The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-05-02
DAKOTA'S ARTESIAN BASIN.

Experiments in ell-Boring to Be Made
Under Government Ipervision.
Typographical surveys intended to
show how far it is possible to reclaim
the arid belt of the West by irrigation
have been going on under Major Pow
ellis able direction for some time. The
work, however, is still far from COM
pleted. 1t is now proposed to discontinue
1t temporarily and to divert the appro-
priation with which it has been carried
on to experiments in well-boring in
the famous artesian basin in Dakota.
1t is certainly of great Importance to
ascertain what this supposed subterra-
mean current amounts to, and to what
extent it's resources may be drawn upon
for the improvement of agricultural
lands in the two Dakotas. These States
are not in the arid belt, strictly speak
ing, but they border on it and are af-
fected by its conditions. They are our
largest wheat-producing States-our
main dependence, indeed, for an abund-
ance of the best crop. The chief agri-
cultural difficulty in Dakota lies not so
much in want of participation as in
its uncertainties. 1t can not be depend
ed on to come at the right moment and
in the right measure. Last summers
drouth is the cause of the suffering that
now obtains there. Until almost the
first of June there was every reason to
anticipate a crop as good as that of
1887
Farming by irrigation is certainly the
scientific way of farming, and it would
be by no means surprising were history
to repeat itself by once combining the
worlds largest agricultural operations
to arid soil. In depth and fertility the
soil of our desert country is unequaled.
It's gently rolling stoneless expanse pos
sesses capacity for production almost
incredible. When it is said, for instance,
that less than thirteenth of the land
OF the DakOtas has known the harrow's
touch, and that upon seven out of ninety
six million acres crop of thirty-five
million bushels of corn, seventy million
Of wheat, fifty million of oats, ten of
barley, five of fax and five of potatoes
has been raised, some faint idea may be
CLEANED of the possibilities.
If by using the waters of the Red
river on the east, the Missouri on the
west. and those of an artesian canal
along the valley of the James, such
command of the soil could be acquired
as would give it all the moisture it needs |
wherever and whenever moisture is |
needed, almost another worlds supply |
of wheat could be grown right there in |
North and South Dakota We shall |
hope that it will not be found necessary
to stop the surveys in Montana Colo !
RADIO and New Mexico for the sake of |
Dakota, and yet the immense import
ance of testing that artesian basin is i'm
pressive. 1t certainly should be done,
and with the utmost care and thorough
ness, as soon as posssible.-N. Y. Tri-
bune.
Parents should be careful in chas-
Using their children and not switch |
them onto the wrong track.-Glens Falls
Republican.
The man who is perpetually hest
tating as to which of two things he will
do seldom does either.-Winchester
County Record.
AS the tadpole develops into the
frog, so does the tattler soon become the
full-fedged and malicious slanderer.-
Ed. r. Pritchard.
If it was half as easy to take advice
as it is to give it, the progress of the
world would to-day be century in ad-
vance of its present condition
Extremes meet in almost eyery
thing; it is hard to tell whether the
statesman at the top of the world, or
the plowman at the bottom, labors hard
est.-Franklin.
Much of the EMBELLISHMENTS of,
and impoverishing desire for excessive
ornamentation would pass away if it
wasn't constantly tempted by art, and
II usefuli sss was the chief object of sci
ence, art and the manufactures.
Our expectations, our ideals, our
hopes and intentions in beginning life
are generally all too low MANY and
many one is only indifferently success
ful in living strong life because at the
start the standard of what one ought to
be, and the belief in what one NAV be.
were set too low.zCuthbert Hall,