THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



ble for the reclamation of two million four hundred 

 thousand acres, while the artesian supplies were relied 

 upon to bring the total for the State to at least six 

 million acres. 



The authors of these conclusions, among the most re- 

 sponsible men in the State, declare them to be well within 

 the bounds of conservatism. For the present purpose, 

 however, the figures may be reduced two-thirds, and 

 still leave an ample foundation for population in Nevada. 

 Two States which no one dreams of expelling from the 

 Union are Colorado and Utah. The splendid agricult- 

 ural prosperity of those arid commonwealths is based 

 on a cultivated area of only about two million acres. 

 There is no excuse for assuming that with a reasonable 

 development of her resources, mineral and manufactur- 

 ing as well as agricultural, Nevada could not sustain at 

 least as many people as do Utah and Colorado in their 

 present condition of partial development. Neither of 

 those States has begun to approach the full realization 

 of its possibilities, though even now they maintain a 

 combined population of about throe-quarters of a million. 

 This figure is a low estimate of Nevada's capa^ty in 

 that direction. 



The products of the irrigated lands of Nevada are the 

 fruits, vegetables, cereals, and grasses of the temperate 

 zone, and, in the extreme southern portions, the more 

 delicate fruits of the semi-tropics. Average crops arc 

 thirty-five bushels of wheat per aero, sixty bushels of 

 barley, seventy-five bushels of oats, three hundred bush- 

 els of potatoes, and four to eight tons of alfalfa, which is 

 the leading forage grass. In the extreme southern coun- 

 ties, where the altitude is but four hundred feet above 



200 



