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Project Lands LAND CLASSIFICATION The lands were classified on the basis of their potential productivity under full irrigation and the estimated costs required to develop them for efficient distribution of the water after its delivery to the farm. The classifiers in assigning productivity ratings to the lands took into account the composite effects of the soil, topography, and drainage, The productivity ratings were expressed as a percentage index--the lands with the highest potential yield capacity being assigned 100. Allowances were made for land development costs which include the necessary grading and structures to facilitate spreading the water efficiently and the installations required to provide farm dra.inage. ) Budgetary analyses of representative farms were used to compute the payment capacity of the lands, These analyses reflected the economic effects of the farm development costs and productivity of the lands. '. ,.~., Class 1 Irrigable Application of the previously described land classification methods resulted in 1,155 acres or 6.0 percent of the net irrigable area being placed in class 1. The productive ratings of these lands are uniformly high, having a composite average of 95 percent, and the developmpnt costs are uniformly low, averaging $20 per acre. The distinguishing characteristics of the class 1 lands are their deep medium textured soils and their nearly level topography. Within this class there are variations in soil texture, the, types being mainly silt loam and fine sandy loam. Also a layer of clay loam is usually present in the soil profile near the surface, These lands have slopes less than 2 percent, and are smooth to slightly undulating. No drainage problems are evident and the soils' a.re free of harmful accumulations of soluble salts or alkali. 33 "I , .1