| Show OUR IRRIGATED LANDS an article on irrigated soil moil which recently appeared in the news showed that for every acre of land subdued by that means la in the trans W mississippi region there were acres not so BO utilized the cultivated area thus about two fittis of one per cent of the whole it should be considered however that only a very small email percentage of it is under the best circumstances susceptible of cultivation even were irrigation feasible in all cases there being so BO many bixb rocky mun m un taine and icille aud and elevated plateaus deeply corduroyed by torre otine streams leaving these out it has been estimated that there are in all about acres acrea of lands which with water would produce crops if thio be the case then the area irrigated in the year was leu lees than six tenths of one per cent of the arable lands of the arid region all of the vacant public lands of the united states have been estimated by officials of the general land office as amounting to acres of this amount the arid and regions region as above defined contain nearly acres or about 96 95 percent per cent takio raking the area of the arid aria region as acres and the vacant public lands in this as am acres it appears that there are acres in the hands of individuals vi duals corporations or otherwise beyond the immediate control of the general government 01 ol this vast body of land the wro are irrigated formed a trifle oter one per cent or vir Y sore ore irrigated there wre are nearly viat one hundred acres in the hands of owners owner private or corporate upon which water was wai not used for the cultivation of el or ceope the comparison of the areas having baring been made it becomes interesting to note the relation between the entire farm area and the amount of land irrigated it has hafl been estimated that the total farm area in the arid region was in round numbers number a little leu less than acres acre and in the absence of definite thi will ha be used if this is in the case then the farm area formed about 12 per cent of the land disposed of in one form or another by the general government also albo the area irrigated was only per percent cent of the land owned by farm ere coming down to still smaller mailer figures and taking the lands owned by the irrigators irrl gators including pasture lands and all other portions going to make up a farm it has baa been ascertained that the total area was waa sores acres thus the area irrigated was only 2072 per cent of the total extent of these farms farm which as an above state dare irrigated in whole or part this brings us to the average value of the irrigated lands including buildings and other improvements which we are advised was found to range from per acre in wyoming up to per acre in california the wean mean for the whole arid and region being this when applied to the total area irrigated gives a total value of the average value of products ranged from in wyoming up to 19 per acre in california the average for the whole arid region being 1489 per acre at this rate the products of the census year amounted to consider considerably sibly over half the value of the precious metals produced during the same year |
