The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-06-15

the money arising from the sale of
public lands, and which technically
constitutes the irrigation fund, which
can be used for the purpose of con-
structing a system of irrigation, the
money to be returned to the fund by a
graduated tax against the land i'm
proved by the construction of the
works, running through long series
of years.
The practical results of this plan
will be to make available at once a
sufficient amount Of money to drain
the entire valley and to do it SO that
one plan will not interfere with or I'M
pede another. One of the troubles
heretofore in irrigation has been a lack
of general plan covering the entire
valley. What work has been done
along the lines of irrigation has been
under a dozen different systems, and
the result is that one of these does not
aid the other.
The trouble has always been that
there was not sufficient money avail
able at one time to inaugurate sys-
TEN for the entire valley. The people
vitality interested have met and talked
and resolved and then repeated the
operations the next year until drain
age has become a sort of will-o'-the-
wisp. This is not because the people
living in the valley are not interested
in the matter all the time. but because
when committees and individuals have
| spent months in investigating and de-
termining the best methods of accom-
| plishing the results desired. the plans
could not be carried out because of the
lack of funds. 1t is as though a man
whose worldly assets were thousand
dollars had plans for a million dollar
mansion prepared by an architect
every year.
This formerly unsurmountable OBJ
stacle is just what the proposed law
will obliterate. The money will be
available to put in operation at once
the plans for controlling the water
supply of the river and carrying away
so much of the surface water as will
not be needed, and above all. to in
augurate system by which the water
table will be lowered sufficiently to
permit the cultivation of the surface
and the planting of the crops in sea-
son.
1t will be remembered that the one
point made by President Hill in his
speech before the drainage convention
last winter was that the first requisite
of proper drainage was a comprehen-
sive survey of the entire valley so
that uniform system would result.
1t is not necessary to discuss the
best methods. They have been de-
termined long since. But what is
wanted by the farmers of the valley
is action.
The lack of drainage is making a
! desert of the richest valley upon which
the sun ever shone. If the moisture
could be conserved and distributed
| throughout the year-a thing entirely
possible under scientific system of
drainage--the farmers in the terri
tory SO drained could bid defiance to
drouth, for there would be sufficient
moisture in the land at planting time
to carry the crop through to harvest.
Lands in the valley would not now
bring in the market more than one
third their actual value because of the
repeated crop failures caused by the
superabundance of water. If these
lands were drained they would yield
the most abundant crops in the world.
| The difference between these two con-
Gitions is the value of drainage to the
valley.
The farmers do not have the money
themselves to carry out drainage
plan, and to tax them, especially in ad-
vance of the reaping of the profits,
would drive many of them to ruin.
Here is the money made available,
should the present bill become law,
and used without interest, the prin-
cipal being paid back to the govern
ment in easy installments. The farm
ers are thus able to put their lands in
condition to realize sufficient crops
to repay the loan out of the surplus
and have much larger profit than he
would have without drainage, besides
in few years having the cost of
drainage paid and being in position
to reap the profits from the enormous
crops which would be produced.
ANOTHER VIEW OF JAPAN.