The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-08-02
IRRIcATING BY PUMPS
Government Scheme to Reclaim
Arid Lands In Kansas.
ELECTRICITY TO BE THE POWER

DR.. Newell Of the Reclamation Serv.
ice Plans a Series Of Wells to Fur
nish the Water For Eight Thou
sand Acres of Crops-Proposes te
Tap q subterranean Reservoir.
The reclamation service is carrying
out an entirely new irrigation PROPOSE
ton in Kansas for the purpose Of
pumping up from the earth enough wa.
ter to irrigate 5000 acres, writes Will
liam e. Curtis, the Chicago Record
Heraid's Washington correspondent
There is pump operated by wind
mill upon almost every farm west Of
the Missouri river, and each individual
farmer gets his water supply that way.
1t is neither a new nor novel under.
taking. but the government engineers
propose for the first time to apply the
same principles upon a large scale to
irrigate tract of semiarid land on the
edge of tie arid regions near Garden
City. in southwestern Kansas. The
people in that section have tried dry
farming and have raised fair crops of
sorghum and macaroni wheat when
there has been twenty inches of rain
In a season. But the clouds are IN
reliable. They cannot be depended up
on. The farmers have also tried irri-
cation from the Arkansas river, but
they claim that they cannot get water
enough; that the entire supply is alb
sorbed by the farmers west Of them
in Kansas and Colorado. For this rea-
son an irrigation company in which
Rochester parties have invested two
or three million dollars has gone out of
business. They claim that the river
fails them at critical times; hence the
government proposes to help them out
with pumps driven by electric power,
and DR.. Newell chief of the reclama-
ton service, expects to get sufficient
water to irrigate 5000 acres Of sugar
beets.. DR.. Newell proposes to erect
central pump at Garden City and a Sc
ries of others at intervals of from two
to five miles, crossing the Arkansas
valley diagonally, and operate them
by electricity from a central power
plant. The water will be pumped di-
rectly into the bitches Of the irrigation
company.
The failure of the irrigation plant to
supply sufficient water is one Of the
principal grounds for the suit Of the
state of Kansas against the state Of
Colorado to prohibit the farmers in the
latter state from consuming the water
of the Arkansas river. This suit is now
pending in the supreme court Of the
United States. More than 5000 pages
of testimony has been taken by COM
missioners appointed for that purpose,
voluminous briefs have been filed by
the attorneys Of the, two states and
the federal government, and arguments
will be heard at the regular hearing
next fall Millions of dollars and in
deed the entire agricultural and fruit
industries of southeasteruS Colorado de-
pend upon the decision Of the court.
The Arkansas river, which rises ia the
Rocky mountains somewhere near
Leadville, furnishes water for the fruit
orchards, farms, five beet sugar mills
and other important industries along
the Arkansas valley, and several mil
lions Of dollars have been invested In
irrigation plants. The people Of Kan.
sas assert that during the summer sea-
Son the water In the river is all absorb
ed before it reaches the Colorado
boundary and that their crops die Of
thirst. They complain that they are de-
prtved Of their just and legal rights
and therefore ask the supreme court to
protect them and prohibit the Colorado
people from diverting the waters Of the
Arkansas by their irrigation bitches.
If the court does this southeastern Col
orado will relapse into desert.
The federal government has inter
vened on the ground that Kansas and
Colorado are Quarreling over what does
not belong to either of them, that the
general government has control Of in
terstate streams and that the waters
are being lawfully used by persons to
whom it has sold land. The general
government is still further interested,
being the owner Of large areas Of va
can't land which is dependent upon the
Arkansas river for irrigation, and
hence has rights that must be consid- I
ered
The reclamation people are prepared !
to settle the question in practical |
manner without troubling the court !
They feel able to supply the farmers OF |
western Kansas all the water they will |
ever need for irrigation without inter- |
fering with the farmers of Colorado. |
A considerable portion of the Arkansas
valley in Kansas is underlaid by what |
some people have called q subterrane- /
In river, although it can be more 40.
described as a vast natural |
covering an area ten miles
vide by a hundred miles long, filed i
With loose gravel carrying large guam.
titles Of water which never fail. This !
is fed by the rainfall and by
he seepage, the surface drainage and
he water that percolates through the
'oil. 1t has no direct connection with
he Arkansas river and Is not depend
mt upon it, hut when the river is low
eodS IL with ofer The two streams