The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-07-13
0 brighten and bless the fields below.

| W DIISul60 ana DleSS Tile D6lOS D6lOWs
This, if there is not another in Kansas
IS an Illustration of perfectly successful
irrigation, not by the waters of large
stream, but of little creek no larger
than thousands in Kansas.
A few years ago a farmer in Meade
county named Cox had a well bored. He
may have struck the top story" of sa-
! line water, at any rate he ordered the
the drill sunk to better water and he
found 1t; the water came up with rush,
carrying, according to tradition, the drill
with it. Mr.. Cox had struck by acct
dent what capital and science working
| by design in Kansas had failed to find
arteslan water. The water that then be-
! gan TO flow has never ceased TO flow
since. Men have utilized it or not, &C
cording to their intelligence or energy,
but wherever along the low valley for
miles the water has been called for, from
the depths it has answered, Il am here!'
The wells are estimated at from ninety
TO one hundred in number and they ex-
tend over a considerable area of of north
western Meade. / was able TO visit only
those nearest the city of Meade Center.
We rode along, my kindly guides, May
or Wilson and |, under the same sky
that had overhung the country
for five weeks. 1t was hot and
promised heat. Suddenly we came
to sight as surprising as would have
been the appearance of a gold coin shin
ing in the dusty road. On one side of
the highway was the brown prairie,
studded with cactus, sign and symbol of
dry deSOlation. On the other was a great
rectangle of corn, the yellow stubble
and thick standing shocks of wheat;
oats, thick and rank; young trees stand
ing IN rows, every vegetable known in
Kansas and hosts of common flowers
dear to sight and memory. 1t required
some search to find the cause of it all in
the narrow bitches running here and
there, so rampant grew the suntlowers
up to the very edge of the water, and
the source of the bitches was only a
two-lnch iron pipe pouring full stream
OF clear, cold water, such as you raise
from the well in the ''Old Oaken bucket"
Only that and nothing more.
The water was doing its work not only
as gardener, but as a farmer. On one
place they were stacking wheat. ten
acres, with yield of twenty-five BUSH
els to the acre, ten bushels more than on
any unirrigated acre in Meade county.
There seemed to have been no concert
ed action; no organized company; no
bonds voted. Each farmer had sunk his
we'll or wells. Sometimes the well cost
no more than IS; others required casing
and were more costly; but all within the
means Of the hOmesteader, and then water
forever and ever.
There was a good bit of talk with
friends in Meade about this mysteriously
given bounty of God. Some thought the
source an underground river from the
Rocky mountains, and stories were told
of pieces of pine wood brought up from
the depths; some tree that had drifted
darkling for hundreds of miles; but no
one can know certainly. But the water
is there;the wilderness cannot come back,
nor sun nor storm drive man away. The
patience and skill of man having found
to work will yet utilize to
an extent we cannot prophesy the ''wa-
Iers under the earth"
NOBLE l.. PRENTIs.