Show t irrigation AND DRY FARMS public entitled to some sound information along definite linca lines farmers farmer a experience the large amount ot of space in news papers and periodicals being devoted to farming shows that many ot of oui out strongest farm enthusiasts are not farmers now that public opinion haa has been focused on the subject the pub he ile should get some sound information along definite lines because thia this flowery tommyrot about farming that some editors are handing out will do but little good and tends to disgust those who do know something on the subject writes ivan mattson I 1 in n uie ha farm and fireside last year there were some 14 acres under irrigation in our coun try and there was water enough tor for 8 6 acres more the govern ment and private companies have al ready projects under way that will bring our irrigated acreage over the 30 acre mark within ten years already the projects are being opened up taster faster than the land can be taken care of our irrigated area will tar far exceed even the above figures be cause many M minor trier projects that are not yet planned will be planned and executed within the ten years opening up irrigated land la Is even a more difficult problem than opening up a dry farm the land must ba be cleared broken and leveled and it la Is a hard task for a regular farmer to accomplish to say nothing of a city man I 1 had personal experience along that line last summer the land on the farm where I 1 worked lay in about as fine a condition as a piece of raw land ever did yet to get this land broken and get the ground ready foi fol a crop and tor for irrigation cost about seven dollars per acre the first sea eon sons s crop la is not a full crop because the water cannot be evenly distria buted the cost of irrigating the first season Is to heavy because the water must be watched constantly dikes must be shoveled up here and there and a raise shoveled through in other places the first settlers in irrigated corn coin undergo many hardships and the weeding out of 0 the discouraged the incompetent and poor Is e even ven se rarer than in any dry farming corn munley the first few years on a new irrigated farm Is the time that taxes a man a patience endurance ingenuity and bank account considering that the area of arri rated farms per farm Is decreasing which means that more farmers are needed on the band land already under ration and that the opening up of new irrigated land will demand a halt half million more farmers it becomes at once apparent that it Is no small mat ter to get the man to the land after the water gets there the land shows and real estate companies do much toward getting people to the land but their methods result in innumerable failures it seems to me to be an insult to modern science to say that the pres ent ant methods of securing settlers for irrigated land la to good enough considering the tact fact that irrigation in III its modern aspect Is a sconce and that the opening up of new irrigated farms Is in itself an engineering teat feat it seems wise to me at least to draw the attention of young men to the subject especially students in agri cultural colleges the increase of population in the irrigated districts cannot swing owing the job because there are not enough of them it takes all the best men to fill 1111 positions at the intermountain agricultural colleges and not a few of the irrigation en ginders go away to engineer vast pro deett in mexico south america india and nd elsewhere |