The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-05-17
0KLAH0MA'S
PRIDE HER
DRAWBACK
Government Holding Money to
be Spent for irrigation
WAITING TO Be ASKED
Systematic Survey to be Made
Nevertheless
WAITING TO BE ASKED
(snecial to the Eagle.)

washington, May ia somewhat
amusing situation exists in Oklahoma
with respect TO irrigation There are ma
tional funds of considerable amount
which can be used, in the discretion OF
she Secretary Of the Interior, for The
building of irrigation works. The people
of Oklahoma would like to see this nor
ey used. but they are not willing to al
NIT that irrigation is necessary in TINS
prospective state.
The engineers who are studying Inc
situation thus continually run across
amusing situations and continual contra
dictions from the farmers. One OF the
engineers writes that discussion with all
sorts Of people in the region leads 10 Inc
belief that the majority Of the people DO
not see the need OF irrigation The aver
age farmer, when approached and sur
prssed with the question as to whether he
thinks this land should be irrigated, VIII
contemptuously say mo" In Few
moments, beginning to realize that lit
tie expenditure by the government ana
q little extra water would be good
thing, he reconsiders and says that irri-
CATION will be the making of this coun-
y.
the irrigation movement in Oklahoma in
q ludicrous light. 1t is not doubted that
q certain amount Of irrigation water, ap-
piled late in the summer, will be beneh-
cial 70 the growing Of second crops. The
amount necessary is estimated at from 6
70 10 inches in depth, and relatively
small flow would therefore suffice to ir-
rigate many acres.
First impressions are that any storage
works in Oklahoma will prove very ex-
pensive IN proportion to the small amount
of water which they will impound and the
small section Of country to be benefited.
For this reason construction does rot
seem to be warranted A systematic sur
vey will, however be made and the first
impressions corrected by definite facts.
A1va, 0. T, May 1.-THE Courier says:
Willis Rouse, who lives few miles
southeast Of Alva, recently returned from
New Mexico While there he specially
Investigated the irrigation question and
visited many 5O0-acre farms. The result
of his entire investigation proved TO him
Just one thing and that one thing was
that all that was needed to make Okla
homa land and farms just as valuable.
was water, and it didn't matter much
what kind of water, either. 1t has often
been thought and declared by many here
that water from the wells of this coun-
try would actually injure plants. In other
words that the water from the wells
here would not do to irrigate with. That
the water was impregnated with gyp-
sum or alkal and after drying on the
surface would leave a thin white layer
CT sediment on the land which injured
the plants. Mr Rouse informs us that
in the most valuable lands in New Mex
Eco the wafer after being turned through
the irrigation bitches deposits layer OF
whiteish sediment dozen times as heavy
as the water here would and that it is
no injury whatever. In other words that
all the plants need here is water and
plenty of it TO make our soil here just
as valuable as it is in the rich valleys
of the southwest. Mr.. Rouse viii begin
the work of irrigating on a small scale
this year and expects TO extend it each
year till he has a ranch equal to the fam
Gus field OF the southwest.