THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



263 



large or small Reclamation Service official of aban- 

 donment of work in any state should be permitted 

 to halt a full revelation of conditions. 



If the Borland inquiry does not dig deep enough 

 to cause a thorough house-cleaning and the elimina- 

 tion of the bureaucracy in the Reclamation Service 

 the settlers should demand another investigation at 

 once. They should see to it that Congress grants 

 it, and grants it without any strings by which the 

 powerful interests behind the bureaucracy can con- 

 trol it. 



Until the rotten spots are removed from the 

 Reclamation Service, the Federal Water Users are 

 going to be in hot water. They have t>een there 

 long enough. It is time that they be given oppor- 

 tunity to live as befits an American citizen and that 

 greatest of all American citizens, the American 

 farmer. 



South Side canal is using water on 160,000 acres 

 that is sufficient for 300,000 acres, and in a few 

 years that 160,000 acres and your 120,000 acres will 

 be damaged to an extent that will cost you a huge 

 sum to repair." 



Sir William Willcocks, the eminent 

 The Warn- British engineer, who was hired by 

 ing of a Secretary of the Interior Lane to 



Man Who inspect the government irrigation 

 Knows projects, sounded a remarkable 



warning against extravagance in 

 the use of irrigating water in a recent speech in 

 Boise, Idaho. It is a warning that every irrigator 

 should take to heart, for it applies not only to the 

 district of which he was speaking on that particu- 

 lar day, but to the whole irrigable area of the United 

 States. 



Seepage means ruin it should be guarded 

 against constantly. 



Here is what Sir William said: 



"I feel as if I should say something about what 

 I have seen in my visit here. I think I may say 

 I know thoroughly the subject of irrigation. In 

 fact, I know little else. Music, for instance, means 

 nothing to me. I know nothing of politics and of 

 general topics of interest. My father was an irriga- 

 tion engineer in India and I began working with 

 him at 12 years of age. I am now 62, and have 

 worked and plodded on irrigation and nothing but 

 irrigation for fifty years. 



"I have been employed in India, Egypt, and 

 am familiar with conditions in Turkey, in Arabia, 

 in Italy, but never in my whole experience have 

 I seen such a willful waste of water or seen water 

 so injuriously applied as here. 



"Let me tell you of the Boise valley that you 

 have sufficient water flowing through your canyon 

 of the Boise river to irrigate 400,000 acres, and if 

 that water is used on a smaller area you are going 

 to ruin your land. You are ruining it now. 



"From what I have been told, your Twin Falls 



The West is much better off than 

 Eastern tne East > according to Frederick E. 



Banker Farnsworth of New York, secretary 



Finds West of the American Bankers' Associa- 

 Prosperous tion. In a recent statement Mr. 



Farnsworth said : 



"The West, it appears to me, is going to have 

 one of the most prosperous years in its history. 

 There's no business depression plenty of money 

 in the banks, lots of it; big crops coming in in 

 fact, tremendous crops. The West is better off 

 than the East, because you have the crops to rely 

 upon, while we are largely depending upon our 

 manufacturing industries." 



Investigations by THE IRRIGATION AGE confirm 

 every word of this prominent New York banker. 

 The outlook for the West this year is exceedingly 

 bright. Its prosperity, too, is of the good, substan- 

 tial, permanent variety and will prove lasting. 



The Department of Agriculture 

 U S Wheat predicts a wheat crop for 1914 of 

 Crop Goes 900,000,000 bushels; the greatest in 

 to 900,000,000 the history of the United States; 

 Bushels almost half the world's yield of 



wheat. The yield in 1913 was 753,- 

 000,000 bushels. 



Heavy yields in all other lines of produce on 

 United States farms are also forecast. It is proba- 

 ble that the farm products for 1914 will exceed the 

 colossal figures of last year, when the American 

 farmers produced more than ten billion dollars' 

 worth of products. 



It is an enormous contribution to the prosper- 

 ity of the nation. The money transactions involved 

 in the marketing of this stupendous output mean 

 processes of exchange of which there can be no 

 measure. When the farmers are paid for these 

 products and when they in turn square off their 

 annual balances and make their investments, it 

 means a distribution of wealth and profits almost 

 beyond calculation. 



The wheat prediction has even a greater sig- 

 nificance. It shows that the soil that had been de- 

 pleted in its fertility is being restored. It means 

 that better farm methods are applied and a larger 

 output per acre secured. It also means, beyond 

 doubt, that every process on American farms is 

 undergoing change from haphazard and primitive 



