Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-04-26
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IRRIGATION PAYS WHERE RAIN.
f.. FALL is GREAT.

FALL - 1hEAt.
Attention is called to statement in
another column, of the irrigation situa-
ton in this county at the present time.
1t is a fair presentment of the whole
matter, setting forth the motive actu-
ating those interested III promoting irri
cation in this state, explaining some
of the reasons of opposition, making
plain the relation of the water users
association to the government and the
composition of such an organization.
One of the principal reasons assigned
by certain parties for opposition to irri
CATION here is the fear that such an
agitation will injure the good name of
this part of the state as an agricultural
region and prevent or retard the sale
of lands. 1t will be observed that such
reasoning takes no account of the good
that will accrue to the many through
irrigation, but is based soleley upon
dread that personal interests may suf-
fer, position enormously taken by
anyone who expects to make their home
here or looks beyond sordid pelf. Such
a position is also erroneous from the
standpoint of irrigation as viewed by
the people of many lands who have
adopted it as necessity to best agri-
cultural success, though the rainfall is
both copious and regular.
To the casual observer the idea of
irrigation in New Jersey would seem
preposterous; yet extensive irrigation
works have been constructed in that
state and are rapidly being extended,
though failure of crops through drought
i'll that section is almost unheard Of In
other parts of the east and central
states the idea is fast gaining ground,
: the pertinent point prompting the at
tendant enormous expense not being
that there is not, On the average, suf-
ficient rainfall but that irrigation alb
solutely assures a crop and immensely
increases it. Now, if older COMMUNE
ties, whose fame as agricultural para
discs is beyond question, can afford
irrigation agitation surely the Missouri
Slope can afford the stigma" attached
to acceptance of the help far-seeing
government offers.
Those not actual farmers, who are
opposing the Bismarck irrigation pro-
ject, say irrigation is not needed here,
that crops are assured without it. These
parties have been fortunate; their ex-
perlence does not extend beyond the
last three fat years-they know moth
ing of the many lean years that had
gone before they came here to thrive
upon the nlisfortunes Of the pioneers.
Their statements have not the weight
given those of old residents and recla-
nation engineers, all of whom unite in
saying water on the land at the critical
time is all that is needed to insure sub
stalltlal prosperity to this section. With
this preponderance of evidence and the
experience of Our Montana neighbors
at hand it is small wonder progressive
citizens have taken up the promotion
of irrigation with the same zest they
have pushed other issues of public
benefit. AS to beneficial results from
irrigation no better illustration can be
given than the experience of Italy in
this relation. In Lombardy, whose
plains are celebrated for their fertility
and where the average rainfall is
greater than in the most humid regions
of the United States. are found the
most extensive irrigation works in the
world outside of Egypt. The people of
western North Dakota, who have been
trying to persuade themselves and others
that their fifteen 10 eighteen inches of
arrl..al rainfall was sufficient and that
irrigation works were needless or at
least net worth their cost, the history
OF irrihgtion in Lombardy furnishes a
lesson worth studying. With rainfall
: Ct more than forty inches, evenly dis
tributed over the growing season. ore
would hardly expect that farmers could
pc induced to pay much for p supply
OF irrigation water, but from study
OF the charges for water it becomes evil
dent that the COST for irrigation water
in the humid climate of Northern Italy
is little if any less than the usual cost
~ the arid regions of the United States
IN Italy the payments for first cost Of
the irrigation plant extend over period
q forty years owing to the fact that
the plants cost several million dollars,
the average amount paid BY farmers
being SIG per acre year. In some
cases the payments are much larger.