WATER AND AGRICULTURE 



8l 



The sunlight is the same. The heat is the same. The 

 only difference is the "magic touch" of water (Figs. 34 

 and 35). 



Irrigation projects frequently involve the expenditure 

 of great sums of money on the necessary dams and ditches. 

 It may be necessary to bore tunnels to carry the water 



FIG. 34. Some of our Western land which has not been irrigated. After U. S. 

 Reclamation Bureau. 



from the mountain reservoir to the thousands of acres 

 which it may reclaim from the desert. This great expendi- 

 ture of money, combined with the fact that the land to 

 be reclaimed is in most cases government land, makes it 

 natural that we have in the United States a government 

 Reclamation Service. This important branch of the 

 government makes the careful preliminary surveys which 

 are necessary, and then proceeds, as funds are made 

 available by Congress, to build irrigation works at what 



