THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



185 



see used, together with the remainder of the United 

 States army, to build the very much needed coast 

 railroads, with mobile artillery of the best and most 

 effective patterns mounted on heavy trucks, with 

 double tracks for mobilizing and with numerous 

 switches for sidetrack firing, should be provided. 

 All our sea coast available for landing large bodies 

 of troops should be so protected, and all our harbors 

 and river mouths should be provided with such 

 tracks, and the artillery should be made and mount- 

 ed and a double force efficiently drilled in handling 

 the same. These roads would more than pay for 

 their construction and are much more effective for 

 coast defense than battleships can possibly be. 



The submarines we are building for the allies 

 should be kept at home, and instead of building 

 battleships, provide the coast with such defensive 

 ordnance as will make the approach a matter of cer- 

 tain destruction to any ship, no matter how heavy her 

 guns may be. The solid earth will support guns that 

 can deliver projectiles at twice the distance ship- 

 borne guns, can carry, hence, a properly provided 

 mobile coast artillery could destroy any hostile fleet 

 before it could get into range, and our means of 

 rapid communication would keep our artillery posted 

 where to mobilize. So clearly is this the case that no 

 time should be lost in making this preparation. 



We need an army of 500,000 men, but where are 

 we to get it? Do you suppose that men who are 



worth a d- 

 board ? 



will work for $13 a month and their 



Let Congress determine to build these coast de- 

 fense railroads and offer to pay the usual railroad 

 builders' price for men, with the understanding that 

 all workmen would have to enlist for three years 

 and would constitute the regular army of the United 

 States and be subject to one day's drill out of seven, 

 their wages to be paid twice a month, and you will 

 have the full quota volunteered in less than thirty 

 days, and they will be the flower of Young America. 



Put these men to work on these coast defense 

 railroads and in six months you will have the finest 

 coast defenses, manned by the finest and most en- 

 thusiastic body of men the world has ever seen. Let 

 each company of men remain on one particular part 

 of the road permanently, so that they will become 

 thoroughly familiar with every part of that section 

 of defense. Men, like bees, fight hardest to preserve 

 what their own labor has builded. Every mile of 

 these defensive railroads will be a most valuable 

 outer belt line of the utmost economic and mercan- 

 tile value permanent improvement worth twenty 

 times its actual cost right from the very start. Every 

 acre of land along these roads will advance from two 

 to ten times its present value. 'This increase in 

 value alone will more than pay the cost of the roads, 

 and, besides all this, you have provided the country 

 with an army an army that will pay. 



GENERAL STATUS OF IRRIGATION IN KANSAS 



II. B. Walker, State Irrigation Engineer, Manhattan, Kansas. 



Does pumping for irrigation pay? This is a 

 question yet unanswered for many who are con- 

 sidering irrigation in Kansas. Indeed it is a most 

 difficult question to answer. In fact, no direct 

 reply is possible. Every farmer must consider the 

 problem of pumping from a broad standpoint and 

 then use his own judgment for a satisfactory 

 answer. 



Kansas has not yet secured enough data cover- 

 ing continuous records of pumping operations to 

 tell definitely if the average man is successful. In- 

 formation of this character is needed to put irriga- 

 tion in its rightful economic place in agricultural 

 development. When it can be shown without ques- 

 tion that a pumping plant is a business investment 

 for the average farmer, then it will be an easier 

 matter to borrow money to develop pumping dis- 

 tricts. 



During the last two years I have made investi- 

 gations of over 125 pumping plants in Kansas for 

 the purpose of studying the methods and prac- 

 tices of farmers who are pumping for irrigation. 

 These investigations were made of typical farms 

 throughout the western third of Kansas. The gen- 

 eral premises among the farmers owning pumping 

 plants are that irrigation is profitable. In very 

 few cases, however, are these premises founded 



upon fact. Nearly everyone "thinks" pumping for 

 irrigation pays, but when it comes to backing these 

 impressions with figures to show net profits there 

 is a lack of definite knowledge. 



Among the 125 pumping plants visited less 

 than five per cent of the owners actually knew in 

 dollars and cents whether or not their plant was 

 profitable. Many had good reasons to believe that 

 it was a good investment, and in every instance the 

 owners of a plant felt sure that it would pay if care- 

 fully handled. In every instance where a man had 

 kept a record the pumping plant was a profitable 

 investment. This in itself is encouraging. It was 

 noticeable, moreover, that the man who had kept 

 a record was the most careful operator of his plant. 



Judging from the records obtained on the 125 

 irrigated farms in Kansas at least 40 per cent of 

 the individual farm pumping plants of the state are 

 non-revenue producing investments. We have in 

 Kansas approximately 225 farm irrigation pumping 

 plants. Practically 90 of these plants are not oper- 

 ated in a way which will produce revenue, and the 

 investment is so placed that depreciation is always 

 going on. This lack of operation is not generally 

 due to poor pumping equipment or lack of water, 

 but it is due almost entirely to the indifference of 

 the owner. It must be admitted that an efficient 



