The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-10-07
!. THE IRRIGATION PROBLEM.

| The following extracts are from an in
teresting article contributed by H. Elmer
son, to the August number of the nriga-
ton Age, and we give it place at this
time, because of the large and growing
interest in irrigation topics. Mr.. Emer-
son says:
! The amount of water really needed for
crop purposes is very much less than is
generally imagined, much less than the
average rainfall of all but the dryest
can be absolutely controlled Gases are
on record in California practice where
one inch of water per inch of surface has
been sufficient, and yet we have crop
u and q inches, of which three-quarters
falls during the crop-growing months.
EFFICIENCY OF WATER.
In different parts of the irrigated
world there is an astounding difference
IN the efficiency of water. and. as might
| be expected, the United States furnishes
examples of extreme waste and extreme
economy.
Taking the flow of one cubic foot per
| second l. Without making any allowance
Tor differing ralnfalls and different
iengths OF growing season, this supplies
IN Colorado from so to 80 acres; Italy.
70; Utah and France, so to 1907; India,
| fornia, so to LOGO, and by sub-irrigation
! plpes) from 1,500 to 5000.
| Near Greeley, Colo, the farmer who
CiouDlS IL MS spring OF brook WOULD SUI
flee for 20 acres extends his cultivation
bit by bit until it reaches so or 100 acres
and ne still has some to spare.
tb Bitshop Mu 1s of Salt Lake, states
from certain source there was only
water enough for 900 acres, while the
same amount now supplies more than
5000.
Fresno, Cal, furnishes one of the most
striking examples of the effects of irri-
CATION. Fifteen years ago the sandy soil.
CRASHES and treeless for scores of
square miles, maintained only a few
herds of cattle: There was no sign of
cultivation; water could only be obtain
ed by sinking wells forty to eighty feet.
and the rainfall was both irregular and
insufficient. The King river, the one
available stream. carried sometimes no
more than 500 cubic feet per second. For
some time, even after the canal to supply
this colony had been constructed, so
rapidly did the open ditch absorb the in
take that it was thought the water
would never reach the settlement at all.
Week, by week, the thread of water
entered the fields, the flow. steadily
Strengthening, creeping farther and
farther on, feeding an Overwhelming dis
trict, until today there are fifteen canals
drawing their waters from this river, ir-
rigating $1,000 acres, which form a chain
of settlements all around the central
miles beyond it. Water can now be
struck anywhere across the whole plain
at ten feet Irrigation by flooding is be-
ing abandoned, for the once arid region
has become thoroughly moistened, and
where until lately the contention for
water was keen and ceaseless, one hears
now of suits against canals on account
of the damage done by too much water
In Fresno drainage has become a vital
question. The largest vineyard In the
district has not been watered for two
years.
RESERVOIRS NEEDED.
Unfortunately the flow of water in
rivers, dependent as it is on the rainfall
varies like the rainfall, and comes when
it is not needed or In too great quantity
to be utilized Without storage basins
and reservoirs the quantity of land to
be benefited by irrigation will be restrict
ed to that reached by the minimum flow
in the bitches during the crop months.
This cannot be but a small part of the
whole, for all the flood water will be lost
and all the fall and winter flow.
Happily, on all the western tablelands
there are natural reservoirs which, with
immense storage basins. A single basin
of this kind is already in operation in
Powers county, Colorado, near the
Kansas line, and though the enterprise
has been financially mismanaged the
reservoir, which covers 2,400 acres, has
contained water for two years, and is
supposed to be capable of furnishing suf
ficient water to reclaim 100000 acres.
Comparativ small ditch enterprises
and the reservoirs have already made
Powers county more prosperous than any
eastern Colorado or western Nebraska
and western Kansas county.