Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-11
The Irrig atiOn Exposition
Bv Frederic j. Haskin

which is known as the granary of the
Celestial empire, the land is perpetu-
ally fertile though irrigated with clear
mountain water. The conclusion Is
that the lands of arid and semi-arid
regions are inherently fertile and that
water Is the golden key that unlocks
their treasures to the use of man.
Arid land has a thirst for water that
reaches astonishing proportions. Often
when the irrigation ditch is first COM
pleted and the water turned over the
land it is found that 1t takes as much
as six million gallons of water to sat-
isfy the burning thirst of an acre of
land. 1t has been shown that the aver
age cubic foot of earth will absorb
thirty-two pounds of water, and that
as much as fifty-eight tons of dew may
fall on a single acre of ground in one
night.
Experience has demonstrated that
the amount of rainfall best suited to
the successful growing of crop Is
40 inches annually. In other words, 70
produce good crop 4526 tons of water
must fall on every acre of ground an
nually. Someone has made a study of
the use of water by plants and esti .
mates that every ton of hay directly
absorbs 800 tons of water from the
time of the termination of the seed TO
the moving OF the hay Another SCI
enlist undertook to study the use of
water by maple trees in their "diges-
tive" economy. He counted 1912
leaves on a single maple. Studing one
tree carefully he found that GAO trees
on an acre of ground would evaporate
1875 gallons of water in twelve hours.
At this rate the acre of trees, in the
ninety-two days life of their leaves,
would send into the air nearly 3,000,-
900 pounds of moisture.
Not long since a western railroad is
sued one of the most striking maps
ever seen. One part of it shows the
physical features of the promised land
of Canaan; the other shows those of
the Salt Lake valley of Utah. If on the
map of Canaan Salt Lake were sub
stituted for the Dead sea, Ogden for
Bethlehem, Salt Lake City for Jerusa-
lem, Provo City for Tiherius and Utah
lake for the sea of Tiberius Canaan
would become Salt Lake valley. In
that connection 1t is interesting to note
that the three great religions of the
earth began in arid or semi-arid re-
gions: Judaism sprang from the deserts
of Sinai; Christianity from the hills of
Judea: Mohammedanism from the des-
erts of Arabia.
The densest population in the world
outside of cities is to be found in arid
and semi-arid regions made to blos-
som by irrigation. The Nile lands of
Egypt support a population of 1900 to
the square mile. The densest rural
population in the United States east of
the ninety-seventh meridian is to be
found in Rhode Island. with 276 per-
sons to the square mile. In some OF
the older irrigated portions of Cali
fornia one may find as many as 500
people to the square mile, practically
all of them engaged in horticulture
through irrigation.
Irrigation is as old as history. II is
far cry from the old hand power
dumping machine used along the Nile
to the modern 20-inch centrifugal
pumps one may sometimes see, and
from the baby dams OF the ancients to
the gigantic Assuan dam in Africa or
the Roosevelt dam in our own western
country. But wherever irrigation has
been kept up. even after the passing OF
thirty centuries, the soil is as fertile
and as productive as Of old.
The United States is playing the part
of one who helps others to help them
selves in the irrigation and reclama-
tion work IL is doing. 1t does not al
ways intend to be the good angel OF the
work, but expects to establish COM
munities of settlers, train them up in
the art of cooperation and gradually
teach them to care for the works u
has built As soon as they have COM
pleted the payments which liquidate
the expenses incurred In the construc-
tion and maintenance of the works
Uncle Sam then surrenders possession
to them.
Some statistician has estimated that
when every acre of land in the United
States is developed to its maximum
productive power the country will sup
port a population equivalent TO one
fourth the present population of the
world. If the history of the oldest irri-
gated communities of California be-
comes the history of the entire region
eventually to be irrigated, the great
territory east of the Mississippi will
become a sort of sideshow to the
main circus west Of that river. But
then the east may conclude to do some
irrigation of it's own. Irrigationists
assert that even Illinois land might be
made to produce five times as much as
it now produces were irrigation and
scientific farming combined.
TOmorrow-Populnr Photography.