Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1871-06-24

New Ham ltshlfc- lhAE M'S'ANs
soll, mountainous, rugged, rocky
with a strong, gFanilio soil, Nhlel
does not lend itself easlly 10 tiliags
bat which is Verp natural 10 grass
Aud, 81 many are tho horses re
auiral i6r the nso OF It's many sun
/ ner visitors, that hay is alway
worth SEQ per ton, and in Winter
following dry Summers aud AZ
tums like tho last, considerably
more. Itisa country OF abua7ss'n
springs and rills, and dancing
laughing streams which fall 81
rapidly as TO mako Irrigation NJ
Obvious aud profitable resort. an
quite sure that ten thousand acre
I 0f grass land in that county Nigh
DO amply Irrigated, by dams ant
reseryolrs and shallow ditehes, n
an average cost Of $50 per acre, an'
with an average increase IN iheil
annual product Of one ton OF soo1
! hay pcr acre, worth at least slO ~
| Il Stands IN the field ready for tbs
soylhe Of tho mower. Here would
DO fifty per cent, annual return foI
the Investment; and its value 4
| likely 10 increase rather thah di'
mlnish. And yet, / doubt that
there arc one hundred acres of that
county irrigated and what wonder,
since the farmers of tho older and
richer counties south Of IL, whose
fields have been cultivated from
ono 10 two centuries, have not yet
realized the thriftlcssncss and waste
OF letting rills and brooks dance
idly by and through the crops that
are perishing from thirst? While
tho rich valleys of the Connecticut
and Kcnnebec, which have for gen.
erations been titled by farmers cx.
ceptionably wealthy and intelligent,
exhibit not I'm acre irrigated to
every thousand left 10 depend for
water on the caprice of tho often
scorching, withoring skies, what
can we reasonably expect of newer,
ruder, poorer communities ?
If Irrigation were a novelty, Con,
scrvatism might shake its head
gravcly, doubtingly, threat, with
out exposing its emptiness OF brains.
But in fact the artificial application
of water. 10 secure and increase pro-
duction is older than the plow-
older than authentic History. Ma
ture gave the example and tho
broadcast possible hint in tho valley
of tho lower Nile Italy borrowed
and improved upon tho suggestion
in tho early morn of Chrisendom, if
not earlier; and the Spaniards
brought tho art to this country be-
fore tho Pilgrims built their huts
around Plymouth Rock. How came
it that lessons so striking and SO
palpablo can have SO long been de-
fined by a people 30 alert and eager
for profit as ours?
| believe tho time isht hand when
not only will streams be generally
utilized to moisten adjacent fields,
and thus largely incrcuse their pro
duct, but when every thirsty, arid
plain will have its bounteods well
with windmill erected over it to
pump it's contents automatically, at
i;t,Ia cost into n reservoir where;
aiter being warmed by the sun, and
perhaps fertiliacd, they will be
drawn away III gentle rills to irri-
gate acre after acre On overy side.
| believe that even Texas could
richly afford to dig and equip n
thousand such wells this Summer,
and many thousands in tho course
of tho next dozen years. Every
plain or intcrvale that slopes gently;
impcrceptibly to the stream which
divides or bounds it, should have
its well at the highest corner, with
q spacious, shallow Reservoir by its
side and bitches leading thence to
cvcry point whence graviation
would carry the water gently over
and through the soil Of nearly or
quite all its area. Even though
that water should shrink until it
utterly failed in seasons Of sevcrcst
drouth, the soil would still respond
to tho ffeshcning influence Of the
moisture with which it had been
charged and saturated during the
fcrvid weeks and months required
to dry up its deeper sources. Mean
time, the crop would be perfected,
and the drouth, when 1t did at last
fasten on tho irrigated plain, would |
perforce exhaust itself on the sea-
son of Natures annual stcrility and
wintry repose. 'Ha.
In the great Future which Scichce
and Human energy are preparing,
Artesian wells, bored to depths of a
thousand to fifteen hundred feet,
will be sunk on every arid plain,
and near the head of every capacious
valley wherein water is deficient:
10 enable the strong currents that
flow from ajacent mountain or ell
ovated plateau between diverse stra-
Ia to rivers and seas to rise by
to tho surface and fruit
fully ovcrspread hundreds of acres,
iustead of uselessly coursing in
darkness beneath. These wells,
being costly, will long be compar-
,tively rare; but th6eStaked Plains"
Of Texas and New Mexico, with the |
wide m;snamed "Dcsert" at either
foot of the Rocky Mountains, will |
vet be transformed into the vordu-
rous, plenteous feeding ground of
cattle and sheep by
irrigation, whereto Artesian wells
will largely contribute one Of them |
subservihg the end Of many ordi-
nary wells, while drawing water
from sources beyond the reach Of
any or all Of them.
Agriculture, as IL steadily rises
from the low levei Of barbarism to
the commanding altitude Of a true
becomes a moro and
-. ,Ilo,.fua caflfnd The rude