Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-11-22
ARTEsIAN PIONEERING.
The Well Borer is Abroad in Ali Parts
of fle Arid West.

pears IN the St. LOUIS UtOOe-D6LHO
crat. We publish it entire and trust
that our readers will not pass it by
but read every word of it. In irriga
ton we see the salvation of western
Kansas:
Tearing things wide open" very vel
expresses what is being done in the Wes
to develop underground water supplies
Here is some of the information which {
single days mail brings to the artesian
irrigation bureau of the Department Of
Agriculture:
At CoryeI, Costilla county, in Colorado
water has been obtained for irrigation ii
novel way. Holes are dug to the clay
formation eighteen feet down. The water
rises to the surface and by capillary at
traction reaches the plant roots.
The Fountain Cui Bouille is fourteen
miles north Of Pueblo. a company there
has undertaken to supply Pueblo and the
region around with water for city and IT.
rigation purposes. An excavation has
been made 40 feet deep and a dam has
been built upon the bed rock. This Sc
cures daily a million gallons Of water
which otherwise would have gone to
waste. Some of the water thus obtained
is used for farming.
On truck farm near Colorado Springs
the owners have succeeded, by running
pipes underground to gravel beds, in Sc
curing great supply of water, which
they distribute over their land.
On the Big Sandy, in Northeast Colo
RADIO, Ebert county, water is being OBJ
tanned by going into gravel at point
where gravity permits of piping the sup
ply out upon the surface.
In the San Luis Valley a land and
water company is clearing 500 acres.
The plan is to divide the tract into farms,
erect houses, supply artesian water for IT.
Tigation and lease to tenants. 1t has
been found that one low pressure well in
that valley will furnish water enough for
farm.
The land owners of the Mesilla Valley,
in New Mexico, have organized to explore
for an underground supply. They call it
a cooperative artesian well development
company. A French engineer residing in
the valley has prospected the mesa
stretching toward the Organ mountain.
He believes that water will be obtained
in great quantities by boring.
Mr.. Eddy, the head of the great Pecos
Irrigation Canal Company, is providing
himself with well-boring machinery to
supplement his irrigation plans.
MORTGAGE COMPANIES IN KANSAS,
which have come into possession of sever
al million acres of land by foreclosure,
have organized syndicate for artesian
investigation. These lands are in west
ern and southwestern Kansas. They lie
south of the Smoky river. It is the inten-
ton of the syndicate to bore experimental
wells and try other plans to get at the
underfiOw with view of applying it to
irrigation. If the experiments are sue
cessful the syndicate will go into we'll
boring and ditch digging on a large scale
with view to putting the land on the
market again when they are able to in
sure the settler steady supply of water
sufficient for irrigation. The department
engineer and geologist, who are now in
the field, will be asked to look over the
plans of the mortgage company's syndi-
cate and criticise or approve them.
At Garden City the undersheet water
of the Arkansas Valley is being tapped
by a company which expects to find
enough to supply a large ditch. This
thing has been successfully accomplished
at Dodge City. There a canal heads IN
derground and extends down stream at a
grade less than the natural fall of the
valley until it brings the water up to and
above the surface of a large tract of coun-
try. The Dodge City Canal is considered
perfect success. 1t will irrigate 100000
acres OF land as far as at present devel-
oped.
Seven artesian wells are now in opera
ton at Pullman, in the southeast corner
of the state of Washington, not far from
Walla Walla, which has been made IA
nous by successful irrigation.
Boise City, the capital of idaho, now
has six artesian wells, which are giving
q great flow of water.
ALTHOUGH the Walla Walla region ar
tesian water is being obtained at no great
depth.
There are several artesian wells in the
Antelope Valley of Los Angeles county,
California, heretofore one of the most des-
olate districts OF that part of tie state.
In the past eighteen months a large
reservoir has been constructed at Alham-
bra, in the region just mentioned. This
reservoir is to collect the surface water
from several mountain streams, and sup
plemented by artesian wells it will sup
ply fifty miles of irrigating mains.
ALL OVER THE ARID WEST FARMERS
are bidding defiance to rainfall and to
surface water courses. They are going
for underground supplies with great en-
o.rrv Thar I'LL h ,1,.,o e,sI.,.o- d