The Holly chieftain., 1898-10-14
,RR,oArion.
one Active Cause osAcolorado I'M
provement and Progress.
From The Elizabeth pa Herald.

From The Elizabeth (Pa.) Herald.
Every first visitor to Colorado from
the east is interested in the agricultural
operations there. so different from what
he has been used to at home. Irriga.
tion is the magic force which opens ma
ture's BOUNTY and causes the desert to
blossom as the rose. Those of lis who
were school boys and girls quarter Of
q century ago remember the teaching of
the Biographies that very large part
of the interior of our country was an
arid region called the "Great American n
Desert" and the teaching was that it
was hopelessly unproductive. But irri
CATION has worked a miracle there, for
it has been found that the parched and
dusty soil only needs the application OF
water in sufficient quantity to make il
a rich sandy loam. very deep Leasilx
titled and seemingly inexhaustible in
It's capacity for production.
The practice of irrigation in arid re-
2ions is one Of great antiquity. the
Egyptians having employed it from a
time when history is lost in the obscuri-
ty of tradition. The British conquest
of India revealed system of irrigation
practiced by the natives on scale OF
magnitude not vet equallsd elsewhere
1t has been the practice in Mexico for
ages. and was doubtless copied there
from that mysterious and vanished race
who once peopled the now desert wastes
of Arizona and New Mexico, the ruins
of their great canals. aqueducts and
reservoirs yet remaining to testify to
the activity and enterprise of this once
teeming population. Among our peo-
pie in our time there has been tardy
recognition of the possibilities of irriga-
ton, bnt recent years hsve witnessed
marvellous progress along this line.
1t was first begun on small scale.
chiefly through individual effort, on
the plains Immediately contiguous to
the foothills of the Rockies, the waters
being diverted from their natural chan
nels in the mountains and conducted by
bitches along the hillsides to the plains.
maintaining an elevation whence it
was easy to distribute them over all the
soil that it was desired to moisten,
From the beginning it has rapidly
grown into q vast system Of distribution
and storage. including great canals,
some of them more than one hundred
miles in length, reservoirs which are
lakes in their dimensions, and
intricate mechanism for the measure
ment and control of the outflow, the
whole representing many million dol
lars of investment. In the vernacular
Of the region every thing in the shape
Of a conduit for the water is q "ditch ,
be it canal capable of navigation ny
small steamboat or anything less than
that, down to the sidewalk gutter on the
town street.
1t is claim ed for irrigation that it not
only imparts moisture to the soil. but
brings in solution from the mountains
those salt and mineral substances need
ed for the enrichment of the soil, being
thus constant fertilizer, and leading
to the constant improvement of the soil
for the production of crops, rather than
lts impoyeriehment. eaid farmer to
me, in reply to suggestion that it was
! great deal of trouble to get the neces-
'ary moisture to the soil: Il would
lar rather do farming work under re-
liable system of irrigation than under
he conditions of farming in the east,
where l was brought up. There your
lands aid crops are always liable to be
burned up by drouth or washed out by
Hood. Here we get just the quantity
II water needed on the land and at Just
he times 1t Is needed. so that good
'rops every year are as nearly certain
. anything In human life can be-"
The modus 0perandi Of the individu-
II irriRator is very simple. He finds
he highest point on the ground 70 be