The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-17

RIGA and South America, a vast portion
OF Asia, including India, belong distinct
ly to the sunshine regions Here solar
power is bound to be extensively en-
ployed in lifting water FROM under the
ground and from the deeply eroded chaIl-
nels of innumerable rivers
Exact information concerning the I'm.
foreground water supplies is somewhat
meagre since both public and private
enterprise were naturally first directed
to the diversion OF streams and the en-
ployment Of the smaller class of reser-
vCirs. But during the past five year7
pumping has become the most agrees
i've feature of the irrigation industry In
the West and the area Of its operations
has been rapidly widening A large por-
ton of the precipitation is run off,
! which Is carried into tho streams. A
portion is lost in evaporation, some is
absorbed by the ground and remains
to moisten vegetation, but a considerable
part finds its way through porous soil
and the seams OF the earth far below
the reach of all growing things to sub
terranean reservoirs. A portion Of these
Underground waters burst forth in
springs or artesian outpourings, but we
know that enormous underground rivers
and lakes exist beneath the crust of the
earth and that they are regularly rein
forced by falling rains and melting
ern streams that might be said to flow
upside down-the ground on top and the
movable current underneath A notable
instance is the Platte, which Bill Nye
has described as zone mile wide anG
one inch thick" and to which he ascrib-
ed "a wide circulation. but very little
influence
The utility Of sun power will be strik-
ingiy Illustrated on the Great Plains.
Here the government has made extern
sive Investigations Of the underground
supplies 1t was found that water could
be had in narrow strips along the rivers
notably along the Platte and Arkansas.
at an average depth Of ten feet. Outside
OF this belt is another and wider one
where water is found at a depth of ten
to fifty feet. Still further out is another
district, enormously greater than those
already mentioned, where water may be
had at depth so to leo feet. These three
divisions cover the larger proportion of
the areas which will be irrigated. but
there are smaller districts within this
area where the underground reservoirs
lie at various depths from 100 to $50 feet
Now, thousands of windmills have been
set up on the plains, largely for irrfga-
ton purposes during the past ten Years.
but their efficiency is practically limited
to the watering of ten acre plots in the
narrow strips along the rivers where
water may be had at ten feet. The COM
ing of the new power far more potent
than that which is gained by Harvesting
the wind though at no more cost Of
operation, means the extension of irri-
cation to the wider belts of upland where
water is deeper This means in turn
more intense cultivation, smaller farms
denser population. Therefore the inf1u-
enceS which are sure to follow the intro
duction of solar power upon the plains
must be great and far-reaching This
remark applies not merely to Kansas and
Nebraska but to the two Dakotas and
to the imperial domain of Texas. Poten
tally one Of the most fertile. yet actual
ly one Of the most barren tracts on the
continent is that known as the Staked
Plains of Western Texas. 1t is barren
because its two most valuable resources
have not been utilized. These are the
sun which shines above them and the
sheet Of water which lies beneath
Prof. S. p. Langley, of the Smithsonian
Institution, placed the following predic.
ton on record as long as fourteen years
ago:
Future ages may see the seat Of en-
pire transferred to regions Of the earth
now barren and desolated under intense
solar heat-countries which for that very
cause, will not improbably become the
seat Of mechanical and thence political
power Whoever finds the way to make
industrially useful the vast sun power
now wasted on the deserts of SAVorth
Africa or the shores of the Red sea,
will effect a greater change in mems af-
fairs than any conqueror in history has
done; for he will once more people those
waste places with the life that swarmed
there in the best days of Carthage and
Of old Egypt. but under. another civiliza-
ton, where man shall no longer worship
Il
to make it his servant"
William E. Smythe.