The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-12-19
A RENO COUNTY FAaMER ON IRRI-
CATION

To the Editor Of the Eagle
| Thirty years ago there was no Idaho
known by that name, but there was a
! Boise river. and at that time gold was
| discovered along its BANKS and for years
the rocker and shovel sift.d out the
shining sands and washed and rocked
them for the golden ,reasurers they
yielded. Soon the mountains were pros
pected and found rich in gold, silver
and lead. but more especially gold. The
miners cabins dotted the mountains, and
just at their base a little village was
started, which is the Boise City OF today.
A city of some eight thousand sous,
spread out on perfectly level valley.
The mountains sweeping round it in a
half circle seem to bend their hoary
heads over it in silent benediction aud
loving prodigality ready to yield their
princeIy treasures at the tapping Of the
pick. Boise valley extends about sixty
miles from the city west. The river
winds through it and empties into the
Snake river and the Snake river into the
Columbia.
The whole valley, with but few ex-
ceptions, has the richest soils. Although
there are winter rains and some little
snow there are no summer rains, and
of course no vegetation can grow ex-
cept sage brush which needs 10 water.
This defect has been supplied by
irriga ion. All around Boise City the
rancnes have water on them. There are
three systems of dItcnes, and land that
was worthless, on which nothing but
sage brush had grown within the knowl-
edge of man, now yields sixty bushels
of wheat, one hundred bushels of oats,
per acre when it has water on it. But
these are not the staple products. They
rai-e crops that pay better-apple, pear
and especially prune orchards. II is
nothing unusual Tor a ranchman to
clear $4,000 off of eighty acres OF
prunes. Vegetables of all descriptions
yield enormously and are of the finest
tiavOrs, as are al,O the fruits, as they
never suffer for moisture. All agricult-
urls know that lack of suffic mt water
deteriora es the flavor of fruits and vege-
tables. All along the valley new houses
are going up, new Lind being turneI
over. and new orchards set as fast as the
irrigation bitches are extended. This
makes one think how could irrigation he
applied to Kansas farms. We have no
river that does not fail in dry weather
just when we would most need it. All
middle and southern Kansas is under
laid by lake of water, at a greater or
less depth from the surface never taii-
ing iuexhaustable fountain. A moder
ate sizrd steam engine or a
series of wlndmills placed where
you want your reservoirs would
tanned from loss of crops on my farm in
Reno county, thi. year, would put in all
necessary irrigatiug facilities and left
me living besioes. or course there are
years We would not need to irrigate our
wheat fields very much, but the yi.id
would always he increased by it, and
there has not been a year in the past
fourteen when tile yield of corn could
not have been nearly doubled. and
when fruits. vegetables, and especially
potatoes, would not have been trebled.
1t is a very simple thing when once in
application. Far more simple when
every farm has its own reservoir filled by
power while the owner controls, and with
water from his own wells. Then when
there has TO be a system which supplies
500 farms, Kansas with her rich soils
inexhau5table, her warm suns and long
seasons would bloom ana blossom in
clover and tonic grapes of all descrip-
tions eight months in year if water
could always be used when needed.
There is no reason why fifty bushels of
wheat. $40 bushels of potatoes and seven
ty-fne bushels of corn should not he
raised per acre in southern and middle
Kansas if irrigated. Perhaps it is not
generally known in Kansas that Thomas
county, in the northwestern part of
the state, carried off the prizes for Kan
sas for fruits and vegetables at the
worlds falr. Why? Because they irri-
gate. The farmers of III .ddle and south
ern Kansas are able to put III their own
irrigating works and irrigate their own
farms, with water stored in reservoirs
which they have built, raised 10y steam
and forced by force pumps to any con-
velieDt spot from which to run their
sluices and bitches. The tax ptid for
ditch water per acre each year would 90
far towards putting in works on each
farm T.. r. GILMORE,
Boise City. Idaho.