Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-08-08
PLANS.
A Correspondent Discusses the Feasibil-
ity of Irrigation in Dakota.

tty of Irrigation in Dakota.
BISMARCK, N. D., July 80, 1s90.-Tht
editor-in-chief of the TRIBUNE, always
averse to running the gauntlet of diversi
fled opinions and to ans wering numerous
in]terrogatOries upon exploded theories, has
put it upon the writer to answer the fol
lowing and some other similar questions
concerning irrigation in North Dakota
The following are sample inquiries:
will any of the people OF this country
live to see river irrigation in this state ?"
Are not artesian wells what we need q
would not hydraulic rams improve oul
tlncks of recommended methods
"Can we not elevate our rivers out of
their beds by steam power, horse power
water power, wind mill power?' &c.
How can We best secure an additional
twelve inches Of water each season oveI
the entire face Of the state
With us in Dakota, this is the first time
we have met this question face to face,
but many other states and territories of
our country have heretofore met these
questions, canvassed everp possibility con-
nected Herewith, tried every experiment
indicated, and in the Min have suffered
disappointment, squandernd fortunes, and
when the most costly lessons of expert
ence have been taken, have ultimately
abandoned nearly every other method and
finally adopted river irrigation. People
in California, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming
and Nevada all have had to take their
medicine-at all early day-to unity their
opinions upon these questions.
In Dakota wa will nrOhahIy havp tn mr.
sue the same course OF study, and lament
our grievous mistakes. We shall find,
sooner or later, that the work of elevating
one foot of water for our entire state be-
longs to the Omnipotent power of the
world.
We shall find too that his processes en-
ployed in connection with our artesian
wells system are wholly inadequate, and
that the great arteslan basins of earth
have been stored up for some other pur-
pose than for general irrigation, possibly
to prevent the heat from within the earth
from becOminL too great without, or upon
its surface; and that our rivers have been
placed upon the top of our splendid globe,
and all running down hill from source to
mouth, and that we only need to defect
them from their beds or courses and store
up their waters in the great natural basins
that have been fitted up as nearly complete
as possible for our use; and from which we
may draw the requisite amount of water
when needed.
While it is admitted that a single farm
here II there may be irrigated by other
the main, all other chemes have proved as
utopian as the dream of Doyers Green
when he awOke to the consciousness of the
failure OF his flying machine.
Western North Dakota embraces within
its area a great natural field, within which,
in the near future, must be solved the
great question of what is to be done to re-
lieve the too arid condition of the climate
of our state.
Here, as IT fitted up expressly to meet
the demand, is a system of rivers, five in
number. One of them, the Little Missouri,
larger and longer than any other. rising in
the higher altitude of Wyoming, and trav-
ersing the state from the south to north,
through which water enough runs to waste
every year to irrigate that entire part of
the state If its waters were economically
stored up in existing great natural basins
that abound all along the divides that lie
DetWeen the different river courses. Along
the east border Of the bad Lands" there
descends with that river a great natural
water shed from its source to it's mouth,
furnishing an elevated ditch line high
enough to feed lateral bitches on each of
the other divides that lie between the four
rivers that rise near the east border Of the
Little Missouri divide, and traverse the
state eastward to the Big Muddy, running
at right angles with the former river.
A single ditch Is to 80 miles in length,
commencing near the head waters of the
Grand river, o. of the Cannon Ball, and
running thence southwest to a point at
about 20 degrees west longitude and tap
ping the Little Missouri, would, if Kept in
full running supply, feed chains of interior
elevated lakes between each two of the
other four rivers along on the divides, the
entire lengths OF the Grand, the Cannon
Rall; the Heart and the Big
have an impervious clay subsoil; would be
~retentive: and needing in many places only
a single.dam Il few rods in length, across
a draw outlet, to constitute a lake contain
ing several square miles: and of varied
depths from 20 10 so feet deep. A single
photographic survey Of a few miles in
length at the point named for the feeder
ditch, would doubtless solve the problem
OF water supply, and every other question
of doubt connected with the entire system
proposed.
A system thus in operation in western
Dakota, it is believed. would not only
make that part of the state
the garden of Dakota, but it would
temper the prevailing west winds that
sometimes scorch aid burn our crops in
the east part of the state, and lade them
with humidity instead Of heat: and that
the increased absorption of the west mart
of the state would correspondihTgIy in
crease the evaporation and rainfall in the
east part of the state, and check the early
froSts that are sometimes destructive to
| crops.
Along these ditch Tires, in the west part
OF the state, the ravages of prairie fires
| would also be checked.
The falls in the bitches between the diff.
ferent reservoirs would furnish water DOW
er for innumerable uses.
One writer in the Argus has recently es.
timated that it would increase the value of
lands $40 per acre in that whole area of
country. But multitudes of men can see a
cash value of more than $50 per acre in
lands that can be irrigated. Here. then
would be added probably one hundred mil.
lions of dollars in valuation of lands.
But finally, how can all this be done :
We answer, Let there first be made a care.
full photographic survey, demonstrating
the source of water supply, and every sue.
cessive step is easy.
A stock company with a capital stock
sufficient to construct the system could pui
enough OF its stock upon the market tC
raise all the cash needed, and the whole
thing could be accomplished in less than
n year.
If river irrigation is ever made generally
successful in the western part of the state
it viii! prove Of greater value to the eastern
part than thousands of artesian well. II
will modify the hot winds that sweep ovel
the country from the west and send moist