Show I PRELIMINARY CENSUS WOK 1 I Data to be Collected from the SemiArid Semi-Arid Region on Irrigation Washington D C Jan IGThe preliminary pre-liminary work of the Census olllce in collecting data relative to the arid and t sub humid regions shows that during the pnst ten years vast areas have been reclaimed by irrigation both by ditching ditch-ing from running su earns and drilling for subteriHinean waters Where only a few years ago the sagebrush sage-brush struggled for existence In the midst of a waste of alkali and sand today to-day are fields of waving grain and blossoming blos-soming orangegroves Hundreds of j I miles of canals and ditches have been constructed hundreds of wells have j been sunk and thousands of acres of land have been cultivated in zones where once the desolation of Sahara I reigned Moistened by fresh waters and fertilized I fertil-ized by the rich silt of the swift mountain moun-tain streams once trackless wastes and desolate valleys in the arid son thwest havebecome ns fertile as the famous valley of the Nile and send forth I crops of endless variety and exceeding abundance Irrigation is intensive farming Where the water supply is ample it is sure farming There are no failures and crops are enormous The experienced experi-enced irrigator Is like the trained engineer engi-neer with his hand on the lever The movements of his hand regulate the amount of water supplied to his fields I as those of the engineer control his I engine I i In most of the irrigable sections of the West fertilizers have never been I used although the land has been constantly con-stantly cultivated for over two centuries cen-turies In many sections fields may be seen which have yielded successive I crops of wheat for forty years and show no diminution of productive strength Wonderful progress Is shown In the methods of constructing canals dams and pumping machinery and In the manner of distributing water Modern i Inventions in machinery have greatly lessened l the lime labor and cost cif I construction and management and I i made possible many gigantic enter I I prises of land reclamation and water utilization Mountains have been tunneled and whole rivers have been lifted from their beds and spread over the valleys precisely pre-cisely as wanted High up In the ranges and on the elevated plateaus immense storage reservoirs have been constructed to Impound the floodwaters flood-waters of the streams so that the thirsty land below shall not suffer during dur-ing the long rainless summer As the successful solution of the problem of conservation of floodwaters flood-waters means the reclamation of millions mil-lions of acres of public land the people naturally ask the Government to promote pro-mote measures having this end in view To this demand the Government responds re-sponds Lands containing excellent reservoir siles have been set aside and a thorough study of the sources and permanence of the water supply of arid regions has been made to enable Congress Con-gress to legislate with Inlelllgence upon this important subject In aid of this work the Twelfth census 1 will endeavor comprehensively to show the present condition and values of agriculture In the arid and subhumid regions the length Irrigable extent and cost of the various canals wells and ditches the character volume and constancy 1 con-stancy of water supply systems employed em-ployed In distribution amount paid f for water and the crops acreage and yield of irrigated farms This effort will be successful if those interested in Irrigation shall heartily cooperate with the Census olllce and Its agenls Within a brief period the main schedules sched-ules for taking the census of Irrigation will be distributed and Director Mer vlam requests that all recipients pro pare properly to fill them out and to return them promptly |