iThe Canadian Horticulturi^ 



^ol. XXXI 



JUNE, 1908 



No. 6 



Irrigation in British Columbia 



A. E. Mcighen, Irrigation Engineer, Kamloops, British Columbia. 



11^ 



'HE word "irrigation" ordinarily 

 conveys to the mind the idea of 

 an elaborate system of ditches — 

 main canal, laterals with the accompany- 

 ing sluices — water gates and measuring 

 devices. As a matter of fact, irrigation 

 is practiced where none of these works 

 exist. All persons in all countries have 

 brought the principle of irrigation into 

 practice. All that is required is a favor- 

 ite bed of flowers or patch of vegetables, 

 a continued spell of dry weather, the wa- 

 tering can or the garden hose and we 

 have irrigation pure and simple. Irri- 

 gation then is an aid to nature, a sup- 

 plying of the need where she fails ; a 

 thorough grasp of this idea is of the ut- 

 most importance to the farmer when he 

 comes to apply water to his land by the 

 methods now employed in practical irri- 

 gation. 



The only difference between this sim- 

 ple form of irrigation and that employ- 

 ed on large tracts in the dry belts is 

 a matter of degree and methods. Given 

 a large tract of arid land, the simple 

 methods of the watering can and gar- 

 den hose are out of the question. It 

 then become a problem for the engineer. 

 He either taps a supply distant from the 

 land to be served and by the aid of grav- 

 ity conveys it in a ditch to the spot, or, 

 if a supply is at hand, but on a lower 

 elevation than the land (a condition 

 which is generally present in British Co- 

 lumbia), he installs a pumping plant and 

 raises the water to the necessary height. 

 The supply thus being available, he pro- 

 :eeds to lay out such . a distributing 

 system as the different conditions indi- 

 cate as the wisest, his aim being to 

 serve the land in the easiest, cheapest 

 and most certain manner possible. 



WHEN IRRIGATION IS NEEDED 



In a general way it is considered that 

 in regions where the average annual 

 of rainfall is twenty or less inches, irri- 

 gation becomes necessary for the pro- 

 duction of full crops. Of course, it is 

 true that the necessity of irrigation de- 

 pends on the distribution of the rainfall 

 over the year. Thus it occurs that in 

 some localities on the Pacific coast the 

 rainfall is considerably over twenty in- 



ches, but, as it occurs mostly in the 

 winter, irrigation becomes necessary, 

 while in other localities with a much 

 smaller rainfall, but occuring during the 

 growing months, irrigation is unneces- 

 sary. 



Taking twenty inches as the minimum 

 annual rainfall required to produce full 

 crops, the extent of aridity on the North 

 American continent is much greater 

 than most people imagine, comprising 

 in the United States two-fifths of the 

 entire land area. In Mexico, the pro- 

 portion of arid lands to the total land 



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 ist is one of the best edited, 

 brightest, and most interesting 

 of the many magazines and ag- 

 ricultural and horticultural 

 papers which weekly and 

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 success ever be with you. — F. 

 H. Reed, District Representa- 

 tive of Ontario Department of 

 Agriculture, Lindsay. 



surface, is probably equal to that in the 

 United States, while in Canada the en- 

 tire enterior of British Columbia, from 

 the Coast range to the Selkirks, and 

 great tracts of Alberta and Saskatchew- 

 an, may be also classed as arid, or semi- 

 arid, where, if irrigation is not abso- 

 lutely necessary in all cases, it would 

 be in the nature of an insurance against 

 loss of crops from drought. 



The fact is that the extent of aridity 

 in North America is so great that it is 

 estimated that there is only water enough 

 available to supply 10 per cent, of the 

 arid lands ; for instance, in the state of 

 California, with 100,000,000 acres of 

 arid land, there is water enough for 

 only 17,000,000 acres. 



The area of land now under irrigation 

 is enormous when we consider how re- 

 cent is the practice and this area is be- 

 ing added to greatly every year. To- 

 day, there are under irrigation in India, 

 33,000,000 acres, in Egypt, 6,000,000 

 acres, in Italy, 4,700,000 acres, in Spain, 



121 



2,800,000 acres, in France, 400,000 

 acres, in the United States, 11,000,000 

 acres. In our own country, when the 

 C. P. R. project in the Northwest prov- 

 inces is completed, there will be 3,500,- 

 000 acres under water. 



advantages of the need 

 The practice of irrigation is often con- 

 sidered a hardship and the necessity for 

 it a misfortune. A greater mistake could 

 not be made ; for, as a matter of fact, 

 the necessity for irrigation and the abili- 

 ty to irrigate make a fortunate combina- 

 tion of circumstances. They imply a 

 warm, dry climate as that of the arid 

 regions. This means that the crops are 

 not liable to destruction by sudden vio- 

 lent storms, by lack of sufficient sun- 

 shine or by the failure of the water sup- 

 ply as often results from dependence 

 on nature alone. 



THE RETURNS FROM IRRIGATION 



Obviously the returns from irrigation 

 depend largely on the soil and climate 

 which in turn determine the kind and 

 value of the crops that can be produced. 

 In the semi-arid regions irrigation is 

 merely an insurance against failure of 

 crops from lack of rainfall, in regions 

 where the climatic conditions are such 

 that only grain, potatoes, and so forth, 

 can be successfully grown, the returns 

 are not great, while in regions where 

 fruit, deciduous and citrus trees can be 

 grown, the returns from irrigation in 

 crops and the increased value in land are 

 enormous. 



The following returns taken from the 

 United States census of 1900 give a 

 good idea of the increase in value of 

 land and water, after an irrigation sys- 

 tem has been provided, and the value of 

 crops obtained from irrigated lands. 

 While the average first cost of water, 

 that is, the cost of construction of canal 

 to bring water to the land, was $7.80 an 

 acre, the average value of water per 

 acre to settlers, after they obtained it, 

 was $26, an increment of $18.20, due 

 to the mere fact of having the water 

 available for irrigation. The average 

 value of the land before irrigation was 

 provided, was from $2 to $5 an acre, 

 and after an irrigation system was pro- 



