The Goodland republic., 1896-05-08

sandy aiinvia, capable Of holding a
large quantity of water and underlaid
By beds Of gravel holding much more.
The water is from Is to D feet from
the surface, and extends downward as
much more, in some cases to a depth Of
30 or 100 feet.
"There is also in many of these val
leys a second bottom 20 to 10 feet high
er and the water bearing gravel extends
under this, giving abundant supply to
pump at depth of so to 10 feet. Prac-
tically there is water to irrigate all the
bottom lands of these valleys. The
Arkansas valley, three to five miles
wide, from Hutchinson to La Junta
may be one large garden; the valley of
the Smoky Hill and the two Republi-
cans each for over 100 miles; and that
of the South Platte, from Sterling to
its confluence with the northern
stream, may be strips Of greenery by
means of using the underfOw. Many
smaller valleys may add to this effect.
"This is not a theory based on imper-
feet observations. Its value lies in
what has already been demonstrated.
Near Garden City on the Arkansas, 100
pumping plants are now irrigating or
Chards, gardens and fields of alfalfa.
In the small valley of the Eagletail, a
tributary of the Smoky Hill, in Wallace
county, Kan, half a dozen small areas
are being irrigated in the same way;
and both Colorado and Nebraska and
the South Platt has illustrated its pos
sibilities by productive orchards and
alfalfa fields thus irrigated. In the
valleys of the mountain rivers some of
this underfOw is entirely from the
mountains. In the valley of the plains
rivers this is not the case. The water
has another source.
"West of the Tooth meridian, partic-
ularly in the mid-plain region-east-
ern Wyoming, eastern Colorado, west
ern Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma,
with northern Texas-the plains proper
the rolling uplands, vastly exceed in
area the valley lands, and it becomes a
much more important question whether
any large part of these areas can be
made productive by irrigation. In a
large part of the uplands, probably so
per cent of the whole, there is a great
sheet of underground water, or rather
series of sheets, that in places ap-
proach in thickness and volume the
underhow of the great river valleys.
without going further into details
it may be affirmed that the visible
watero of thestreams, with the underfow
flowing beneath their beds and under
the adjacent bottom lands, is sufficient
to irrigate in the great valleys of the
plains an area probably larger in pro-
portion than is accomplished in the ir-
rigated districts of California OF Utah,
and that without carrying water far.
These great valleys may become per-
manent gardens in the desert. This is
also true of the smaller valleys to
great extent.
"The Running Water, the Chugwater,
the LodgepOle, the Frenchman, the
Republican, the Prairie Dog, the Smoky
Hill, the CimarrOn, the Medicine, the
Canadian, and the Red river will all
have have long lines of permanent fer
tility assured by artificial application
Of water Much of this will be done By
lifting water with ordinary pumps,
centrifugal pumps and water elevators.
1t is shown that it can be done. There
are examples in nearly all these val
leys. It is a marked feature of the Ar
kansas valley in western Kansas.
"But the sum total of these areas,
though perhaps amounting to % per
cent Ia very large proportion) of the
bottom lands and second bottoms, res
oued thus from frequent dearths would
be, after all, incOnsiderable as compar-
ed with the whole plains region. The
high prairie of the interfuvial spaces,
notably from the Tooth to the 10th
meridian can be supplied with water
only from wells from so to 800 feet
deep. Fortunately the districts where
they are over 200 feet are not extensive.
There are areas where for scores Of
miles the wells are less than 100 feet
deep; there are others where the depth
is between 100 and 200 feet. Engineers
of repute confidently state that me-
chanical difficulties in the way of lift
ing the water sufficient for five or ten
acres from these depths are all over
come, and that at a cost that will leave
a margin Of profit for the careful culti-
vator. There are isolated experiments
showing this in many parts of the
plains region, but in the spaces in
cluded between the forks of the Re-
publican and its tributaries the work
done is a demonstration
"In Sherman county, Kan, and the
neighboring part of Colorado, there
are upwards Of a hundred acres Of If