The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-06-15

C. Mendenhall, Geologist in charge of
Ground Water Investigations of the
United States Geological Survey:
In the great majority of communica-
tons in which irrigation is considered,
attention is centered sooner or later
on the underground waters as re-
source. Generally speaking, the more
advanced the community in irrigation
practice, the greater the attention
that is paid to this source of supply,
and the more extensive the use that
is made of it.
In practically all regions, humid as
we'll as arid, it is a matter OF common
knowledge that ground waters are
constantly drawn up for domestic pur-
poses, and in the densely settled dis
tricts East or West where surface
waters are poor or doubtful in quality,
more and more municipalities are de-
veloping the protected ground waters
for their purposes. The tendency is
we'll illustrated by an investigation
recently completed in north central
Indiana, where out of 81 communities
having public supplies, 40 obtain all
or part of their water from under
ground sources.
Over vast areas in the Great Plains
region, developments have been I'M
der way for quarter of century,
through which the stored water be-
meath the earth'sf surface are made
available for the manifold minor uses
necessary that the region may be
comfortably habitable. Farmers and
stockmen use them for ranch sup
plies, railroad companies for their To-
comotives, and manufacturing enter
prises seek such waters of special
qualities for particular purposes. In
the cane and rice fields of the far
South much capital is invested in
wells and various devices for the
recovery of deep waters, and an in
creasng interest is being manifested
in the states of the Atlantic
Coast Plain in such waters, particu-
larly by the cities near the ocean Dor
der, where other supplies of suitable
quality are difficult to obtain.
But despite the general and wide
spread attention that this resource re-
ceives in the South and East and mid
die West, the most vital interest of
necessity exists in the arid states,
where attention is centered upon wa
ter by the very dearth of it, by the
fact that it is no longer free as air.
and this interest is accentuated since
because of the generally favorable
conditions of soil and sunlight, such
striking results can be obtained by it's
use.
In the present era Of rapid growth
that is destined soon to result in a
full use of all our resources, it is in
evitable that there should arise an
insistent demand for definite, careful
ly wrought-out information about this
as about other of the nations poten-
tial assets. And as water is funda-
mental to all human activities as it
is to all life and growth, the demand
must become more and more urgent
as time passes. 1t has long been rec
ognized, therefore, as appropriate
that our national scientific bureaus,
engaged for the benefit of industry in
working out the laws of the occur
renee, distribution and proper use of
the other materials that exist within
the earth, should apply scientific meth
DDS to q similar study of underground
waterways, and as result of this rec
ognition the work is under way and
is being carried forward slowly as an
nual appropriations may permit.
The problems encountered in the
study of ground waters are of great
variety and completely. Fundamental
ly they are geologic problems, be-
cause water is a mineral, because,
like other minerals, it is distributed
through the earth's crust and because
its occurrence and distribution there
are controlled by the types of rocks
and their attitudes and distributor.