THE HISTORY OF IRRIGATION 



469 



a great pioneer of modern American agriculture, assisted 

 by Mills, inaugurated the pioneer investigations of the 

 correct use of water on the farm. J. A. Widtsoe, L. A. 

 Merrill and others later organized the exhaustive study of 

 the relationships existing between soils, crops and water, 

 having for its purpose the determination of the most 

 economical use of water, which, in new hands, is still 

 being continued. The Utah experimental equipment for 



FIG. 178. Plant for the study of the measurement and division of water. The 

 Colorado Experiment Station. 



these investigations was long unique among the stations. 

 At the Utah Station, Samuel Fortier also did some of his 

 early experimental work, and many members of the station 

 staff have conducted investigations bearing more or less 

 directly on irrigation. 



The other western stations have all done some excellent 

 irrigation work; but the preponderance has been on the 

 subject of alkali, rather than on the actual use of water on 

 the farm. E. B. Voorhees, of the New Jersey Station, 

 studied with care the value of irrigation in humid countries. 



