Omaha daily bee., 1895-12-15
LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE
The Value of Irrigation Demonstrated in
Central Nebraska.
The GOSPEL OF ARTIFICIAL MOISTURE
DnnishcS the Dread OF Drouth aud
InSurcs n Observation-Disclosures
Sources of suppiS-Thc tn
dcrground Reservoirs.

"And the Lord God plant d o garden cast
ttrd in Eden . = and a river went out
of Eden to water the garden."-Gen. oslo.
We're the rainfall throughout the regions
occupied by agricultural peoples always
abundant and certain, Il might not Sc m
strange that they should be content 90 de-
pend entirely on the bounty Of nature to
supply the moisture necessary for their crops
direct from the clouds. but sine this is no
%toriously not the case, it appears almost In
comprehensive that such implicit trust and
dependence should be placed in an lrratic
factor for the proper development and per-
fection Of that on which not only the pros
perity and happiness. but even jhe lives OF
Who'll commonwealths depend.
From the earliest settlement Of the Ameri-
can colonies the known portions of the con-
tinent have been subject to visitations Of
occasional or frequent drouth, aad 1t may
be safely said that mora or less lnconven-
fence. If not actual distress. on account of
irregular or insufficient precipitation has been
experi5 need by every agricultural community
from Plymouth Rock to the Golden Gate.
and in view of the wealth of facts that Will
readily occur to any mind, we may safely
draw the broad but incontestable conclusion
that the richest soil on the face of the
globe is capable Of making nothing but a
desert without the presence of water.
The season Of 1894. both east and west.
was one Of severe and protracted drouth.
Not only were eastern cities d5pending on
springfield reservoirs for their water supply
limited to a quantity much below the line
To- fire purposes, to say nothing of the great
dificulty Of obtaining suflicii mt for mere
domestic uses. but worse than that, the till
ers of the soil. on whose success the pros
perity of the country so greatly depends.
were compelled to conttnt themselves with
the garnering of deficient and scanty har-
vests, and a country that is often groaning
with lavish abundance was numbered with
reluctant fields, ~fruitless orchards and crop
less meadows. The exercise of additional
economy. even with the most frugal, be-
came a necessity, while in the aggregate
the income of the agricultural classes was
reduced untold thousands, all Of which had
Its necessary reflex action on mercantile in
terests and the general prosperity-or rather
unprosperity-of the commonwealth.
But II the drouth of 1894 thus affected the
older settled portions Of the country where a
prudent conservatism has learned to garner
wisdom from generations of experience, it fell
with the force of a calamity on the farmers
OF the transmisscuri region, where condi-
lions incident to and inseparable from the
limited period of settlement, the heterogeneal
character Of the population and the neces-
sary lack of indigenous traditional standards
placed the tillers of the soil. to a certain
but definite extent. at a manifest disadvan-
tage. 1t is. perhaps, only natural in a region
where Providence is wont to smile so bounti-
fully on the labors of the husbandman that
habits approximating prodigality are engen-
dered In a larger measure than can be the
case In localities where more arduous toll on
less fertile acres receives but a meager re-
ward, and the immediate and unavoidable
result Of these conditions Is that when a
time of undeniable scarcity, like the season
OF 1884, intcrvenes, instead of its havina
found the yoemanry Of the country luxuriat-
ing on the stored surplus Of former and
abundant years. it found them largely with
out visible resource and depending entirely
for support on current crops-crops in that
case that withered and fell before the cutting
breath of the simeon, but felt not the knife
or the reaper and when the late autumnal
sun began to cast his weakening beams over
the beautiful but blighted land his summer
rays had cursed they fell on many a prairie
home where stout hearts quailed as they
thought of their empty barns and grainless
bins. Active measures of relief by our own
people and the highly commendable and
even lavish generosity of kind friends and
philanthropists in more favored localities for
tunately averted the keen edge of calamity
which the victims had no power to ~forestall.
THE FLIGHT AND RETURN.
Some temporarily turned their backs upon
the rich but blighted heritage that Uncle
San had given and fed to the homes of rel
v dai liitHuS III OlItl AIT supposedly
more favored states to spend the winter and
avoid the hardships that all degrees of destl-
tuition bring. Large numbers of this latter
class, after a season spent in farming among
the stumps and stones and ague, mists and
mud of Missouri and other states, have gladly
returned to their first love. satisfied that,
while Nebraska has not quite all the bless
ings that the earth can AFFORD. 1t has at least
as large a share as any other locality, and
abundantly corroborate the Cft-eXpressed opin-
ion that tlAaA ,rIA $50.
to our pure air and cloudless heavens find it
next to impossible to live contentedly beneath
the murky skies of other climes.
1t was long hoped and honestly believed
that evidences of the increase of the rainfall
could be seen. and every year of maximum
precipitation was heralded as an evidence of
this supposed fact. The seasons Ct 1890 and
1894, however, did much to dispel this hy-
%pothesis, and il is now more generally felt
than ever before that irrigation in soms
form and to some extent is absolutely necas-
sary for universally successful farming over
a wide extent of country, where 1t was for
merly spiritelly argued that agriculture
mlgnt be carried on safely and probably I'M
der natural conditions. The advantages that
central Nebraska possesses for irrigation have
been until comparatively recently strangely
overlooked. Here. though the 1griculturist
can and frequently does produce notable
crops, the irregularity and insuficiency of the
rainfall have prevented the country from at
tanning that advanced state Of development
which otherwise is its due. Though not as
well supplied with running surface streams
as many other countries, what il has are re-
markedly even and regular in character, the
Loups, the Cedar and others, for instance,
flowing approximately the same at all sea-
sons. This apparent anomaly is explained by
the fact that they are fed by the water ac-
cumulated in the tertiary grit and other
similar deposits, which undsTlie thousands of
miles Of the country whera these rivers take
their rise and from which they may be said
to seep from year to year with remarkable
consistency. quite regardless of whether the
weather be wet or dry. More important, per-
haps, In the light of the eminent success at
tanned with windmill and pumping plants in
Kansas recently, is the further fact that al
most the entire country Is underlaid with so
far as is known. an ineXhaustible reservoir
of water, which may be reached at from
fifteen 10 eighty feet from the surface by
merely boring 10 the required depth with an
earth augur. and this great underground sea
is Of unknown depth. and when conditions
shall b. such as to justify Investment in
proper pumping machinery the highest up
lands, the soil Of which is equally productive.
can readily be converted into garden spots
whose fruit shall fail net and the harv5sts of
which shall be far more certain than in the
most fa..,rAl alt,,ataa ON thu uiph- INufnra