Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-10-18
HERE AND THERE.
Matters Of Local Interest and Items
Relating to the City of
Bismarck.
Light Thrown Upon the All-Absorb.
ing Topic Of Irrigation by
Senator Stewart.
The Farmers Will Erect a Mill and
Eleyator-Base Ball-Per-
sonal Mention.

( Il Il
s0nal Mention.
Here's Your Irrigation. n
Senator Stewart, of the committee OH ir-
rigatton, which visited Bismarck and ap-
peared before the constitutional conven.
tion, was interviewed on Tuesday last by
the New York Herald. OF the condition
of the Dakotas and the proposition to fur
nish them with irrigation, he said:
ssThe central belt Of the Dakotas, and
also the northeast. or Red river section of
North Dakota, are endowed with the most
remarkable bodies of artesian water vet
found on the continent. That of the
James valley, already developed for 300
miles mil % north and south and for 50 miles east
most remarkable belt of artesian water
known in the world. There are nearly 100
wells already sunk, no one of which is
deeper than 250 feet-most of them much
less-yet all of them show pressure suf-
ficient to force to an average height of
about 200 feet from one to four streams of
great force and volume. 1t is the most ex-
traOrdinary phenomenon have ever wit
messed. "a 7S
THE mid Dakota wells tlnd their sources
in the Rocky Mountain drainage, those Of
Southern California direct from the Sieras,
Nevada and Madre. There are 10000 wells
IN AZ south of Lathrop, on the Southern
not flowing, and are fed from local range
drainage or by seepage from streams and
lakes, but the wells of the great plains
must everywhere find their sources from
the eastern slopes Of the continental divide.
sArtesian waters have already been found,
not SO abundantIy, though, as in the mid
Dakotas, in Central Nebraska, Kansas, in
the foot hills and high tatle lands of Mon
tana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico
and on the plains of the northwest portion
OF Texas.
METHODS OF IRRIGATION.
''What are to be the methods, then, of
storage and irrigation suitable for the
plains region, senator?"
SIhe problem on the plains is one of
,supplementing the RAINFALL" said MIR.
Stewart. ga permanent adjustment will
not be effected by wells, however numer-
GUS They must, however, be the source
OF most OF the small storage with which
plains will meet the prt sent deficiency of
yearly rainfall. Well water is not appli-
caDle TO irrigation purposes, and Major
Powell advises that it always should be
allowed to stand in small ponds, gathering
the correcting and enriching qualities (for
land use) which the microbe and other
microscopic life always breeds. Every
where, too, on the plains, in the Dak0tas
as elsewhere, the farmer can construct
small ponds and basins.
One acre of Water ten feet deep will
supply the deficiency in rainfall for most
years ON 160 acres. PercOlatiOnfor seepage
may largely be prevented, when necessary,
=, nS, az
broken into powder through the water
unit! they settle and coat the bottoms.
Again, an ordinary ditch, according to the
nature OF the soils, will sub-irrigate by
seepage from 500 to 1000 feet on either
side OF itself. What will an acre reservoir
do then? advise our Dakota friends to
combine.
They, like other sections, seem to have
had at first an idea that this committee was
lntrusted with the power to turn the treas
ury surplus loose for the benefit of every
one wishing to possess an artesian well or
being the owner of what in their own Opin-
ion might be a suitable site for a storage
reservoir: reserve II the farmers where flowing
waters are Obtainable, or even where
waters in sufficient quantity rise nearly to
the surface, would unite together-say
those on one section-and would make
suitable choice of location for well and
basin, they could by thus combining their
means sink well large enoughin capacity
and by its overflow to fill reservoir in
Ills that all, senator, you have to suggest
as to the DakOtas s? q
"Oh. no.. regard the problems therein
as one with the great plains in general.
Their permanent solution requires,
in my opinion, a much larger treat
ment. But let me say first that the small
storage system in the DakOtas is not ex-
hausted with the suggestions 1 have made
aS to the wells and reservoirs or tanks.
There are, 1t appears, q series Of shallow
lag00ns or lakes covering, as to the area
east OF the Jim river, perhaps 100000 acres,
the northern altitude of which region is
such as to warrant the opinion that they
series Of reservoirs, the stored up waters
OF which will supply the wants Of very
large area. Other witnesses testified to
the capacity of the Devils lake for storage
purposes, also as to the creation of such
basins as the western side Of Coteaux.
A GREAT SYSTEM SUGGESTED.
aAll of these suggestions are of value,
but the only permanent system to supply
the great plains from 81 degrees thirty
minutes to 10 degrees, or the base of the
Rockies I @ fo9thil!s, win be great scheme Of
on the one side, as Major Powell has al
ready suggested, to so store the waters Of
the upper Missouri and the resources of
the Mississippi as to regulate and thereby
prevent the disastrous floods of the lower
basin region, and yet will at the same time.
as now suggest, afford abundant supply
for the feeding of one or more great canals
with their appropriate reservoir systems,
by which NOT only irrigation will be effect
ed for the great plains area-S6O miles east
and west by 600 miles north and south
but manufacturing power and navigable
capacity will also be secured.
II see no reason why there should not
eventually be navigable canal from the
upper Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico: one,
too, that will irrigate 6O,OOO,OOO acres Of
fertile land now largely idle or given over
to the use Of the broad horned steer, at the
rate oftwenty acres per steer.
Clasp Hands and Smile.
The Dickinson Press thus describes q
scene on the line between North Dakota
and Montana: I,Ss5. 4i
Next day after election Dakota and Mon
tana clasped hands across the line. On the
line between the two new states, near the
Northern Pacific track, Is q sign board on
one side Of which is written SDakotao and
on the other side q Montana. q AS No. 4
passed west last Wednesday tvn tramno