The Greeley tribune., 1906-11-15

initial value of the land Is. say %
per acre: but when $50 or sl00 per
acre has been expended for water
rights, the value Of the land, with
the water rights added, become 500
and upwards per acre.
The Larger Problems.
To reach and utilize these more
difficult but still accessible supplies
OF water, TO build larger and better
and more strategically situated re-
servoirs for impounding even the
rains which waste among the hills,
these constitute the larger problems,
both of law and enterprise with
which we are Immediately confronted
and for the solution of which ade
Quate undertakings must be devised.
Only commencement in these
directions has been made, but along
these lines of development OF the
water supplies lie the enlargement,
both of irrigation and agriculture in
Colorado for the immediate future.
Much has lately been said and
written concerning the development
and reclamation to agriculture of
the arid lands of Colorado by means
and methods other than irrigation.
Diligent cultivation, deep plow-
ing and saving asunder the soil"
with its web of grass roots, are all
valuable helps for the conservation of
the moisture actually falling upon
the fields SO treated, and do enable
the cultivator Of the soil to obtain
better results from the limited
amount of moisture SO controlled.
The real thing accomplished by these
methods is to store in the ground the
water falling upon the land for one
year, and add it to the rainfall of
the next year, for the production of
a crop during such second year. 1t
is the reservoir idea in an exceed
ingly limited and imperfect applica-
tion, the value being realized by the
labor expended upon the land. with
the result that about one-half the
productive capacity of irriagted land
can be realized every second or third
year. Good results have been OBJ
tained by carefully conducted expert
ments and under exceptional condi-
tions, but it has not been demon
strated, and cannot be demonstrated,
that general farming can be success
fully and proftab,y conducted upon
the arid plains without irrigation.
The fields SO treated remain as arid
land, and after the nursery crop has
been harvested, then the tiller of
the soil must again commence by the
original process, to conserve and
store water falling upon the land.
until sufficient accumulation has
been made to raise another crop or
half a crop as the case may he.
These methods and devices are all
valuable in the inculcation of better
methods Of farming and for the
greater economy Of water, but are
chiefly valuable and certain of re-
suits when used upon irrigated lands
rather than upon non-irrigated lands.
But none of these devices can ever
bring non-irrigated lands into the
same class as to productivity or pro-
fit as the irrigated lands. No i'm
plement of husbandry, no method of
cultivation, will supply the de-
ficiency of rainfall which is eternally
incident to this arid climate, or dis
pense with the ever continuing ne
cessity of irrigation. to compel the
reluctant earth to yield its increase
Of thirty, sixty and one hundred fold.
A No Change in Climate.
Nor does it appear, as has been
claimed, that any and all of these
devices, together with the settle
ment of the country, the building of
railroads and the extension of the
irrigated area. are working or will
work any material change in the
climate or any considerable average
| increase of the annual rainfall.
According to statistics collected
by the government experiment sta
tions, the state agricultural college,
and from other careful sources of OBJ
servation, the average annual rain
fall of eastern Colorado for the last
"a years ending with the year 1905,
is about IA inches, while the average
rainfall for the last five years prior
to 1906 is 1915 inches. A rainfall of
20 inches or less annually, leaves the
territory arid: up to 35 inches.
| semi arid and from 2S IN IN ipchoc
annual rainfall, as in this country
from the Mississippi valley east to
the Atlantic, renders the soil pro.
ductive without additional artificial
L ami lea i'm Of tar