s well known that with the dry, even climate and with an
abundance of water applied as vegetation needs, this now arid waste
is far more productive than the Eastern states, where the crops are
at the mercy of the elements, sometimes having too much moisture and
at other times not having enough.

"Irrigation offers control of conditions such as is found nowhere
except in greenhouse culture. The farmer in the humid country cannot
control the amount of starch in potatoes, sugar in beets, protein in
corn, gluten in wheat, except by planting varieties which are
especially adapted to the production of the desired quality. The
irrigation farmer, on the other hand, can produce this or that
desirable quality by the control of the moisture supply to the
plant. He can hasten or retard maturity of the plant, produce early
truck or late truck on the same soil, grow wheat or grow rice as he
deems advisable."

"On the irrigated fields of the Vosges, Vaucluse, etc., in France,
six tons of dry hay becomes the rule, even upon ungrateful soil; and
this means considerably more than the annual food of one milch cow
(which can be taken as a little less than five tons) grown on each
acre."

"The irrigated meadows round Milan are another well known example.
Nearly 22,000 acres are irrigated there with water derived from the
sewers of the city, and they yield crops of from eight to ten tons
of hay as a rule; occasionally some separate meadows will yield the
fabulous amount--fabulous to-day but no longer fabulous
to-morrow--of eighteen tons of hay per acre; that is, the food of
nearly four cows to the acre, and nine times the yield of good
meadows in this country." ("Fields, Factories, and Workshops," pages
116-117.)

"If irrigation pays"--and no one now questions that--"the whole
Western country of rich soil, which asks but a drink now and then,
will be turned into a Garden of Eden." _(Maxwell's Talisman.)_

Agriculture may be revolutionized with the advent of irrigation.

A new method of disposing of sewage and at the same time irrigating
the soil, has come into use recently, and will be found valuable to
those who are situated so that they can make use of it.

The sewage from buildings is drained into a large tank where the
heavier matter can settle to the bottom. When the water rises nearly
to the top of the tank it is siphoned into another tank, and from
there it is piped about the field.

The piping is very simple--ordinary drai