Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1909-07-29
MOVING WESTWARD.

MOVING WESTWARD.
Brookings Register: Government
engineers and irrigation experts are
perturbed lest the millions upon mil.
lions Of dollars spent by the govern
ment irrigation systems in the semi
arid western states shall prove to
have been unnecessarily expended
because of the rapid changes in the
climate of the trans Missouri and
Rocky Mountain states. These
changes are causing the farmers and
settlers to use the big irrigation
bitches to drain the water from their
lands rather than to put them to the
use for which they were intended
when built.
Forty years ago no crops could be
produced west of north and south
line fifty miles west Of Omaha be-
cause Of the lack of rainfall. Thirty
years ago this rain belt had been ex-
tended until crops could be raised 100
miles west of Omaha. AS the prai
ries have become more and more set
tied and the ground stirred by the
plows, this line has been pushed far
Their and farther westward until to-
day it has passed the western line of
Nebraska, and Is well within the
state Of Wyoming. Where, five years
ago, crops were raised oily by irriga-
ton, no artificial means of watering
the soil are now necessary and num-
berless small irrigation systems, once
necessary to the settler, are now
worthless and have been discarded.
In 1865 the s.short grass" country
OF Nebraska, Kansas and South Da-
kota comprised everything west of
the central portion of those states,
and in that country it was impossible
to raise anything in the way of grain
without irrigation. But today the
idea Of irrigating these lands would
be laughed at. Thirty bushels of
wheat and as much corn to the acre
10 not unusual never a drop Of
water except that which falls in the
natural way finds it's way to these
lands. The short grass lands in Neb-
raska are worth from $50 to S75 per
acre.
Three years ago plans for many Of
the great irrigation systems were
made by the government. Two years
ago the work was begun and some of
these are just now being finished.
Others will not be completed until
next year and even yet for another
year thereafter.
The Belle Fourche system in the
Hills will be finished this year. Here
the government has built dirt dam
! mile long and more than loo feet
high. The storage capacity is i'm.
mense and the system is intended to
irrigate something like 100, 900 acres
Of land in the Belle Fourche valley.
81 But while the government was plan
ming and building the rain-line swept
westward and last week there was
several inches Of rain in that valley.
The wheat crop is assured and there
II no use for the big dam this year.
The immense amount Of water stored
in the big reservoir will not be used
by the farmers in that country this
season, and from the history of other
sections, the system will probably
never be utilized.
Six years ago the ''Bonesteel'
4 country In South Dakota was too dry
1 for cultivation. Nothing grew there
\ but grass and that died there as sooI
% the summer came on. The land
Was opened to settlement five years
agO and WAS sold out at "a per acre
Today not an acre can be bought fol
lees than $s5 and the prices rang,
from that to $50 per acre. The rain
tall permits Of $50 bushels Of wheat
90 bushels of oats and 40 bushels 0,
corn being raised every acre.