Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1912-01-19
sIxTY-sEvEN MILLIONS FOR
IRRIGATION

dollars have been spent by the Govern
ment in irrigation work, and tins vast
sum is less than half of the amount
that will have been expended when
Uncle Sans engineers have completed
the present program of reclamation.
In nearly every western state the Hood
waters of the streams are being im-
pounded and already thousands Of
families are benefiting by this stored
water. ,rhe activities of the federal
Government in reclamation work have
resulted in awaking a widespread i'm
terest in irrigation, which is no longer
a local question confined to our rain
less country. Experience has shown
that q more general application of its
principles throughout the whole coun-
try would result in material benefit,
especially in intensive agriculture such
as truck farming and small fruit grow
ing.
The farmer in the east and middle
west is subject in large measure to the
within of an uncertain rainfall. Wha4
would 1t have been worth to him dur
ing twenty years farming experience
if he could have turned on the rain
whenever his crops needed moisture?
His half crops would have been full
ones, his occasional total failures
would have been successes, and the
money actually saved would amount
to sum which might well make him
thoughtful. The western man realizes
these things. A man who has practis-
ed farming by irrigation, or who has
carefully studied its advantages rarely
reverts to either the theory or practice
of rainfall farming The farmer in
humid regions realizes clearly the
handicaps under which he works, but
hesitates to change because he has not
had the object lessons or experience of
the westerner, or has not given consid-
Grafton to the matter of p2lying irri-
CATION to his own fields.
Many eastern farmers have the idea
that the irrigation farmer is in chron-
ic state of water shortage, or has to
fight excess of alkali in the soil, or is
so far from the market that profits are
eaten up by transportation charges.
These things are sometimes true, but
it is grave mistake to believe that
thew 20 On uncomfortable daFaake -. &1..,t
they apply to all irrigated districts. In
building its irrigation projects the
Government selects only fertile soil;
then it guages the size of the area to
fit the available water supply. The
reservoirs and canals are built as sub
stantially as engineering skill can de-
wise and when the farms have been laid
out and water is running in the canals
then aud not till then, settlers are i'm
vited to use their homestead rights on
the land. The money actually spent
i'll building the irrigation works ispro-
rated against each acre of land and is
repaid by the settlers in ten equal, an
nual payments, without interest. Call
it paternalism II you lilSe--it is making
homes by the thousand every year
The Settlement Agent of the Recla-
nation Service whose Office is in the
Federal building in Chicago, states
that success can not be attained with
out work, EITHER in the west or any.
where else, and the man who expects
to farm an irrigated homestead with
out hard work will be grevously dis,
appointed Neither will he get rich
over night. The Government holds ont
no promises of fabulous profits per
acre or of land values increasing like
a SNOWFALL rolling down hill The
simple facts are these: Tracts of first
class farming land varying from 40 to
100 acres are now open to entry; in the
raw condition they produce nothing
and are worth very little. When pro-
perly irrigated they produce large
crops of alfalfa, grain, vegetables and
fruit; in fact, all the crops common to
the region in which they are located,
but in greater abundance and more
surely than in states where farmers
must depend on the rainfall Cultiyat.
ed land with an assured water supply
is worth from 500 an acre upward and
in some of the older and more highly
developed fruit districts prices Of 80 600
or $1,000 per acre have been frequent.
ly recorded. These high figures are
due TO perfect state of cultivation, a
thorough knowledge of packing the
fruit for market, and well organized
selling associations.
The settlers now locating on Govern.
ment irrigation projects are frequently
surprised at the nodarn rondi4;ons