Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-04-07
ten fifty and sixty bushels.

often fifty and sixty bushels.
hsve seen seventy seven bushels of
oats cut on an acre of irrigated land, and
myself measured 500 bushels of wheat
cut from ten-scre field in Colorado,
near Boulder. Wild hay when well IT.
rigatsd will cut two tons per acre, and
alfalfi four to six tons. ALI kinds of
berries, such as strawberries, rsspberries,
blsokberries, gooseberries, currsnts and
such fruits, grow politically under irri-
sation and yield NJ arly double crop.
From $500 to $500 is often taken from an
acre for small fruits.
Ditching machines have been made for
digging irrigating canals, but never saw
one that worked satisfactorily. The best
ditching machine is an Irishman and q
wheelbarrow or plow aHd scraper. A
ditch, ten feet wide and two
or three feet deep can nordinarlly
be made at . cost of
$1,000 per mile. The income from the
water in such ditcn in good locality is
about "a per cent. per annum on the cost
Of making. So it will be seen ditching is
profitable. The little companies first
formed in Colorado had great difficulty in
placing their stock, but they throve
amazingly, and soon men Of capital began
to look into the matter. The Colorado
Loan and Trust Company was formed by
Mr. T, C. Henry for the purpose
of irrigating lands and soon
large bitches were under way.
This company now controls many
bitches and irrigates nearly l,o0e 200
acres OF land. There are many other
companies, and believe all are making
money. From Colorado the irrigation
system spread into Wyoming, and there
are now more than 100 irrigsting bitches
in this TERRITORY. kMany of them are
owned by Colorado capitalists, which
shows tina. they are going to extend their
bitches as rapidly as possible, not only
in their own stare, but IN the adjoining
states and territories.
That was curious message sent by the
Governor Of Nebraska to the Governor Of
Colorado, protesting against taking any
more water from the South Platte River
in Colorado because 1t WAS drying up the
Platte RIVER in Nebrssks. It WAS the
first message Of the kind, l think, ever
sent in the west, but II will not be the last
one. It shows that the waters in the
great rivers will one day be IN contest
and their distribution on the lands along
their banks become q subject of inter-
state legislation. The day will come
when from irrigation the volume of water
in the great Missouri and Mississippi
will be materially decreased and when
one msy at certain seasons of the year
cross over dry shod at the mouth of
streams where steamers now & BAT, as st
the mouth of the Yellowstone in Mon
tana.
Nor will the system of irrigation be
confined to the west, for it will spread
eastward and before many years be
brought into general use. When think
of my old fathers farm in Pennsylvania,
and our dread of drouth, 1t makes me
half angry at our stupidity. Through
this farm ran 8 fine stream Of water, and
we saw the crops die for want of water
on its very banks. Had we had sense
enough to put 8 dam in the creek
at the top OF the farm,
we could have thrown out its
waters on the land and detied the drouth.
But no one thought Of il, or rather we
did not know anything about irrigation.
Such thing could not occur there again
with me as the loss of the crop for want
Of water, and l doubt II it will DE long
until even the dullest of our farmers come
to understand the advantages of irrigation
and how to distribute water from adjacent
streams upon their lands.
JAMES S. BRIsBIS.
Fort Mckinney, Wy. T., January %,
1888