Smyrna times., 1888-11-07
THE ARID LAND AREA.
REcLAlMlNG WASTE REGIONS BY
MEANS OF IRRIGATION.

Agricultural Lands of Colorado which
May BE Made Immensely Productive.
Atzec Canals and Irrigation bitches.
The Rain Belt-Farmers' Testimony.
Mr.. T. C. Henry, formerly of Kansas
and now one of the mast prominent men
In Colorado, who has been instrumental
IN building several large canals in the
state, in discussing this question. saws:
''Of the 10000 square miles of the terri
tory In this state east of the foothills less
than 5000 square miles are actually and
systematically formed. It is my deliber-
ate conviction that were all the water of
all the streams covering these plains ab-
solutely preserved for domestic and irri
gazing purposes and applied with the
skill and economy displayed even in India
or Egypt, we could irrigate and make
fruitful every acre of this immense area
AN area capable of supporting an agri-
cultural population, urban and rural. of
5,OOO,OOO people, and yet it would be less
than one-half as densely populated as
Belgium or the agricultural sections of
France
"The area east of the mountains is
practically all agricultural land, and if
peopled as densely as is Belgium, would
contain population of more than S,OO0.-
OOO OF people. Or if provided with water
Tor irrigation, skillfully applied, each forty
acres would support family of five per-
sons, aggregating a population of more
than !, 5,OOO,OOO, not including the directly
dependent urban population. On the
same basis, the great San Luis valley
would sustain population of 1000, 900;
=.
nearly 100000; the Gunnison and the
Lower Grande, 100, 900, and the White, the
fampah and the almost unknown North
west, 100000 more. Before the close
OF another century there will have been
elaborated a system of agriculture sur
passing that wonderful civilization which
Moorish power planted in the irrigated
valleys OF Spain ten centuries ago, main
tanning the millions then populating our
grand commonwealth. There are not less
than 10000, 600 acres of agricultural lands
In this state which only need the appica-
tion Of irrigation to be made as valuable
and productiveas any already cultivated"
Carry these same predictions into west
ern Nebraska and Kansas, into Wyoming
and New Mexico, Idaho, Utah and
throughout the west, by utilizing the
waste waters saved in reservoirs, and the
future greatness of the west is almost in
conceivable. These things are possible.
The ruins of the AZtecs and Pueblo In
dians. and great nations that are only
known III the dim past by the desolatiOn
of mighty cities, tell us how densely pop
ulated were vast regions in the west in
an almost unknown antiquity. With
these ruins are old canals and irrigation
bitches, and in some Of them there is said
10 1,ar eoI liz ..f 41,oA
is now lost art. These ruins are found
in arid sections where it would have been
impossible for a great population and
cities to have thrived without vast irri-
cation schemes. These great nations
have been swept away. How2 No one
knows, but from the dim bOrderland Of
that almost hidden antiquity there come
up facts that when first considered seem
almost like dream. But it is history,
and let history repeat itself. The public
domain viii soon be thing of the past,
and the present must look to the future,
and if this great water question: is grasped
by our statesmen as it should be, it will
Law the foundation for still new and
mighty commonwealth.
Is the rain belt gradually moving west
ward2 This is a much disputed question.
Irrigating bitches make more surface
water, and hence there is more evapora-
tion. That proposition cannot be denied,
although it must be admitted that the
rain does not always fall in the same To-
cality where the water was taken up by
evaporation. 1t is also claimed by some
that tree planting does not materially in
crease the rainfall.
In the January number Of Science, Henry
Garnett says: lover 100, 900 square miles
{ - ArooIooo v,rofrfa IN Mort norn
Missouri, Southern Minnesota and parts
of Illinois and Indiana have been reforested
since their settlement, and furnish an ex-
ample of refcresting unequaled elsewhere
upon the face Of the globe, and yet the
rainfall has not increased. On the other
hand. there have been more acres OF land
denuded Of forest in the United States
within a century than anywhere else IN
the world, yet there is no evidence OF
diminished rainfall"
Professor Sargent, Of Harvard college,
saws: s6The removal Of q forest from any
reSiou will not diminish the amount Of
rain falling upon it; nor can the increase
Of forest in a slightly wooded OF treeless
country increase its rainfall. The gradual
driving up Of countries once fertile, within
the history Of the human race, but now
barren and almost uninhabitable, must
be traced to gradual geological changes:
| Of course entirely beyond the reach OF
human control, and not to the mere de-
structiOn Of the forest.
But there are able men who have thor
ongblv studied the question and who state
that the rain belt Is surely coming west
ward. Among the number are Professors
WILDER. Angbey, Snow, and Ex-Governor
Fnrnaee. Of Nebraska and Kansas. The
obaervafions taken at Fort Leavenworth
/ durinr a period Of thirty-eight years are
said ~ Indicate an annual increase In the
rainfall Of 5.21 inches; thirty years at
/ Fort Riley. twenty-four at the state
! Agricultural college, and seventeen years
~ tbe State university, Lawrence, Kan,
arc said to give figures showing an in
craaeo IN the rainfall Of 800 and 5.Oo
incboa per annnm. The data Is very
valuable. and seems almost indisputaDsi.e.
But there Is stil a stronger autnority,
the farmers themselves. In western
Kansas and Nebraska and Eastern Coi-
orado. farmers are now raising crops On
what was formerly known as sne uteao
American Desert. They claim tnae lhoI9 @
Is a great future for that section, nIu
they raise crops without lrriga1ion' ue-
pending solely on the rainfall; ana ~
whiie somo scientists are doubling the
statenont that the rain belt Is coming
,1sst farmers are raising crops. II, IN
fbat section. they can raise the cereals
without irrigation, 30 much the Detter.
bnt there are many millions Of acres q
iond fhat can never be made productive
,~ftbout irrigation. and let us have rescr-
~,1srr and great canals, and from Wnae
ara now arid regions in the ives. Low
-......i~sn ara uosaibili lies. WiA Y. te1rlA
q. NDMann Iitv journal.