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Show SAVING THE WATER Office of Expcrincnts Studying to Improve Conditions. Too Much Water Used In Irrigation and Agents Endeavoring to Bring About More Economical Use-Dry Use-Dry Farm Methods Profitable. In a recent idler to Secretary James Wilson of Hie d part ment of Hgrlculture, tho seret iry of the Dry Panning congiesj outlined at length the theory which Is now becoming accepted ac-cepted as a fail, and which has bev-ciul bev-ciul times been dis.'UHsed among the leaders In tin; dry (arming movement, that tbo reduction In t!.o use of irrigation irri-gation water to CO or possibly DO lcr cent, of the amount now considered necessary by the uveriig" lir.gitlon fanner would not only allow an increase in-crease In Irrigated a ie. ge, but would Incieanc I bu mod quility witliout reducing re-ducing the quantity of the product of the II l ig .ti d Mi luer. The postibillty of combining dry lariiiing and Ii I if'.itton methods sue-issful!) sue-issful!) w as touched uj on, mid inhumation in-humation was ns.ked as to the observations observa-tions of the o'lice, of experimi nls In nduclng tl.o amount of irrigation water hcivid .o the growing crop. In reply to this eoruuiutiic. tlon Dr. A. C. True, who has so long and successfully successful-ly served It tho c.ipacity of dli odor od-or of exp riiiu nl s, and lo whom much of the pi'i!ie?s In ixpurliuontal work Is due, w riles: "I igiee with you that too much water wa-ter ban been used In Irrlg itlon, ami for a dec ido or moro our agents have hi en elidi avtillig to bl lug about a moil economical uho. Their efforts In this direction l.avo been quite success-t:;l, success-t:;l, resulting In tho uso of much t inal'er quantities than formerly. Tho hem flclal effects of comparatively small amounts of water are shown in the result.-i obtained at some of our experiment ex-periment station farms located iu the send arid belt. "I likewise agree with you In the i lose relation which exi.-.ts between i ry farmli g and Irrigilioti. Many o( the problems of the l.irnn r who cu!U ;tes land above tho ditch uro s.m II. ir to those of tho Irrlg itor below the ditch. In our stiidus of lirigu .lion, and particularly the loss of wa ter. wo frequently reach tho border lino between tho two. in PJtll an In I vciuigalion was begun to determine Mho extent of evtt oration losses ill Irrigation, and the results obtained have a bearing on tho conservation ol moisture on tho dry farm." Tho results of tho experiments un iler the direction of Dr. True have been compiled, and excerpts touching directly upon the subject as it per tains to dry land farming will, from time to time, bo published In tho Uul totin. At tho fifth annual congress la Spokane an address prepared by Director Di-rector Newell of tho reclamation sory-ico sory-ico was read, and later published In thu lliillelln. For a long tliuu the reclamation service, engaged us It was In working out tho further development devel-opment of the producing and distribution distribu-tion of irrigation water, failed to recognize rec-ognize tho fact that It was possible to 5vi r-irrlg:ite this over-Irrigation resulting re-sulting In two things: First, injury to oils; second, reduction of acreage under un-der irrigation projects. The uddres given by Director Newell New-ell showed conclusively that tho re clamntlon service had b. gun most earnestly to consider not only moth-ads moth-ads of dlstribi lion, but of saving Irrigation Irri-gation water, as well as tho provm- ' lion of Injury to soils. i Several mot ths i;g i, In nn address Riven beforo a commercial body by Iho secretary of the If y Farming con-tress, con-tress, piophesv was made that within ten years the value of so-cul'ed dry farming methods as a necessary ad unot to ti e production of rolltahle mips on Inlgited land will lave been no thoroughly fix d H ih ni'tnl of the jlnlgator that tho acreige of very Ir-rlg.ition Ir-rlg.ition project in the woild will be ' loubled. |