The National tribune., 1899-08-17
IRRIGATION IN THE FAR WEST.

IRRIGATION IN THE FAR WEST.
1t is a reproach to this age of great en-
gineering feats that every year devourlng
floods on the Missouri, Arkansas, Red,
Colorado, and Rio Grande Rivers devastate
the country, and few months later hum
dreds of millions of acres lie parched.
sterile, and unproductive for lack OF the
water which has been allowed to run t"
worse than waste.
With all our advances in other direc-
tions, we are far behind the people of %
centuries ago in our knowledge and appli-
cation of the science of irrigation. The
ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Jews, Chi
nese, and even the Peruvians, and who
ever were the inhabitants of New Mexico
and Arizona, understood and practiced
better than we the art of carefully CON
serving the water that fell during Winter
for use on their fields during Summer.
1t is true that they had but small areas,
but the extent of country that they rem
dered certainly fertile every year by this
means was much larger in proportion to
their means than the whole extent that
could be fully irrigated by the superabun-
laut waters of the rivers named. With
their mechanical and engineering knowl-
edge, with their tools and their limited
population and capital, the building of a
storage reservoir a square mile in extent,
=.
was bigger proposition than would be to
us the storage of all the excess waters of
the mighty Missouri, and their distribu-
ton over the arid plains Of Wyoming,
South Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, and
Kansas. If this were done it would fur
nish farms, homes, food, and livelihood
for millions.
There is one enormous advantage that
we have over any previous irrigators, and
that is in the abundance and cheapness of
iron. This will enable great conduits to
be laid to reach any section, instead of
being confined to bitches, which must
follow the configuration of the ground or
be carried across valleys and ravines by
expensive aqueducts. We got hint of
the future in this direction by an order to
our iron manufacturers from Australia
year or two ago for 300 miles of iron pipe
That length would carry water from the
foothills of the Rockies to almost any point
on the plains below.
It is true that the present tendency of
iron is upward, but the constant wave is
toward cheapening its production by inn
provements in the methods of manufacture.
Irrigation Congresses have already done
much good work in arousing attention to
the vast importance of the subject. What
is wanted is such public interest in the
work as will lift it to the plane of great
National policy, like the Rivers and Har-
bors, the Seaside Fortiications, the Navy,
and the Tariff systems. 1t is deserving of
fully as much interest and agitation as the
most important of these. The people on
the lower rivers deserve protection from
the annual inundations The home-seek-
ers deserve to have the desert places made
fit for habitation, and for their improving
labor
What is Immediately needed is the inaug-
| uration of a comprehensive National policy
of irrigation, which will select the sites of
storage basins in the Rocky Mountains
and their foothills, and begin their con-
struction. 1t viii be high economy to
begin this work at once, while the title to
| all the lands involved remains in the United
States. AS soon as any lines of irrigation
are decided upon, there will be a rapid
settlement of the lands to be benefited, and
their improvement will compensate the
Government for any outlay
Senator Warren came near getting bill
through the last Congress to begin this
work. 1t can be done in the coming ses-
sion if those who see the immense i'm
portance Of the work will arouse themselves
and make their influence felt.
| When once the benefits Of irrigation are
demonstrated, other methods will be EN-.
ployed in addition TO the great Govern.
ment works. There are subterranean
rivers in large areas of the arid section
Windmills employed as freely as they are
in Holland would bring up enough water
to irrigate great tracts. In California they
are even bringing in electricity, with every
promise Of success, TO the work. The
power is generated by the waterfalls in the
mountains, and transmitted by wire to the
lowlands, where it will work pumps.
Proper effort will result in the arid and
semi-arid regions Of the far West being
made in the near future to support in as
sured comfort an immense population.
MORE strange bedfellows. Boss Croker
has become an neutrality-suspicious., and he