THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



177 



MILLIONS FOR MOISTURE. 



"Millions for Moisture" was the subject of an ad- 

 dress delivered to the National Geographic Society in 

 the National Rifles Armory, Washington, D. C., re- 

 cently, by Mr. C. J. Blanchard, statistician of the recla- 

 mation service. The lecture was profusely illustrated 

 with colored views of the work of the government in the 

 West. 



"The policy of national irrigation is broadly pa- 

 ternal," said Mr. Blanchard, "yet it is so thoroughly 

 common sense and business like that the wonder is it 

 was not adopted long ago. With the examples of other 

 nations in similar works constantly before us for years, 

 it is well nigh inexplicable that our nation, the most 

 progressive in the world, should have been so tardy in 

 initiating the work upon which it finally engaged less 

 than five years ago. 



"National reclamation plans to break down the 

 barriers which the Great American Desert has so long 

 interposed to western progress and development. It 

 plans the subjugation of the nation's waste places, the 

 fructification of the land that 'God forgot.' 



"The full importance of national reclamation is 

 obtainable only by comparison. Twenty-five projects 

 upon which the government is now engaged, when de- 

 veloped to their full extent, will add 3,198,000 acres to 

 the crop producing area of the United States. Add to 

 these thirteen other projects which are held in abeyance, 

 pending the completion of the first mentioned, and 

 which will reclaim 3,270,000 acres, and we have a grand 

 total of 6,468,000 acres. This enormous area today 

 is practically worthless. It returns revenues neither to 

 the states in which it is located, nor to the nation to 

 which it largely belongs. It is utilized only a short 

 period in each year for grazing nomadic herds that are 

 driven over it. Potentially it is the richest, the most 

 fertile and productive land in the world, and is capable 

 of supporting in comfort an agricultural population 

 as dense as can be found in any of the older settled parts 

 of our country. By expending $60,000,000 on the 

 twenty-five engineering works now in process of con- 

 struction the reclamation service will reclaim 3,198,000 

 acres, or a cultivated area equal to the total acreage in 

 crops in four states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New 

 Hampshire and Florida. The diversified crops, enor- 

 mous yields from irrigated lands, and the excellent 

 prices for all farm products in the West warrants the 

 assumption that this land will return annually an in- 

 come larger than the farmers receive in the four states 

 named. For comparison, let us say that the revenues 

 per acre will be the same. It is apparent then that this 

 area reclaimed will each year increase the value of 

 farm crops by $60,000,000. It will add $233,000,000 

 to the taxable property of the people. It will furnish 

 homes for 80,000 families on farms and in villages and 

 towns. 



On several of the projects the work has reached the 

 point where the human interests involved overshadow 

 in importance the engineering features. The most in- 

 tensely interesting period in the work of reclamation is 

 at hand the landless man has been brought to the 

 manless land. It has been well said that he who helps 

 establish the security of the irrigable home will also 

 help to establish that greater, that composite home, the 

 United States of America. Our nation is indeed af- 

 fected by this problem which the reclamation service is 



on the eve of solving, for on the success of the irrigable 

 home rests today the prosperity and stability of more 

 than one western state. 



"Our desert region is the only section of our im- 

 perial country wherein there is an equality of oppor- 

 tunity. In no other part of the nation are the rewards 

 for individual effort more constant and certain. When 

 these facts are more fully realized the wisdom of the 

 President's policy in safeguarding and conserving this 

 vast estate for the people will be appreciated. America 



One Limb of Pears, grown near Clifton, Colo., on Denver & Rio Grande Railw: 



has furnished a safety valve against the overcrowding of 

 the great centers of population in the old world for 

 fifty years. Is it not about time to look to our problem 

 and prepare against the day when there will be a glut 

 of population in our own cities? 



"President Roosevelt has called attention to the 

 fact that the nation is giving away public utilities of 

 priceless value to greedy promoters who are monopo- 

 lizing power sites, large areas of agricultural lands, im- 

 mense tracts of coal lands, and miles and miles of for- 

 ests without compensation to the people to whom these 



