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<br />eleven western states. (See table on page 24.) Eighty-eight per cent <br />of this would fall within the five states of \Vashington, Oregon, California, <br />Idaho, and Colorado. Moisture additions from increased precipitation, <br />however~ depend upon the presence of clouds. They accordingly cannot <br />be depended upon as solutions to any specific drought problem in a given <br />season. The results suggested are only to be expected as a long-time <br />average. <br />The major potential benefits from cloud seeding by present commercial <br />methods thus appear to be much more sharply regionalized than is <br />popularly understood at the present time. At the same time, since much <br />of the area where seeding is applicable is in need of additional water for <br />irrigation, municipal supply, and industrial use, increased precipitation and <br />runoff can be highly valuahle, <br />Although there appears to be little promise of substantial effect on <br />precipitation outside of the western one-fourth of the United States, there <br />may be some indirect benefits in adjacent areas through augmentation <br />of stream flow on the eastern slope of the Rockies. Increased withdrawal <br />for irrigation, municipal supply, and industrial use in states downstream <br />might thus be possible. <br />Another regional benefit in the western states would be to agriculture <br />not under irrigation. Additional precipitation, particularly in the winter <br />and spring, would have substantial benefit in the value of increased <br />agricultural yield. Here again, this supply of water would not be depend- <br />able, because of highly variable atmospheric conditions. Although prob- <br />ably no improvement can be realized in the driest years and little if any <br />advantage can be gained in the wettest years, benefits should be obtainable <br />under the more 'lnormal" conditions. In the wheat-growing areas of the <br />Northwest, for example, a unt~.inch increase in precipitation, obtained at. <br />times when most needed, might produce a yield improvement of one to <br />five bushels per acre. However, much western dry farming is in regions <br />relatively unfavorable for artificial cloud seeding, since the mountainous <br />terrain needed to deflect upward the moisture-laden clouds-the orographic <br />influence in other words-is not close at hand. Hence, the prospects for <br />precipitation increase in a locality must be appraised by examination of <br />the conditions in that particular area. <br />In individual watersheds the possible effects of artificial cloud seeding <br />on the supply of water can range from zero to perhaps a 15 per cent <br />increase. Suc.h extremes could be found, respectively, from the aTid or <br />semidesert climates of southern Arizona and New Mexico, to the ridges <br />of the Sierra Nevada, the Cascade l\:lountains, and the Rocky Mountains, <br />where ideal orographic conditions exist. In the planning of water develop- <br />ment and use in the years ahead, consideration of the potentialities of <br />artificial cloud seeding and weather modification in each particular area <br /> <br />25 <br />