Arizona silver belt., 1889-02-23
srEc,o.s p,.us eS IRRIGATION.


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 I've bills, pertaining to irrigation, have besa introduced in the Lsgisla- ture, which show that the members offering them have very crude ideas on the subject, and which m enc in stance IS surprising, ID view of ths prominence given ts irrigation by the press in tbc West, since Congress be- gan consideration of the subject, We alluds first to the bill introduced in ths Couscll by Simpson, of Apache, which apprcpriatss Sl,5o0 te each county te build water storage ressr- voirs Ths sun is so ridieulously small that further comment is unnse' sssary.
 The other bill referred to IS that in- troduesd by Webb, of Marieopa, to promote the sinking of artsslan wells in Arizona. This deserves aore at- tsntion because of the prevailing inn prsssion that arteslaR wells, if practl- cable in ths Territory, could be made a very important factor in the recla- matisn eff desert lands. Aside from the improbability of obtaining arte- sian water, except in rare instances, as evidenced by the many unsuccessful attempts made along the lines of the Southern Pacific and Atlantic & Pa cifs railroads, in New Mexico and Arizona, ths idea that such wells can ever, save in exceptional cases, be ad- vantsgeously employed fer irrigating is erroneous. la California where very many srtssian wells have besn sunk, they have not proven an lmpsr- tant sourcs of water supply. About the oaly case where they can be used witb profit is in the vicinity of cites and large towns, ts irrigate market gardens, where the crops raised are unusually valuable. For ordinary crops, on large tracts, artesian wells are impracticabls, both on account of the limited supply sf water that can be thus obtained and tke csstliness of the system An authority sn irriga- ten states that an srtesian we'll six inches in diameter would give a stream of twsnty-eight square inches, and would deliver thirty-two quarts per second, CT 4S0 gallons per minutes, if ths flow were al the rate of four miles an hour. In Province, district in the south of France, where the eli matie conditions ars similar to central and southern Arizona, it has been found necessary to use fer lrngatins quantity of water equal to twenty feur cubic inches, or nearly half a quart per second, continually flowing fsr each acre of surface. This IS the basis fer all contracts for water. Ae- csrding to this estimate well, as ds- seribed above, dischargiRg thirty-two quarts per sscend would suffice to irrigats only little moro than sixty four acres of land The writer gives the csst of such well at 5000 to sl0,000. The average flow of artssian wells is very much less than this. 4 well 2007 fact dsep, recently cen- pletea, in St. Lsuis brewery, IS said to discharge ssyenty-twe gallons per minute, besides what is used in mak- ing ice.
 Ths first artssian well sunk in Ari- zona, and the only flowing well now as far as we knew, is about a mile cut from the town of Pinal. It was bored some six years er more ago, and the owner, whose name re believe is Mir Whitasy, received the reward offered by the Territory for ths first hswing we'll When we visited it, feur years age, the discharge was not large, the force being only sufficient to raise tine water an irch or two above the mouth of the pipe. It sufiesd to irrigats garden patch, and supply small fish pond.
 The reservoir system nust obtain in ArlZsna, If the area of reclaimed lanas is to be greatly extended, and the requisite works must be built either by the Government, or corporations with large capital. Laws governing the use of water in streams is a it subject of legislation by the Fifteenth, but not beyond that.
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 Herbert Brsws, editor of ths Arize- na Citlzsn, IS an applicant fer Regis n T etN ysT