Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-08-10
WATER STORAGE.

ust number of the North America Re
 view has the following to say upon this all important subject:
 About two-fifths of the area of the
 United States is so arid that agricul-
 ture is impossible without artificial irri-
 gation, the rainfall being insufficient for the fertilization of ordinary crops. In this region all agriculture depends upon the use of running streams. In all of
 this country wherever agriculture is
 prosecuted, dams must be constructed, and the water spreads upon the lands through the agency of canals. Again, as the season of growing crops is cOmpara- lively short-in most of the country it lasts from two to three months only-the waters of the non-irrigating season will run to waste unless they are stored in reservoirs.
 The arid region is mountainous. Mountain ranges enclose valleys, while plains, mesas and platues carry dead volcanoes on their backs. The precipita- tion of moisture on these lands Is con- fined to the mountains, where it is exces- sive. The fertile lands along the plains and mountains are arid. In all the re- glon, agriculture is possible only by col lecting the mountain waters and using them on the plains and valleys. Where ever farm, city or a village is made, hydraulic work is necessary and dams must be constructed and reservoirs built. Considering the whole country at large its hydraulic industries are gigantic, and the region of country where land is more abundant than water, the value inhers in water, not in land. Land, like air can be found in greater quan- titles than can be used; water is the necessary, and value is given to the land by the water right which it car ries; if the water right is discovered, the land is valueless. These are not unfavorable conditions for agriculture however. The farmers industry is more attractive and more profitable in an arid than in humid region. All of the ear ly civilization began in arid lands, and the best agriculture of the world today is carried on by means of artificial irriga tion. The seemingly desert plains of the arid regions of the West, are in fact abundantly rich when watered artificial ly. The gentle storms of aihumid region fructify the land, but its tempest drown vegetation. In such regions the plant ing season is now too dry and now too wet, and many respectively rich har vest has been destroyed by a harvest time storm. Agriculture in arid lands is not subject to these vicissitudes. The mountains catch the floods, while the valleys are fertilized by the hand of man who turns the waters upon them at his will At the day and hour he pleases he spreads the water upon his garden, his vineyard, or his field in quantities gover- ned by his judgment When harvest time comes, he reaps his fields with a ullHO SbOIIuS. OuS of the great agricultural regions of this country will be found in the irriga- ted plains and valleys of the west. Sage brush plains, sand-dune deserts, alkaline valleys will be oIered by gardens, fields and groves, all perenially fertilized from thousands of mountain lakes.
 Enough has been said to show that the storage of water in reservoirs is not one of the trival incidents of modern in dustry, but one of its most important factors, and that in this country we have only reached the beginning of its devel- opment. We may expect in the course of few generations, that all the high land streams of America will be con trolled and utilized and that the floods will be bridled and become the trained servants of man, as wild beasts have been domesticated for his use.