Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-06-09
Irrigation For Arizona.


 Major Powell's report in favor of making an effort to reclaim by irriga- ton vast districts of the arid lands of the west, and the Symes bill in the House looking to the same end, will bring up for consideration one of the most interesting economic questions that has been before the country for a long time. The object of Symes bill is to establish a system of reservoirs | from which water may be supplied to [ lands that are now barren and useless 1 through lack of moisture. Major 1 Powell thinks 5OOOO,00O acres of land | could be reclaimed by the system of irrigation proposed by the Symes bill. It is fact not generally realized that there are vast bodies of very rich land in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Ari- zona and Texas, which is now utterly useless, but which could be made as the Mississippi valley if some system of irrigation could be applied In Southern Arizona there are great bodies of level land called mesas (derived from the Spanish mesa, table, and meaning table land) where the soil is from five to twenty feet deep and of the richest sandy loam, but where nothing grows except cactus and few varieties of hard stunted shrubs In many places one can find two or three hundred thousand acres in one of these mesas with not cultivated spot on the entire body, owing to the absence of water The rainfall Is heavy enough, coming on in both sum- mer and winter, but the earth is so porous that thewater is absorbed at once. Great floods of water that may come from sudden storm will sink l into the earth i'll a few hours at furthest and leave the surface entirely dry. Rivers that are full of water one day have dry beds the next. The Gila river of Arizona drains almost as much watershed at the Potomac and yet in the dry season in shrinks to the dimen- sions of brook that may be cleared in at single leap. The question, there fore, is not one of finding water, but of husbanding 1t, of storing and utilizing it. There Is but one way in which this can be dOne-that is, to construct vast reservoirs. Nature has provided the principal walls and foundations for these in the deep mountain canyons that every where open out into these vast fertile plains. All that is need ful is that dams shall be constructed across these canyons. The streams that rush down the mountain sides in case of rainfall will soon fill them and thus millions and millions of gallons of water can be saved to be let out as it may be needed through irrigating
 canals. The problem to be solved so
 far as Arizona is concerned is a very ; simple one. The only thing needed is capital to build the reservoirs. Ii : would appear to be as proper for the government to appropriate money to save the arid but naturally rich lands of Arizona as to save the lands along the Mississippi from overflow SucI appropriation would clearly come un der the head of internal improvements If irrigation could be applied to the southern part of Arizona there would be immediately seen there one of tht
 most beautiful and prosperous regi0hs in the world. The resources of th' soil are illimitable, the winters mos delightful, and the appearance of th' country most novel and picturesque.