Western farms can and should produce the best
quality grain, fruit and vegetables that reach the
market. The neighborhood adoption of those meth-
ods advocated by State Experiment Stations and the
U. S. Department of Agriculture, and successfully
practiced by isolated farmers here and there through-
out the West will increase the efficiency of our yield-
ing acres twenty per cent., and the quality of the har-
vested crop one hundred fold.
CHAPTER VI

METHODS OF WATER DISTRIBUTION

THE system of water distribution in the West
has grown out of the customs of the people,
the character of the soil, time the larger
portion of the water is applied, and the crop to be irri-
gated.
For more than half a century, costly
Water Dis- . j ' j

tribution experiments have been made, old prac-

tices discarded, and many improvements
adopted, as their need has been experienced. Mr.
Samuel Fortier, Chief of Irrigation Investigations,
office of U. S. Experiment Stations, states that the
amount of v/ater diverted annually from streams and
other sources of supply to water land, approximates
fifty million acre feet. The land which this now ir-
rigates is estimated to be thirteen million acres. He
believes that not more than one-third of this great
amount of water is utilized in plant nourishment; the
rest is largely wasted.
It is believed that the adoption of bet-
Conservmg ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ careful methods of water
Methods
Needed carrymg and distribution will conserve

enough of the water now used success-
fully to irrigate seven million additional acres.
