The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-11-29
A Plan to Reclaim Vast
Tracts Of Arid
Land.

TT IS characteristic of the restless,
ambitious American to seek an out
II let for his surplus energies. either
in wrestling with some great moral
question or combating the forces of ma
ture- Since the very beginnings of our
settlements. since the first attempts at
planting colonies on the Atlantic coast
of what is now United States territory,
he has fought against and overcome the
most gigantic physical obstacles and.
incidentally, settled, of hand, as it
were, questions of government, equity
and diplomacy that have arisen in his
triumphant march from ocean to ocean
Viewed in its larger sense, then. the
ninth annual session of the national ir-
rigation congress. just held at Chicago.
is an event of great importance. Without
any cognizance OF the personal aims
and ambitions of its members, it may
be asserted that the mere keeping of
the subject before the people. the re-
tention of it in the. public mind as a
question of national significance. will
ultimately inure to the vast benefit of
the country at large. More than 40 per
cent of our area, it was asserted at
previous meeting of this congress. sup
ported only 5000. 600 inhabitants, when,
if iudiciously watered. it could easily
sustain at least 10000. 600. We expend
millions every year in rebuilding levees,
repairing the losses occasioned by
floods and striving, as the saying is, to
stop at the spigot what is really wasted
at the bung- It has at last become ap-
parent to farsighted Americans that
the proper mode of procedure is to go
right to the sources of supply and there
control in their inception what would
otherwise prove devastating foods and
deluges.
A glance at the charts issued by the
last census will show that the most
densely populated areas of the United
States lie in those of the greatest rain
fall, and, though this fact may be af-
fectsd by the question of accessibility,
stin it is only in a modified form. The
relative values OF farm lands also show
that, while in the sections of greatest
rainfall and those where irrigation is
already established lands may be worth
5000 and more per square mile, in
those containing the so called arid sec
lions they are rated at 500 per square
mile or less-in fact, as practically val
ueless. Since the completion of the
census of $780, with its suggestive facts
and figures, the people of the United
States have done a great deal of think
ing and, having come to the conclusion
that what is beneficial to a few mil
lions of the nations people is also ben
eficial to all. have through their repre-
sentatives in congress authorized a ma
tiOnal recognition of the subject of frri-
cation Congress has made tentative
appropriations, as well as granted
tracts to the several states. and the de-
partment Of agriculture has rendered
valuable assistance in experimentation
through the medium OF its trained spe-
cialists-
It now appears in fact that the
dreaded bugbear Of the transcontfnen-
tai pioneers, the Pacific "forty-niners'
and their successors-that great
American desert''-win soon become q
thing of the past It has been a fugi
tive for several years. as new states
and territories have been staked out
and filled up with hardy inha bitants.
and now the irrigationists have got it
on the run and seem likely to chase it
into its hole. In fact, the great Amer
lean desert is destined to vanish utterly
from the earth, and its epitaph, already
written in advance upon its tombstone.
viii be, Water did it," Water can do
Il. and the witchery of water will trans
form the sterile tracts into fertile farms
and cause the desert to blossom as the
rose. What Il can do has already been