The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-04-03
The auisha Gully Eagle arlaay cdornie April s. 1896.

| channel of the South Platte in Nebras
ka and of the Arkansas in Kansas ties
tify TO the amount of wafer used for ir
rigation in Colorado within a short dist
ance Of the mountains. The construc
ton of vast reservoirs in the mountain
valleys and vast bitches just east of ths
foothills will make that region pro
I ductive area, but scarcely touches the
problem of the plains, except to make
sure that no water of the mountains
shall be available for irrigation of the
plains proper.
For the plains region. then, the prob
lem is threefolds, relating 20 parts hav,
ing marked Typographical features
These are the bottom-lands of the val
| legs, the slopes Of the valleys and
ravines. and the rolling prairie of the
up-lands. OF the second ii may be said
that comparatively small portion only
will ever be irrigated. The more the
lands approach the bad land type the
| less area can be utilized; but even here
some will be utilized, as We shall see
further on.
ION the uplan plains and the smooth
| river bottoms what water is used for ir-
! rigation win mostly come from under
ground What has been called 1.-The
mighty under6ow of the plains" will
have TO be tapped and raised 10 the
surface by mechanical appliances. In
the valleys of the mountain rivers. and
also in those of the plains rivers, the
underfiow is great fact. All these
valleys, through several degrees of
longitude, have more or less smooth
bottem-landS, composed of sandy allu-
via, capable of holding a large guam
tity Of water, and underlaid by beds of
gravel holding much more. This water
is from 10 to % feet from the surface,
and extends downwards as much more,
in some cases TO depth Of 80 or 100
feet There is also in many of these
valleys second bottom 20 TO 40 feet
higher and the water-bearing gravel
extends under This, giving aboundant
supply TO pump at depth of 80 to 40
weet- Practically 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
Republicans each for over one hundred
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 under
flow. Many smaller valley may add
to this effect. This is not a theory
based on imperfect observations. Its
value lies in what has been already
demonstrated. Near Garden City, on
the Arkansas, a hundred pumping
plants are now irrigating orchards,
gardens and fields of alfalfa. In the
small valley of the Eagietail, a Tibu-
tary of the Smoky Hill, in Wallace
county, Kansas, half Il dozen small
areas are being irrigated in the same
way; and both Colorado and Nebraska
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 under1ow is certainly 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 plains 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 50
per cent Of the whole, there is great
sheet of underground water, or rather
series of sheets, that in places approach
in thickness and volume the underhow
of the great river valleys"
Then follows brief note Of the geolo-
gical structure Of the mid plains show
ing the locale OF this water. which for
obvious reasons is here omitted. The
third, or concluding part of the able
and posthumous treatise is herewith
submitted entire:
Without going further into details
1t may be affirmed that the visible
water Of the streams, with the under
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 or Utah. |
and that without carrying water far
These great valleys may became per-
gardens in the desert. This is !
also true Of the smaller valleys TO a
great extent The Running Water. the |
the Lodgepole, the French |
man. the Republican, the Prairie Dog. |
the Smoky Hin, the Cimarron, the |
Medicine. the Canada, and the Red !
river will all have long lines of permsn-
ent fertility assured by the artificial !
application Of water. Much of this |
will be done by lifting the water with !
pumps. centrifugal pumps |
and water elevators 1t is shown that |
Il can be done. There are examples IN |
nearly all these valleys 1t is mark |
ed feature of the Arkansas Valley in /
western Kansas.
But the sum total OF these areas, I
though perhaps amounting TO - per
cent "a very large proportion OF the !