The Grit-advocate., 1903-06-26

| ..d..aas is u.stIncty ltupIO, eu Dy
| ...e ...,Is.On pI.'t.U,u I" NOinTddO,
| which causes and creates a return
! now, equaI1inS tne nOr.na! Nptume at
the Doruer. fIuU TINS aeepase return
| is almost wholly suPpu"u GAe wafer
whIcn is now utIIzcu ny the farmers OF
western Kansas Ior winter lrrlsation.
An extensive alfalfa acreage has beeA
developed there which IL certain to De
| enlarged as the return TOW both in
| Kansas and Colorado Increases. In
northern Colorado, where irrigation for
thirty years has Geen widely practiced.
1t Is found that about Sixty per cent Of
the water used Is rcturuaDIe to the
streams below, and humbcilcss gulches
oringiMaily dry are Low living streams
ara from which canals in turn are tax
en- out If the IuIl purpose ut the pend
| ing suit were accomplished, the alfalfa
INDUSTRY FOR a hundred mics in western
Kansas, now 50 promising. would
practically perish and the country re-
| turn to us primitive aridity.
1t is true the summer hoods would
come, but too late to serve If there
| were no early wafer Tor irrigation. The
canals in Kansas employed to carry the
winter water are aIsU available Tor the
| food waters, and the parcuauOn and
return flow created thereby viii lndeli-
nitely extend the irrigated area there,
| Just as has occurred in the Platte val
| ley in Colorado. | assert advis2diy that
| the irrigation interests in western Kan
| sas are more promising and secure than
they were bc,urc the present great de
yelopMcLl in CU.OTaUo was begun
twenty five years ago II every prac-
ticable site in Colorado were developed
| for the storage OF flood waters, only
traction of the total volume could be
conserved Nor will the balance over
all be utilized by canals aud reservoirs
J built in Kansas. Such storage systems
| both in Colorado and Kansas will ex-
tend the areas reclaimed, and these in
| turn increase the return flow.
! THE average annual rainfall west of
| the ninety y-ninrh meridian in Kansas is
/ about twenty inches. nearly twice that
on the plains of eastern Colorado. This
| is the source Of the sub-moisturc supply
for the uplandS as well as Tor the bot
tom lands. Springs, water holes and
small creeks accordingly are quite uni
| formly found.
Repeated attempts to develop tha
Kansas underfow by means of divert
ing channels. sub-drainage chambers.
suits. If Mr. Ware Will resurrect an
elaborate report Tor a client OF his own
law firm, made six or seven years ago
! by w n Follctt an eminent govern
ment hydroerapher and irrigation spe-
! cialist, he will find what a nieagcr com
mercial value is therein placed upon the
underfiow as factor for irrigating
| western Kansas. 1he most rcmarka-
| bic. and so tar as know. the only con-
! siderab. c flowing arte ian basin in Kan
sas is in Meade county, II viii not be
/ COntcndCd ! think, mat the Arkansas
river, forty miles distant. has any
| known or probable relation TO its sup
/ ply.
perhaps you will recall the expert
! ence OF your own city. Abilene. in its
! efforts to provide water supply from
a huge well sunk deep in the sedi-
mentary Sub-strata Of the wide river
valley there. In lcw months the
| yield was exhausted Another larger
and deeper well was sunk. Failure fol-
! lowed Then one was dug in the very
/ bottom OF the creek which courses
/ through Abilene and crosses the main
river valley. But the supply by pcrco-
latiOn even then proved inadequate and
resource was finally had to the San
spring, four miles away. And yet il re-
GuireS less water to provide Abilene
! than we convey for tOrty-acre water
| right in Colorado, or would be needed
| for forty y-aCre farm in western Kan
/ SaS.
Counsel complain that great and ir-
| reDarable damage has been done to the
| property of all the Inhabitants of the
| Arkansas valley in Kansas; that al
| No, Tnl 4 ,n.,l
there been greatly reduced the tax re-
| sources of the state very materially di-
minished: and that the further wrong
full diversion of water threatened by
! Colorado will in effect practically re-
duce that section OF Kansas to an unin-
| habitable waste and deSulation,
That kind of literature sounds like
an echo of the political unrest of the
| days of PETER. Or. it may have been
committed during an infiction of hot
| winds Certainly row that PROSPERITY
| is re-enthroned in Kansas, such dolOr-
Gus jcremiads as that are exceedingly
| bad rhetorical form. The recent VIC
tory of young Murdoch by 5000 major
| ity in Jerry Simpsons district where
} counsel say all this ruin has been
, wrought. is to my mind proof. conclus-
! i've that these Kansas poets have been
re-reading Dantes Inferno. and care
| lcssly n,orporated some Of it in their
/ brief Surely Republicans cannot claim
entire credit. Only a region Of supreme
| felicity can have Influenced such re-
| suit.
| 1T is a fact that land values in the
| Arkansas valley in Kansas within the
/ past five years have advanced from 300
| to 500 per cent. The greatest advance
has come to the irrigated alfalfa farms
Eearcst the Colorado line. | nave
shown how Colorado has contributed
! TO this phenomenonal result should
| Kansas by any chance in disregard OF
4 justice, equity and, We think. law. gain
! this suit and so check and harm the ir-
! reatiOn interests Of Colorado and OF
western Kansas. viii rot the people OF
/ the lower Arkansas valley in turn en-