dis- 

 advantage to any eastern interest. In 

 fact it can be worked out as a distinct,, 

 although indirect, benefit to every east- 

 ern farmer. These products are pur- 

 chased largely by the wealthy class. 

 Their money is sent to the coast, but it 

 does not remain there. It comes back 

 East again immediately to pay for the 

 cotton and woolen manufactures, the 

 shoes, the hats, and everything else that 

 men and women wear; for the machines, 

 the tools, the barbed wire, and every- 

 manufactured article in general use on 

 the farm and ranch; to pay for the thou- 

 sand and one things which the East 

 sends to the Pacific coast. 



STIMULUS TO EASTERN MANUFACTUR- 

 ING. 



Now, what is the result of this? 

 This western demand for eastern goods 

 stimulates every line of eastern manu- 

 facture, and eastern factories are thus 

 kept busy, and hundreds of thousands 

 of men and women receive employment 

 in these factories. They furnish an act- 

 ive home market for the products of 



* The average yield of wheat in the United 

 States is something over 12 bushels per acre. 



