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Show f i WESTERN CANADA DEMONSTRATES THAT IRRIGATION IS THE FARMER'S BEST INSURANCE ' j'HI ' I i mm ' I "These arc the finest crops I've I seen in the country." The speaker was one of. a group on tho observation platform of a Canadian Pacific train that had just passed through tho little town of Brooks in Alberta. His words were ' noted with interest by his compan ions; his opinion was worth "while for his work entails much traveling and 1 Tig has his finger on the pulse of trade. Good crops mean full purses J for the farmers, Dig' business for the J small town merchants, big orders for j wholesalers, full time for factories and, eventually, national prosperity, i "To what do you atrributo this 'excellence?" asked a business man bound for a month's recuperation at Banff in tho Canadian Rockies. "To irrigation 1" was the prompt, emphatic response. "What about the dry farming theory that has had so much exploitation?" ex-ploitation?" queried a Dutch planter i from Sumatra. ) I "Dry farming is all right in nor- , snal tunes," came the answer. "Wc ,. , arc, however, living in abnormal ! i times. The farm lands of America ; 1 1 are called upon to produce their limit yields in order that the spectre 1 of starvation shall' not materialize i into a reality. To insure big crops Hi1 there must bo plenty of moisture. If BU, rainfall is insufficient, water must bo Hi ' . produced otherwise. It's another K' case of 'Mahomet and, the Mountain.' M The land cannot go to the water; water must be brought to the land, j Result, irrigation, j ' "Does the result justify tho ex- ' ponso?" asked the business man. " "It certainly does," replied the I , Irrigation Enthusiast. "Why, look ' ' 1 here, take this section through I ' j which we aro passing, it is sparsely , I settled, yet it is estimated that a H'! ' , quarter million bushels of wheat will ! bo harvested from this irrigated dis- H I trict this fall. Many of the fields H.' will yield from 30 to 40 bushels per acre. This is not an unusual yield for ordinary years, but this is not an ordinary year; it Has been an exceptionally excep-tionally hot and dry year, Crops on non-irrigated lands hereabouts are in many cases total failures. Here, I'll give you a concrete instance. Powell, a chap I know, ccamo out here last fall, bought land, broke 200 acres and put in wheat. Some of this acreago was irrigated in the fall and. twice in the spring and summer, result re-sult will be about 40 bushels per acre; the land that gobno fall irrigation irriga-tion but got water twice this spring and summer will yield about 35 bushels; somo of the land was watered water-ed hut once this year and will bear a scantier crop, but the average is going go-ing to run close to 35 busnels per acre, Pretty good for the first year, especially when you consider prevailing pre-vailing prices. "Otl her grains respond to the stimulus of water accordingly and the way in which alfalfa and other fodder crops increase, make the possibilities pos-sibilities of live stock raising unlimited. un-limited. "I didn't mean to give you fellows a lecture, but I suro am enthusiastic over this country that gobbles up automobiles 'faster than my firm can ship them. Hero's Calgary, I get off here. So long, hope to meet you. again I" "Guess I'll get off with you," said tho business man, "this water-fed land looks like a good proposition for tho investment of some of my dollars." |