The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-11-19
HOPE OF THEARID WEST
What Irrigation Has Done for
an EnglewOod Man.

Woodward, Okla. Nov 19-The first
litigation requiring an Interpretation of
the national irrigation laws in an Okla
homa court was prosecuted before Judge
J. L. Pancoast at the term now holding
at this place. The courts decision is of
interest to persons in western Oklahoma
who are using or contemplate using the
waters of flowing streams for irrigation
purposes.
In 1887, before Oklahoma was opened
to settlement, Colonel C. D. Perry of
Englewood, Kan, built a ditch from a
point in Beaver county one mile south
of the Kansas state line to a point five
miles above the Kansas line, to conduct
water from the Cimarron river to
1,500-acre tract of land which Colonel
Perry owned and proposed to irrigate in
the cultivation of alfalfa, wheat, barley
and cane. The ditch had flow of four
teen cubic feet of water second, and
provided an amply supply. Later and
at different times, other persons built
bitches above and below where the
Perry ditch tapped the Cimarron. Only
q few of these bitches We're maintained
permanently. At this time there are
about six practical and profitable
bitches.
Last spring a syndicate began the
construction Of ditch on the south side
of the CimarrOn in Oklahoma to irrigate
1000 acres of land. This syndicate and
others asserted priority of right each
over the other to the use of the Cimar-
ron water and also set up the claim
that the water could not be taken from
the Cimarron in Oklahoma and con-
Quoted for irrigation purposes into
Kansas.
The case was argued before Judge
Pancoast by number of the leading
lawyers in Oklahoma, Judge Pancoast
held that the first appropriation of wa
ter actually used in irrigation for ag-
Ffcultural purposes gave to the owner
of the ditch the priority of right to the
extent of the volume of water carried III
the ditch, and that subsequently each
person who built and maintained a ditch
established his priority over those who
came after him.
Judge Pancoast said that the right
to water for irrigation purposes was set
forth in the laws of congress, beginning
with the act of 1866; that under this act
state territorial lines were not rec
ognized in the distribution and use of
water for irrigation purposes, and that
the western portions of Kansas and
Oklahoma were in the irrigation region
in the meaning of the irrigation laws.
A case was cited showing that the Kan
sas supreme court had held the irriga-
ton laws to be operative in Clark coun-
", Kansas, where the Perry land is
situated. Judge Pancoast's position
brought western Oklahoma for the first
time Judicially under the irrigation laws
OF the United States. This irrigation
right was freely recognized and estab-
lished, however, by the irrigation stat
utes enacted by the Oklahoma legisla-
ture in 1897. The decision seemed to be
satisfactory to the litigants, and it is
hardly probable that the case will be
appealed.
In that portion of Beaver county tribu-
tary to the Cimarrou river irrigation /
bitches have increased in number year I
after year. Nowhere in Oklahoma can
better soil be found than in Beaver coun- I
~. its depth often being 40 and 80 feet
With plenty of water enormous crops MAY (
be grown, but the uncertain rainfall !
makes dependence upon the seasons me- I
CaIlOuS al
began irrigating his land across the line |
in Kansas he could not find water at /
depth of less than 20 feet. In the same /
fields water now is reached at Il teet (
showing a rise of feet with irriga ton /
He believes that in time his land VIII be- /
come sub-irrlSated, and the use of an irr.-
cation ditch be unnecessary Irrigation ?
has enabled him to grow wheat crop Of .
from 50 TO % bushels an acre season after /
season He regards a smaller yield as a (
poor crop. He irrigates for wheat in SEP /
TENDER, before the land is plowed, and /
saturates the soil to depth of four feet /
which insures a bountiful crop without a /
drop of rain from seeding TO harvest. For I
oats and barley the land is irrigated N Z
winter, preliminary TO piowing in the /
spring. For winter barley the land is I
watered as for wheat. In seeding irrigated /
land much less seed is used than under |
ordinary conditions
Colonel Perry has 25000 acres of land |
in a body and will irrigats 1000 acres
next year. He believes that the hope Of /
the semi-arid west is in irrigation and in l
the Campbell or dust mulch system of |
farming where irrigation is impracticabie- !
He is confident that western prairie lands /
can be made moist and TO produce heavy /
crops of wheat every year flnGer the I
SaIttppeu system he mas employees this
system successfully on lands not irrigated /
and secured wheat and barley crops al |
most equal to those in his irrigated fields. /
he uses u pounds of seed wheat to the /
acre and finds that the stooling of each |
plant Is from eight to ten times greater /
than when cultivated in the ordinary way.
Kansas City and Return $2.Oo via |
Santa Fe.