1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



309 



collating, digesting, reporting, illus- 

 trating, and printing the results of 

 such experiments and investigations ; 

 and for the purchase of all necessary 

 supplies, apparatus, office fixtures, law 

 books to an amount not exceeding five 

 hundred dollars ; for freight, express, 

 telegraph, telephone charges, electric 

 light and power, fuel, gas, ice, wash- 

 ing towels, and traveling and other 

 necessary expenses, eight hundred and 

 eighty-seven thousand one hundred 

 and forty dollars of which sum not to 

 exceed thirty-five thousand may be 

 used for rent. And the employes 

 of the Forest Service outside of 

 the city of Washington may, in 

 the discretion of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, without additional ex- 

 pense to the Government, be granted 

 leave of absence not to exceed fifteen 



days in any one year, which leave may. 

 in exceptional and meritorious cases 

 which such an employe is ill, be ex- 

 tended, in the discretion of the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, not to exceed fif- 

 teen days additional in any one year. 



Total for Forest Service, one million 

 dollars. 



In the emergency appropriation for 

 the Bureau of Animal Industry there 

 was the following provision : 



For Forest Service : For the erec- 

 tion of a wire fence and necessary 

 sheds on the Wichita Forest and Game 

 Preserve, to provide a range for a buf- 

 falo herd presented by the New York 

 Zoological Society, and to provide for 

 the maintenance of said herd, fifteen 

 thousand dollars, of which sum not to 

 exceed five hundred dollars shall be 

 expended in buildings. 



SIZE OF IRRIGATED FARMS 



Amount of Land Needed in Northwest to 

 Make it Profitable to Average Small Owner 



BY 

 PROF. F. B. LINFIELD 



Director Montana Experiment Station. 



""THE question has been asked: What 

 * area of land under the irrigation 

 ditches constructed by the Reclama- 

 tion Service should be considered as 

 the farm unit? This question involves 

 yet others. What is the purpose of 

 the Government in undertaking this 

 reclamation work? What class of peo- 

 ple does it aim to help? I think all' will 

 agree that the man of large means and 

 large capacity should not have first 

 consideration, but rather the man of 

 small means and capacity. The wage 

 earners and laborers rather than the 

 employer of labor. The aim of the 

 Government should be to make it pos- 

 sible for the man of small means to 

 build himself a home in a healthy at- 

 mosphere where the social and educa- 

 tional advantages are such as to de- 

 velop the best type of citizenship. 



Next, what area of land under irri- 

 gation will support a man and his 

 family in comfort and also provide 

 means for using educational oppor- 

 tunities for his family? The first part 

 of this question can be answered only 

 by asking another. What is the aver- 

 age yearly income of the average 

 working man ? While wages are good 

 in Montana, probably $500 to $600 per 

 year will be an outside wage obtained 

 by the average laborer in the country 

 towns. From this, house rent and all 

 living expenses have to be paid. Now 

 what will 40 acres of irrigated land 

 return under careful, thorough and 

 intelligent management? To be equal 

 to the wage proposition it should pro- 

 vide equal or better wages, interest 

 on the investment, and keep or main- 

 tenance of farm machinery and horses. 



