The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-02-18
IN RAISING WATER
Many subterranean Streams
Close to Surface in the West.
Well Adapted for Utilization for Irri-
cation and Will Be Exploited
Within Next Few Years
Cost Is Low.

There are thousand and one
places in the west where the under
flow of the subterranean water is SO
close to the surface that it might just
as well be utilized for irrigation and
every one of these places will be ex-
plotted in this way within the next
thirty or forty years. Greater irriga-
ton will work wonders in such places
of the arid belt. The question Of
pumping water for irrigation is sim
pie enough in these days of practical
improvements by the way of machin-
cry for lifting water and the acre cost
is generally less than Uncle Sam ex-
ponds In fancy tunnel projects. The
opportunities. for gravity irrigation
are largely exhausted. There has
been in the past and is yet too much
prejudice against pumping. The op-
position is due more to ignorance
thananything else The use of cheap
machinery is also responsible for the
general belief that the pumping of
water for irrigation is impracticable
and too costly.
found abandoned pumping plants and
when we inquire the cause we get
one answer: 1T costs too much to
pump the water" The trouble is not
with the pumping system but with the
system of pumping. The cost should
not be more than two dollars the
acre per annum but there are scores
~ frot t. {ol~
$12 to $14 and this is rather stiff
tax for general crops under poor
methods Of culture. Water wheels
and current motors have been in use
in China for more than 5000 years
and in all that time there has been
no marked improvement in their eff
cheney although thousands of types
have been constructed and tried.
They are crude and burdensome
means to get power and under the
most favorable conditions give only
a fraction Of the power of steam.
Taking all facts into consideration
We may say that the windmill is an
/ ingenious contrivance from an irriga-
ton standpoint to waste power and
money as general rule. However
when the lift is low, wind conditions
favorable and natural, inexpensive
reservoir available small tract of
land may be watered, but in 80 cases
out of 100 1t is a delusion and waste
of money. The most approved sys-
tenn of modern contrivance for small
quantities Of water on light lift is
the gasoline engine with centrifugal
or piston pumps and thousands of
them are to-day employed all over
the west to help as many poor set
tiers make living under conditions
which would otherwise spell failure.
There are all kinds of splash wheels
working in currents that do pretty
good work night and day but they are
able to lift water 1only few feet and
are not available any distance back
from a good stream of water. The
turbine is simple enough but can be
operated only under the pressure af-
forded by declivity and the same is
true also of the hydraulic ram which
however is not much better than a
Merino buck for irrigating any con-
siderable amount of ground in prac.
teal way. The artesian we'll with a
good stuff flow Is the finest kind of
proposition but it comes wholly with
in the province of the Creator and is
always condition such as man can
not provide primarily.