Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-05-18
OUR ARID LANDS.
Wat Cal1S6rnaa H,ss ds to Bss.sU < Her Share of ths Consrssszszaa ADpropraation-Ssnstors S<Ansbra
 and Stewart Addrsss the S<ats Board of Trade.
(6sn Francisco Rsport.)

| (6an Francisco Rsport)
 | The State Board of Trades Exscutire
 Committee was addressed by Senator
 Stanford and Stewart (of Nsyads} tha
 afternoon on the question of the arid
 lands Tn California, and the appropria-
 tons to be made by Congress for irrigs-
 ton and drainage. Senator Stanford spoke strongly in favor of Californ;a's 's pushlng her claims in that direction. se the benefits could not be oyerestimatad. 1. | "Our old system,' said be, sof culti- vating the lands, was very good ous.
 but wise provisions for irriestiou would prove very beneficial, and create bun dreds of homes on lands that are now barren and waste, and ! snthusissticaily [ approve of the expenditure Of even forty
 millions of dollars, if such results can bs
 brought about as will justify it.n Senator Stewart said: .i am alvava l in favor of doing what is possible. | don't think it expedient to consider the sum necessary to expend. My plan is | first to get the surveys and see what can be done. If it had been done twenty years ago it would have brought great resulta When we get these suryeys made and can show where people can
 live and have homes on an area exceed ing the whole balance of arabic land ws
 can go ahead. With irrigation this can
 be done. But the proposition is new to
 the United States. and few psonls are
 aware that two-thirds of our oultiyation
 IS done by irrigation. Men first went to
 Unrx fho Aor.~& l- a-
 to go in and conquer the forests. It
 does not take so much labor to put an
 acre of desert land into condition e it
 East sees wha. can be done if will s4rus
 to 1t, but l do not think it . good plan
 to say that we want e40O0O, 900 when we
 do not know what we want" -st l E MT. Mills remarked that the purpose of the State Board of Trade was to get California's share of the appropriation. 1, Senator Stewart stated that Califor- mia need not fear that it's full shsre
 would not come in time. Nevada hsd
 also had hard time getting started.
 The object of forming committee was
 to have 1t get object lessons and sec what could be done by storage. The next thing was to find out how the titles OOo-~< DO O1soAAC4 anu HUH QlOc60Q IO get the proper legislation. There vss. less danger of 6 monopoly of irrigated lands than of any other, as it required moro people to work them. The land needed more attention, and when peo- pie saw that they would not want a mo nopoly. It would have tendency to bring eastern colonies out, too. It would be well to educate ourselves up to what yIyca hA California was capable of supporting 100000 of people, and that sll tue mountain and valley lands could be irri- gated thoroughly. The little squabblss about the rights of water must bs ar ranged The senator here drew stten- tion to Colorado's method of distribut- ing water and how successful the plan had been, based on an economical dis tribution, guarded by superintendsncy. The main question was to distribute water fairly and not waste it, and ths government would give California her share.
 The senator strongly favored estab- fishing object lessons to greet the sen- ate committee on irrigation. which would shortly be in this state. and to have men greet them who could mako them thoroughly understand the won derful possibilities of the arid lands. Our people had been relying on rain altogether, and had not considered what could be done by irrigation. The pres sure of population was gradually teach ing them better. He cited the case of India, which, beginning with an appro- priation of s115, 5,OOO,OOO, had spent nearly double the sum, had even incurred debt to do it, but had succeeded in making a country of itself, and had cast famine behind. Our possibilities were grsster because we had leading mines which could cooperate together and bring about greater results. Do not be fn a hurry; get all of your estimates and have them correct and justly propor- toned, because you will have to come in contact with people who will suspect that we are trying to rob them"
 Senator Stanford here inquired if Senator Stewart had any fiQures to show the comparative cost of retaining the primeval forest and the desert.
 Stewart stated that it would cost from e10O to e200 an acre for forest land and about 20 an acre for desert land, and that an acre of reclaimed desert land was worth more than twice the amount of forest land.
 Senator Stanford on leaving said that the State Board was now considering the most important subject before the United States, and that he wasthorough- ly in sympathy with it and trusted the work would be kept up.--
 Representative Morrow followed Sen ator Stewart, and promised his best sf- forts to have asimilsr committas to that of the Senate appointed from the House of Representatives He thought the subject would only have to be under stood to bring success. Mr. Morrow re- marked: Il do not think it . good plan for the papers to overestimsts the cost of these plans, as it may produce op- position. The great point is to get start ed-get surveys and plans and sducstioo on the subject. h-s