154 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



hundred thousand acres are already under irrigation. 

 The Mormons were the first to irrigate in the West. 

 They were obliged to do this in order to keep themselves 

 from starving. The land around Salt Lake, which be- 

 fore their arrival was a desert, is now the "garden spot" 

 of the West. 



When the present plans are carried out, the one-half 

 million acres of fertile land along the Colorado River 

 will be increased to one million two hundred thousand 

 acres. This river has already justified its name, "The 

 American Nile." Here barley and wheat ripen in sight 

 of Egyptian cotton. Here dates, olives, oranges, grape 

 fruit, apples and pears, all of superior quality, may 

 grow in the one orchard. Sweet potatoes, Irish pota- 

 toes, cabbages, peanuts and strawberries may grow in 

 the same garden. 



In Colorado in 1904 over $3,000,000 were paid to 

 farmers for their sugar beets, and $100,000 were paid 

 to factory labor for converting these beets into sugar. 

 The total value of all products grown under irrigation 

 in Colorado in 1904 was $40,000,000. Irrigated land 

 between Denver and the foothills is worth $200 or $300 

 an acre. 



In Wyoming 907,916 acres of land will be re- 

 claimed. In Idaho there will be 1,672,132 acres re- 

 claimed. This state has 300 days of sunshine per year. 

 Potatoes yield from three hundred to four hundred 

 bushels per acre. 



In California much has been done in the way of 

 irrigation. In parts of the state irrigated land is sold 

 for fruit raising at $1,800 an acre. Riverside, Cal., 

 in the irrigated country, is the wealthiest city in the 

 United States in proportion to its population. 



In Oregan there are 3,000,000 acres of land culti- 

 vated with only very little rainfall. Steps are being 

 taken to provide this land with a sufficient amount of 

 water. Already an irrigation canal has been completed 

 which will water 150,000 acres. 



Montana has not as much irrigated land as Utah, 

 yet there is much more land susceptible of irrigation in 

 Montana than in Utah. 



In Texas, Kansas, western Nebraska and the west- 

 ern half of the Dakotas, as well as much of Montana, 

 men are settling where success must depend upon dry 

 farming and irrigation. Dry farming is the raising of 

 crops that require little water, such as macaroni wheat, 

 kaffir and Egyptian corn and alfalfa. Macaroni wheat 

 came originally from Russia. In spite of its name, it 

 can be used for all purposes for which the other wheat 

 is used. It yields from thirty to forty bushels an acre on 

 soil that had been producing ten or twelve bushels of 

 the ordinary variety. Alfalfa is a kind of clover. It is 

 to the farmer of the semi-arid West what the camel is 

 to the wandering tribes of the desert it supplies all 

 the necessities of life. Its roots will go twenty feet to 

 water, and under ordinary conditions it will produce 

 four crops a year. 



These lands in the West, especially Arizona and 

 New Mexico, are very desirable because several crops 

 can be raised in one year when they are not dependent 

 upon rainfall, and because of the warm climate many 

 more kinds of things can be raised than farther north 



When the desired end in irrigation has been at- 

 tained, and agriculture in the West is farther advanced 

 and more people are moving west, more cattle will be 

 raised, more mines will be worked, and more manu- 

 factures will be located there. Even now the cities of 

 Phoenix, Reno. Boise, Salt Lake and Denver are almost 



as much the creation of irrigation as the farms and 

 orchards which surround them. 



Another way to improve this land is to adapt plants 

 to grow on the desert. Mr. Luther Burbank, the "wizard 

 botanist," who has done so much in plant creation, has 

 carried on extensive work in this line. He has com- 

 bined trees that grow on fertile lands with those that are 

 wild, and the result is beautiful trees that will grow in 

 either kind of soil. He has done especially wonderful 

 work in the case of the plum. He has cultivated the 

 American beach plum, a small, dull-colored, bitter, wild 

 fruit, into a large, deep-purpled plum. This wild fruit 

 was unfit to eat unless cooked. It was little larger than 

 a cherry and contained a very large pit. But it was 

 hardy; it grew in sandy soil and heavy clay, in desert- 

 like places and in soil sometimes submerged by sea. 

 It grew in drought as well as in rainy seasons. It 

 withstood the frost and some of it ripened early and 

 some late. The plum which he has made from this will 

 grow in the same climate and soil, but it is very much 

 larger, about three inches in circumference, and grows 

 in great abundance upon the trees. This is of value to 

 our country because of the amount of fruit there is and 

 because of the good shipping qualities which it possesses. 

 It has a thick, tough skin, which will preserve it through 

 long journeys. 



A third way of reclaiming this desert land is by 

 the cultivation of plants that already grow there, and 

 making them edible. One of the few plants which will 

 grow everywhere, where there is any rainfall at all, is 

 the cactus. This grows very abundantly on desert land, 

 and needs no irrigation. It is a very fleshy plant, hav- 

 ing large, thick leaves, and would furnish ample food 

 for man and beast were it not for the long thorns on 

 the leaves and the woody substance, or spicules, con- 

 tained within them. Mr. Burbank began to work upon 

 this plant, and after ten years of crossing and breeding 

 he produced a plant, a giant cactus, eight feet high, 

 with leaves from ten to twelve inches long and five to 

 eight inches wide and nearly one inch thick. This plant 

 was thornless and spiculeless, and in three years one 

 plant produced six hundred pounds of food. It will 

 grow from seeds, cuttings or from leaves. The fruit is 

 two and one-fourth inches in diameter and three and 

 one-half inches long, and the juice, which is sometimes 

 red and sometimes yellow, is used as a coloring for 

 painting and for confectionery. 



The western half of our country, of which I have 

 been speaking, is equal to the combined areas of Japan, 

 New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Germany, Norway, Sweden, 

 Austria-Hungary, Holland, Belgium, France, Portugal, 

 Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Switzerland. The 

 population of all these countries is 228,000,000, while 

 the population of our western states is only 10,000,000. 

 An irrigation expert says : "Having in mind the great 

 difference in population, we can not fail to be impressed 

 with the opportunities for increase of population and 

 industries, especially as the resources of these western 

 states are of greate extent and have hardly yet been ex- 

 ploited. There is apparently no reason why our western 

 states should not, in the distant future, be capable of 

 furnishing homes and profitable occupation for as 

 large a population as some of the countries whose names 

 have been given." 



A recent work on irrigation says : "The confines 

 of the great American desert are narrowing rapidly. 

 Do but reflect that a quarter of a century back the jour- 

 ney which you now make in perfect comfort was a 



