The Phoenix herald., 1879-08-02
THE WATER BITCHES.

1AE NAtCl 4utSIlOu Is OI G4lai
 portance to the filler of the soil, 6:
 to tho miner, in this Territory The
 first reason has demonstrated to all
 classes in this valley, that some def
 nite and economical system, must be
 adopted here, in order that all of the
 sTater of Salt River may be utilized,
 wholly, and to the best advanta ge.
 3hat a sufficiency of water is g prirle
 necessity to successful agricp Lure
 throughout this valley is certain.
 That the supply of water for this val
 ley, is, to a certain extent limited, is
 -alse obvious to the ordinarily lntelIi-
 gent man. Nearly all of the water of Salt River, that runs upon the sur
 face, or that does not sink away in
 The sand, has been taken from the
 river during the past season and util-
 ized with more or less economy in
 irrigating the various productions of
 the valley; and even this year, some
 have not been well supplied, at all
 times. Now probably not one-tenth
 part of the arrable land in the valley
 was under cultivation this year, and
 yet some of us say, there was not
 sufficient quantity of water for what
 land there was cultivated. If this is
 50, then it is not question. of land
 here, but rather question of water,
 win settlers. Alter conversing with
 numerous farmers upon the subject
 of irrigation and the present system
 of ditchcs, and different modes of dis
 fributing the water, it becomes apar-
 entfhat there is someth ng radically
 wrong, in the present (we will not say system) lack of any well directed system of ditches or we'll ordered management of the water. While in some places the farmers have been suffering for water for their crops, in other localities water in large quan- titles, has been permitted to run to | waste in the corners of the fields, and | in some eases, even upon the public | highways, and waste land not under | cultivation. In this way while the water has been permitted to flow, where its presence was an actual in jury, some farmers fields has suffer ed great loss for the want of it. To our mind, there is no doubt, but that there is an abundance of water to be had from Salt River, not only to sup. ply the present acreage of cultivated land, but probably twice the amount at present under cultivation. We do not wish, nor intend to cast any re- factions upon any man or lot of men, nor upon Board of Directors, of any of the Canal Companies. We believe that if they have not always acted wisely, that they have done what they believed to be for the best , and as we'll as any meH could be ex- pected to do with the light and , knowledge they had of the subject. ' We have now been raising our crops here by irrigation, for eleven years. Some of the old farmers are yet with i ls- We were all, or nearly all of us, I entirely ignorant of the first princi- . ,les of irrigation. when we commenc- , d here. We have learned a great i, lcal in our eleven years experience, put we have a great deal yet to learn, before we shall be able to completely ' utilize the water of Salt River, and nake it irrigate we'll the utmost pos ible number of acres, of this rich if supplied with water) fertile land | f we propose to go ahead, and in f rease in population, and improve our h arms and grow with the growth of q he Territory, this is what we must h To. We have no more space to de q ote to the subject in this number, V ut we propose to pursue il hereafter Il nd hope to be able to give some f, ractical ideas upon the subject V