THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



against injury by flood. Of all the advantages of irriga- 

 tion, this is the most obvious. Scarcely less so, how- 

 ever, is its compelling power in the matter of produc- 

 tion. Probably there is no spot of land in the United 

 States where the average crop raised by dependence upon 

 rainfall might not be doubled by intelligent irrigation. 

 The rich soils of the arid region produce from four to 

 ten times as largely with irrigation as the soil of the 

 humid region without it. As the measure of value is 

 not area, but productive capacity, twenty acres in the Far 

 West should equal one hundred acres elsewhere. Such 

 is the actual fact. 



A little further on we shall see that not merely the 

 quantity of crops, but their quality as well, responds to 

 the influence of irrigation. We shall see how this art 

 favors the production of the wide diversity of products 

 required for a generous living. Certainty, abundance, 

 variety all this upon an area so small as to be within 

 the control of a single family through its own labor 

 are the elements which compose industrial independence 

 tinder irrigation. The conditions which prevail where 

 irrigation is not necessary large farms, hired labor, a 

 strong tendency to the single crop are here reversed. 

 Intensive cultivation and diversified production are in- 

 separably related to irrigation. These constitute a sys- 

 tem of industry the fruit of which is a class of small 

 landed proprietors resting upon a foundation of eco- 

 nomic independence. 



This is the miracle of irrigation on its industrial side. 



As a factor in the social life of the civilization it cre- 

 ates, irrigation is no less influential and beneficent. 

 Compared with the familiar conditions of country life 



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