The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-09-11
Wonderful Story Of Irrigation.
w. w. Jermane, in Minneapolis Journal.

So far as English speaking Ameri-
| cans are concerned, irrigation began
with the mormons at the time OF their
occupation OF the Salt Lake basin,
Utah. The Mormons also demonstrate
ed that irrigation was practicable by
their experiments in Southern Cali
fornia, San Berdardino, in 1854. Lit
tie, however, was known until federal
troops, in 1858, were sent to Utah to
suppress disorder. In California be-
fore and. after that time, irrigation was
understood by some OF the pioneers
and it brought them success, but sci
ence had not begun to consider it.
Prior to the American occupation OF
| California and the Mormon settlements
in Utah, irrigation in this country was
confined to the Rio Grande valley OF
New Mexico and to isolated portions
of southwestern Texas; to a few In
dian tribes and Pueblos in Arizona;
to a score of Catholic missions, having
Indian villages attached to them, and
to the Spanish settlers of Southern
| California. Ali OF this early work was
of the most rudimentary character.
| Scientific research in. recent years has
brought to light the ruins OF. extern
sive irrigation works, made by peo-
pies long ago extinct.
Indian lrrigators.
AS showing something of the won
| derful fertility of the soil in the irri-
! cation country, it may be remarked
that the Pima Indians of Arizona have
cultivated the same land-a portion
of which they still occupy-for 500
years. No fertilizers have ever been
used. The mere application of water
| seems to have fructified the soil and
caused it to produce enormously sea-
son after season, but it is claimed by
the geological survey that the yields
today are just as large as those OF
which tradition has preserved the
memory.
The Rio Grande valley for nearly
400 years, as far north as southern
Colorado, and as far south as Eagle
Pass, Texas, has been the seat of In
dian settlements which have practiced
irrigation. When the American gov
eminent first came into touch with
this race it numbered about 100, 600,
organized into village communities,
each member of which cultivated the
land adjacent to the streams, all hold
ing the forests in common. Their de-
scendants still form a considerable
body of the population and their meth
DDS have helped in shaping the ndus-
trial life of a portion of Southern Colo-
RADIO, of New Mexico and OF southwest
ern Texas. From the time of our ac-
| QUESTION of the Mexican territory up
to 1870. however, no definite interest
was felt in irrigation by the people OF
the country as a whole. The interest
developed as population increased and
it became necessary to open the vast
semi-arid belt to settlement. Then the
experiments, successful notwithstand'
ing their c%rudeness, made by the In
dians. were remembered, and from
this beginning irrigation has grown I'm,
til lit has been adopted as a definite
government policy.
; e.-..~~o ~T Honoral rrinafinn1 '
T, The real beginning of general irrl
| cation in the United States (all q
these projects until the passage OF thu
new law by congress two years age
were carried forward by individual
and state add was in 1870, when there
was an ambitious effort to construc
works in northern Colorado by thu
! Union colony. Fruit culture by irri
+ cation was first undertaken in TIN
same year in the Riverside and Fresno
sections of Southern California. Hol
ace Greeley's trip across the continen
and his references to irrigation work.
, in Utah and California were he begin
nings of a discussion which increase
d in Importance up to 1863. At abou
this time papers on irrigation sui
iects were first printed in he annua
!. reports of the bureau, now the depar'
ment of agriculture. The New Yor
Tribune began an agitation for an irr
n. CATION colony in Colorado and tn
is Union colony was formed and the tow
of Greeley established in a barre
d cactus, plain in the very dry spring {
70 1870. bitches the first year opene
up 4,500 acres to cultivation. Inc Ian