THE HISTORY OF IRRIGATION 457 



263. The growth of American irrigation. The original 

 irrigation pioneers of July 24, 1847, numbered 147; in 1865, 

 nearly 64,000 souls were living in Utah and were deriving 

 their main sustenance from irrigation. During these 

 eighteen years more than 1,000 miles of irrigation canals 

 had been constructed, another 500 miles were being 

 dug, and 154,000 acres of cultivated land were under 

 irrigation. 



In 1865 the average acre-yield of wheat was 23 bushels; 

 of barley, 30 bushels; of oats, 31 bushels; of corn, 20 bush- 

 els; of potatoes, 139 bushels; of beets, 265 "bushels;" of 

 carrots, 344 "bushels;" of meadow hay, l%tons; of cotton, 

 151 pounds; and of sorghum, 79 gallons. Considering 

 that the rapidly arriving farmers had to be taught irri- 

 gation, and were provided with poor machinery, these 

 yields showed the great possibilities of irrigation. 



Soon after the founding of irrigation in the Great Salt 

 Lake Valley, gold was discovered in California. Most of 

 the tens of thousands who flocked to the gold-fields passed 

 through Utah and Salt Lake City and thus became in a 

 measure acquainted with irrigation. Many of these 

 emigrants, upon their arrival in California, found irrigation 

 agriculture more profitable than gold-hunting. Others, 

 rich or discouraged, returned to their homes in the East, 

 and told not only of the gold-fields, but of the conversion 

 of the heartless desert into a fruitful garden by the intelli- 

 gent will of a courageous people. The stories of the trav- 

 elers gained currency until the whole country knew a little 

 of the practice and possibilities of irrigation in the Great 

 West. Moreover, big-visioned men, like Major J. W. 

 Powell, and his great associates on the United States 

 Geological Survey who had explored the arid region, or 

 like Horace Greeley, who had carefully informed himself, 



