THE IREIGATION AGE. 



129 



of raw material through a mill. The raw material is 

 dumped into the hoppers of the immigrant-seeking states 

 of New York and Pennsylvania and the finished product 

 emerges on the Pacific Coast and the slopes of the 

 Rockies. This is indeed fortunate for the West, for if 

 there is any place where the quality of the man counts it 

 is on an irrigated tract. 



So rapid an increase in western population should not 

 be attributed solely to the irrigation of desert lands. Of 

 late the dry farming districts have attracted thousands of 

 settlers, more manufactories have been established, more 

 railway lines built and ever-increasing numbers are seek- 

 ing homes in towns and cities. 



Money Invested in Irrigation Works. 



The progress of irrigation development may also be 

 measured by the amount of money invested in irrigation 

 works. The census figures for 1910 place this amount at 

 nearly $305,000,000. Dividing this sum by the total acre- 

 age irrigated, gives $22 as the average price per acre of 

 irrigation works, such as reservoirs and main canals. This, 

 however, does not include the expenses incurred by the 

 farmer in installing head ditches and laterals and prepar- 

 ing his land for irrigation. These expenditures would 

 easily average another $20 per acre, raising the total to 

 something over $40 per acre and giving us a grand total of 

 approximately $600,000,000 of capital invested. 



Large as this sum may appear, it is yet small when 

 compared with the wealth created by the water which 

 such works have provided. If one reckons the cost of ir- 

 rigation works in millions, he should use billions as a unit 

 to reckon the values created by the water which they fur- 

 nish. A relatively small amount of capital is invested in 

 the pumping plants and canals of the Santa Ana Valley 

 in California, but the purchase of the citrus orchards and 

 other improvements which this pumped water has created 

 would entail an immense outlay. The irrigated lands of 

 few localities possess such high values, but the compari- 

 son is true for all irrigated districts. 



Agencies in Irrigation Development. 



It is of interest to note through what agencies this 

 vast wealth has been created. What has the individual 

 irrigator done and what forms of organized effort have 

 been instrumental in helping him to accomplish so great 

 an undertaking? 



Several distinct forces have contributed to this result. 

 In the first place we have the individual irrigator who has 

 either built a ditch himself or called in. one or two neigh- 

 bors to help him. Out of a total of nearly 14,000,000 acres 

 of irrigated land in this country, we must credit this class 

 with 45}/> per cent (over six million acres). Next comes 

 cooperative companies without formal organization, which 

 are really merely larger groups of farmers acting together 

 to build the necessary structures. This class covers an- 

 other 33.8 per cent (over 4J4 million acres). Then comes 

 the commercial enterprises of one sort or another which 

 have launched into the business of furnishing a water sup- 

 ply and selling it to the irrigator. This class covers 10J/2 

 per cent (roughly \ l / 2 million acres). 



Irrigation districts, a sort of quasi-municipal corpora- 

 tion, come next with 3.9 per cent (approximately one-half 

 million acres). 



The Reclamation Service is next in line with 2.9 per 

 cent (less than 400,000 acres). 



' Companies operating under the Carey Act come next 

 with 2.1 per cent (something under 300,000 acres). Under 

 this act the National Government grants to each of the 

 arid states not exceeding a million acres of desert land, 

 with the proviso that the state shall obligate itself to re- 

 claim the same and cause it to be occupied by actual set- 

 tlers in small tracts. The states which accept the act in 

 turn enter into contracts with corporations which con- 

 struct the works and sell water rights to the settler. 



Lastly comes the United States Indian Service with 1.3 

 per cent. 



The figures given in detail are as follows: 



Acres. Per Cent. 

 Individual and partnership enterprises. 6,258,401 45.5 



Cooperative enterprises 4,646,039 33.8 



Commercial enterprises 1,444,806 10.6 



Irrigation districts 533,142 3.9 



U. S. Reclamation Service 395,646 2.9 



Carey Act enterprises 288,553 2.1 



U. S. Indian Service 172,912 1.2 



13,739,679 100.0 



Lands Irrigated and Farms Established. 



I have but time to touch briefly upon the geographic 

 distribution of irrigation and the sections where it is mak- 

 ing greatest headway. California and her great rival of 

 the Rocky Mountain region, Colorado, are still well in the 

 lead as regards irrigation, but the progress of neither dur- 

 ing the past decade has been so rapid as that of. Texas, 

 Washington, Idaho and New Mexico. The Lone Star 

 State is in a class by herself in this respect. Excluding 

 the area given to rice culture, Texas has gained 300 per 

 cent in irrigated area in the decade mentioned. Wash- 

 ington, Idaho, North Dakota and New Mexico have each 

 more than doubled in the same time. Oklahoma stands 

 at 96, Wyoming- 86, Montana and Oregon 77. Colorado's 

 increase was 73 per cent and California 66 per cent. 



As water is provided for dry land, more farms are 

 carved out of the desert, the increase in the number of 

 farms keeping pace with the construction of new works 

 on the one hand and with the establishment of homes on 

 the other. It is surprising that more than one-fourth of all 

 of the irrigated farms that have been established in the 

 17 western states and territories between 1899 and 1909 

 has been in California. Rapid progress has also been 

 made by Texas, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado. 

 New Mexico and Oregon in the order named. While the 

 states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas 

 have greatly increased their areas under irrigation, the 

 number of their irrigated farms has not increased in this 

 past decade. 



Improvement in Irrigation Practice. 



The past decade has also witnessed a marked improve- 

 ment in irrigation practice. Lumber, which was once so 

 generally used, is rapidly being replaced by concrete and 

 steel, resulting in better, safer and more permanent struc- 

 tures. Greater efforts are put forth to prevent unneces- 

 sary waste in transmission of water by lining canals. The 

 surfaces of fields are being better prepared to receive wa- 

 ter and more care and skill are being exercised in laying 

 out farm systems. 



Among the irrigators of Western America are to be 

 found nearly all classes and nationalities. Each settler 

 from another state or from a foreign country introduces 

 on his farm some custom or practice common to his old 

 environment. In this way we gather from every corner 

 of the globe ideas about irrigation. These are being 

 tested out under favorable climatic and soil conditions 

 by an intelligent people working under free institutions. 

 The result is a foundation so deep and broad that foreign 

 scientists and engineers are visiting America in ever- 

 increasing numbers to learn about this new practice in 

 American irrigation. 



A Forecast of the Future. 



I have touched upon a few of the achievements of 

 the past, but what of the future? The west is now under- 

 going a temporary set-back, but a slacking of the too rapid 

 pace of recent years may prove beneficial in the end. The 

 rate of progress as I shall attempt to show, has not been 

 uniform in all directions and it may be well to halt the 

 vanguard until the stragglers in the rear catch up with the 

 procession. It is a fact that the building of irrigation 

 works is far in the front and the settlement of irrigable 

 lands is far in the rear. There are today, 5 or 6 million 

 acres supplied with water, but unirrigated for lack of 

 settlers. In addition to these areas that await settlement, 

 there are fully ten million acres included in partially com- 

 pleted projects, the managers of which are anxiously look- 

 ing forward to the time when the water will be in the 

 canals and the settlers on the land. We naturally com- 

 pare this total acreage, which is to be opened to settle- 

 ment in the next seven or eight years, to the rate of settle- 

 ment of the past decade. In ten years of good times we 

 have added to the irrigated area of the west but 6,200,000 

 acres. In other words, in order to bring settlers to the 

 fifteen million acres of lands which are ready or will be 

 ready to be served by irrigation canals in the next seven 



