The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-15

ter carried by the mountain streams
may easily be used for watering the
irrigable lands within the mountain
areas or within a few miles-ffty, as a
maXimum-east of the foothills Only
engineering or other difficulties in the
way of its nearer application will ulti-
mately allow any of the water of the
mountain rivers TO be used on the dis
tant plains. Suc,n failure of distant ap-
plication is seen in the Arkansas valley
of western Kansas. The water of that
river can now rarely fill the Kansas
bitches, as irrigation canals of more
recent construction in Colorado absorb
it all Here is case to be settled by
national law. Priority of water use is
conceded as establishing the prior
claim of individuals in the state courts.
Similar equitable adjustment between
states is the province of Congress.
THE RIVERS NOT ENOUGH.
The irrigation of the plains, then, can
not be accomplished by the mountain
streams. The rivers of the plains-Re-
publican, Niobrara, etc.-being much
smaller in volume, cannot do more
parts of their own valleys and the adj
joining solpes. The Dakota rivers above
mentioned will. serve. to water very
small areas. The streams further
south will do more. If they are used
to the best advantage there will in a
few years be many vallys 100 to 200
miles long and some shortrr that will
become permanent strips of fertility,
giving every year fruits and grain for
the service of man and beast. If this
should be done, and the surface or I'M
derfioW water of the mountain streams
should do the same for the larger val
leys, there would still remain the larg-
er part of the area of the plains to be
provided with water This is the glori-
QUE rolling upland of the west, the in
terfluvial spaces Of the plains. These
interfluvial spaces are the pains
proper.
Ever increasing in altitude westward,
clothed with the carpet buffalo grass,
these high prairies are eXhilarating to
the traveller from the freshness of the
breeze and the unsurpassed clearness
of the sky. Though always gently roll
Ing, the pillow in many districts c2n fur
row these lands for fifty miles without
being lifted But the buffalo grass is
mostly brown, planted trees have a
hard struggle for existence, and the
settler who farms his own land has a
harder struggle still
Once in a while, without irrigation,
this soil will yield forty to sixty bushels
Of wheat to the acre as in 1892. Oftener
the yield is from five to ten bushels
This is from want of rain at the crit
ical period of crOp-growing The rain
fall along the 1929 meridian for 400 or
500 miles is eighteen or twenty inches
per annum. That on the 1O4th is prob
ably six or seven inches less. In either
case. crops could be grown if rain came
at the right time. But a heavy storm
in August or October is no use for crops
that should ripen in June or July
Hence the need of Irrigation
TWO WAYS OF SECURING WATER.
The questions of moment in this re-
gion are:
can the storm waters be conserved
IN reservoirs, to be available for irriea-
ton when wanted?
Z Are there any underground waters
that can be economically raised to the
surface for the same purpose?
The first question can largely be an
swered in the affirmative. In the gentle
valleys of the high prairies there are
areas sufilciently varied from the pre-
Vailing type to make good reservoir
sites. The making of the reservoirs,
IN many cases, will be inexpensive; in
others the dams will be costly. But
much water can be thus stored, though
II VIII be more for the benefit of the
the high land of the plains
TO the second question the answer is
quite as favorable. There are under
ground waters available for the irriga-
tlon OF much land on the higher levels
OF the plains. The cost of reaching this
water is not great, but it varies in diff
1erent parts OF the plains, while there
are districts Of considerable extent
Where the cost will be uniform, as the
depths of the wells are about the same
through an entire district. There exists
geological formation stretching with
comparatively slight interruptions from
the north of Nebraska far down into
the Panhandle of Texas, which supplies
ABUNDANT water to all the wells that
have been sunk to it. Pumps moved
by wind, by horsepower and by steam
nave found it's waters inexhaustible:
ana these waters are so widespread
that they are available for the irriga-
tlon OF from three to ten acres on ev-
cry quarter section Of tens of thous-
ands OF square miles The use Of the
water will enable the yeoman tilling
MS own SOIL to have a sure crop on
some part of his demesne every year,
Whlie on the rest he can raise cattle
or such vegetation as the climate al
lows mere are many crops now
known to the western prairies of which
the first settlers were ignorant, but
which are more adapted to the eli
matte conditions than the standard
crops of the eastern states.
In certain parts of the plains-e. e.,
Ford and Meade counties, Kansas-the
phreatic waters of the geological for
nation referred to above, are used for
irrigation, by means of artesian wells
flowing at the rate of five to sixty or