OCR Text |
Show IRRIGATE TO INCREAoi YIELC Many Sections of Country Where Method Could Be Profitably Used by Farmers. In the eastern part of the great plains, where the rainfall is not large, but ordinarily sufficient to mature crops, there are many localities where irrigation could be practically used to raise the yield of field crops or to promote pro-mote the growth of trees, vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants in or-cbards or-cbards and gardens and about the , homestead. As the farmers in this re-gion re-gion accumulate capital they will un- X doubtedly resort more and more to ir- rigation as a means of increasing their income, securing more of the comforts of life and making their home surroundings sur-roundings more attractive. The same thing is true of the Pacific coast. In the Willamette valley In Oregon, for example, while the annual rainfall is abundant, there is a long dry period in the summer. Many crops which would grow best at this season are greatly -.hindered by drought. The agricultural experiment station at Corvallis has been studying this problem in co-operation with the department of agriculture and has already al-ready demonstrated the usefulness of irrigation for alfalfa, clover, potatoes, and other crops. Business men in Portland, Ore., have become so well convinced that irrigation in western Oregon is profitable, that they are now developing a large irrigation project near Salem. Vast areas in the Sacra- i mento and San Joaquin valleys in Cali- J fornia were for many years farmed A without irrigation. Bitf after long hes- itation and much active opposition the great wheat farmers adopted irrigation - as a profitable insurance against drought and, once convinced of its benefit, spent millions of dollars in developing de-veloping and managing irrigation systems. sys-tems. Their experience will doubtless be repeated in many regions in the United Unit-ed States as increasing population and more complete utilization of our agricultural lands raise the price of land and extend the market for high-priced high-priced crops until the cost of installing instal-ling and running irrigation plants will be amply repaid by tbe increased yields per acre which irrigation is sure to bring. In response to considerable present demand for information along this line, and in preparation for the great future of irrigation in the humid region, the irrigation service of the office of-fice of experiment stations of the department de-partment of agriculture is making a broad study of the irrigation require- v ments and possibilities of different re- 1 gions and is seeking to discover the I most economical and effective meth- J ods for the utilization of available wa-ter wa-ter supplies for this purpose. A large share of the future agricultural agricul-tural property of the United States will depend on the reclamation and thorough utilization of land through drainage and irrigation. Development in both these lines should go hand in hand. |