Omaha daily bee., 1909-11-13
Some Things You Want to Know
The Irrigation Exposition.

irrigated with clear mountain water. The
conclusion is that the lands Of arid and
semi-arid resious 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 it takes as much as 5000 900
gallons OF water TO satisfy the burning
thirst Of an acre Of land. II has been shown
that the average cubic foot OF earth will alb
sorb 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 sue
cessful growing Of a crop Is forty inches
annually. In other words, to produce a
good crop 4,52s tons Of water must fall on
every acre Of ground annually. Someone
has made a study Of the use OF water by
plants, and estimates that every ton of
hay directly absorbs 500 tons Of water from
the time Of the termination OF the seed
to the moving Of the hay. Another scien-
list undertook to study the use Of water
by maple trees in their digestive" econ
omy. He counted Il, 1872 leaves on a single
maple Studying one tree carefully he found
that $40 trees on an acre Of ground would
evaporate 3,S75 gallons of water in twelve
hours. At his rate the acre Of trees, in
the ninety-two days life Of their leaves,
would send into the air nearly 100000
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. II on the map Of Canaan
Salt Lake were substituted for the Dead
Sea, ogden for Bethlehem, Salt Lake City
for Jerusalem, Provo City for Liberals,
and Utah Lake for the sea Of Tiberias,
Canaan would become Salt Lake valley.
In that connection it is interesting to note
that the three great religions Of the earth
began in arid or semi-arid regions; Judaism
sprang from the deserts Of Sinai; Christi
anity from the hills Of Judea; Moham-
medism from the deserts OF Arabia.
The densest population in the world,
outside of cities, is to be found in arid
and semi-arid regions made to blossom
by irrigation. The Nile lands of Egypt
support a population OF 100 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 27s persons to the square mile. In
some Of the older irrigated portions of
California one may find as many as 500
people to the square mile, practically all
Of them engaged in horticulture through
irrigation.
d Irrigation is as old as history. 1t is a
far cry from the old hand-power dumping
machine used along the Nile to the modern
twenty-inch centrifugal pumps one may
sometimes see, and from the baby dam 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 10 help them
selves in the irrigation and reclamation
work it is doing. 1t does not always in
tend to be the good angel OF the work, but
expects TO establish communities of set
tiers, train them up in the art of CO.
operation, and gradually teach them to care
for the works 1t has built. AS soon as they
have completed the payments which liqui-
date the expenses incurred In the construc-
ton and maintenance of the works, Uncle
Sam then surrenders possession to them.
Some statistlcian has estimated that
when every acre Of land in the United
States is developed to its maximum pro-
ductive power the country will support a
population equivalent to one-fourth the
present population of the world. II the
history Of the Oldest irrigated communities
Of California becomes the history of the
entire region eventually to be irrigated,
the great territory east OF the Mississippi
will become a sort Of side show to the
main circus west % that river. But then
the east may conclude to do some irriga-
ton Of It's own. Irrigationists assert thai
even Illinois land might be made to pro-
duce five times as much as it now produces
were irrigation and scientific farming
combined.
by Frederick j. Haskin.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Photography.