The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1889-10-25


policy; but it was only the beginning, and
the general government will doubtless have
to fix a general rule. There are enthusiasts
| who say that all the waters Of the Platte and
many other afliuents of the upper Missouri,
will in a few years be shut off and soaked up
by the arid lands; that they will in conse-
quence roll no more mud and sand into the
Missouri, and so it will contribute no more To
the Mississippi, and hence that stream will
have a uniform channel in the far south and
cease TO do damage For every acre re-
claimed on tho Platte, Arkansas and Yellow
stone" says one enthusiastic prophet of irri-
CATION, another acre will be reclaimed in
Louisiana"
President Grant was earnestly besought to
begin his administration with a request of
congress to enter on the preliminary work
for a comprehensive system of irrigation;
but he unfortunately went little too far
and recommended a plan which elected a
feeble smile from far western men. There
was enough good land still in the rainy
regions, and so the matter rested near nine
teen years, when the congressman of the far
west combined and secured IN appropriation
late in September, 1SSS-SlO0,0 900 to pay for
surveying and locating storage reservoirs at
the head waters Of streams west Of the Tooth
meridian" for the purposes OF irrigation. 1t
was trife, but it committed the government
TO the policy, and Maj. Powell, director of
the geological survey, soon entered on the
work
He now estimates the arid area at 400, 900
square miles, or four-tenths of the United
States, excluding Alaska. or this area he
regards one-fifth as too rocky and rugged for
cultivation, but nearly all other observers
4
in it, of course, those mountain top plateaus
which are too elevated to produce grain. His
estimate of 1000 900 square miles of land
needing only water to make it productive"
Is nearer the fact, but probably still too
large. In 1880 less than per cent. of this
vast area had been redeemed, and with the
most expensive and elaborate works not more
than 20 per cent can ever be redeemed by
any process now known to man, says Direc-
tor Powell Nevertheless, if but Is per cent.
be redeemed, or $50, 600 square miles, this in.
creases the cultivated lands of the United
States by nearly ore-half, and at $50 per
acre adds S2,SSO y0Co, 900 to the national
wealth.
Meanwhile tie committee presided over by
Senator Stewart, of Nevada, has completed
q two months tour, travelling some IA, 600
sites for proposed canals and storage reser-
voirs, and 2, 800 square miles Of alleged Irriga-
BILE land have been carefully surveyed by the
engineers and the line Of proposed canals plot
ted So the work has become truly national at
last, and must continue for many years to be-
come a matter of increasing governmental con-
Germ, and of course q fruitful source of pollti-
cal agitation, charges and counter charges.
North Platte, Neb., Is set down by the COM
mittee as the most eastern point at which any
irrigation enterprise Is now under way Cali
fornia, Colorado and Utah are the fields
in which most has been done, and the two
former present the greatest schemes of engi-
neering. Among these is the plan for grand
canal to follow out the so called ''divide, and
maintain good level far down into Kansas.
In California about 100000 acres are
under irrigation, and the highest estimate of
land capable of being thus watered does not
exceed 130O0.0O acres. The average price
of the reclaimed land is put at $40 per acre,
while In its former state, used only for pas,
ture, it was worth but 81. There is always
something startling about California figures,
and when you read that the late Charles
Crocker and his partner expended 81 500, 600
on one series of dams, bitches and storage
reservoirs, it is to be regarded as only
commonplace private enterpri e" for that
state. But there, as elsewhere, the com.
munity will find a way to compel united
action and the ownership Of all irrigation
works by the state.