424 KEPOKT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



lands, and should in this country give place to the more just concep- 

 tion that rights to water should be restricted to the right of use, and 

 that ownership should not be vested in either companies or individuals, 

 but in the land itself. When this principle is adopted the control of 

 water is divided like the control of land among a multitude of propri- 

 etors; water monopoly is impossible, and no other abuse or injustice 

 is encouraged. Years of experience in other lands and the limited 

 experience of this country have abundantly proven that peaceful and 

 orderly development can not be realized except as water and land are 

 united in one ownership, and canals treated as public or semipublic 

 utilities rather than as a means of fastening a vicious monopoly upon 

 communities. 



IRRIGATION IN THE SUBHUMID PORTIONS OF THE UNITED 



STATES. 



The subhumid portions of the United States possess certain advan- 

 tages in the employment of irrigation which must in time greatly 

 extend its application in this section of the country. There is a greater 

 rainfall and a more humid atmosphere than in the arid region, so that 

 a given water supply and a canal of given dimensions will irrigate 

 more acres than in the region wholly arid. Much of the subhumid 

 district east of the Rocky Mountains is remarkably well suited to the 

 distribution of water in irrigation. The slope of the country away 

 from the mountains is about what is needed for the construction of 

 canals and the distribution of water over the ground. The practical 

 obstacles to be encountered, either of an engineering or agricultural 

 character, are less, as a rule, than in either the arid or humid sections, 

 and the cost of supplying water is proportionately reduced. Important 

 studies have been made during the past year in this region by Prof. 

 O. V. P. Stout, of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the Univer- 

 sity of Nebraska, acting under the direction of this Office. This station 

 is in a section where lands have been cultivated for many years, and 

 where agriculture is a demonstrated success without the aid of irriga- 

 tion. The question to be settled is whether the use of water on general 

 farm crops will give sufficiently increased yields to repay with a profit 

 the cost of providing the water supply and distributing it over the 

 land. Results thus far secured show that it will. The maximum 

 yield of corn in this locality without irrigation is about Jfi bushels per 

 acre, while the lands irrigated during the past year yielded from Ifi to 

 60 bushels per acre, with a maximum yield in rare instances of 90 bushels 

 per acre. Two adjacent fields, one irrigated and one depending on 

 rainfall alone, yielded 66 bushels and W bushels per acre, respectively. 



The methods of diverting and applying water were those of 

 the ordinary irrigator; the soil and climate were typical of the terri- 



