The Cairo bulletin., 1910-02-11
IRRIGATION IN DRY REGIONS
Wonders that the Arteslan Well Has
Wrough. in Texas.


orection searching for something
Cheaper writes "Grapho' In the Chi
oago Advance. That there are hun
Lf OF millions OF acres OF land still
QnoccEpied everybody knows who ira
Nels westward OF southwark. But there
Is barrier to the 1outhwafd of these
lands, 1t is rainless say. That eter-
nal blue above foraids the green be-
low, No water, no farmer This seem
cd a Jruism which would stand as
long in the future as ii had in the
past
But now comes the apostle of dry
farmtng, who declares that new
epoch is at hand. that the earth is
ahout TO cut loose from the sky. and go
II alone. This apostle was at the dry
farming congress, recently held in,
FL Paso. Tex and in q glowing speech
said The great western plains couB-
try is now the mecca for hundreds of
thousands of people annually and ihey
are settling down on the vast expanse
traversed in former years BY the BUT
iato and the lndiars.,and are making
crops from soil thr was looked upon
as unfit even for the burial Of a dead
Indian. This same soil is now yield
Ing wheat, oats, corn, forage of all
varieties, beans, pumpkins and other
vegetables innumerable, and even.
watermelons Yes. watermelons such
as Georgia herself would be prord
TO produce aud OH 10 inches and less
of rainfall; it sounds like fairy talk,
but it is backed by the proof.
There is nothing dry about this. IL
makes ores mouth water to think OF
these melons, And have observed in
travelling that when a man wants 10
tell big story about the wonderful
yield OF a dry country he always gets
around to a watermelon patch, Out in
New Mexico last winter man on
the train said to me, i sold $50 worth
OF watermelons off piece of land
not bigger than postage stamp"
was big story If that dry farming
congress meets again 10 years from
now some member may be expected
to tell a story about like this nOne
Sunday our pastor preached the dry
est sermon that hink over heard
but after dinner ! took the sermon
out into the garden and spread 1t
over one of the be"s and tnat evening
we had watermelons for supper
know this sounds like fairy talk, but
Il Is backed by the proof. A half
L0zen Of the neighoor boys who broke
into the melon patch that night will
swear to it."
With the fairies outdOre, what can
the rest of US do but swallow these
may be permitted to say that | have
travelled across New Mexico, Arizona
aud California and back again across
Nevada and Utah and Wyoming; aud
have gone down through that desc
lation between San Antonio, Tex, and
Laredo and over those hong, long
stretches of high plain and plateau to
Mexico City, and 7 have never seen
any successful farming which was not
backed up by water. 1t may have
been there, but 1t did not show up TO
the naked eye. | have seen dry fields
of corn in which the poor little stalks
looked sick unto death, and The man
and the Wife and the children and the
dogs in the wretched little houses
on these farms looked thin and hun
CRY and starved | have passed for
hours across plains where it was cac-
tus and more cactus and bigger cac-
tus until | loathed the sight of cactus
There was only ole thing more disa-
greeable aud that was the Spanish
dagger | have also crossed those
long stretches of desolation in south
ern Utah aud western Colorado, where
even the cactus does not attempt to do
business On a bright and beautiful
day not spear of grass was visible,
ll3l ny was III l1S OIL VI even
spider web in sight II was just blue
sky above, bare earth beneath and
nothing between except the passing
train.
If these desolate regions can be
made 10 raise watermelous while you
wait or crops Of grain and hay while
the season passes, 1t will be one of
the greatest achievements of modern
days. Truly 1t will introduce new
epoch. The man who makes two
blades of grass grow where one grew
before is a benefactor, as we all have
heard but how much greater the ben
elactor who makes everything grow
where nothing grew before, and who
turns these millions and hundreds of
millions of waste lands into teeming
fields, My best wishes are with the
dry farming congress but not with
the promoter who Is trying TO sell
dry land to green purchasers
What ! did see on the run from San
Antonio to Laredo was irrigation by
means of artesian wells The wells
furnished constant flow Of water,
which is conducted through the fields
on sloping hillsides or plains, The
Driucipal crOp liz these fields IN onions