Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1903-12-20
THE ARID LANDS.
america Not Alone in the Reclamation
Of Her Waste Lands.

america Not Alone in the Reclamation
Of Her Waste Lands.
There il no one thing that portends
the future greatness Of the present
civilization more than the efforts now
being put forth in all arid regions #
the earth 70 make the desert waste
places habitable and productive Arch
biologists tell us that where they have
found mans struggle for existence
hardest, there they have found the
highest types of civilization that are
dead and gone.
On the high plateaus of South Am
erica and the Hessas Of Mexico; n
the desert where flows the Mile on the
bleached plains 81 Arabia and where
the sacred Ganges courses to the sea
are found traces Of feats Of irrigating
skill broken works of art ruined tenn
pies and shrines that equal and n
some instances surpass the boosted
skill of modern engineering art ami
architecture.
Notably among these was the great
canal ways taken from the Euphrates
and Tigris to make fruitful the desert
plains Of ancient Chaidea. These, It
were that made it possible to h3vo
such flourishing cities ages ago IS
Nipur Nineveh and Babylon. One Of
these canals was over $50 miles long
and when running through the open
country between 900 and 400 feet in
width and ten feet in depth.T The other
canal was very nearly as long and
large as this one and the two of them
watered something like 2,5OO,0OO acres
Of land. But conquest depopulated Chal
dea and floods washed away and sands
covered up the handiwork Of its au-
cient Inhabitants.
All this vast amount of arid land
is now to be reclaimed under the man.
agement Of Sir william Wilcox. He
places the cost of reconstructing the
canals at s21,0OOO0O or little over
$1OO.00O.000.
The British government is now work
ing on the Some project in India which
when completed will extend distance
Of $40 miles and irrigate 100000 acres
Of land. Besides this there have been
constructed in India over 1000 miles
Of canals which irrigate over 5000, 900
acres Of land. The British in Africa
have bat recently completed two enor-
nous dams to store, the waters Of the
upper Nile which will reclaim several
millions Of acres Of land Of the Saba
"a desert.
:. Australia is also beginning to take
steps to reclaim her arid plains, but
unfortunately this country is not o
we'll traversed with streams nor is
the rainfall suficient at any season Of
the year in many localities to war.
rant building large reservoirs for STD
rage purposes, 80 that the irrigation
problem in that country will not be
SO easily solved as it is in many other
parts Of the world, but time and the ia-
genuity OF man will find way to
somehow people the Australian des-
erts and make them blossom like the
rose.
It is safe to say, that SO far as Am.
erica is concerned, within the next
thirty years the United States govern
ment will have reclaimed at least ten
millions Of acres of its arid lands
This means more than $4,000 new
farms of 160 acres each. It also means
the stimulating Of the agricultural
interests of this country to degree
never before known, and the dawnine
of a greater prosperity for America
than any nation on earth.-Maxwell's
Talisman. 49,