The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-09-07
THE ARID LAND AREA.
REcLAIMlNo WASTE REGIONS BY
MEANS OF IRRIGATION.
Agricultural Lands of Colorado Which
May Bo Made Immensely Productive.
The Rain Bcit--Farmers' Testimony.

May Bo Made Immensely Productive.
Atzec Canals and Irrigation Ditches.
The Rain Bcit-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 40, 900 square miles of the terri
tory In this state east of the foothills less
than 1900 square miles are actually and
systematically formed 1t is my deliber-
ate conviction that were all the water of
all the streams covering these plains alb
solutely preserved for domestic and irri-
eating 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
100000 people, and yet 1t 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,O00,
900 of people Or If provided with water
for irrigation, skillfully applied, each forty
acres would support family of five per-
sons, aggregating a population of more
than 100000 not including the directly
dependent urban population. On the
same basis, the great San Luis valley
would sustain population of 100000;
the San Juan country in tho southwest
nearly 100000; the Gunnison and tho
Lower Grande, 750 900, and the White, the
Yampah and the almost unknown North
west, 100000 more. Before the close
of another century there will have been
elaborated q 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, ,000, ,0e0 acres of agricultural lands
In this state which only need the applica-
ton of irrigation to be made as valuable
and productiveas as any already cultivated"
Garry 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 in 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
to have been used kind Of cement that
is now a 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. Howl 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 1t 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 question Is grasped
| by our statesmen as it should be, 1t will
lay the foundation for still new and
mighty commonwealth.
Is the rain belt gradually moving west
ward2 This is 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: cover 100000 square miles
of almost treeless prairie in Northern
Missouri, Southern Minnesota and parts
of Illinois and Indiana have been reforested
since their settlement, and furnish an ex-
ample of reforesting unequaled elsewhere
| tba faca pf tha frloha and tha
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 II
the world, yet there is no evidence of Q
diminished rainfall"
Professor Sargent, of Harvard college
says: 1.-THE removal of forest from any
region will not diminish the amount o.
rain falling upon it; nor can the increas,
Of forest in slightly wooded or treeless
country increase Its rainfall. The gradua
drying up of countries once fertile, within
the history of the human race, but nov
barren and almost uninhabitable, mus
be traced to gradual geological changes
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 stat
that the rain belt is surely coming west
ward. Among the number are Professor
WILDER, Angbey, Snow, and ex-Governo
Furnass, of Nebraska and Kansas. TIL
observations taken at Fort Leavenwort
during period of thirty eight years ar
said to indicate an annual increase In th
rainfall of 5.21 inches; thirty years o
Fort Riley, twentyfour at the Stat
Agricultural college, and seventeen yeaI
at the State university, Lawrence, Kan
are said DO give figures showing an IL
crease In the rainfall of 800 and &c
inches per annnm. The data is ver
valuable, and seems almost indisputable
But there Is still stronger authorit,
the farmers themselves. In WesteI
Kansas and Nebraska and Eastern Co
orado, farmers are now raising crops {
; what was formerly known as the Gre
American Desert. They claim that the
. ia a great future for that section, al
they raise crops without irrigation, d
, pending solely on the rainfall. And
| while some scientists are doubling Il
statement that the rain belt Is comii
| west, farmers are raising crops. If.
, that section, they can raise the cerea
without irrigation, 30 much the bette
but there are many millions Of acres
land that can never be made producti
. without irrigation, and let us have resC
a voirs and great canals, and from VIII
are now arid regions in the west ne
!, empires are possibilities. G. Fer
In Kansas City Journal.