GENERAL PRACTICE OF IRRIGATION IN 



THE UNITED STATES. 



APPLICATION OF WATER TO FARM CROPS COM- 

 ING INTO USE IN ALL PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. 



BY 



LESLIE HARRISON. 



WHILE the idea of irrigation farm- 

 ing is associated in the minds of 

 most persons with the arid and semi- 

 arid regions of the West and Southwest, 

 it must not be supposed that such oper- 

 ations are by any means confined solely 

 to those parts of the United States. It 

 is true that a large portion of the terri- 

 tory of this country lying west of the 

 looth meridian is within the arid re- 

 gion and agriculture must there be car- 

 ried- on by irrigation; and the great fer- 

 tility of the soil in connection with the 

 scientific application of water permits 

 an intensive farming whose returns far 

 exceed those of the ordinary "dry 

 farming," where agriculturists have 

 to depend on what has been face- 

 tiously termed "the old-fashioned rain 

 method." Yet granting this fact of 

 greater returns, and granting also the 

 fact that the irrigation problems now 

 most urgently before the country relate 

 for the greater part to the reclaiming 

 of arid America,' it must still be ad- 

 mitted that there is a large and con- 

 stantly increasing field for the practice 

 of irrigation in the eastern and what 

 are known as the humid sections of the 

 country. 



The last census shows that irrigation 

 is used in practically every state of the 

 Union, from Maine and Florida on the 

 east coast to Washington and southern 

 California on the west. In the East 

 the greatest advantage, except perhaps 

 in the cultivation of a few intensive 

 market crops, lies in the use of irriga- 

 tion to save crops at critical moments of 

 their growth when a prolonged drouth 

 threatens a complete destruction. Often 

 in such cases comparatively inexpen- 

 sive works will save a great deal of 



money and prevent crop failures and 

 total losses. 



Another reason why the West and 

 the West only is considered the prov- 

 ince for irrigation comes Jrom the fact 

 that while many eastern farmers irri- 

 gate their land, they do not seem to 

 consider or name it as such, although 

 any artificial application of water comes 

 under this head. It can thus be seen 

 that there would be some difficulty in 

 getting at the details of irrigation in 

 the East, where a farmer who digs a 

 trench for the application of water to a 

 plot of strawberries or celery does not 

 in his own mind formulate the thought 

 that he is doing exactly the same thing 

 which marks as distinctive the agricult- 

 ure of his brother farmer of the West. 

 He realizes, nevertheless, the great 

 value of such application of water, and 

 the wonder is that with such realization, 

 following an experience with a certain 

 small crop, he does not increase the 

 practice to cover greater areas of land. 



In Maine the area under irrigation 

 is small, and the water is for the most 

 part pumped from wells. The cost of 

 the irrigation system in use in 1899 was 

 $127.65 per acre, and the value of the 

 irrigated crops was $150.29. 



Massachusetts' irrigated truck farms 

 are fairly well known, and it is said 

 that the first irrigation ditch in Amer- 

 ica constructed by whites was in the 

 neighborhood of Boston. The cost of 

 irrigation was $109.55 and the value of 

 products was $241.24 per acre. One 

 farmer reported an income of $11,000 

 from four acres, part of it being under 

 glass. 



Connecticut has four times as much 

 land under irrigation as all the rest of 







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