Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1903-09-14
EXTENDING
IRRIGATION
Natural Tendency is Towards
Making Of Small Farms
Within Water Supply.
IMPROVED METHODS
Extension May Result in Water Being
Found Where Its Presence Is
Not Suspected.

The natural tendency of irrigation
lis to make little farms. The reasons
are obvious enough to any one who
gives the subject the slightest thought
To begin with, in the region where
Irrigation is necessary to produce reg
ular crops, there is much more land
than water. OF course, no one can now
tell the ultimate limitation of the wa
ter supply since we are just upon the
threshold of anything approving scien
tific development of this wonderful
domain. What has been done thus
far has been done wastefully and by
those crude methods which pioneers
employ when getting foothold in a
new country.
Doubtless the visible supply of wa
ter will be made to cover more land
than it now does as better methods
are gradually worked out and put into
practice. And doubtless water will be
found where its presence is now hard
ay suspected.
These circumstances, added to the
vast storage enterprise on which the
government is about to enter, will
constantly tend to reduce the dispro
portion of water to land. But when
all has been done there will still re
main many acres of land which cannot
be watered for each acre which is ir
Tigated.
Hence. the law of supply and de-
mand tends to make a small farm unit
in the arid region This law, inexor-
able as it is, would be far less imme-
diately effective unless supplemented
by other natural laws which operate
I'M the same direction.
To bring water upon land by artifi-
Glal means is costly. The cost varies
widely according to conditions, but
even under the most favorable circum
stances irrigation involves an initial
expense and a burden of maintenance
which becomes an unavoidable charge
upon agriculture-a charge which is
wholly absent where moisture is OBJ
xained by purely natural means.
Now, the thing that costs money
cannot be had for naught. And the
more it costs the more it will be divid-
ed and subdivided among those who
have need of it. This is doubly true
where the thing desired is not lux
ury. but rather a necessity of exist
ence. So far this reason, also the ten
dency to make little irrigated farms is
Irresistible.
Still further it must never be for
gotten that the measure of value In
land is not area, but productive capa-
city. Skillful irrigation multiplies the
productive capacity of given area
over and over. Thus one acre of land
which is absolutely Independent of
rainfall is equivalent to four acres
which depend upon the caprice of the
clouds So it happens that little ir-
rigated farm. satisfies the same de-
mand that much larger piece of
land would be required to satisfy un-
der different conditions.
But this, in turn, has it's economic
anfuence. A large product on each
acre of ground means corresponding
amount OF labor-the bigger the pro-
duct, the bigger the job of cultivating
and harvesting it. So here again we
find an inevitable tendency at work to
compel small farm areas in the arid
region.
Very likely the reader will say, "But
can people make living on these lit
tile farms?" Yes, generous living,
including about everything you find
on the bill of fare of an ordinary hotel.
In the semi-tropical regions of the
Southwest this is literally true, from
the olives of the first course to the
raisins and walnuts of the last. For
where the farmer has perfect control
most perfect diversif1cation of crops.
He does not let it rain on the just and
the unjust, but turns the water on the
vines, which may be
thirsty, and lets it run past the sugar
beets which crave only the uninter-
rupted sunshine that they may PACK
their tiny cells with sacharine mat
ter.
All the laws of the universe are
working together to produce in the
arid region of the West the highest
triumph of agriculture that is, the lit
tie farm owned and titled by the pro-
prietor and his family and rewarding
their industry with generous living.
Bat the laws which Congress has
made are sadly out of tune with the
laws Of the universe.
No one who understands, on one
hand, the natural tendencies of irriga-
eisn, and on the other hand, the needs
of our homeseeking population, can
possibly fail to realize the downright
wickedness of the existing statutes
which make it possible for spectators
to absorb millions and millions of