HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 353 
tons of alfalfa to the acre; I have scen $100 worth of grapes to the 
acre taken from the land. 
Mr. Henry. Does the cotton-boll weevil infest that land? 
Mr. Suirn. No, sir; the cotton-boll weevil has not reached that 
section of the State yet, but we are expecting it. 
The Cuarrman. We are much obliged to you, Mr. Smith. Now, 
Mr. Mead, I think we had better hear you, as long as we have touched 
on this irrigation subject. 
STATEMENT OF ELWOOD MEAD, OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 
AGRICULTURE. 
The Cuarrman. You may go on, Mr. Mead, in your own way and 
tell us what you have done in the last year and what you propose to 
do with the increase asked for, etc. 
Mr. Mean. The work of last year has followed along the same line 
generally as the work of the previous year, and I can perhaps best 
give the committee an idea of the work we have done and what we 
propose to do by taking up the three climatic sections of the country, 
the arid, semi-arid, and humid regions of the country, and telling the 
roblems we are dealing with and something of the methods we are 
ollowing. 
Beginning with the arid region and taking the Pacific coast, the 
State where irrigation has the greatest importance is California. There 
the great question is to make water that is now used in the irrigation 
of one acre of land irrigate two acres of land, by the adoption of better 
methods. 
You will understand that practically every man now irrigating in 
California went there knowing nothing about irrigation, and there 
are probably 10,000 farmers going to California every year and irri- 
gating for the first time. They are taking up an entirely new industry. 
It is like a man going from the counter in the dry goods store and 
undertaking to plough and plant and carry on all of the operations of 
afarm. The difference is almost as great in the operations of irriga- 
tion and in the operations in.a humid country. 
Mr. Bowtsg. Is it not also true that the fellow who goes there and 
takes it up for the first time thinks he knows more about it than any 
one else? 
Mr. Meap. I think so. In California the development has gone far 
enough so that the necessity for the economical use of water is im- 
perative. Take it in the southern part of the State at this season— 
they are confronted by that situation. In the citrous fruit belt, where 
both land and water are enormously valuable, there has been a great 
temptation to expansion—to put much more land under irrigation 
than can be safely watered in the methods that farmers of the kind 
Ihave spoken of would naturally bring into operation. What they 
must do there in order to protect and save the lives of the trees that 
are already planted is to bring about better methods of supplying 
water, and those are things that farmers under those conditions, if 
they ever learn them at all, would only learn in a very long series.of 
years and at a great loss to the country. 
Mr. Scorr. That suggests a question I was going to ask right there, 
Mr. Mead. You have been carrying on this work in California for 
some time; you have published a very handsome and elaborate report 
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