452 DRY LAND FARMING 



used it is usually as a part of some irrigation project. 

 Where the supply of subterranean water is plentiful and 

 the lift is not too great, water may be thus raised for 

 growing certain crops. Large areas are now being de- 

 voted to rice grown thus in Texas and Louisiana. In 

 the United States there are not fewer than 1,000,000 

 acres of crops of various kinds grown from water that is 

 pumped. In some countries, as, for instance, in India, 

 several million acres are thus supplied with water every 

 year. Sometime large areas of the semi-arid, and more 

 especially the arid, country may be supplied with water 

 thus, but, if so, that time is in the far-off future. 



Electrical power will seldom be used on the dry 

 farm for raising water, but in extensive systems of irri- 

 gation a very important place may be assigned to it. 

 Especially will such power be used in irrigated regions 

 and not too distant from the sources where such power 

 may be generated. This source of power may come to 

 be much used for lifting water from irrigating ditches 

 to higher channels. 



Reserve water and home building. AVhere homes 

 are to be built in the semi-arid regions, a supply of 

 what may be termed reserve water is indispensable. By 

 reserve water is meant water stored artificially or in 

 wells where it is sufficiently accessible. In all instances 

 such water is essential to the needs of the home itself. 

 It is also more or less essential: (1) in the garden; (2) 

 in the orchard ; (3) in the shelter belt, and (4) in the 

 keeping of live stock, especially such live stock as may 

 be essential in providing for the needs of the family. 

 When water cannot be secured for all these uses in 

 the semi-arid region, home building is confessedly very 

 difficult, if not impossible, howsoever feasible the culti- 

 vation of the soil and the growing of certain crops 

 may be. 



