Amador ledger., 1900-03-30
EFFECT OF WATER STORAGE
Would Mean Great Mining
Development.
MINERAL WEALTH DEPENDENT UPON IRRIGATION
Reclaiming Lands For Settlement
Even Artesian Well Water
Is Enriching.

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almost as much an undiscovered
country. as it was before the cry of
gold was heard from California.
Mountains of untold richness lie un-
developed and desolate, surrounded by
burning plains and barren wastes.
Not only gold but the baser metals are
bosoms of the western sierras. And
why are they not mined? Why does
not capital flow in to make the boulder
and the earth unburden their treas
ures for mans use? Why? Because
of lack of water: Because of lack of
transportation Torrents of immense
the period of melting of SHOWS and
spread away in clustering streams
through the brown valleys or over
broader plains, out in little while
their volume wanes and anon they are
but dry beds of sand, supporting no
life nor growth. Yet were the vast
bulk of this waste water stored in
mountain reservoirs it would afford a
perennial supply, capable OF irrigating
millions of acres of land whose great
fertility has lain dry aud dormant for
thousands of years. Then would
the mines be developed? In sec
tions where irrigation has forced its
way, there railroads have gladly fol-
lowed, and with the soil yielding the
necessares of life to man and beast in
abundance and with cheap transporta-
tion at hand, mines have been devel-
oped and added millions to the mineral
output, which otherwise would have
lain dormant forever.
The statement that the saying, go
West, young man," has lost its po-
tency and its force, could never be
made for many years to come, if pol
icy of internal improvement should be
adopted which would water the mill
ions of acres of Western public land
now lying arid, AS
rAll that tread the globe are but a handful
To the tribes that slumber in it's BOSOM"
SO the present population of the great
West is but a vanguard of the multi
tudes of industrious workers who
build up beautiful homes and rear
happy families, were the waters which
now go to the sea in prodigal waste,
but stored by the government and
used to reclaim the fertile lands which
today support only the cactus and the
horned toad. A striking instance of
what has been accomplished in the
West and what possibilities lie await
ing development, may be found in Cali
fornia, which with all its great agri-
cultural wealth, has still $4,000, 600
acres of government land, more than
half the area of the State and l7,000,-
900 of which are susceptible of irriga
tion. Yet the city of Chicago has to-
day larger population than California.
The inexhaustable fertility of many
irrigated fields is a source of consider
able wonder to the farmer dependent
upon rain for his crops, and who must
each year apply large quantities of
fertilizer to his fields in order to pro-
duce good yields if not to prevent alb
solute soil exhaustion. This phenom-
enon of irrigation is easily explained.
Analysis of the waters of various rivers
and springs and even artesian wells
show constituency of certain chemi-
Gals which form the bulk of plant
food, such, for instance, as potash and
nitrogen. From French experiments
it is concluded that an acre of land irri-
gated with the quantity of water gener-
ally used in France would receive there
from as much potash as would be fur
nished by an application of thirty loads
of ordinary stable manure. In some
cases experiments have shown that the
mineral substances supplied by the
water were in excess of the needs of
the crop. In all water which comes
from diversions of rivers or storage
reservoirs there is an addition to chem
ical constituency of plant food, MORE or
less solid matter. The mud Or ooze
held In suspension in irrigation waters
and supplied by them to the soil cannot
fail to add to its fertility. Thus irriga-
ed water is constant source Of enrich
ment and fields which have been water
ed for hundreds of years are as produc-
tice and fertile one year after another,
for the application of water supplies
them with both food and drink
Under the magic kiss OF the meun-
tain stream, fed by the melting SHOWS,
the brown desert of the great Arid
West becomes the field of waving
grain, the golden orchard or the pur-
pie vineyard of thriving and popu-
lous community. =