The Elbert County tribune., 1903-06-25

Kansas and Colorado increases In
northern Colorado. where irrigation for
thirty years hes been widely practiccd.
II Is found that about sixty Per cent OF
the water used is returnabse TO the
streams below. and numberless gulches
oringinaly dry are now living streams
anu IRON which canals In turn are TAX
en- ou' II the full purpose OF the pend
ing SUIT were accomplished. the alfalfa
inausi ry for hundred miles in western
Kansas. now so promising. would
practically perish and the country re-
turn TO It's primitive aridity.
IL Is true the. summer Hoods would
come. but too late to serve II there
were no early water for irrigation. The
canals In Kansas employed TO carry the
winter water are also available for the
hood waters, and the percolation ana
return How created thereby will inden-
nitely extend the irrigated area there.
Just as has occurred In the Platte val
ley In Colorado. | assert advisedly that
the Irrigation interests in western Kan
sas are more promising and secure than
they We're before the present great de-
velopnent In Colorado was begun
twenty-five years ago. II every prac-
ticable site In Colorado were developed
for the storage OF flood waters. only
fraction of the total volume could be
conserved Nor will the balance over
| all be utilized by canals and reservoirs
built IN Kansas. Such storage systems
both In Colorado and Kansas will ex-
tend The areas reclaimed. and these in
turn Increase the return fiow'
The average annual rainfall west OF
the ninety ninth 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 for the bot
tom lands. Springs. water holes and
small creeks accordingly are quite uni
formlv found. The percolating rains
provide well water everywhere. They
are the main source OF supply for the
Arknnsas yalley-not the spasmodic
floods which course the river channel
itself Government investigation syste-
matically conducted by experts years
ago demonstrated that there Is no dis
tinct uuderilow anywhere in western
Kansas but merely percolated rains.
ENcept slight rise In wells near the
banks following a maintained Hood IN
the river. was any effect found. II sath
were not the case. the entire volume
would speedily be absorbed and mono
ever reach parching Wichita,
Repeated attempts 10 develop the
kansns underilow by means OF divert
ing channels. sub-drainage chambers.
etc, have failed to obtain material re-
suits. II Mr. Ware will resurrect an
elaborate report for a client Of his own
law firm made six or seven years ago
by W ~ Follett. an eminent govern
ment photographer and irrigation spe-
cialist he will find what n mcager COM
mercial value is therein placed upon the
underfow as a factor for irrgating
westeJn Kansas The most remarka-
/ bic aad SO far as know. the only con-
siderable flowing artesian ..asin in Kan
sas Is In Meade county. II viii not be
/ contended. | think. that the Arkansas
river. forty miles distant, has any
known or probable relation 10 It's sup
ply.
1 Perhaps you will recall the expert
I ence of your own city. Abilene. In Its
4 efforts to provide water supply from
huge well sunk deep In the sedi-
mentary sub-strata OF the wide river
valley there. In a few months the
yield was exhausted Another larger
and deeper well was sunk Failure fol-
I 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 perco-
lation even then proved inadequate and
resource was finally had to the san
spring. four miles away. And yet II re-
quires less water to provide Abilene
than We convey for a forty-acre water
right in Colorado, or would he needed
for forty-acre farm in western Kan
sas
Counsel complain that great and ir-
reparable damage has been done to the
property of all the inhabitants of the
Arkansas valley in Kansas; that al
ready the value of real property has
there been greatly reduced; the tax re-
sources of the state very materially di-
minished; and that the further wrong
lul diversion OF water threatened by
Colorado will in effect practically re-
duce that section of Kansas to an unin-
habitable waste and desolation,
THAT kind of literature sounds like
an echo of the political unrest of the
days Of PETER. Or. II may have been
committed during an infiction OF hot
winds. Certainly now that prosperity
Is re-enthroned in Kansas, such dolor-
ous jeremiads as that are exceedingly
bad rhetorical form. The recent vie
tory OF young Murdock by 10000 major
ity in Jerry Simpsons district where
counsci say all this ruin has been
wrought. is to my mind proof concIus-
I've that these Kansas poets have been
re-re aiding Dante's Inferno and care
lessly Incorporated some Of II in their
brief. Surely Republicans cannot claim
entire credit. Only region Of supreme
felicity can have Influenced such a. re
suit.
"lt Is a fact that land values In the
Arkansas valley in Kansas within the
past five years have advanced from 800
TO 500 per cent. The greatest advance
has come to the irrigated alfalfa farms
nearest the Colorado line. have
shown how Colorado has contributed
to his pheDomenonal result. Should
J Kqugas 5y any chance I'm disregard of