The Lamar register., 1905-03-29
GETS WEALTH
FROM WATER
Immense Possibilities In Colorado
and Elsewhere In the
Far West.
BY the USE OF IRRIGATION
Colorado Has Entirely L ost tho Char.
actor Of Being Meroiy a
Mining State.

Gilbert McClurg, of Colorado,
who has been lecturing in this city,
on the beauties of the state, talked
entertniningly to the Dispatch today
ON the source of that commemorative
present and growing prosperity
irrigation. Said he:
minnesota, through her congress
sional representatives, has endeared
the state to the far West and espec
tally to my home state, Colorado.
"At Washington, Minnesota has
ever stood for the development OF
the nation, through the two princi-
Piles which the semi arid West has
endorsed and urged-irrigstion
through national direction and pro.
lection of our home beet sugar in
dustry. At the National Irrigation
congress, held three years ago, under
my direction at Colorado Springs,
Congressman Stevens, Tawney and
Morris, all emphatically declared
their positions on those vital ques
tions, AZ they before had done at
Washington. and Minnesota was
united in bonds of friendship to the
Rocky mountain region"
Mr.. McClurg semi officially is
representing his state, Colorado
and making a tour of the United
States --lecturing on the history, de-
velopment and resources of the cen
tennial state. For three years he
was director of the National irriga
tion congress, and has edited and
published it's proceedings. He is in
q position to speak with authority as
to development Of agriculture under
irrigation in the West.
COLORADO AN EXAMPLE.
"Colorado is pre- eminently illus
trative of the results Of irrigation in
, the United States" Mr.. McClurg
continued, land contains the great
est area Of irrigated land of any
state IN our Union.
ut is difficult 10 measure the per
iod covered by irrigation, for it is at
the same time very new and very
old. In 1902, congress, on most
urgent recommendation from Presi-
dent Roosevelt, in his message OF
1901, passed the national irrigation
act. Fittingly the day was the an
niversay of the battle OF Bunker
Hill. For the three great economic
measures OF domestic policy which
marked q century in these United
States of ours, we're:
"The Louisiana purchase in 1902
"The signing of the homestead
bill by Abraham Lincoln ia 1852.
"The passage of the national irri
cation act in 1902.
MARCH OF IMMIGRATION.
"Soon after the Revolutionary
war, and that was hardly century
and half since the first fathers had
rather pitifully defined their terri
tory as ten miles from the sea
into the Wilderness crowded condi
tions began to be felt, that opened
the Ohio valley to settlement At
the close of the Civil war, the prai
rie states were peopled, and now'
marking a great victory OF peace
CIT is a'grander achievement to ex
pand the domain of civilization by
water than by bloody comes the irri
cation act, which opens third colo
nization period to the conscripts OF
an endless quest.
"Gov. Alva Adsms, OF Colorado
once said that the first canals were
run from the four rivers OF Para
dise.' The
BEGINNINGS OF IRRaATIoN
are lost in the beginnings OF man 8
life upon the earth. Artificial sys-
TENS of irrigation created the cent
ers of teeming and plentious agri
cultural life in the early, powerful
civilizations, nurtured and developed
on breezy, arid plateaus. Such was
that which carved the mighty oas
reliefs of Ninevsh, or reared the
hanging gardens of Babylon or
which raised ancient Egypt from the
rank of bankrupt nation, to ricn
land, with teeming population and
all the kindly fruits of the earth
The loftisst achievements OF the