The W. C. Austin Project, in the cotton and cash-grain farming area of southwestern Oklahoma, represents on of the first attempts to introduce irrigation of a project type into a subhumid area. Before irrigation, cotton farms averaged about 240 acres and cash-grain farms about 320 acres. This multiple-purpose project was constructed to provide irrigation water, flood control, and a municipal water supply for the city of Altus. Water was delivered to a few acres in 1946, and to the entire project in 1950. Development of the project occurred in a period of favorable farm incomes. Farmers met costs of development largely from income or reserves, without going into debt.