IRRIGATED FARMS FOR RETURNING VETERANS
Neuberger, Richard L.
Irrigated Farms For Returning Veterans By RICHARD L. NEUBERGER AS SOON as the war ends both Federal and state governments in the Far West have plans for creatine 1:55.000 irrigated farms between...
...Irrigation ditches are a threat to spawning trout and migrating salmon...
...Much land in Western valleys could grow anything from asparagus to alfalfa except that it lacks one vital ingredient— water...
...Many Americans are now beginning lo understand the critical importance of this phase of our postwar problems...
...of Projects New Acreage Arizona...
...A Special Type Of Farming But irrigation is one of the foundations of the Far West and will be continued, particularly with millions of American soldiers seeking new agricultural opportunities...
...They have had genuine experience...
...As we develop and reclaim arid land with irrigation, we get new farms and new opportunities for returning soldiers...
...Soldiers serving from Alaska's icy shores to India's coral strand hope to return to land of their own...
...Undoubtedly Webster's descendants in New England have eaten apples, potatoes, and strawberries from the region which their distinguished ancestor didn't think worth 100 pennies...
...Snow plugging the passes means a sustained flow in the great rivers all during the next Summer...
...Many men in the Army and Navy come from irrigated farms...
...Soldiers on irrigated farms will need instruction advice and constant counsel in methods of irrigation agriculture...
...9 50,000 North Dakota...
...What will they do...
...Eastern Oregon is sagebrush...
...33 564,000 Nebraska...
...27 1,680,000 Colorado...
...Surveys indicate that approximately one-fifth of our soldiers hope to acquire farms...
...Irrigation farming is a very special type of agriculture...
...20 307,500 Kansas...
...This was because he did not realize what irrigation could do...
...The Proposed Projects What about this time...
...Many Americans have taken up land after they served their country...
...Veterans of the Civil War took up homesteads on the Public Domain...
...Millions of veterans will be coming home from the battlefronts...
...After the first World War President Wilson's Secretary of the Interior, Franklin K. Lane, had a detailed plan for the reclamation of Western deserts, swamps, and plateaus for settlement by war veterans...
...Daniel Webster said long ago that he wouldn't give a silver dollar for all of Oregon...
...This is Grand Coulee Dam in the Inland Empire of the state of Washington...
...Where are these proposed projects located...
...6 283,000 Texas...
...15 266,000 South Dakota...
...Our civilization has numerous counterbalances...
...Reclaimed soil between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific offers the best chance to take care of these men...
...Probably a lot of people will want to know the States and regions in which our returning soldiers can find agricultural opportunities...
...The veteran with some experience and knowledge in this type, of farming could set up an advisory and consulting service in any of the Far Western states...
...The Bureau of Reclamation has a list of 236 projects in 17 Western states which can be set under way as soon as men and materials are available...
...Irrigated Farms For Returning Veterans By RICHARD L. NEUBERGER AS SOON as the war ends both Federal and state governments in the Far West have plans for creatine 1:55.000 irrigated farms between the Continental Divide and the Pacific Ocean...
...One of these projects, in fact the largest of all, is virtually finished...
...The other undertakings will add about 5,400,000 acres to this total...
...9 403,000 Oklahoma...
...Cutting down a forest means ships and homes and barns...
...It requires a knowledge of water flow, an understanding of the structure of canals, an ability to operate sluice gates and small storage reservoirs...
...Many of these projects already have been begun and await only victory to be completed...
...Will there be agricultural land available for the men who have fought all over the globe...
...He could advise new farmers on what crops to plant, what livestock to feature, how to ration and conserve the water supply, and how to install gates, flumes, and other apparatus...
...It will provide 1,250,-000 acres of new farm land...
...There will be opportunities for the most experienced among them to set up advisory and consulting organizations for the vast number of people expected to settle on reclaimed acreage after the war...
...What will be their opportunities...
...Lesser streams such as the Sacramento, the Owyhee, and the Snake make their contributions too...
...5 96,580 Nevada...
...But a light snow which only talcums the mountains means that the rivers will be low and many acres will be threatened with drought and destruction...
...Yet water pumped from the Columbia River will make that sagebrush land grow virtually all the crops of the temperate zone...
...24 330,000 "The agricultural development of the West is limited only by the water which can be diverted and conserved to irrigate arid and semi-arid lands," says Harry W. Bashore, the U. S. Commissioner of Reclamation...
...Yet dams across rivers threaten fish and wildlife...
...They feel that their destiny is in the soil...
...They want to own land of their own...
...Water is the life-blood of the Far West...
...This is a common sentiment in our country's past...
...9 181,000 Oregon...
...Commissioner Bashore estimates that at least 85,000 highly compact farms will be established on these new irrigation projects, with another 50,000 farm units made possible by improved water supplies in areas where now the moisture is limited...
...19 387,290 Idaho...
...15 328,000 California...
...4 25,235 New Mexico...
...But the plan was abandoned when the normalcy of the '20s took over the country's thinking...
...but it also means scenery gone forever and birds, deer, elk, and bears without food or forage...
...12 312,710 Utah...
...The most valuable assets in the West are two mighty rivers, the Columbia and the Colorado...
...5 108,000 Montana...
...The soldiers of the Lewis and Clark Expedition got acreage in the Louisiana Purchase...
...It is the old story of progress on one hand spelling destruction and loss on another...
...This table tells the story: Slate No...
...20 90,000 Washington...
...4 1,300,000 Wyoming...
...Every Winter the snowfall in the Rockies, Cascades, and Sierras is carefully measured...
Vol. 8 • December 1944 • No. 52
