j 38 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



38. THE POSSIBILITIES OF IRRIGATION FARMING 1 

 BY CARL S. SCOFIELD 



According to the returns of the Thirteenth Census, there are in 

 the continental United States about 14,000,000 acres of irrigated land, 

 or about 80 per cent more than existed ten years ago. Public interest 

 in irrigation development found expression in 1902 hi the enactment 

 by Congress of the national reclamation law, under which irrigation 

 water has been provided for about 1,000,000 acres of land. Under 

 private enterprise, with some aid from state and national legislation, 

 a much larger acreage has been put under irrigation. 



As a people we are optimistic regarding irrigation farming, but it 

 has only recently become an appreciable factor hi American agricul- 

 ture, and it is not yet a factor of great importance if considered only 

 from the standpoint of the area involved. Accepting the estimate of 

 14,000,000 acres, the total irrigated land is but little more than one- 

 third the size of the state of Iowa. To make this comparison, how- 

 ever, does an injustice to the real economic significance of the 

 movement. It is not the sole purpose of irrigation to produce foodstuffs 

 for our eastern and European markets. It serves also to provide 

 homes on the land in a salubrious climate and to support the people 

 engaged in stock raising and in developing the mineral wealth of the 

 western states. But as the area of irrigated land has increased and as 

 the total production has exceeded local demands, the surplus has had 

 to see outside markets, there coming into competition with the prod- 

 ucts of unirrigated land. This competition seems certain to bring 

 about some readjustments in the methods of irrigation farming. 



It costs more to produce a crop under irrigation than under rain- 

 fall. Consequently, unless the yields are larger, or the prices higher, 

 the margin of profit to the producer must be less with irrigation than 

 without. It is a popular assumption that crop yields are much larger 

 under irrigation than under rainfall, but it is doubtful if the data 

 available warrant this assumption in so far as it applies to most of 

 the staple farm crops. There can be no doubt that in many irrigated 

 sections of the Western United States the soils are so fertile and the 

 climate so favorable that when irrigation water is applied bountiful 

 crops may be secured. But profitable agriculture does not depend 

 solely upon the successful growth of the crop. The costs of produc- 



Adapted from "The Present Outlook for Irrigation Farming," Yearbook of 

 Ik* Department of Agriculture, 1911, pp. 371-82. 



