The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-04-13
"Co-opsratiVe Irrigation and the Colony Plan.
BIZ JOIN G. s1ErrrE. WICHITA. KASs.


BIZ JOIN G. sTEFFEE, WICHITA. hANs'
Read before the Interstate Irrigation Consen-
ton at Omaha, Nebraska, March I-1z, loSAj
These brief remarks are INTENDED 10
apply mainly 10 river and creek valley
where irrigation by the ordinary canal
system is impracticable, and where
continuous water supply OF at least one
hundred gallons per minute can be oO-
tanned by pumping from wells Not ex-
ceeding twenty-five feet in depth. The
writer's personal knowledge OF loca-
lions for such wells is confined, prln-
cipally to counties intersected by the
Arkansas and Cimarron rivers, and the
counties of Harper, Barber, Comanche,
Clark, Meade, kiowa, Pratt and King
man in Kansas, and i; is 10 Southwest
ern Kansas especially that this paper
refers.
1t is now generally conceded. and is
indeed a well known fact that the irri-
CATION OF five to fifteen acres of land,
by means Of a light service pump of
large capacity and with an ordinary
windmill as the motive power is both
successful and profitable, and the aim
of" Cooperative Irrigation and the Col
ony Plan" is to employ the same econ
omical and practical methods as are
now used by individual farmers, with
such notifications as experience, local
conditions and necessities will require.
and is recommended only as a means
of utilizing more fully the available
and favorable sites for irrigation plants,
and for distributing the benefits thereof
among the greatest number of users.
The development of this plan of irri-
CATION need not be confined exclusively
to pumping plants, but is well adapted
to numerous sites where small streams
can be utilized for irrigation of limited
areas, and especially where reservoirs
can be constructed to retain the storm
waters of the smaller catcbment basins.
The general features OF this plan, We
think, can be understood from the fol-
lowing example: Let tract of land,
varying from 40 acres 10 640 acres in
area, be selected according to the sur
face conditions and water supply, all
which tract can be thoroughly irri-
gated from pumping plants, reservoir of
catchment basins, or by utilizing the
water from a small stream in the i'm
mediate vicinity; then let this irrigated
tract be sub-divided into small piats Of
five to twenty acres each. and allow
each individual or family interested in
the development and maintenance of
said tract the use of one of the small
plats for the purpose of raising garden
vegetables, fruits, potatoes, DC, for
home consumption and for market.
This plan is capable of great modifi-
cation to conform to local conditions
and to exegencies dependent upon pri-
vate land ownership; and of many
classes or conditions which might be
named, we will notice only four.
FIRST - In neighborhoOds already
thickly settled, favorably located
tract of land comprising forty to one
hundred and sixty acres may be Sc
lected, and either purchased or leased
on the cooperative or partnership plan,
and irrigated by any method found 10
be the most economical and practicable,
and the expense of development and
maintenance pro-rated annually among
the farmers, using such irrigated land,
according to their respective interests
and the amount of water or land used
by each.
SecOnd-A farmer, on whose land
might be found favorable site for an
irrigation plant, could in some in
stances at his own expense, put in
bitches, pumps or reservoir OF suf1i-
cient capacity TO irrigate a portion of
his farm, say 30 to 100 acres; and after
retaining 20 TO 40 acres for his own use
as orchard, for alfalfa and for garden
and vegetables, he could lease each year
to his less favored neighbors the re-
mainder of the irrigated tract, in to 5
acre plats, for raising potatoes, small
fruits and root crops, the annual in
come from such leases alone would con-
tribute largely to the expense of MAIN
tenance and operation of the entire
tract.
Thrd-It is we'll known that many,
if not a majority of the most favorable
sites for irrigation plants, in the coun-
ties intersected by the Cimarron and
Medicine rivers, also along Salt Fork,
Mule creek, Kiowa creek and their trib-
utaries were appropriated many years
ago by ranchmen for ranch headquar-
tiers, and are still so held. 1t is equally
true that few if any of these large
ranches have been profitable invest
ments, during the last eight or ten
years, and that many of them are for
sale at very low prices, compared with
their original cost and former sup
posed values. For ranch purposes ex-
clusively, even at present prices, they
are not generally reckoned as safe in
vestments and are slow sale, and for
dry farming alone they are even more
so. If $50 acres or more of land. lOca-
ted near the center of a ranch of 200 TO
5000 acres, can be thoroughly irrigated.
and hamlet of 10 TO 20 families loca-
ted upon or Immediately adjoining
such irrigated tract, allowing D to 10
acres of irrigated land TO each family.
not only could the irrigated land be
fully utilized and the benefits distri-
buted among all the families in such
hamlet or village, but the entire ranch
would be or could be utilized for dry
farming and stock raising, and the sup
port of such families during seasons Of
extreme drouth. and times of extraor-
binary depression in the live stock
market would be assured.
FotTth-The principal. and we think
the strongest feature, of Cooperative
Irrigation and the Colony Plan j. the
following: Fully 80 per cent of the
lands in some of the counties Of South
western Kansas are now owned or con-
trolled by non-residents and mortgage
and land corporations the titles hav-
ing been acquired largely by mortgage