AMERICA'S DRY AREAS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1081, 21 March 1911, Page 5

AMERICA'S DRY AREAS.

A GREAT-WORK COMPLETED. By Tclcßrapl\7-Prcss Association-Dopyrieht ■ New York, March 19.' Mr. Roosevelt has formally opened a great storage dam in Arizona. The dam, named after himself, is in connection nitli: the Salt River irrigation project. It form?, a . reservoir . 25. miles .long, and capable of - irrigating 250,000 acres. By'its uso it'is-expected to make the valley ..the most fertile in America.

MAKING THE DESERT BLOSSOM. Arizona, wi'th' .1 population of 200,000, and an area Wore than twice that of ZSew Zealand, looks mainly to irrigation for its industrial progress. Month after month of cloudless ;skies and pulsating sunlight will not, even on good soil, raise crops. "Dry farmiijt" is a delusion when tho season is totf lirv. "Thousands of settlers have tried it'lahd failed," savs a lernturial officer."No amount of cultivation can bring molstiiro from dry skies, and in most years it is .1 doubtful venture. The Government Reclamation bervico is expending millions in projects that will fertilise vast'areas in the south-west. Arizona's portion in tho Service's notable work is the Roosevelt Dam on tho ha t River, to bo 'dedicated by Mr. Roosevelt noxt March. Here tho Salt River Valley lies like an outstretched hand,- reselling westward, with 1 a rock-bound gateway at the wrist. The great bulwark of masonry, built at a cost of .C 1,200,000, rears its "40 feet, r. ' massive retainer of a lalto covering 17,000 acres. Behind it flood will bo held to spread out over 200,000 acres, with an additional 40,000 acres to bo irrigated by ■ nuinnvng. Hero will bo demonstrated, as in other similar project's, tho possibilities of an acre. Whoro a man can take .SMI in asparagus from lj acres, and .SIPG from one of blackberries, or where 71 acres of mixed berries and melons yield net .£O4O, or ten acres of oranges produce 1800 boxes which return an average of lfis. Bd. per box, it is clear that only a few will caro to own more than they can well cultivate.