The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-10-11

thought than they did when it was first
filed. The answer gives a complete his
tory of irrigation and rainfall. 1t alleges
that the water used by the Colorado
irrigationists is water that would be lost
by means of evaporation before il
reached the Kansas line. 1t is also as
serted that the Arkansas river valley
throughout Kansas is bettered by the use
of the water for irrigation purposes in
Colorado. A part of the answer follows:
by the practice of irrigation in the val
ley of the Arkansas in Colorado, the flow
OF the river in the state of Kansas, out
side the flood periods, is increased, instead
of diminished. A part of the land lying
between the foothills and the state line,
and extending several miles back from the
river on each side, which in its natural
condition is devoid of moisture, as alleged
in the bill of complaint, becomes satu-
rated, irrigation produces a condition the
same as that produced by abundant rain
falls. Water veins and channels are Gre
ated in the land, springs break out and
the water seeking a lover level, contfn-
ually exudes into the nearest dry channels
coursing the country. making them peren-
NAL streams discharging water into the
river. The storm and the flood of waters
of the river are stored in large quantities
and during the irrigating season are added
10 the water diverted directly from the
river and applied TO the land. thus serv-
ing TO convert the food waters of the
river into an. additional source of supply
for the river during its lowest natural
stages. AS the irrigated area has moved
eastward, the return and seepage water
from the lands irrigated has materially
increased the flow of the river and water
now flows continuously in said river at
many points where, at low stages of the
river. it was not accustomed TO flow prior
to the development of irrigation systems
in Colorado.
'All of the canals. bitches and reser-
voirs in Colorado complained of in said
bill of complaint have their HEADACHES
within $50 miles of the mountains. and
the waters diverted into said canals and
bitches are the waters which, if not so
diverted would be lost by seepage and
evaporation long before reaching the
lands in Kansas claiming TO DE injured
by said diversion.
1.-THE waters of the Arkansas river di-
verted in Colorado are those which fall
within the watershed of said river in said
state, and they are diverted and used
only upon such lands within said water
shed as need the same for domestic and
irrigation purposes, and all the said lands
upon which the said waters are used are
lands entitled TO the same as the riparian
lands of said river.
Long before irrigation was practiced
in Colorado it was observed that as the
waters from the mountains flowed east
ward the volume constantly diminished.
and this diminution was the more marked
as the river passed beyond the area of
local storms caused by the mountains.
During the summer season, except when
Hooded by violent showers. the river. at
n distance of from 300 to 400 miles from
the mountains. would show no surface
water other than occasional pools in the
sand, and none of the waters coming
into said river would flow to or across
the lands in the central or humid portion
of Kansas The ordinary flow of said
river in Kansas has been still further
diminished by the destruction of the TIM
Der on the watershed of said river in the
mountains and by the extension eastward
of the cultivated area of lands in Kan
sas and by the sinking in western Kansas
of upward of 1000 wells contiguous to
said river.
This defendant alleges that on the
first day Of August. 1876 it was admitted
into the union and then became and ever
since that day has been. and now is.
sovereign state; and within the boundary
of its own territory in full the rights
and prerogatives of sovereignty. save as
to that portion Of power delegated 10
the federal government by the constitu-
ton Of the United States. and that this
defendant. the said state Of Colorado. X
foreign TO the state Of Kansas for al
but federal purposes.
THAT being 30 sovereign within It's
own territory. this defendant has the
plenary and exclusive right and power