Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-05-11
ENLARGED INTEREST IN IRRI-
 CATION.


 much attention in the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio, as well as further west in the arid regions proper. It IS fortunate for us west of the Rocky Mountains, because it strengthens our case before the government regarding irrigation surveys, the location of stor- age reservoirs etc. The western people are coming to the conclusion that irri- gation will not only give them needed moisture during the summer, but will dispose of surplus moisture in the win: ter and spring. Illinois, for instance, except a narrow strip about fifteen miles wide along Lake Michigan, slopes to the south and west, and most of its surface is far below the level of the lake or of any of its rivers in the eastern DOT tion. During three months of the year the people are swamped in mud and surface water. During another three months they are praying for rain to re- vive their parching crops. They are be- ginning to realize that comprehensive system of irrigation would not only save the crops in summer but enable the land to dry out quicker for spring planting by holding back surplus water
 General irrigation in the western states would have prevented the head long rush to Oklahoma. It must appear strange to Europeans who see our great waste spaces that few square miles of newly opened territory should be gob bled with as much haste and zeal as though there was not a spare acre open to settlement in the country. A great many of the boomers are men who have been driven away from Kansas and oth- CT localities by drought and short crops. It is likely that they will find the same drawbacks in Oklahoma, but a new country with undeveloped possibilities beguiles them. If these boomers had been located on we'll irrigated land, where crops were surety, they would havs had no object in going to Okla homa. By-and-by they will observe that they are no better of than they were before; that the burning heat and desiccating winds of their new home dry up their crops just as badly as in Kansas or other localities. Eventually they will learn to do what they might have done before in their old locations bring water on the land and change chance for certainty.
 Because in any given section of coun- try it is possible to raise crops without irrigation it does not follow that nothing can be made by it. Good land may be made better, and worn-out soil renewed by the application of water, which fer tilizes as we'll as moistens the fields. Crops grow heavier, and in some cases two may be raised by irrigation in place of one. An irrigated country will sup port a population which would starve there under natural agricultural condi- tions.
 The Western railways have about as much at stake in this subject as any other interest. They are running for hundreds of miles through regions which do not give them carload of stuff to haul, and through other regions where they are selling out the farmers every few years, who have been ruined on dry ranches. A water system would change the whole situation. The railroads should not go into irrigation business, but they could bring great deal of in huence to bear in pushing movements to that end which would give them pay ing business in return at no distant day. -S. F. Bulletin.