The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-03-23


fco, Nevada and Arizona, where the need
scorches and withers under its most arid
conditions and cries the loudest for an an
swer, but little has been done beyond be-
ginning. The feeling throughout the west
is that nothing will be done on the large
scale needed till congress shows its willing
rless to cooperate with the states, at least
to the extent of transferring its claims to
such lands as shall be made valuable by
the essential gift of water 1t is believed
that the acreage thus made fertile would
go far if not fully to recoup the cost of the
irrigation system.
Use For Heavens Rain.
A succinct review of the problem and of
the conditions involved will be of interest
The area of our public domain naturally fit
for agriculture will soon be exhausted. The
arid section contains 579, Co, 6S3 acres, near
ly half of which could be made richly pro-
ductive by irrigation for wide range Of
crops, from wheat to fruits, temperate and
semitropical. The time will come when
the great American desert of Fremont's ex-
ploring period, which extended 900 miles
east of its present limits, will shave nearly
disappeared in toto. With sufficient water
the yellow sands will become a carpet of
yerdure. To have the rains of heaven
whether stored up in the natural reservoirs
under ground and thus reached by artesian
wells, or whether damned up in great lakes
above ground, on free tap, and thus under
perfect control. is the object of scientific ir-
rigation.
The uses to which this historic science
has been put and the magnificent scale of
its operation in other countries in ancient
and modern times are too well known to
need comment Even in the ancient ruins
of prehistoric cities of our own west can be
found the remains of great aqueducts and
conduits. The man of the west is only try
ing to repeat on little bigger scale what
his predecessor did before Columbus came
The two main methods by which it is
sought to accomplish irrigation on a large
scale are the artesian well system and the
reservoir system. Major Powell, the accom-
plished head of the geological survey, has
rendered his belief that no great results
will be achieved by artesian wells, basing
his theory on the fact that multiplication
of these wells always so lessons the avail
able supply that they soon cease TO be free
flowing. This has been the case east of the
Mississippi without question. But other
scientists are convinced that the geological
conditions of the transmissouri west cause
the absorption OF enormous volumes OF wa
ter in the earth, and that vast subterranean
rivers flow under Idaho Nevada and Ari-
Zona, unseen Mississippis which only need
TO be tapped to furnish limitless supply.
The experiments in Nevada, though not
such as to fully settle the question, are
highly encouraging. And the exquisite
GASES of greenery which delight the railway
traveller in traversing the Nevadan sand
and sagebrush, especially the little paradise
of Humboldt, are proofs of what artesian
water can do.
A Successful Experiment..
The most remarkable exhibition of irri-
CATION engineering on large scale are in
the artificial lakes or reservoirs OF Califor-
mia In the midst of a mountainous coun-
try, where the physical conditions are right,
these seem to solve the problem best. The
reservoir formed by the Bear valley dam in