The Parker post. (Parker, Ariz.) 1910-1918, 1913-08-09
NO FAILURE
OF CROPS
ALLEN KELLY SAYS RANCHER IN
IRRIGATED BELT HAS BIG AD-
PENDING ON RAIN.

hhoh WIlCCl O1 IOpICSj
Contributes to the West Coast Mag
azine a striking article entitled,
Problems Soluble in Water
Captain Kelly says:
Irrigation solves the worlds food
problem. 1t extends the arabic area
makes scientific, intensive agriculture
possible. Farming in the rain belt is
largely gambling on the weather; in
tlse land of little rain it is science
The farmer in New England studies
the almanac, observes many things
which he thinks are weather signs,
and hopes there may be rain enough
for his wheat and not to much for
his potatoes. The farmer in what the
old geography depicted as a white
space dotted with black specks, and
labeled Great American Desert,
plants any seed he chooses, gives
his order for water to the Zanjero,
and can borrow money on the pre-
spective crop. That is no figure 0
speech; it is a plain statement ol
fact.
In the Imperial valley of southern
California, for instance, a farmer de
cdes to plant certain number
acres with cantaloupe seed, and he
can get from the wholesale dealer
III melons an advance on his crop
before the seed is in the ground. He
may plant cotton, and he can bar
row money from a bank on his cot
ton crop when the plants are six in
ches high. That is because there is
no failure Of crops in an irrigated
district. In the land Of little rain
the potential fertility Of the soil and
the heat of unclouded sunshine are
fixed factors, and all that remains
to make growth a certainty is time
ly water. Irrigation gives the farmer
absolute control of the only varia
BILE factor in the production of crops
Combine with irrigation the scien-
tific methods of seed selection ant
crop treatment developed in recent
years, and the productivity of an
acre of land is not merely doubled,
it is multiplied. For example, the rain
belt farmer cuts hay once a year;
the desert farmer harvests from six
to ten hay crops a year, and he gets
more hay at each cutting Or the ir-
rigation farmer may take from the
land in one year crop of barley OF
better than ton to the acre, and a
cop of cotton, cantaloupes, corn or
almost anything else.
Irrigation is making the region from
the Missouri to the Pacific ocean
who are to populate the western
third Of the continent even more den
sely than the Atlantic coast region
now is populated and perhaps play
the last act in the world drama that
We staged when the first Aryan foot
was set upon the western trail.
What has made possible the build
ing OF the cities of the southwest?
1t is a cOmmon-and shallow-re-
mark that Los Angeles was created
by and exists because of the tourists.
Not so. Irrigation explains Los An
geles and all the other cities of the
southland. The county is attrac
tive to tourists and to hOmeseekers
because Of the marvelos results OF
the shipping of soil sunshine and
southern California would still be a
vast cattle range, dotted with isolat-
ed haciendas and supporting few
land barons and their feudal querOs.
From Kansas to California, from
Wyoming to the Mexican border, re-
clamation of arid lands by irrigation
is wiping the desert off the map, land
yet the work is just begun Millions
of acres have been converted from
water readily available. but there
are vaster areas remaining that can
be reclaimed when the flood wa
ters of western rivers are conserved
in storage reservoirs and compre-
hensiye plan OF stream control is
carried out. That is work for the
government, and a way to do it is
pointed out by the NeWlands-Bart
hold bill in congress, the passage of
which is being urged Systematically
by allied organizations representing
the Mississippi and Ohio valleys,
Arizona and California. The people
of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys
are not interested directly in irriga
ton, but they are concerned Wit