342 DRY-FARMING 
able perfection and may be used economically where 
the price of gasoline is reasonable. Engines using 
crude oil may be most desirable in the localities where 
oil wells have been found. As the manufacture of 
alcohol from the waste products of the farms becomes 
established, the alcohol-burning engine could become 
a very important one. Over nearly the whole of the 
dry-farm territory coal is found in large quantities, 
and the steam engine fed by coal is an important 
factor in the pumping of water for irrigation pur- 
poses. Further, in the mountainous part of the dry- 
farm territory water power is very abundant. Only 
the smallest fraction of it has as yet been harnessed 
for the generation of the electric current. As electric 
generation increases, it should be comparatively 
easy for the farmer to secure sufficient electric power 
to run the pump. This has already become an 
established practice in districts where electric power 
is available. 
During the last few years considerable work has 
been done to determine the feasibility of raising water 
for irrigation by pumping. Fortier reports that 
successful results have been obtained in Colorado, 
Wyoming, and Montana. He declares that a good 
type of windmill located in a district where the 
average wind movement is ten miles per hour can 
lift enough water twenty feet to irrigate five acres 
of land. Wherever the water is near the surface 
this should be easy of accomplishment. Vernon, 
