i 5 o 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Irrigated Areas in Arid Regk 



in. 





State or Territory. 



Acreage under 

 ditch. 



Acreage cultivated 

 by the irrigators. 



Artesian 



wells. 





4,500,000 



3,031,484 



3,007,050 



1,250,000 



1,200,000 



990,000 



735,000 



700,000 



660,000 



350,000 



200,000 



176,000 



150,900 



125,000 



100,000 



2,500 



3,550,000 



185,000 



1,800,000 



419,000 



330,000 



120,000 



423,000 



405,000 



315,000 



160,000 



40,000 



75,000 



75,000 



45,000 



54,000 



2,000 



3,500 





6 





4,500 





36 





12 



Kansas (west of 97°) 



50 



Utah 



2,524 



New Mexico 



10 





42 



1,000 



Nebraska 



1,000 





10 



Nevada 



76 



Oregon 



6 



South Dakota 



960 



North Dakota 



670 







Total 



17,177,843 



7,998,000 



13,492 



Some of the artesian wells are of enormous size, and yield f onr 

 and five million gallons of water daily, capable of irrigating a sec- 

 tion of land. The greater number are small, however, and prob- 

 ably not capable of irrigating more than five or ten acres. Half 

 a million acres is the utmost limit of the present wells. Some 

 artesian districts contain at least that acreage, so that, if the water 

 supply is sufficient, a vast area will be reclaimed by this method. 



In the above table the most noticeable fact is that less than 

 half the area lying beneath the water ditches, and capable of irri- 

 gation, is now cultivated. This is because it takes a number of 

 years to settle the country, break up the soil, and bring it into 

 cultivation. In progressive communities the possible acreage 

 keeps ahead of the demand until the water supply or the land 

 supply is exhausted. Judging the future by the past, and taking 

 into consideration many projected ditch lines, there will be from 

 thirty to thirty-five million acres under some irrigation system by 

 the close of the decade, and the actually cultivated area may be 

 close upon twenty million acres. 



California has had a longer and more extensive experience with 

 irrigation than any other division of the arid belt, and immense 

 sums have been wasted in litigation and experiment. The sys- 

 tems now in use in different districts illustrate all the details of 

 the business. All the larger problems connected with irriga- 

 tion, such as seepage, drainage, reservoirs, alkali deposits, econ- 

 omy in distribution, can be studied in the valleys of California. 

 More particularly one sees private ownership and district owner- 

 ship in operation side by side, often in the same county. 



The Wright irrigation act, passed in 1887, gave a great impetus 



