The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-08
|R|GAH()NS Of THE PAST
INDICATIONS THAT THE PRESENT
DAY Is NOT THE FIRST TO
~ TRY 1T
EVIDENCE IN THE SOUTHWEST
Indians Made Artificial Wateryvays
and Enjoyed Benefits for Cen
turfes-Utah Represents First
Modern Instance.

by Senator Warren, secured a small ap-
preparation to enable the secretary Of
agriculture to begin the study of the
problems of irrigation. The secretary In
trusted this work to Flwood Mead, at
that time state engineer of Wyoming, and
made Cheyenne the central office The
results secured were of such practical
value that the first appropriation of $4,000
was followed by one of $S5, COO and that by
$780, OO
One result has been to awaken an in
ter7st. in this subject IN the East and to
stimulate the construction of irrigation
works. The results obtained show that
| the ability to apply moisture when need
ed is one of the most effective aids to
success East as well as West The great
held of irrigated agriculture, however, is
IN the West, where il controls the social
| and industrial future of more than one
third of the United States
For the year book of the agricultural
department, Mr.. Mead has prepared an
! article of great interest, entitled the
Rise and Future of Irrigation" an alb
stract of which is given below:
The earliest pathway of civilization On
the American continent lee along the
banks Of the streams. In various parts
of the southwest, notably in the Salt
river valley of Arizona, in Northern New
Mexico, and along the borders of Cole
| RADIO and Utah are well-defined remains
OF irrigation works, which have outliVed
by many centuries the civilization To
! which they belonged. In at least one in
stance the bank OF an ancient canal has
been utilized as a part of modern works.
Riding up the valley of the Rio Grande
in the first half Of the sixteenth century
Spanish explorers found in the midst Of
arid surroundings beds of beautiful roses,
mot enlike those in the gardens Of Cas-
tile, as they noted in their diaries. They
also found Pueblo Indians irrigating the
| thirsty soil, as their forefatherS had done
for centuries before them and as their
descendants are still doing today. In
this valley and along the tributary
streams and at other places in the desert
wastes of the southwest Spanish settle
ments sprang up and maintained them
selves by means of these life-giVlng
waters The bitches at Las Cruces n
M, have an unbroken record of 800 years
of service, the history of which is written
in the banks Of the canals and in the
fields irrigated. This is due to the sedi-
ment with which the waters of the Rio
Granie are laden. Year after year this
has slowly added layer on layer to tie
sides and bottom of those bitches, until
from being channels cut below the
surface of the soil they are now raised
two or three feet above. 1t is here that
one can yet find agriculture almost as
primitive as that of the days of Pharaoh,
where grain is reaped with the sickle
and thrashed by the trampling of goats.
From these cities and from the con-
Quered cities of Mexico adventurous mis-
sionaries pushed their way still farther
westward until they came in sight OF the
Pacific, teaching the Indians the crude
art of irrigation, which they had learned
either in Spain or of ore simple ,nhabi-
tants of the interior, and making cases of
bloom and fruitage among the hills and
deserts OF the coast. So came the early
churches and gardens of California and
the first small impulse toward the con-
quest of its fertile soil, which must al
ways be gratefully associated with the
memory of the mission fathers.
Measured by their cost or the skill re-
CURED to construct them, the small, rude
burrows which watered these gardens are
now of little Importance Compared to
the monumental engineering works which
have succeeded them. the possess today
but little interest. The best preserved Of
these mission gardens Is now an insigniti-
cant Tea ture in a land scaDeWnich includes
miles on miles Of cement-lined aqueducts,
scores Of pumping stations and acres on
acres Of orange and lemon orchards, Gull
I1NdI6u Will tuOIOuSlu anu skill not
surpassed in any section of the old world
or the new. 1t was far different at the
end of the eighteenth century, when the
thirty or more of these gardens which
were scattered along the coast between
the Mexican border and San Francisco
were the sole resting places of weary
travellers, and their fruit and foliage the
only relief in summer from Ghe monoto-
nous landscape presented by the brown
and arid hills which surrounded them on
every side. They were under those con-
ditions not only successful centerS Of in
fluence from which to carry on the Chris
tianizing of the Indian tribes, but forces
tending to break up the migratory i'm
pulse by the establishing Of homes among
the early Spanish explorers.
For the beginnings of Anglo-Saxo ir-
rigation in this country we must go to the
Salt Lake valley Of Utah, where, in July,
1849, the Mormon pioneers turned the
clear waters of City creek upon the sun
baked and alkaline soil in order that they
might plant the very last of their stock
of potatoes in the hope of bringing forth
a crop to save the little, company from
starvation
Titan is interesting not merely because
it is the cradle of our modern irriga-
ton industry, but even more so as show
Ing how important are organizations and
public control in the diversion and use
of rivers. Throughout the pioneer period
of their history the settlers of Utah were
under the direction of exceptionally able
and resourceful leaders, who were aided
by the fact that their followers were knit
together by a dominating religious i'm
pulse. These leaders had the wisdom to
adapt their methods and shape their in
situations to conform to the peculiar con-
ditions and environment of a land strange
and new TO men of English speech. They
found that irrigation was necessary 10
their existence in the home that they had
chosen, and that the irrigation canal
must therefore be the basis of their in
dustrial organization, which was largely
cooperative; hence, the size of their
farms, which are less than thirty acres
upon the average, and the nature of their
social relations, which are close and
neighborly.
That the great material results which
quickly followed could have peen realized
without the cohesion which came from an
association dominated by religious dis
cirline and controlled by the superior In
telligence of the head of the Mormon
church, is doubtful; but that the char
acter OF institutions in the valleys OF
Utah, both industrial and social, wac
chiefly due to the environments in which
they were placed is beyond dispute. Co
operation became the dominant principle
simply because the settlers were in a land
without capital, and 1t was beyond the
powec of the individual to turn the noun
tain current from its course and spread
it upon his lands Only the. labor Of
many Individuals, working under cr-
ganiZation and discipline could make he
canals or distribute the waters A small
farm unit was chosen, not because men
We're less greedy for land than III all other
new countries, but because 1t was quick
1Xy pYt Of he ton