Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-09-28
THE CAPITAL.
SENATOR'S INDUCING IN WARM
PERSONALITIES.
Last of the Sawyer-Sabia Matten-
The Civil Sundry Bill Passed
A Great Project,
'sfRo1AL DISPATCHES TO THE REcoED-UNioNI
DORMANT WEALTH.

The Fabulous Riches the Goverpment
Intends to Develop.
iCofSfSa, 1883. by The California associated Prz5s
WASHINGTON, September 27th.-The san
dry civil appropriation bill, which passed
Congress to-day and only awaits the signs
ture OF the President to become law, con-
tains one item which is perhaps of more
importance to California than any measure
which has ever been presented in Congress.
The item is simply an appropriation of
$1O0, 1000 to defray the expenses of locating
and surveying suitable sites for the location
OF storage reservoirs at the headWaters of
streams west Of the one-hundredth rnerid-
ian, which waters can be used for the pur-
poses of irrigation. The appropriation it.
self is not large, but it commits the Gov
ernment to policy that, if carried out to
conclusion, will lead to an expenditure of
hundreds of millions of dollars.
The expenditure of the appropriation for
preliminary surveys will be made BY Dr.
rector Powell, OF the Geological Survey.
and the 100000 is merely drop in the
bucket, SO far as the total cost of the sur
yeying required is concerned.
THE VAST ARID REGION
Some idea of the benefits to be conferred
upon the agricultural dom ain of the nation
by the establishment OF reservoirs for irri-
eating purposes can be obtained from an
estimate sent to Congress last summer by
Director Powell. He says that the region
in which agriculture depends upon irriga-
tion includes about four-tenths of the
United States, not including Alaska.
The estimated area of the arid region is
about l, ,300,0 900 square miles. Of this about
one-fifth is too rugged or too elevated to
admit of cultivation. There remains about
100000 square miles which need only
water to be productive. At the minimum
price of 81 25 per acre, this land has val
uation of $500, 1000, 600. AT $50 per aere-a
moderate estimate of its value when irri-
gated-it would be worth 81 200 100000.
In 1880 less than one per cent of the ar
able portion of the West had been supplied
with irrigation works, and Director Pow
ell does not believe that with the most elsb-
crate works this can be increased to more
than twenty per cent. Major Powell says.
on the other hand, that an estimate, based
on available data, leads to the anticipation
that when all the larger streams have been
brought under control, and the storage of
water has been carried as far as it may be-
economically, there will be redeemed about
fifteen per cent of the arid region, or about
100000 square miles, the whole compre-
hending an area one-half of that now eulti-
waited in the United States.
BILLIONS OF WEALTH.
AT $50 per acre this would add $780,
900, 900 to the wealth of the nation. Direc-
tor Powell says that the development of
irrigation along the base of the Rocky
mountains is of double Importance because
of its influence on the agriculture of lower
Mississippi. To store up the waters of the
Missouri and its main affluents for the pur-
pose of irrigation, Director Powell saws. is
to diminish the flood of the Mississippi.
The principal source of sediment in the
Mississippi is the Missouri river. and with
the abolition of the Missouri floods the
sedimentary load of the Mississippi would
be diminished and the securing power of
the less-loaded floods from the Ohio and
upper Mississippi would establish for the
lower Mississippi a lower grade and deeper
channel.
BENEFIT TO THE SOUTH.
What benefits such change in the
channel of the great river would confer
upon the Southern States cannot be esti-
mated. The Geological Survey estimates
that for every acre reclaimed to agriculture
another acre will be reclaimed in Louisi-
ana. The delay in the sundry appropria-
ton bill has materially interfered with Di-
rector Powelis plans respecting surveys for
establishment of reserves on the public
domain.
If the appropriation had been made in
time, surveying parties would have been
sent to the headwaters of the Owens. Car
son and Walker rivers in the Sierra Nevada
mountains Of California, ,debouching into the
arid lands of Nevada. From these, SURVEYS
would have been made on the headwaters
of the Platte and Arkansas rivers. 1t is
probable now that the surveys will be be-
gun on the streams in Southern California
and Arizona, where the winter climate is
mild