Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-18

scII-euSt&lUlQR.
Then, as can be seen, we have in the
Fort Worth Waco artesian area a first
class agricultural area already, but il il
rests within our power to make it far
better than mere first-class there is nc
KIND of good reason why we should fold
our arms and decide in favor of letting
''Well enough alone.' Such course
would not at all be in harmony with that
progressive spirit quite generally per-
Vadlng Texas. But for this peculiar
spirit the sites of many furnishing young
cities now dotting our interior and COM
msnding the attention of civilization
throughout the world, would to-
day be simply wild and IN
inhabited prairie. 1t is Texan all over
10 get out Of existing advantages all
there Is in them, therefore when Texans
become fully convinced of the undoubt-
able fact that these already excellent
lands of the Fort Worth Waco artesian
area can be more than doubled in point
OF annual yield by irrigation, and that,
furthermore, the said irrigation is a thing
easy of accomplishment by artesian
wells, it is but reasonable to suppose
that they will promptly take hold of the
matter and start the ball in motion.
Then will at once dawn upon Texas
new era of prosperity not dreamed Of in
the philosophy of the fathers of our pres
ent generation. So far as relates to our
Fort Worth Waco artesian area the great
Southwest Will soon have decorated her
self with new and most gorgeous" neck
tie, - as it were, extending all the Way
from Red river to the Rio Graude, and
the city of Fort Worth will be the dis-
mond pin, sparkling in its proper posi-
ton near the upper end of it.
But the mere predictions of an indi-
vidual do not invariably go off at pre-
MUM nowadays, hence we might
better interest the reader by coming down
to few facts. That the Fort Worth
Waco artesisn area can be irrigated by
artesan wells may be accepted as one
fact, for oil wells bored down to the
for quite extensive irrigation purposes.
Professor Dumble says in his report,
page Xviii: Throughout the whole
area of the upper cretaceous there exists
not only the possibility of securing arte-
sian water at reasonable depths, but in
the greater number of localities the GER
taiuty of doing SO. The places at which
ii cannot be gotten, owing to adverse
topographic conditions or interference in
the water bearing beds, are few in
number
So, then, we can get water, and we
may irrigate our lands with it if we desire
to do SO. Now, LET US by comparison
with another and less favored locality,
see what effect that irrigation would
have.
Not many years ago there was lying
along the eastern shore of the Sacra-
mento river, in Tehama county, CAL ,
a body of arid land that nobody thought
worth the trouble of looking after in any
way for agricultural purposes. Finally
Governor Leland Stanford discovered
that there was q living stream up In the
neighboring mountains several miles
away called Deer creek that might be
and aqueduots, SO he purchased the ap-
parently valueless tract and went to
work upon his canal. In due time, and
at heavy expense, the water was brought
down and properly distributed over his
grounds in regular irrigation system.
He called his new property Vina Ranch,
and IL is now one of the finest and most
productive farms and vineyards in the
state of California. A recent but en-
tirely disinterested writer describing the
ranch says it contains Sc 900 acres,
about 20, 900 of which are under irrlga-
ton. The lands not, under cultivation
are used as pastures for stock through
that portion of the season when rains give
them vegetation. Sheep are conspicuous
among the stock, and these are. turned
upon the wheat stubble after the crop 10
off and also into the vineyards after the |
There are 1000 acres to vine
Yards, $500 acres devoted to wheat,
5000 acres to alfalfa, 1000 acres to bar
ley, 1000 acres to green crops for stock |
feed and 200 acres to fruit trees and so
on. The yield of every thipg is immense,
and the whole cultivated area looks like |
O swamp in point OF luxuriance. Almost |
q city has sprung into existence on the |
RANCH having its churches, its !
schools and Its college-the Stanford Jr.
an institution capable of |
several hundred stu |
dents There is also q postoffice and |
fourishing railroad station, wilma, on
the Southern Pacific, which station is |
taking upon itself the rank of an |
important town.
Now, make your own comparisons.
We have, as yet, no such ranches on the |
Fort Worth Waco artesian area, but |
they could be made upon it as easily, and |
at far less expense, and with as great |