Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/768

UNITED STATES. of survey for contemplated works, the Secretary of the Interior is to withdraw from entry, except under homestead laws, any land that may be irrigated from such works. In anticipation of the rise of land values through national irrigation, there was a rush of speculators who, through a perversion of the intention of the Desert Land Law, the Timber Law, and the commutation clause of the Homestead Law, acquired large areas without actual settlement. The following table shows the status of irrigation in the arid States and Territories:

California has the largest number of irrigators, but Colorado has the largest irrigated area. The number of irrigators increased faster than the area irrigated, thus showing a tendency to subdivide large irrigated tracts and cut them up into smaller homesteads devoted to fruit-raising. Streams are the principal source of the water supply, although wells are of some importance in California. The value of crops grown on irrigated land is much the greatest in California. In the census year the crops irrigated with their acreage were as follows: Hay and forage, 3.665,654 acres; cereals, 1,399,709 acres; orchard fruits, 251,289 acres; other crops, 226,881 acres.

The following diagram shows the relative size of the eleven arid States and Territories, with area in private ownership, farm area, and improved irrigated acreage:

The table on page 661 shows the development and the distribution of the four largest crops. These, together with cotton, are by far the most important crops in the United States, constituting over nine-tenths of the entire crop area.

. The largest and most valuable American crops are corn and hay. They are at the basis of the great stock-raising interests of the country. Since the bulk of both crops are consumed on the farm and not placed upon the market, and hence are not ‘money crops,’ their importance is usually lost sight of in discussions of American agriculture. Corn stands without a rival either in respect to area or value. It is indigenous to America, and its production is still largely confined to this continent, the United States producing about three-fourths of the world's supply. It is the distinctive American crop. It has a larger acreage than all other cereals combined. See.

. As compared with corn, hay is of greater relative importance in regions which are not well adapted for the growing of corn, but where the demand for stock-food is nevertheless great. Thus in the North Atlantic States the acreage of hay is nearly one-third greater than the total area devoted to cereals, and in the Western division of States the acreage of hay is over twenty-nine times that of corn and seven-eighths as great as that of all cereals combined.