The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-04-15

j. c. Starr. of Scott county. who has
represented that couny in a number OF
sessions of the legislature, is in Topeka
to qualify as a member of the state
textbook commission. He is much in
terested in the subject of irrigation and
viii attend the irrigation convention.
The hone of western Kansas lies noe
in the big cattle men," said Mr.. Starr.
in discussing irrigation and its relation
to the development of the west. but It
is IN the farmer and small stock raiser
And the farmer must be assisted bS.
irriga ton.
In my part of the west we cannot
irrigata from the Arka nsas. even if 1t
had water in it. on from any other
stream. but we must depend upon stor-
ing surface water and upon pumping It
from below. This is entirely feasible.
and it is possible to irrigate ten or fl
teen acres from single well. There *
an inexhaustible sheet of water under
lying that country which at Scott City
IS nifty feet below the surface. When
you get down fifty feet you strike a
stratum of gravel and sand that is full
OF water How thick this stratum is ]
do not know, but we do know that if il
at least zoo feet thick l have never.
heard Of anyone drilling through it
Ihis shows that a well sunk to thai
sratum would probably never be
My idea is that half dozen farm
ers ought to club together and buy a
big portable gasoline engine to do the
pumping. That is much more satisfac-
tory than depending on wind nox-et
Each man should build an earth reser-
voir on top Of the ground in the center
OF the ground he wished to irrigate and
sink his we'll beside it. It costs thirty
cents foot to drill a well. Such a
well and q big engine would supply q
four inch pump, and in one day it
could pump enough to irrigate for a
week The engine could pump for one
man on Monday, another on Tuesday
and so on around.
Then the best crop for extreme west
ern Kansas to raise is sugar beetS but
it viii require a different people from
those there now to raise them. We people
who are out there now do not like to
dig in the soil the way sugar beets re-
quire. No other crops viii be as sure or
yield such returns as sugar beets- In
Scott county we have just as good soil
and climate for beets as they have at
Sugar City. Colorado, and beets are
making that country rich. The Mis-
souri, Pacific offers us an extremely low
freight rate on beets to Sugar City.
where the nearest factory is now locat-
ed. so that there will be no trouble
about market for them if we can get
in the people who will raise them
but if we can get class of farmers
out there v no will place their chief de-
| pendence in about ten acres of sugar
/ beets. irrigated from a reservoir and
| then put in some wheat on part of the
balance of their quarter section. and
raise some live stock and alfalfa, it
will be the making of western Kansas.
We are too far west to depend upon
wheat year in and year out Some
years we will get a big crop. Every
thing is looking extremely well this
year. but as rule wheat is too uncer-
/ tain for farmers in our county to place
their dependence upon it.
TT may be in time that conditions
will change cut there. I am told thai
the first settlers in the central part OF
of a crop when they first came there
but now climatic conditions are nucf
more favorable. I think the planting
of trees and the storage of water has
/ brought about this change to a great
extent and in the same way a few
! years may see a similar changein west
I ern Kansas If we establish reservoirs
The returns from sugar beets arg
something wonderful. Ten acres prop
erly cared for and irrigated will bring
in pretty good income The mosi
work about raising the beets now is
thinning them It is necessary to gel
down on ones knees to do it. but inn
proved machinery IS being constantly
Invented to do farm work and I pre-
sumo it will not be very long before
machinery will be invented to use II
raising sugar beets that will enable {
man to do much more than he can al
present"