FOUR] WATER SUPPLY 
need for artificial irrigation. Strawberries and 
raspberries net growers from three to four hundred 
dollars per acre; asparagus and vegetables bring a 
profit of from one to three hundred dollars per 
acre. It will not do to subject these crops to the 
chance of abundant rainfalls. Where it is done, 
the maximum profit of four hundred drops down to 
one hundred, or even less. It is clear enough that 
the losses of a single year would more than pay for 
an irrigation plant on a farm of ten acres. In the 
State of Connecticut four hundred and seventy- 
one acres were reported recently as irrigated, at a 
cost for ditches, pipes, pumps, reservoirs, and all 
other appliances, of a little over sixteen thousand 
dollars. This would be an average expense of 
about thirty-four dollars per acre — to be paid for 
by the onions ruined by a drought on one-quarter 
of an acre. 
In arid lands, which are, as a rule, more level, 
the expense of irrigation is only about ten dollars 
peracre. These lands cover vast areas, fit to make 
homesteads for millions of our people. This 
problem is, however, one for the nation, rather than 
for individuals. President Roosevelt justly says, 
“There is no one question now before the people 
[73 ] 
