308 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION'. 
belt of debatable land, which has a width of perhaps two degrees of lon- 
gitude. In favorable seasons this belt may be cultivated without irri- 
gation, while in dry seasons the whole area may require artificial water- 
ing. This belt traverses the eastern part of Dakota, gradually moving 
westward as it nears the southern border. It passes across Nebraska 
nearly in its center, and continues nearly due south, crossing Kansas 
slighth wesi of its middle line. l\ crosses the western part of Indian 
Territory, and in Southern Texas gradually trends to the eastward, 
reaching the Hio (Irandc not far from its month. 
From this arid region must be excepted the greater part of Washing- 
ton Territory, especially the western portion, that part of Oregon lying 
west of the Cascade Kange, and the northern half of California lying 
west of the Sierra Nevada. Within the region thus excepted the rainfall 
is sufficient to insure crops. 
Within the area designated as "arid" there are small districts which, 
owing to the conformation of the local topography, enjoy sufficient rain- 
fall for the needs of agriculture. But these cases arc too few and lim- 
ited to be considered in this connection. 
Here, then, is an area of 1,400,000 square miles, or nearly one-half the 
area of the country, exclusive of Alaska, in which the important industry 
of agriculture is dependent entirely upon irrigation. Without water tin- 
land is of value only for its sparse covering of grasses; is useful only to 
the stock-raiser; its productive capacity is reduced to about one-hun- 
dredth. The question of irrigation, therefore, is one of paramount im- 
portance, inasmuch as the future of nearly one-half of the country depends 
in a great measure upon it. It is a subject of State and national im- 
portance. Throughout the greater part of this region the extent of the 
arable land is purely a question of the amount of water available for 
irrigation. The area of land suitably situated in other respects for agri- 
culture is several times as great as can be supplied with water. Proba- 
bly not a hundredth part of the water which flows in the streams of 
the West need run to'waste for want of land fit for receiving it ; while, 
on the other hand, it is probable that, using all the water to its utmost 
capacity in irrigation, not one-fifth of the land which is suitably situated 
for it can ever be irrigated. 
It becomes, then, a question of water rather than of land. Of the two 
the former is all-important ; the latter has the smallest actual value. 
Without water the laud cannot be given away ; with it, it becomes as 
valuable as the rich prairies of Iowa. The measure of success already 
obtained in the endeavors to reclaim the Arkansas Valley to profitable 
agriculture, as the Hon. F. G. Adams has shown in a recent paper before 
the Kansas Academy of Science, is a sufficient warrant for much more 
careful surveys by the government of the river valleys of our Western 
plains with the object of increased irrigation. 
There are two sections of the country which urgently require the 
protection and assistance of the national government for their agricul- 
