IRRIGATION BY WELLS PROFITABLE 149 



station being maintained at each group. The series of 

 stations cover a distance of five miles, the water flowing 

 into a huge concrete conduit, which carries it to the 

 laterals radiating into the fields. About 10,000 acres of 

 land are watered from this plant, mostly devoted to sugar 

 beets and alfalfa. The cost of the water to the farmers 

 is $3 an acre yearly, with some small fees additional, and 

 after a series of years, following the plan of all gov- 

 ernment projects, the great system will become the prop- 

 erty of the landowners. 



At the time of the Bristow movement, not 500 acres 

 in the United States were under well irrigation. Now 

 the area so irrigated, including rice irrigation in Louisiana 

 and Texas, is 750,000 acres. In California alone 200,000 

 are under water from wells, the lift in many places be- 

 ing as much as 200 feet. Critics of the new departure 

 contend that water cannot possibly be lifted more than 

 20 or 30 feet at any profit. California agriculturists, 

 however, lift water up to 200 feet, carry it for miles in 

 cement ditches, and find the growing of alfalfa, which 

 sells for $15 a ton, profitable. Barley, wheat and all 

 manner of crops are grown with this same expensive 

 water — water which costs from $5 to $10, and even as 

 high as $15 an acre for the year. 



In portions of the rice-growing sections of the South, 

 water from wells is now used for flooding, in places, in 

 preference to bayou or creek water. In the rice coun- 

 ties of Arkansas wells furnish the water exclusively for 

 a profitable industry. Rice culture requires many times 

 the amount of water necessary for ordinary irrigation, 

 but the crop is highly remunerative, thus making prac- 

 ticable the heavy cost of pumping. 



It is manifest that large works, like the Garden City 

 project, would only be feasible where large bodies of 

 subterranean water exist. Such underflows, however, are 

 not unusual, and in practically every region the ordinary 



