New-York tribune., 1907-01-13
! CRY FOB RESCUE.
, H., Sink Farmers Fem Theg
WI Be Ruined
BY K r. How1

ial Cal Jan 12-There b In human
IIr scarcely a stranger story than that of
nS'O. .o,ace by the Colorado River to the homes
Twelve thousand persons who inhahit
=, and CoacheIla valleys, In Southern Cal
EOrnA -, ,.0, 90 .,o
as the Colorado Desert or the Salton
~ ~. and subdivided into the two valleys
s fhis wondrousy fertile region, newly
-,.ted constitutes a basin from which there
PF outIet for water except by evaporation
20 this former desert in the last five wears
,,,e thousand persons have moved using the
-, NJ the Colorado River for irrigating the
- and SO rapidly has the country been de-
,od from the former total waste that i1s
.,oI shipments Of fruit. vegetables. grain.
-.no and hogs already exceed s., 100000
,,onv of these pioneers, men, women and
.Hd-an had put their household effects ON
,-ooons in Missouri. Oklahoma and other states
Nd enduring the hardships of drive of hum
sae Of miles, made their way hither On
hot was FIVE years ago a most forbidding
.o-+ they staked their tents and began
..-,,psIe that has left many face the evi-
dances Of privatiOn and hardship. But they
won their way step by step They forced from
aorr Surroundings the tokens of mans conquest
and probably never before in human history
did agriculture so change a land in so short
time
But this is a land subject TO change II is a
natural hothouse. where the mercury often
reaches 100 degrees in March and November
and 100 in June, July and Augusta dry heat
in which men and animals thrive and in which
RECITATION grows E1arvelloUsly where water is
abundant on this land alfalfa produces eight
or nine crops gar, each from one to two tons
10 the acre. Il Is a land which is capable of
supporting tlIn;Iy on each ten acres. and on
The farms and IN the towns this half million
acres OF irTtgabIe and could easily support a
half million persons.
Affairs were prospering with these people
until two years aso. when the water company
on which IrnEeriaI Valley depended neglected its
intake and the entire Colorado River broke
through that valley into the SaIton Sink Then
the Salton Sea was formed, and for two years
barring slight interruptions, II has risen inch by
inch and viii inevitably result in filling the
Sink if the river is not brought under control
Practically no farming land has yet been in
Undated by the Salton Sea, nor viii any con-
siderable quantity be covered with water for a
series of years. The danger is not of loss OF
ife nor Of immediate destruction Of property,
but that the river viii soon get in condition
where il will not be within human power to
control il.
After struggling against the river for year
he people Of the valley found natural ally IN
he Southern Pacific Railway Company, whose
main line crosses the basin and is in danger o.
AT great expense dam was built.
md last November the river was turned back
o its old channel. and il continued to flow To
he Gulf OF California, as formerly. until early
7 DeceEber. when Il washed out the new earth
4 the dam or levee and again broke into the
link
Now II IS apparent that S2-5Oo,0OO WIN be
necessary to construct wort9 which viu here