Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-08-25
IRRIGATION AND RAtN-'WhAT
THE DIFFERENCE 10.

Under the clouds the farmers
business is a lottery. He Is never
sure OF a harvest. He sows, but he does
not know that he will reap The
seed goes into the ground but he can
not be sure Of moisture enough to
mature a crop. VIII It rain? VIII
It rain enough? VIII II rain at the
right time? VIII II rain too much?
He watches the clouds, he lies awake
at night: he goes through anxious
days, says a writer In California. A
dry season or a wet one, a drouth or
floods. keeps him on the rack. The
years harvest hangs In the balance.
No other business could bear the ele-
ment OF uncertainty which Is in
separablc from the farmers work
wherever he depends upon the clouds.
Under irrigation his business be-
comes half scientific. He knows what
he can do. The element of chance
Is eliminated. Farm work becomes
a matter OF skill and intelligence.
Crop failure is reduced to a minimum.
He gets moisture when he wants It
and sends It where he wants II. II
the summers are rainless. the situa.
ton Is all the more to his mind. His
alfalfa field needs flooding, but his
sugar beets are maturing, and need
the sunshine to store up sweetness.
That strawberry patch Is getting dry,
and he can water 1t, but the orchard
Just now would be harmed by a day
OF rain.
Then In a larger way: Under irri
CATION" Professor Mead says, 1.-THE
farmer IL practically sur Of a cror
each year. In ordinary or extra dry
years the crop Is increased two and
sometimes three fold. The crops arr
always OF superior quality, gradinl
number one Major Powell said
many years ago. that there Is prob
ably not an acre Of land In the United
States the productive capacity Of
which would moi be at least doubled
by scientific irrigation. And Secre
Ane,t vlftlaaN 80 TIN nvNnrtvtnn ~
Agriculture says. that in those com
munities Of the west which have been
created by irrigation. the farmers have
learned that forty acres we'll titled
will yield more profit than 100 farmet
in the old haphazard way"
The three prime factors Of produc
ton are fertility. temperature. am
moisture. Given these. and the farm
or Is almost master Of the situation
a he Is not, the fault lies with him
self. In California the man In thu
field finds q fertile soil, and over |
q mild and dependable climate. II
now. his land can he irrigated, he II
master OF the forces OF production
There is Egypt. for centuries the era
nary Of the world. Agriculture t.,ert
supports more than 5.000,00O people
an average of $40 to the square mile
But there Is more irrigable land II
San Joaquin valley than Is watered Ii
Egypt from the Nile.
There Is the valley Of tie Pc. II
northern Italy. where 100000 acres
under irrigation support in comfor
100000 people, Yet the San Joaquin
r~yallsy lis IS fsplile sssAhASplainss o
Lombardy. and Piedmont In the val
ley Of the Pc, has a climate as klndl,
and three times the acreage, What 1
population will 1t not support.
Irrigation means intensive farming
II necessitates small farms: small
farms e near neighbors; nea,
neighbors create social advantages
the Isolation OF country life disap
pears. The trolley car is penetrat