The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-08-25
CONSERVATION OF WATER.

CUNSENVAlIUN Vi WAlER.
by FORESTS, RESERVOIRS AND
CANALS.
Address BY w. f. CuImer at the
Graduation Exercises of the Ag-
ricuIturaL College of Utah.
The kinetic energy stored up in the
revolving fy-wheel carries the engine
over it's dead center. The potential
energy of the coal stored up in the
hold carries the vessel across the At
lantic. What the conservation of ener-
gy is to the machinery of this steam
and electric age, the conservation of
the water supply is to the prosperity of
arid America.
The first Anglo-Saxon explorers, not
more than generation ago, an
nounced the doom of aridity in large
part of this western land While it is
true that this so-called Great Ameri-
can Desert has given eight new states
and three territories to the Union, with
a population of more than 5000 900 peo-
pie, not to speak of the semi-arid re-
gion of Texas Kansas, Oklahoma, Ne
braska and the Dakotas, with a popuIa-
ton of five and quarter millions, yet
notwithstanding these great achieve
ments in political advancement and in
dustrial prosperity, the physical con-
dltions of this vast region remain the
same; the rainfall is insufficient to
mature the crops, and the curse Of arid
lty still rests upon the land.
In these days of promoters and exag-
gerated schemes on paper, western peo-
pie are likely to overlook the physical
conditions which nature intended to
govern throughout three-fifths of the
Union
Promoters, real estate men and par
ties generally not interested in the pub
nc welfare, tell us that immense rivers
now beneath the surface of the semi
arid plains of Kansas, Nebraska and
the Dakotas; that the rivers of the
ROCKY mountain states contain in
exhaustble supplies, more than enough
10 lrrlgate all of the arabic land within
their boundaries; and that the present
a
small percentage of what in the future
VIII be cultivated. Such exaggerated
statements have seldom been refuted.
Tor the reason that the people of the
east do not know much of the con-
ditions which prevail here.
The press, the engineering profession.
ana the people generally of the west,
nave been reluctant to do or say any
thing that, in their estimation. tends
TO ini1lra This 11arr -
of their adoption, even to the extent of
correcting over-fowery prospectuses.
In this way a great wrong has been
done Large investments have been
made to develop the underf1ow, build
dams for storage reservoirs, and to dig
canals; all in consequence of false
statements as to the amount of water
available. And it was not until these
enterprises were nearing completion
and vast sims of money had been use
lessly spent that the error was dis
covered. The irrigated west has suf-
fered enormously through the failure
of such undertakings; and it is time
that we publish to the world that the
available water supply of the west is
insufficient to irrigate all of the arabic
lands.
This is particularly true of Utah.
Twenty years before the Greeley colony
was established in the valley of the
Cache la Poudre, in northern Colorado,
and twenty-five years before the grape
center of Fresno and the orange center
of Riverside had been founded in Cali
fornia, the pioneers of Utah had dem
onstrated to the American people the
successful results of irrigation in the
basin of the Great Salt Lake Five
years more and Utah will have com
pleted' the first half century of irriga-
ton progress. Judging from the last
decade the state will then have fifteen
thousand homes surrounded by nearly
a million acres of well-cultivated valley
land, supporting population of three
hundred thousand. 1t is not SAFE
however, to carry the estimates beyond
the close of the present century. We
cannot assert, for instance, that be-
cause Utah has a land area of fifty
four million acres, that the irrigated
area, which is now less than a million
acres can be increased indefinitely.
The fact that the available water
supply is rapidly becoming fully util-
lied in all of the older settlements can
not be gainsaid; and the great waste
in this reproducing element, caused
by the systems now in vogue, is erect
ing an insurmountable barrier against
future development of irrigation 1t
must, therefore, be apparent to every
thinking citizen that all true progress
made in the future in the agricultural
interests of this territory will depend
upon the more economical use made of
the insufficient supply of water
We are thus brought back to
the subject of this paper: 1.-THE
Conservation of the Water Sup
ply"
The water supply of Utah can
be conserved for beneficial purposes
by the following methods.
Forestry Protection.
The life of our irrigation supply de-
ponds upon the protection and preser-
walton of the forests, at the head of
our mountain streams, from fire and
the ak. Forest fires are of frequent
occurrence and the amount Of devasta-
ton they cause is enormous. Once
well started, whole ridges, covering
vast areas, will be laid bare in sur
prisingly short time, leaving the
former forest site devoid of vegetation
for many years.
The losses caused by the AK, though