, 1889-02-20
"A CHAPTER ON WATER.

Territorial Engineer Mead to
Governor Moonlight: The report
is a valuable document, and if
distributed broadcast would at
tract further attention to Wyo-
ming. In it matters of which but
little has heretofore been known,
are treated in clear, terse, compact
style without exaggeration. The
facts were CLEANED from practical
experience.
The soil, wherever examined,
is fertile, and wherever irrigated
becomes exceptionally productive.
Grasses and the harder grains
and vegetables do well in all parts
of the territory, but in some local
tiles the elevation is too great to
grow corn and some kinds of e
etables. The eastern and north
ern portions of the territory are
able to produce nearly all kinds
of fruits and vegetables grown in
temperate regions, the lower ele-
walton of the northern part $500
feet at Sheridan) compensating
for the difference in latitude.
A distinctive feature of Wyo-
ming's irrigation is that it out
strips all the states and territories
of the arid region in the number
of its streams available for irriga-
ton. The valleys bordering most
streams are narrow, ranging in
width from one to five miles.
The uplands between these val
leys are too high to be watered
and must remain for grazing
land. This contiguity of large
tracts of grazing land to that de-
voted to farming, affording as it
does free summer pasturage for
the farmers stock, is q material
advantage, and is destined to in
crease the profits of the farmer
and greatly increase the value of
the irrigated lands.
The counties of Laramie and
Albany furnish the best examples
of ditch building, the largest and
best constructed bitches being
found here. The irrigation works
of those two counties also nearly
utilize the water of their streams,
on a majority of which the aggre-
gate ~capacityo of the bitches average
discharge of the streams during
the irrigating season, and the
forther extension of the irrigating
territory a only be accomplished
through the construction of reser-
voirs to store up the surplus
w~atertof the spring floods. The
fertility of these lands and their
nearness to a market for their
products makes it extremely de-
sirable that such reservoirs should
be built, but their cost puts the
work out of the field of individual
effort.
In nearly every part of the ter
ritory visited, there are favorable
locations for the investment of
capital in the construction of irri-
eating works of too great magni-
tude for purchasers to attempt.
These will no doubt be utilized in
the near future. 1t will be e
however, in the statistics given
further on in this report, hat if
the land in this territory now I'M
der bitches and susceptible of be-
ing irrigated we're being cultivat-
ed, Wyoming would take rank as
an important commonwealth. At
present not one-twentieth part of
this land has ever been TILED.
The reasons are found in a lack
of railway facilities for transport
ing the produce of the farms to
market, and in lack of means on
the part of farmers to bring their
lands under cultivation. Con-
struction OF laterals and other
work necessary to reclaim said
lands entails a heavy burden of
expense the first few years. In
no part of this country, however,
a agriculture be pursued with
more Gee and profit that in