Arizona weekly citizen., 1888-03-10
A NEW SOURCE OF WEALTH,
Irrigation in the west-How the Great Dftche. arc Made and Operated and the Wonderful Results Of Irrigation,

The is a ne v source of wealth growips up m our coantrY, almost unobserveo
 but colossal n it's nature aud extent.
 mean the owning of water ID the streams
 and rivers. Formerly only the land was | considered valuable. but DOW ID many parts of the country the ownersh.p oi
 land without water Is of httl account | IL one man owps the land and another the water, the man who owns the water
 has the best ot It and hes the other iel- low st his mercy. The great system oi irrigstiug Ian Is ID dry sections for crops
 is as yet in It's infancy, but wherever
 tried 1t has done we'll and irrigetine
 ditches have yielded large return to to the investors in them.
 Most of the largest ditobes are in Col
 orsdo, where 100000 acres of land are
 subject 10 irrigation. Of this vast body
 less than 500, ,0OO acres have been irrigst- ed, leaving ?, zoo 00 to be vstered ye . The caaals Iu ,urse of construction will
 water about l,200.0O0 of the 2.5O0.OOO acres. This Is enornous when we con-
 sider that tb. whole system of irrigation h-s grown up almost within the past five
 years. Ire in Luis Park Canal. wa
 tering f00, ,0O0 nc-es; State Land Canal,
 
 acres, snd Del Norte sni Suguache
 Cansl, lt0,0OO acres, msy be mentioned
 ss smopg the most successful Colorado
 dltches. These three canals cover l00.-
 0O0 acres of Government land, POO 0O0
 acres of psIensed land and l50,000 screr
 of State land. They wlll furnish homes
 for between BOO and 4,OOO farmers. The
 water for the canals Is taken from the
 Rio Grsnde river, near the town of Del
 Norte. The largest canal is l20 feet
 vide 6. its head and gradually nRrrows
 down to F feet. Iss depth varies from
 2 10 6 feet. It has. when full, a csps- city for watering 100000 acres of land.
 How do they make IrrigstIDg csnsls2
 Easily enooRh and quite rapi, ly. First
 The construction of Ihe main canal. The
 water IS taken frUm a river or creek. the supply beng regulated by a head gate The canal may be ten. twenty or fifty feet wide tnd one, five or ten feet deep, according to the volume of water desIred. Generally the cansls are wide and shallov like a creek. Indeed they are merely artificial creeks, and when Rrass-grown and planted with trees along their bsnks, are hard to tell from their natural streams. A favorable place for tsppiT z the river or creek hay Ing been found. the cansl is carried forward to the high grounds IL IS generally gwen about half the fall of the river or creek, go 1t soon reaches an elevation far above the "stural stream and has the lands between | it and the stream below it's waters. Al intervals .s neeC ed small canals Ire taken | out and carried to the farms. Each la | teral has 6 heHisste and measure for | the water. The iaiecsls are bniit so as to | cover the greatest number of farms. At | distances sublsterals are taken | out from the main latersls and these | sdblatersls. too. have hesdgstes sud | vster measures. The sublaterBls are used | by individual farmers. If before plough ing time there has been rsin enough to | soften the ground the farmer does not | resort to his ditch. but it the season is fry he opens his hesdgste and ssturates the Rrnund, The seeding is then done. Ten acres IS Rbolt the allowance of land that can be irrigated in one day per man. Iless water IS very plentiful farmers gre limited to eighty acres each to be ir- 'igsted in one season but thIs does not nclude grass lands.
 After the crop comes up they are irri- lated or simply flooded. The quantity Of Eater put on IS about equal to wha, Fould fall in three days steady rain. V hen t5e crop IS half grown 1t is Irriga- ed sgain. Two ir-igstions are considered nOu2h for a crop n 6 season unless the Festher is very hot aud dry, and then hree irrigsti ms may be pot oD. IL will bus ba seen that eyerS farmer holds iu | Iis own hsnda the prsns of making TOD when he hes irrigatipg dltches.
 Root crops can tlTAys be kept moist nd require i've or ten times as much Ester as cereals. The expense of irriQs- ion, Ehen compared with the benefits erived, IS very slight. Irrigation aboni | oubies crops, and the cost of the water , nevar over S2 per sere and often g. ov as 60 cents per soTe per annum. Forty nd fifty busheis 3f wheat per acre are [ tten raised nnder irrigation. Potatoes requPntlv grow 10 five pounds and yield | 5O to 5OO bushels per acre. Other root ] rops yield equally well, and barley will ield forty bushels per acre and oat. , ften fifty and siIty bushels I h4ve seen , evenly seven bushels Of oats cut on ar 7 rre irrigated land, and myself measured OO bnshals of wheat cut from s 10-scre cid iu Colorado, near Bovlder Wild 2 sy, when well irrigated, will cut two |, ,ns per acre. and slfslfs four to six ,ns. All kinds of berries, such ss straw srries, rsspberries, blsckbsrries, goose S erri-s entrants end sush fruits, grow i politically under irrigation and yield a early double crop. From $500 to S400 c often taken from an scre of smsl. ,uits. y Q1tching mschines have been msdt a IT 6gging irrigsting cansls. but never [, " one that worked satisfactorily. Tn. n est dltchin2 machine is an Irishmab a 1d wheeloarrov or 8 plough aud @ C aoer. A diich ten feet wide and tv O s' Ibree feet deep, can ordinarily be
 sde st cost of sl,OOO per mIIe, he income from tbe water in such Itch m n good locslIty Is is about 24 er Cent per annum on the coet of mhk- g g. So 1t will be teen that di,chinR is c 'ohtable The little companies frs rmed ID Oolorsdc, had great difficulty | A
 placing thelr stock, but they thrOvr n nszinRly, snd sov1 men of capital be- ID to look into the matter. The Colo l ., do Loan and Trust Company was = rmed by I. 0. Henry for the purpost
 lrrigating lsnds, and soon large irrI- ,, lung ditches were under way. This | ~ mpany now controls many ditches ana figstes nearly one million acres of h' nd. There are many other companies, d believe they sre all making money. n -om Colorado the irrigation system tt read into Wyoming and there are now us ore thsn one hundred irriRating ditches VI
 th's territory. Many of them are Tned by Colorado capitslists, who are pC ing to extend their ditches as rapidly gl possible, not only in their own state. fe t ID the adioiuIns states and terri.o- nc e.
 That WAS curious message sent b, to ,vernor of Nebraska to the Governor fo Colorado. protesting against takins ha ' more water from the South Platte wi fer ID Colorado, becsuse 1t Was drying he
 the Platte river in Nebraska. 1t was fir, 3 first messsga of She kind. I think. te- er sent ID the West, but it will not be b. } last one. IL shows that the waters O, CT , grest rivers will one day be ID con- | and IL cir distribution,on the lands
 ng their banks become a subject of erstste Iegislstion. The day will ne. when from irrigation the at volume of water in the great Mis- Iri and Mississippi will be materisll, Lu 'ressed. and when one, st certsin sea- for IS of the year, may pass over dry coi d st the mouth of streams where csI a aN k. | 10