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<br /> <br />.. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />the people against the vagaries of Nature, provide for a II10re versatile <br />agriculture and enable ther.l to conduct reasonably stable enterprises and <br />lead reasonably stable lives. <br />And that is one reason why we believe that irrigation is a <br />benefit from the Missouri River Basin Project which in the long run, will <br />exceed in worth the f'lood-control or any other type of benefit. Irrigation, <br />like nood control, is often a matter of protection. <br />As a matter of fact, our conception of the role of irrigation <br />has kept changing, kept expanding, as the years have passed. Generally <br />it is thought of as a means of (rowing cro~'s on land otherwise too arid <br />for cropping. In addition, it is also recognized as a means of bringing <br />fuller production to lands which might have some incomplete production <br />va thout it, and of making sure that full production c an continue year in <br />and year out, in dry years as well as Viet ones. <br />Now we find increasing use of irrigation as a means of protection <br />Dot on~ against the dry years, but against the dry weeks. Even in a <br />year of abundant rainfall, a week of drought at the wrong time can reduce <br />the yield of an important crop. To guard against this, irrigation works <br />are being installed at an amazing rate in the humid East and South-- <br />regions ~hich would not appear to fit the general conception of irrigation <br />areas at all. <br />One experil'1ent after another has proven that euen when irrigation <br />is not' needed to grow or to save a crop, it more than pays for itself <br />when used to enhance a crop. <br />That is why we find irrigation grOWing in almost all sections <br />of the United States. According to the U. S. Census, irrigated acreage <br />in Kansas increased by 41 percent in the ten years 1939-1949. In <br />4 <br /> <br />2487 <br />