The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-06-28
HISTORY OF IRRIGATION.


Irrigation-the only process b.
which the barren prairies of the west
ern country can be made "to blossom
as the rose"-is not a new idea witt
the people of America. The idea, how
ever, has broadened and with it tn
methods by which the great waste o
territory is made productive have beef
enlarged upon. The very earliest at
tempts to construct complicated ma
chinery were for irrigation purposes
and the systems of irrigation in thos'
distant days in the far east, in Baby
lonia and in Egypt, dating back il
the last named country to twenty
centuries before Christ, furnish as i'm
portant a chapter in the history Of
invention as in the story of agricul
tural development. In those primeva
days the water was hoisted from tho
wells and streams by means of water
wheels and ditched to the cultivated
fields. Often the water wheels were
turned by man. sometimes by cattle
and later by the water power of the
stream itself
Thus the stream was harnessed to
do the work of man, and for the first
time power, other than that of flesh
and blood, became known. To this
day number of old water wheels
modelled almost exactly like those long
since gone down to dust, can be seen
operating in Arabia, Egypt, Mexico
and in the Philippine Islands. The If
rigation systems of India and Egypt
are now controlled by the government
and for the most part modern ma
chinery is used Across the Nile, at
Assouan, a great dam has been built
to store water against the dry season.
In Europe irrigation has been widely
adopted in northern Italy, southern
France and throughout Spain. The
British holdings in South Africa and
Australia are also greatly benefited
by irrigation.
In America irrigation was practiced
thousands of years ago by the pre-
historic town building Pueblo Indians
in New Mexico and Arizona. The de-
scendants of these Indians still cult
vate lands which were titled by irri-
CATION when the treasure seeking
Spaniards came up from the south,
and even now practice many of the
customs of their ancestors. High along
the steep cliffs in the canons of the
southwest still cling the ruins of the
former homes of the extinct race of
cliff jewellers, and in the broad val
leys below can be seen today the
ruins of their stone dams and irriga-
ton canals-all that is left to tell the
story of Americas first agriculturists.
The first systematic application OF
irrigation to be made by the whites
in the United States was inaugurated
by the Mormons on the shores of the
Great Salt Lake in lS47. The Nor
mons found Utah anything but the
land for which they hoped. From
necessity they resorted to irrigation
and soon made the barren site of Salt
Lake City one of the most prosperous
IN tho >raSt
A few wears later the placer mines
in California utilized their placer
washing streams for irrigation pur-
poses and raised large crops of vege'
tables and grain. However, lrrlga-
ton did not make any extensive head
way until after the Civil war and dur
ing the early seventies, when the great
tide of immigration turned toward
the west. In 1870 only about 10000
acres of land were cultivated by irri'
CATION in the United States. In the
next ten years this number was IN
creased to 100000 acres. During the
wears between lSSO-90 irrigation ex
y
perienced great boom, and the mum
Der of acres increased to nearly 4,
100000. In 1902, the last census, thu
acreage was 9,O34, 500, and each month
sees thousands of acres added unit
the total is nearly l5,OO0,OOO acres to
day. In the modern history of irrigat
ing the great desert lands engineering
feats have been accomplished whicl
are the wonders of the world To ac
complish these feats mountains nave
been tunneled. streams carried hun
dreds of miles out of their natura
courses; lakes have been tapped; who'll
rivers diverted and huge storage reser
voirs constructed.