Morris tribune., 1888-11-28
THE ARID LAND AREA.
REcLAlMING WASTE REGIONS BY
MEANS OF IRRIGATION.

MEANS OF IRRIGATION.
Agricultural Lands of Colorado Which
May he Made Immensely Productive.
Aztec Canals aud Irrigation Ditchcs.
The Eain Iselt 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 ore actually and
Systematically formed It is my deliber-
ate conviction that were all the water OF
ell the streams covering these plains alb
solutely preserved for domestic and irrt-
eating purposes and applied with the
or Egypt, we could irrigate and make
fruitful every acre of this immense area
Ian area capable of supporting On agri-
cultural population. urban and rural, Of
3, GOO, Geo people, and yet it would be less
than one-haH as densely populated rs
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 8,000,-
0G0 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 8, Doc, 900, not including the directly
dependent urban population. On the
same basis, the great San Luis valley
would sustain q population of 1,000, GOO;
the San Juan country in the southwest
nearly 1000, 900; the Gunnison and the
Lower Grande, ESQ, 900, and the White, the
Yampah and the almost unknown North
west, 1000, 900 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 So, 0G0, 0G0 acres of agricultural lands
in this state which only need the applica-
ton of irr; cation 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
Gi;sns, and great nations that are only
known in tho dim past by the desolation
of mighty cities, tell lis how densely pop
ulated were vast regions in the west in
All almost unknown antiquity. With
these ruins are old canals and irrigation
bitches, and in some of them there is said
to have been used n kind of cement that
is now lost art. These ruins are found
in arid sections where it would have been
impossible for 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 como
up facts that when first considered seem
almost like dream. But it is history,
and let history repeat itself. The public
domain will 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
lay 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 moro evapora-.
ton. That proposition cannot be denied,
although it must be admitted that the
rain does not always fall in the same To-
cGlity where the water was taken up by
evaporation. It 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 100, 600 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 Refreshing 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 q century than anywhere else in
the world, yet there is no evidence of
diminished rainfall"
Professor Sargent, of Harvard college,
says: 1.-The removal of forest from any
region will moi diminish the amount of
rain falling upon it; nor can tho increase
of forest in slightly wooded Or treeless
country increase it's rainfall. The gradual
drying 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 do
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 tho number ere Professors
WILDER, Angbey, Snow, and Ex-Governor
Furnass, of Nebraska ard Kansas. The
observations taken at Fort Lc&venworth
during period of thirty eight years are
said to indicate an annual increase in the
rainfall of 5.21 incEes; thirty years ct
Fort Riley, twenty -four ct the State
Agricultural college, and seventeen years
at the State university, Lawrence, Kan,
are said to give figures showing an in
crease in the rainfall of 3.05 and sos
inches per anrnrl. Tie data is very
valuable, and seems almost indisputable.
But there is still stronger authority,
tho 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 on the rainfall. And SO
while some scientists are doubling the
statement that the rain belt is coming
west, farmers are raising crops. If. in
that section, they can 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
ere now arid regions in the west new
empires are possibilities.--Will C. Ferril
in kansas City Journal.
How Mrs. Shaw whistles.