Gilpin observer., 1903-06-25
WEAKNESS OF BRIEF FILED
in THE KANSAS.COLORADO SUIT

enlarged as the return flow both in
Kansas and Coiorado increases. In
northern Colorado, where irrigation for
thirty years has been widely practiced,
it is found that about sixty per cent. of
the water used is returnabIe to the
streams below. and nunberIess gulches
or1nginaily dry are now living streams
and from which canals in turn are TAX
en- out. If the full purpose OF the pend
ing suit were accomplished, the alfalfa
INDUSTRY for hundred miles in western
Kansas, now so promising, would
practically perish and the country re-
turn to its primitive aridity.
1t 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
flood waters, and the percolarlon and
return now created thereby will indefi-
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 were before the present great de-
velopmeIt in Colorado was begun
twenty-five years ago. II every prac-
ticable site in Colorado were developed
for the storage OF flood waters, only
traction 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 flow
The average annual rainfall west of
the ninety-ninth meridian in Kansas is
q hfrr tura hae,. ,,.l.r
on the plains of eastern Colorado. This
is the source of the sub-moisture supply
Tor the uplands as well as for the bot
tom LANDS. Springs, water holes and
small creeks accordingly are quite uni
fOrmly found. The percolating rains
provide well water everywhere. They
are the main source OF supply for the
Arkansas vailey-not the spasnodic
floods which course the river channel
itself. Government investigation syste-
matlcally conducted by experts years
ago demonstrated that there is no dis
tinct underfow anywhere in western
Kansas. but merely percolated rains.
Except a slight rise in wells near the
banks following a maintained food in
the river. was any effect found. If such
were not the case. the entire volume
would speedily be absorbed and none
Repeated attempts to develop the
Kansas underflow by means OF divert
ing channels. sub-drainage chambers,
etc, have failed to obtain material re-
suits. III Mr.. Ware will resurrect an
elaborate report for client of his own
law firm, made six or seven years ago
by w. n. Follett, an eminent govern
ment photographer and irrigation spe-
cialist he will find what a meager COM
mercial value is therein placed upon the
underfiow as a factor for irrigating
western Kansas. The most remarka-
BILE. and so far as | know. the only con-
siderable flowing artesian basin in Kan
sas is in Meade county. 1t will not be
contended. l think, that the Arkansas
river. forty miles distant, has any
known or probable relation to it's sup
ply.
Perhaps you will recall the expert
ence of your own city. Abilene. in its
efforts to provide water supply from
a huge well sunk deep in the sedi-
mentary sub-strata of the wide river
valley there. In few months the
yield was exhausted Another larger
and deeper well was sunk Failure fol-
lowed. Then one was dug in the very
bottom of the creek which course.
through Abilene and crosses the maiL
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 it re-
quires less water TO provide Abilene
than We convey for a forty-acre water
right in Colorado. or would be needed
for a 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
full 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. it may have been
committed during an infection of hot
winds Certainly now that prosperity
is re-enthroned in Kansas. such dolor-
Gus jeremiads as that are exceedingly
bad rhetorical form. The recent VIC
tory of young Murdock by 10000 major
ity in Jerry Simpsons district where
counsel say all this ruin has been
wrought. is to my mind proof conclus-
i've that these Kansas poets have been
re-reading Dante's Inferno and care
lessly incorporated some of it in their
brief. Surely Republicans cannot claim
entire credit. Only region of supreme
felicity can have influenced such re-
suit
TT is a fact that land values In the
Arkansas valley in Kansas within the
nat ,. 4
to 500 per cent. The greatest advance
has come to the irrigated alfalfa farms
nearest the Colorado line. have
shown how Colorado has contributed