Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1912-10-31
IRRIGATION AND DRY FARMS
ruplle Entitled to Some Sound In.
formation Along Definite Lines
farmers Experience.

Inc large amount of space in news
papers and periodicals being devoted
TO farming shows that many of our
strongest farm enthusiasts are not
Farmers. Now that public opinion has
been focused on the subject, the pub
TIC should get some sound information
along definite lines. because this
nowery tommyrot about farming that
some editors are handing out will dc
but little good and tends to disgust
those who do know something on the
subject, writes Ivan Mattson in the
Farm and Preside.
Last year there were some $4,000;
600 acres under irrigation in our coun.
try, and there was water enough for
100000 acres more. The govern
ment and private companies have al
ready projects under way that will
bring our irrigated acreage over the
30 OO,000acre mark within ten years.
Already the projects are being opened
up faster than the land can be taken
care OF. Our irrigated area will far
exceed even the above figures, be-
cause many minor projects, that are
not yet planned, will be planned and
executed within the ten years.
Opening up irrigated land is even a
more difficult problem than opening
up dry farm. The land must be
cleared, broken and leveled, and it is
a hard task for regular farmer to
accomplish. to say nothing of a city
/ no 81 oil
that line last summer. The land on
the farm where | worked lay in about
as fine condition as piece of raw
land ever did, yet to get this land
broken and get the ground ready for
q crop and for irrigation cost about
seven dollars per acre. The first sea
sons crop is not a full crop, because
the water cannot be evenly distrib-
uted; the cost of irrigating the first
season is heavy. because the water
must be watched constantly. dikes
must be shoveled up here and there
and raise shoveled through in other
places.
The first settlers in irrigated com.
munities undergo many hardships, and
the wedding out of the discouraged
the incompetent and poor is even Sc
verer than in any dry-farming com
munity. The first few years on a new
Irrigated farm is the time that taxes
a mans patience, endurance. ingenuity
and bank-account.
Considering that the area of irri
gated farms. per farm. is decreasing
(Which means that more farmers are
needed on the land already under irri
cation and that the opening up of new
irrigated land will demand a half
million more farmers), It becomes a
once apparent that It is no small mat
ter to get the man to the land afte
the water gets there.
The land shows" and real estat,
companies do much toward gettin.
people to the land, but their methods
result in innumerable failures.
II seems TO me to be an insult t
modern science to say that the pres
ent methods of securing settlers TO
irrigated land is good enough.
Considering the fact that irrigation
In Its modern aspect is a scence ant
that the opening up of new irrigated
farms is in itself an engineering feat
II seems wise Ito me at least to draw
The attention Of young men to tn
subject. especially students in agri
cultural colleges. The increase o
population in the irrigated district
cannot swing the job, because Their
are not enough OF them. 1t takes al
the best men to fill positions at tn
lntermountain agricultural colleges
and not a few of the irrigation er
gineers go away to engineer vast pre-
jects in Mexico, South America. Indi
and elsewhere.