The Florence tribune., 1898-12-24
The Annexation Of the Arid wes,


 By F. H. NEWELL. Chief of the Hydro. graphic Division of the Geological Survey, in the New York Indepenuent.
 Now that annexations of territorvI are under consideration and the utility of various tropical islands matter ofl current discussion, it should not be forgotten that the United States govs| ernment already possesses a princely1 domain which, for all practical pur- poses, is still as legitimate subject for annexation as any new country in the world. 0ne-fhird of the area of the United States is owned by thel general government, or about two thirds of the territory between the Tooth meridian and the Pacific coast. The greater part of this immense area is, in it's natural condition, worthless for agricultural purposes, and hence does not furnish homes for our sgrow-a ing population. And yet this land is the most fertile in the world, and water, the only thing which it. lacks, can be supplied. The farm lands of. the east, and of the humid regions of the world generally, besides being. more or less exhausted by constant cultivation, have for ages been washed
 by copions rainfalls. In the ssestj
 where freshets have not robbed tho
 soil of its mineral salts, fertility has
 for centuries been accommodating, with
 the result that to-day, under proper
 irrigation, four acres of land, produe-
 ing from three to five crops Afyears
 can be made to support a family, while
 in the other farm lands of thesworld 8
 hundred acres is after insufficient. A
 small piece of our arid land devoted
 to semi-tropical fruits, garden vegeta- bles and forage plants, under irriga.
 tion produced wonderful results.
 In nearly all of the arid regior irrigation is not only feasible, but hai been proved successful. It is no always financially profitable t. ] the private corporation looking , for eight per cent 7dividen ds Q but in the same sense that a lighthouse a the dredging of harbor, or the i'm provement of 8 river is profitable,
 would pay the community or tn general government to open this grea
 area for agricultural use, and s
 make it the comfortable homo C millions of prosperous people. Irrigs F tion is one of the simplest processes i S the world, and it's fundameuts e methods have changed little since tn V time of the Pharaohs. It is simpl Q the storage and gradual use througl out the year of the floods which com
 at particular season, usually in Ma
 and June, and go to waste. Artesia
 wells are in some instances successful employed; but the main reliance in th a west will probably continue to be Il e surface water. Although the system IS ssrSeay .ns5te-oI atlie. .fesax56n 7of- wat re to the development of vegetable If e or why we apply water to the soil. ;s is known, for instance, that water ma
 be so supplied to potatoes as to mal them small in size and many in a hii
 or by different application of wats
 they may be made few and larg,
 Water given in quantity to grain at 'e certain stage will make the crop run t o straw. Similar observations in tn It ease of fruit-trees are equally familiar n but the whole subject rests upon il 'I dividual experiences rather than scier v tinc certainty. An accurate know 3. edge of water effects will form tn U basis of the intelligent practice ( l. irrigation. Already the egriculturs 'e stations in the west are making exper e ments in this line, under the direC o ton of Dr. A. c. True, and from ther Il important results may flow.
 Our land laws are not the mos r favorable to the development of irrigs d ton. The plotting is now done on tn l. rectangular system, which is adnpte r to humid country, where one quarter y section is as well watered as another :. But where the rivers are few it ma 7 happen that one quarter-section vii embrace all the water obtainn ble for ? thousand sections. The man wh 3 then gets control of the waterhold n master of the situation, and those wh : come after him get nothing, becaus water in the arid regions is the founds tion of value; without it land is worth
 less. To avoid this result our phbii
 land should be divided in reference t
 its water rights, and thus give ever settler chance at it's reclamation.
 In the early days of the republi
 when times were hard, the men whs felt crowded in the east, or who pre- : ferred the larger venture of pioneer life, packed up their goods in s four-horse wagon and started ou
 west to the Ohio reserve or to Indiana