The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-12-06
DAMMlNo OUR RIVERS.
The Benefits of Irrigation Surveys In thu
Rio Grande Valley.

The Benefits of Irrigation Surveys in the
Rio Grande Valley.
The accounts which have been pub
lished of the work of the Topograph-
ical Bureau in carrying out the act OF
Congress ordering irrigation surveys,
have, up to the present time, made no
mention of the studies which are in
progress in the valley of the Rio
Grande in Texas. They are, however,
of large Importance Of all the great
rivers of the United States the Rio
Grande is the most useless. Rising
in the heart of the Rocky Mountains
in Colorado, and draining the ever
lasting snow plains of that elevated
plateau, it flows south through Color
ado, New Mexico and Western Texas.
till it strikes the Mexican boundary at
Paso del Norte; then, swinging around,
it pursues an easterly and southeast
erly course till it empties itself in the
Gulf of Mexico. It starts out with a
good volume of water, which is in
creased by feeders from the Sierra
Blanco; but in passing over the sandy
plain through which its course lies it
loses so much of it's contents by evap-
Grafton and percolation that for a
thousand miles or more it is generally
fordable and can neither float vessels
nor spare water for irrigation pur-
poses The question which presented
itself to the Government surveyors is
whether this water which now goes
to waste by evaporation and seepage
could not measurably be saved by
impounding it in reservoirs. And last
month they seem to have been of the
opinion thatit could.
The natural site for a main reser-
voir is the bend of the river at Paso
del Norte. A dam at this point would
not interfere with trade, as the river
is generally fordable there and the
smallest steamers can not approach
within one thousand miles of the
town. But it might lead to the COL
lection of the waters of the upper Rio
Grande in a lake from which they
might be conveyed in open bitches to
the southern counties of Texas, which
are now sand wastes Texas is so
wealthy State that, if the project
were deemed feasible. it would not
have to 60 to Congress for means to
construct the necessary works.
The uses OF rivers are only just be-
coming understood. The Missouri
river is nearly 5000 miles long, and
discharges 120. 1000 cubic feet of water
per second; but it is nearly useless.
Vessels do not navigate its waters ex-
cept for a few hundred miles; lands
derive no fertility from its waters; it's
function appears to be to drown out
cultivated land every spring. The
Shoshone or Snake river is 1000 miles
long; it flows through Wyoming, Ida
no. Oregon and part of Washington;
the country which it traverses is
largely barren for want of water; the
ShOshOne carries so much water that
in one place it has hewed out for itself
channel 1000 feet deep; but the idea
of taking the water from the places
where it brawls idly on its way
to the Columbia to the plains
which need it for agriculture occurs
to few. The Colorado river is also
1000 miles long; it's volume may be
inferred from the fact that it has
cleaned its way through stratified
mass of rock from 5000 to 1000 feet
thick; but it is utterly useless. and if
by a CONFUSION of nature the Green
and Grand rivers, which unite to form
it. where to be suddenly dried up it
would hardly be missed. Yet the
Lower Colorado flows through desert
which might be made a garden with
water.
The traveller who visits Sacramento
in the spring is appalled, at the vast
area of tule land and of good agricult-
ural land which is drowned by the Pc
riodical overflow of the Sacramento
river. The rancher tells him that the
evil is of short duration. as the water
will presently flow off to the sea. 1t
never occurs to the landowner that
this water which he is so anxious to
get rid of is the source of most of the
value which his land possesses, and
that if he had the wit to store it in
stead of letting it go to waste, fields
which grow fifteen bushels of wheat,
would raise thirty-five bushels. and
tule land now valueless could be re-
claimed at small expense. When
this thought permeates the land
owners mind we shall discover that
not the half has been said of the fertil-
ity of California. San Francisco Call.