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.
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