The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1904-09-30
BIG MUDDY As A RIVER OF RICHES
government Plans to Harness the Missouri-Vast
Area in the Dakotas Needs Irrigation.

s. : (
4 Maj. w. ]. Powell, the greatest
American authority on irrigation, told
the people Of North Dakota at their
constitutional convention twenty-five
years ago some plain facts about semi
arid sections which they were then
loath to believe, but which have since
proved only too true.
He told them that in the western
portion of the state they would have
to depend upon irrigation, and that in.
the eastern part they could grow good
crops with the natural rainfall, but
that in the middle portion an entire
dependence upon rainfall must ulti-
mately bring disaster; that they would
have a series of years when there
would be abundant crops, and then for
a number Of years there would be
scant rainfall, when crops would fail
and disaster and disbursement
would overtake thousands of people.
Up and down the temperature of agri-
culture would rise and fall with the
seasons-the. lean years and the fat.
"You will" he said, "hug to your
selves the delusion that the climate is
changing. This question is 1000 years
old. Nothing that man can do will
change the climate. There is almost
enough rainfall, but one year and an
other you need little more than you
get. It is flowing past you in your
rivers"
Lean Years Indeed Come.
These words seem truly prophetic as
the history of the Dakotas is reviewed
back twenty-five years. The lean years
came, and the fat years-the years
when there was plenty of rain and the
soil produced abundantly; and the
cycles Of lean years came, when the
farmers watched in vain for the fruc-
tifying rainfall, and their crops burn
ed to brown and crisp, and finally
they abandoned their homes by hun
dreds and by thousands.
For three years in succession dur
ing that period land which before and
since yielded twenty bushels of wheat
per acre produced but two poor bush
els, while thousands of acres were
never even harvested.
And the wealth of an empire is 60
ing by in the rivers, as Maj. Powell
declared, flowing uselessly to the
ocean. That is apparent enough to
an yone visiting the country. How to
get the water on to the land is the
question. For the very reason that
dry farming may succeed, but little in
terest has been. taken in irrigation.
But the farmers of North Dakota are
awakening. They are realizing that it
is false pride which proclaims that
Irrigation is not needed, for with irri-
cation they will have safe and sure
crop and one vastly more productive.
The business men, too, are beginning
to see that small farms intensively cul-
tivated and made to produce the max
tmum yield contribute much more to
the growth and upbuilding of the
state than do large ranches, half
EARNED. or wild hay land.
Plan to Dam the Missouri.
A certain Western senator, in a
cloak-room conversation on irrigation
last winter, stated it as his belief that
the Missouri could be damned at vari-
GUS points and all it's flood waters
saved for irrigation. This statesman
was from the far, far West, where all
things are easily possible. The Mis-
souri, is a vast yellow giant. It flows
through North Dakota, even in low
water time, titanic mill-race in
which strong swimmer may perhaps