Irrigation Agriculture in the West

Excerpts from the report: This publication has been prepared in the interest of a permanent irrigation agriculture. Irrigation has played an important role in the remarkable achievement by farmers of this Nation in meeting wartime and postwar production goals. It may play an even greater part in our future agricultural production. Today, as never before, we are coming to realize that the food needs of our growing population and the establishment of desirable trade relations with other nations will require the maintenance of efficient, high-level agricultural production. In this publication we view the West as a distinct agricultural region because of the widespread dry climates and because of the great part that irrigation plays in crop production. Without irrigation, the West would still be an important agricultural region as a dry-land wheat-producing area and as a vast grazing area capable of producing a notable share of the country's demand for beef, mutton, hides, and wool. With irrigation, the West has become a region of utmost importance to the Nation, for here are grown many agricultural products—fruits, vegetables, sugar beets, and nearly all types of crops.