Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-04

may be done by irrigation. The works oil
IRRIGATION -FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO
Were superior to any works constructed in
modern times, previous to English engin-
eering in India during the last twenty five
years. We read of Egypt and its vast
population, and we wonder at the promi.
nent place it occupied in the world at the
time of the Pharoahs. Recently English
engineers have discovered defile leading
from the Nile, whether natural or artificial
they cannot tell, but across it there is 8
dyke constructed of masonry, with regu.
latiDg gates, and they describe it as equal
to, II not SURPRISING, any work of modern
times. Below where this ends there is q
basin of $50 square miles and of great
depth. Evidences all around this basin
show where the ancients resided. There
is vast country below this basin, which
was once irrigated and sustained large
population. The English propose to repair
this work and utilize this basin. and re-
claim large part of Egypt which has been
a desert for thousands of years.
This Egyptian work is pretty authenti.
cally ascertained to have been constructed
eighteen hundred years before the COM
mencement of the Christian era. By refer.
ences to it by Greek writers and other evil
dences its age is pretty accurately ascer-
| tanned.
In the little island of Ceylon we have
authentic history of works of irrigation for
about five hundred years before the COM
mencement of the Christian era, and Tor
nearly fifteen centuries every ruler of that
Island We'd with his predecessor and tried
to surpass him in irrigating works and in
MAKING LAKES TO SAVE WATER,
And they increased the population so that
l If m ho hot ox,I
millions, and when these works were de-
stroyed by invaders the people died and
were reduced to less than 100000 in num-
Der, which has been increased somewhat
| since the British rule, and is now about two
and half millions, and they are largely
supplied with food from India.
In India there are works of very ancient
| origin which show the highest state of en-
gineering. A large portion of the surface
| of India is covered with reservoirs aud ar
tificial lakes, which support vast popula-
ton. In Palestine. Professor Marsh tells
us, that at every step you see ruins of n.y.
draulic works, showing it had once been
| densely populated.
| So of Persia, parts of southern Europe.
Arizona, Mexico and South America. More
than half the people of the world have
always subsisted by irrigation. Perhaps
more than two-thirds of the people now
living pursue that practice.
| We are especially benefited, especially
blessed here with an area larger than any
other on the globe, where there is suffici-
ent rainfall to prosecute farming without
the necessity for irrigation. Between the
ninty-ninth parallel of west longitude and
the Atlantic Ocean the country will gener-
| ally produce crops without irrigation.
West of that to the Pacific Ocean it requires
1 rrrrr ,r Ix,S
does not require it, the northwest corner of
California, and those portions of Oregon and
| the Territory of Washington that lie west
| of the Cascade Mountains. The arid region
has an area of more than l 200, 900 square
miles and is capable of sustaining, on any
reasonable calculation, population of
200 900 people, perhaps more. This
railroad is in this region, and it has pro-
| duced vast results. The people on their
own account. without surveys by the Gov
eminent, adapted to it, without laws max
Ing 1t convenient, have already irrigated
about 6, 500 900 acres.
| Mr.. Cockrell-What States
Mr.. Stewart-In the United States-all
the States put together. Ihave been exam
lining that, and had Professor Powell assist
me, and find there is an area approximate
ing $500, 900 acres under irrigation in the
| United States.
Mr.. George-Is the soil of that irrigated
area good?
| Mr.. Stewart-The best in the world. The
country seems to be barren desert, utterly
worthless, where nothing but horned toads
can subsist. Put water upon it, and it will
produce beyond anything you can compre-
bend. You have only seen the cultivation
| by rainfall.
Mr.. Chandler-How about the sage
| brush?
Mr.. Stewart-Wherever you can find
| sage-brush you can rely upon fertile land.
The land there is as productive as any
other land in the United States. 1t is not
leached to the extent that other land is.
| There is combination of mineral and veg
etable matter that is washed down upon it
| from the mountains, and irrigation, when
| properly conducted, fertilizes the land.
The water from the mountains brings down
what is called silt and fertilizing material.
which is just suited to produce large crops,
and land which is properly irrigated from
running streams will produce crops for
thousand of years without any other fertil-
| izer. The valley of the Nile, that has been
cultivated, according to history more than
1900 years, is as rich to-day as it was when
first cultivated. Irrigation renews and re-
freshes it, and there is no end to the fertil-
lty OF our arid lands if they can be properly
| irrigated. Irrigated land will produce such
| enormous crops and so continuously that |
| would hardly dare tell what l have seen,
because | do not want TO entirely lose NV
reputation for yeracity ON this floor.
Now, we have this great field. 1t is bar
rem, and it is the common fate of man to
be at war with the desert The desert has
driven him back. and he has subdued the
desert in turn, and the W hole history OF
| mo from, hic Oft .
soil has been struggle with the desert
The people of the United States have moi
until now been brought face to face
with this problem, because, as | said
| before, we occupy the largest area
of land suitable for cultivation without
irrigation in the world There is no other
section on this habitable globe equal in ex-
tent to the land in the United States which
can be cultivated without irrigation but
mankind first chose the deserts. The des.
erts were easier to cultivate. easier to sub
due than the forests. The region from the
Atlantic to the line of prairies on the West
say to Indiana, about that longitude
that region all through the Atlantic and in
the South which is heavily timber ed was
much more difficult to reclaim than this
desert, as we cali it. Those timbered
regions required q greater expenditure oil
labor, of tell, and of time, and are great
deal more difficult TO reclaim than the arid
regions.
If California had been first settled the
IMMIGRATION WOULD HAVE SPREAD
Over the desert; it would have been occu-
pied at once, and the Atlantic coast would
have been untouched. The chance we
have for the settler in the VESTS better if we
can appreciate it and enable him to appre.
ciate it. 1t is as great heritage as we had
for him in the prairie, for forty acres OF
land properly irrigated anywhere in the
arid region will support family as well as
160 acres in region cultivated by rainfall
On land cultivated by rainfall you must
constantly use fertilizers. Fertilizers dc
not hurt any land, but they can be dis
pensed with to greater extent where you
irrigate.
Now, want Congress to take this sub.
ject up deliberately and see whether it is
proposed to collect the debt from my State
when nobody ever expected that il should
pay it, when no member of Congress when
the contract was made ever expected thai
my people would be called on to pay this
debt. The only provision was, as | have
before stated, that it should be paid in
freights and fares in the Government
service. AS it has not been so paid want
an equitable view of this question to be
taken. The amount expended is small
compared with the expenditures of Great
Britain. 1t will not be necessary to make
large expenditures to reclaim our arid
lands. The use of the Pacific Railroad in.