New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-10-27
COLORADO.
A GIGANTIC IRRIGATION SCHEME.

| GIGANTlC lRRIGAT1ON SCHEME.
THE DENVER IRRIGATION OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
ASKED TO GRANT HALF THE ARID LANDS, MOI
MINERAL WEST or THE GOTH MERIDIAN. FOR
| THE CONSTRUCTION or RRIGATISG cASns-rHE
SCHEME EXPECTED To BE HEARTILY SUPPORTED
BY THE TERRITORIES AND WESTERN sTA1Es-
COST or THE CANALS ESTIMATED AT FIVE DOL
| LARS AN ACRE.
| IRON AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT oP THE rRmuSE.l
GREELEY, Col, Oct. III has long been con
sidered highly desirable the part OF several gentlemen
that Colorado should become State, and when Con-
gress refused 10 admit her for OF sufficient popua-
tion. the Legislature induced. two years ago last
Winter, to create Board OF Immigration, that the re-
quired number of people might he obtained 1t IA I'M
derstoOd that must have population or something
like 15O.OO0-eqlml to single Congressional DISTRICT
The Board being created. and appfo-
Ration Of 5000 made. vast number OF
pamphlets and documents were out while
the newspaper and many correspondents did great
deal Of work The result has been that population
has increased 10 100000 gain OF 20OsO 10000
year, equal to that which Kansas and Nebraska have
been receiving every month. This slow progress arises
from the necessity for irrigation the expense OF
making canals Ia great that men OF ordinary means
wholly unequal to the task aud the only way such
canals be that they be undertaken by
colonies. The true plan. manfcstly. was 10 organize
colonies but this not encouraged sufficiently to in
duce the attempt and AZ the farmers rs they
did In great numbers sometimes trains OF 20 and 50
wagons. up the Arkansas and Platte Valleys,
they how useless IL to stay
and the larger part returned. Some. however,
bought farms at secondhand, and some being poor
that 1t made little difference where they were scattered
inyariOus directions. 1t il to be understood that
half OF the land facing the Rocky Mountains, and which
capable OF being irrigated, IL within various railroad
and Spanish grants, and the other haf belongs to the
Government. Why the railroads made attempts TO
presumed they preferred wait for the people under
take the work. This however, the people refused do
except q scale limited and with such apparent
speculative tendencies that few inducements were
offered TO immigrants
COMPOSITION THE CONVENTION
Last Spring movement was inaugurated In Denver
have the matter referred to Congress- that help might
be obtained from the government for Watering those
lands. aud Convention assembled according call, has
Just closed in the city named Delegates present
from Kansas Nebraska, Wyoming. New-MeXioO and
Utah. and letters received from the Governors OF
Montana and Nevada The necessity for Irrigation the
inability OF private enterprise make canals.
points upon which all agreed, and a memorial
adopted presented Congress, asking half OF
the arid lands OF the Goth meridian the proceeds
TO be the especial purpose watering the lands
and further that this be refused, then IL is respect
fully asked that Congress itself would take measures to
make the land habitiblc All the States and Terri
tories west OF the Missouri are expected to
present united front in asking for the land
grant, aud iu coming before Congress next Winter,
1t will be important than has been pre-
senod for several years, since IL is proposition that
the Government shall surrender region nearly large
as all the Northern States These lands certainly
worthless their present condition. and unless they
shall watered there be prospect Of it, they can
not sold cent acre, not for speculation.
Dry the dyes dust reeess and bouadles', they are
traversed with precipitation and remembered with awe.
As ranges, they have value in the neighbor
hood OF streams, but further away eternal solitude
regns. IL is only ia the neghborhood Of the mountains
that irrigation is much pracced. and the canal which
extends furthes out In the plains reaches So miles,
watering the land below Greeley. II ia proposed by
Government aid construct canals which shall water
millions Of acres, and vast schemes OF improvement
are proposed but in most cases without practical
knowledge.
Considerable discussion In the Convention as TO
the amount of land that watered in Colorado. and
upon the cost per acre. All the water that can be
utilized descends from the snowy range, which may
cover an area miles WIDE and 1t would seem evident
that if the whole OF the melted snow water should find
its way into the streams country OF no larger extent
can be watered leaving region at least $50 miles VIDE
in the aggregate wholly unprogided for.
THE Cosr OF IRRIGATION.
The cost OF getting water upon the upper benches
il now definitely ascertaiued TO be In the neghOorhood
Of 81 an acre. Bishop Musser Of Utah said that their
lands had been watered cost ranging from 81 to $40,
sl2 and enc To get out water on land immedi-
ately adjoining streams and for few is inexpensive,
but when large tracts to be watered costly canals
are required and the case is entirely different.
Besides, make canals is one thing; to make
canals which carry water enough to supply
the land under them is quite another
thing; and there are to-day large tracts lying
under water called for which the canals furnish
supply gnifcant as to be worse than worthless
Ii IL oleably certain that to build the canals proposed.
by Government aid requiring heavy banks or less
rock ana timber work for aqueducts, and expensive
dams and head gates and also large reservoirs to hold
sufficient supplies for the mouths following the disap-
pearance or cannot cost less than s. an acre In
this case 81 rs asked for is onya beginning
Even II the whole OF the land granted, the re-
mander Of the cost must be raised by assessments or by
general taxation.
There thing however, which Congress will need
to look after In the whole memorial nothing Is said to
convey the idea that the railroads owning large bodies
Of land contribute anything whatever; ana n0w'
II the grant Of land should be obtained aud the canals
he built Government Will have furnished the means for
the railroad lands for nothing and as they will have
increased in value say average Of s. an acre they
can get this price. The railroads ought, according to
some to have represented at this Convention but
they were not that u.s. they not parties proposing
70 offer terms and inducements II represented was
great mistake It is urged by advocates OF the move
ment not to prepared memorial for this Also since
they own oneha of all the land, the same as the GOV
ernment which will be watered within the next ten
wears 1t is clear that IL Government gives half the
land that the whole may be watered, the railroads
sboud do the same One thing more. II was stated In
the Convention though 1t Is barely possible the speaker
was misunderstood that much as 100000 acres OF
Government land been entered this season in the
Denver Land Office, which is ten times more than all
the land I'm cultivation in Colorado II this is the case,
~, IN ohAact Of rreat .inlerest find out how