Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-25

| taken, awaiting the word of the federal
congress. A Northumberland ousand-acre
tract IN the Sacramento valley. a seven
hundred nd-ffty-thousand-acre tract or
the Colorado river. 100000 acres in Lake
basin, Montana; a two-hundred Thousand.
acre tract in the San JOAQUIN valley
California. and a similar sized one in
oregon, 10000 acres in Nevada. TO saw
notning OF many projects of 100, 600 acres
or less. call for aggregate appropriations
amounting to more than $125, OOO, 600. In
aooltion to these there are about
100000 acres which are to be put under
irrigation by private enterprise, half OF
IL WITHIN the next five years. When the
present plans are carried out the nriyate
project in the Horse Heaven country.
WasnlnSton. Will be the largest private
enterprise In the United States, with an
acreage Of 100000 and a cost of approx-
imately s2o,OOO.oOO.
But, ambitious as these projects seem,
they are as nothing compared with the
visions of the future
Golden Visions as seen by such men
of the Future. as former Gov.
He states that some day a modern Sc
sostris or Nebuchadnezzar will rise up,
ana MS first step will be to tap the up
per Missouri, bring it's floods down
through the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas
ana Texas, making the canal that carries
these waters great highway of COM
merce and fertility-carrier to millions
or acres OF land And then he sees
every foot of irrigable land, even in the
non-arid regions of the United States,
irrigated by the waters of rivers and
creeks. supplementing the supply from
the skies, and thus Transforming the en-
TIRE farming region Of the nation into
garden Of plenty.
VI course, such program lies many
years IN the future, but. as the popula-
ton multiplies, history will repeat itself
wherever population has grown so dense
among agricultural people that ordinary
Farming methods would not suffice irri-
cation has been resorted to. We read
OF the country around Babylon being a.
network of irrigation bitches long before
Rome or Athens and their civilization
were dreamed of. In Egypt, China,
Italy, India-wherever unusual demands
nave been made upon the land-the irri-
that has collected these drafts. Even
In the days when Herodotus visited Egypt
the art of artificially supplying the land
with water had reached such perfection
that he saw In Lake Moeris a man-made
reservoir covering 10000 square miles,
and holding 300 feet of water-enough
to accommodate the flow of the mighty
Nile for six months. Beside that project
Gatun dam, the great reservoir of the
ianama canal. with its hundred-foot
more than small frog pond; while
the Roosevelt projects of the Gunnison
tunnel seem but childish creations in
some tiny brooklet.
One of the greatest advantages of irri-
cation Is that the water which flows down
mountains G
fetal to the growing crops than that
which comes from the clouds. The supply
not only can be regulated to the exact
needs of the land. but as the water
trickies down through mountain soil and
bubbles up through the mouths Of myriad
springs 1t gathers rich treasures of
potash. nitrogen and phosphorus, and
bears them on to the hungry soil, where
they are made available as food for the
growing crops.
Although the United States now leads
the world In the number of acres of irri-
gated lands under
World Awakening cultivation, 9th r
to Possibilities. oua.an,nr - i,s
possibilities. Lord Cromer has announced
that the reconstructed Egypt has in
CREASED inc regions 1erIlllZeQ Dy the Nile
from 100000 to 100000 acres. In AL
berta, Canada, the Canadian Pacific,
headed by a hustling young Irish-Ameri-
can, is solving a tremendous problem in
the irrigation Of the Bow river region.
This one project Is five times larger than
the combined national and private prof.
ects In Utah, and one-third as great as
the entire irrigated area Of the United
States. The work in Canada is being car
Newell Of the reclamation service ad-
mitted not long ago that the United States
could not hope to equal it. Here we build
a dam and the government turns it over
to the water users association. But
there is no guarantee behind it. The
water may suffice at all times; and then
again it may not. 1t may cost a dollar,
or it may cost more. In Canada the sup
ply OF water is guaranteed, and the cost
is to be the stated sum of 80 cents.
But we have assurance that Uncle Sam
has his outlooks upon the watch towers
Of progress, and that whatever Is new in
the irrigation world that offers success
when applied on American projects will
be taken advantage of. While there is
little likelihood that the tide of sturdy
citizens that is flowing across the border
into western Canada will be stayed. there
will be plenty of others to take their
places.
Observation-Disclosures Mining Congress.