Wichita eagle., 1888-09-13
TIE ARID LAND AREA.
RECLAlMING WASTE REGIONS BY
MEANS OF IRRIGATION.
Agricultural Lands Of Colorado Which
May ke Made Immensely Productive.
The Rain Belt-Earmers' Testimony.

The Rain Belt-Farmers' Testimony.
Mr.. T. C. Henry. formerly of Kansas,
and now one of the most prominent men
| IN Colorado. who has been instrumental
in building several large canals in the
state in discussing this question. says;
''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 deiber-
ate conviction that were all the water Of
| ali the streams covering these plains ab
solutely preserved for domestic and irri.
eating purposes and applied with tho
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
5000, 900 people, and yet it would be less
than one-half as densely populated as
Belgium or the agricultural sections o.
Francs
''The area east Of the mountains is
practically all Agricultural land, and if
peoplsd as densely as is Belgium. would
contain population Of more than $780,
900 of people. Or If provided with water
for irrigation, skillfully applied, each forty
acres would support family Of five per
sons, aggregating o population of more
than 3,OO0,0 900, not including the directly
dependent urban population. On the
same basis, the great San Luis valley
would sustain population of 1000, 900:
the San Juan country in the southwest
nearly 100000; the Gunnison and the
Lower Grande, 100 600. and the White, the
Ysmpah and the almost unknown North
west, 100000 more. Before the close
of another century there will have beer
elaborated 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 30, 600, 900 acres of agricultural lands
in this state which only need the apphca,
ton 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
dams, and great nations that are only
known in the dim past by the desolation
Of mighty cities, tell US how densely pop
ulated We're vast regions in the west in
IA almost unknown antiquity. With
these ruins are old canals and irrigation
bitches, and in some of them there is said
to have been used kind of cement that
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. How? No one
knows, but from the dim borderland of
that almost hidden antiquity there come
up facts that when first considered seem
almost like q dream. But it is history,
and let history repeat itself. The public
domain will soon be a thing of the past,
and the present must look to the future,
and if this great water questionis grasped
by our statesmen as it should be, it will
lay the foundation for still new and
mighty commonwealth.
Is the rain belt gradually moving west
ward? This is a much disputed question.
lrrigating bitches make more surface
water, and hence there is more evapora
ton. 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
Garnet says: Over 100, 900 square miles
Of almost treeless prairie in Northern
Missouri, Southern Minnesota and parts
OF Illinois and Indiana have been reforesteI
since their settlement, and furnish an eX-
ample of reforesting 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 century than anywhere else in
the world, yet there is no evidence Of
diminished rainfall"
Professor Sargent, of Harvard college,
says: ''The removal Of a forest from any
region will not diminish the amount Of
rain falling upon it; nor can the increase
If forest IN g slightly wooded or treeless
country increase its rainfall. The gradual
drying up Of countries once fertile, within
the history OF the human race, but now
barren and almost unInhabit able 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
oughly 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
Furnass, Of Nebraska and Kansas. The
observations taken al Fort Lesvenworth
during period Of thirty-eight years are
said to indicate On annual increase in the
rainfall Of 5.21 inches; thirty years at
Fort Riley, twenty at the State
Agricultural college, and seventeen years
81 the State university, Lawrence, Kan,
ere said to give figures showing az IN
crease il the rainfall Of 800 and 800
Inches per annnnl The data Is very
valuable, and seems almost indisputable.
But there Is still stronger authority,
the farmers themselves In Western
Kansas and Nebraska and Eastern Col
orado, farmers are now raising crops on
what was formerly known as the Great
American Desert. They claim that there
Is @ great future for that section. and
they raise crops without irrigation, de-
pending solely or the rainfall And so
while some scientists are doubling the
statement that the rain belt Is coming
west, farmers are raising crops Ii. In
that section, they cln raise the cereals
without irrigation. so much the better.
but there are many millions Of acres OF
land that can never be made productive
without irrigation. and let Us have reser-
voirs and great canals, and from what
are now and regions IN the west new
empires are possibui.ies.-WM c. Ferl