The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-11-24
CALLS ON CONGRESS.
THE IRRIGATION CONVENTION ASKS
NATIONAL COOPERATION.
Second Day Of the Session Adds Much
Interesting and Valuable Aid to
the Fund of Knowledge-A
Final Adjournment is
Taken = Notes.

The annual convention of the Kansas
Irrigation association adjourned sine die
last evening.
1t WAS The greatest gathering ever held
in the city, not in point of numbers. but
in point of the impetus given to move
ment that will result in good that cannot
be fully appreciated at this time or per-
/ haps 10y this generation.
Major Powell, director of the geological
bureau, told an EAGLE reporter that it
was the most satisfactory irrigation con-
vention ever attended 10y him. 1.-THE
| boomers did not run it," said he, "nor
| was it run in the interest of any
real estate scheme. Neither did the people
want the government to do something TOR
them while they remained idle themselves.
| They simply ask the government to aid in
making tests and demonstrating the sue
cess OF methods and they are willing to do
the remainder by individual effort.
1t was a very harmonious convention. as
not single jar or discordant conflict of
| opinion occurred throughout the pro-
ceedings.
1t WAS All intelligent convention. The
papers read demonstrated that their
authors were men who are well posted In
what they attempted to discuss, and when
| the proceedings of the convention are COM
| piled She volume will be found AS interest
ing as any contained in an average library.
The men who attended the convention
are not boomers or spectators; they are
the solid. thoughtful business men of
Kansas who believe that there is great
! destiny for the state OF Kansas if her agri-
cultural resources are developed by irriga-
ton. They are not dreamers but men who
know that what they desire is possible and
who believe that it is practicable.
| The papers read enlightened many who
were in ignorance of the great power of
water, and crushed skepticism with refer
ence to the practicability of turning a
desert into paradise by the magic wand
of irrigation.
| The meeting emphasized the Importance
of system of small, rather than
large holdings, aud showed how homes
can be made for those who are
congesting the city and bringing the in
situations of America to the supreme test.
| 1t demonstrates in the most simple man
ner that the desert" may yet be the CEN
| ter of American population, and that the
i land now barren may be the land most
| sought after within a quarter Of a century.
| The delegates 10 the convention came
from every portion of Kansas and all of
| them were delighted with the reception
they received in Wichita and the respect
| full attention that was given to their
theories by the people.
The morning session was devoted prin-
| n
election of officers aud the reading of the
very able paper written by Mayor Powell.
The officers elected are as follows:
President, D. NJ. Frost of Garden City;
vice presidents. G. w. Clements of this
city and Hon. Martin Mohler of Topeka;
secretary, Z. B. Cogwell of Sterling; for
treasurer J. T. Greenlee of Hutchinson;
consulting engineer, J. V. HinckIey of
Topeka; executive committee, J. L. Frost.
II. ID Lee, A. w. OLIVER, G. G. Gilbert, j.
o. Snoup, w. W. Crook. L. II. Fisher, E.
r. Moses, w. c. Edwards, w. A. Smith
| anu ID. NJ. Frost.
MAJOR POWELL OF WASHINGTON.
Everybody was interested in the address
| of sjor Powell of the Geologic al survey.
His subject was: Irrigation as 1t effects
| that there are four chief sources of water;
in artesian basins; in subteranean foun-
!ains of well water; in flood plain sands,
and in storm born streams He set forth
II certain class of facts which, he said,
| ought to be discovered by geological sur
vey to be of practical value to the irriga-
| ting farmer. He did not believe that more
than five per cent of the country could be
ertiliZed by the agencies he pointed out.
The land in western Kansas, he said, that
| can be irrigated are in small tracts scat
tered widely. usually through lands of
of great fertility that also can be used for
agriculture by rainfall farming in years of
plentiful moisture. Thus the agricultur-
| list of western Kansas has double
resource. One by common agri
culture, sometimes yielding great profit,
sometimes failing. the other always yield
ing an abundant harvest. Irrigation
farming has peculiar characteristics; it is
q higher and more scientific industry than
rainfall farming. 1t succeeds only by
scientific culture. TO prepare the land for
| farming. great expenditures must be
| made for every acre. as hydraulic works
must be constructed. When the works
are constructed the waters must be de-
livered to the growing plants by the square
yard the soil must be most carefully pre-
pared aud cultivation must be minute and
thorough. To make such agriculture pay,
such crops must be raised as will yield the
greatest value per acre. The irrigated
| lands are better adapted to the growth OF
orchards, vineyards, gardens, hoy yard.
| tobacco and cotton fields. The great
valleys of the orient. a. the Nile and the
Poe, are not more fsvorably situated than
| the valleys of Kansas; and the
granaries Of the plains can successfully
compete with the granaries of the Old
World. All the lands IN western Kansas
cannot be irrigated; in no arid country in
the world can more than 10 per cent OF the
land be irrigated. The catchmenu area
must always be at least ten times as great
as the irrigated area. 1t must sometimes
be twenty and even fifty times the irri-
| gated areas, so that your conditions in
Kansas are much like those of other lands.
When lands are once redeemed and placed
under scientific management by the utiii
cation OF wafer, most prosperous and
bountI!ul homes are developed. lrriga-
! ton civilization must necessarily be of
the highest character, and happy are the
people who contrel the waters for them
selves and who do not supinely wait upon
tickle laws OF climate.
B A. M'ALLAsTER On PUMPS.
B. H. McAllaster. land commissioner of
the Union Pacific system, had for his SUBJ
ject Irrigation by Pumps" and be dealt
with it ably and rntertainIngly. Hequoted
from the printed reports of the agricultural!
experiment station Rt Fort Collins, Colo
RADIO, TO show that a stream of water flow-
ing continuously one cubic foot per second
will, during the month of June, during
which month the most water is required
for growing crops, suffice for sixty to sixty.
five acres Of ,aud. For the entire irrigat-
season the same stream is sufficient for l.5