New-York tribune., 1911-11-29
MAKING FRUITS TO GROW
Acres of Useless Lands Made to
Bloom by Irrigation.
SYSTEM USED BY AMCIENTS
only in Recent Years, However,
Has Government Seen Re-
suits To Be Derived.

systematic irrigation. while practically a
ae,elopment Of the last seventy years with
,hs ,pclo-American race. was 10y no means
Unknown 70 the auCients Probably the
,,rl,sst form of irrigation known to man
.ss the use which the ancient Ervptians
ado Of the annual overflow of tho River
NIc However. they were not content to
,.t Nature do tho work Of irrigation un-
,iisd. end races OF attempts az irrigation
a. early ss 2.oo0 r.. &. have been found i'm
,.rl,ln sections Of Egypt Irrigation was
t,avn 10 the Arabians centuries ago. and
spaln trares her first introduction 20 irri-
cation from the advent of the Moors.
Among the earliest forms known were
,hs perforated buckets and voko. \ mal
carried Two buckets fun of water suspend
% from p woke and allowed the water to
,ricJe through holes in the buckets. Very
few acres a DAY could be gone over this,
ssv. and the method was arduous After
,srd came tho rude water wheel used
n raise the water the motive power bein-
q woke cf oxen. An these rude forms are
,,1l in use ir the sparscly settled districts
ofIndia.
The earliest attempts ~ irrigation in
snerics were amoDs the Pueblo Indians
and fhe Aztacs Of Mexico Tho Noxicsns
r their settlements in their own country
and IN tho famous old missions iu Cali
forn'a reached the highest stage that irri-
gsuon had attained. and their we'll built
bitches ard sluicss may he seen to-day.
Morr1ons Modern Leaders.
WITH the hnelo-Americans il can truth
flly he -sid that the Normons who ee,tred
sbout tho Great salt Lake region first at
tempted irrigation. Under Briga1n Young
'hsy eef 70 work to reclaim what seemed
IKE q desert waste. and made i, one Of
IN. most fruitful sections # tine Wsst.
The real systematic irrigation ON the port
of A1Vrcans began shortly after the DAYS
of ~ I'm the Greely Union colony. ir
cache 10 Poudre. Colorado. The rlners nc
tced that the grass about the.~ sldics
boxes used i'm placer mining always was
sreener than elsewhere, and that gave
them the idea Of running troughs ovor the
sections of land they wished 10 cultivate.
thus bringing the water to the l4n1 ly
force N gravity.
However. the progress Of irrigation was
destined 10 be- very slow for MANY years
n come I'm 1870 only twenty thousand
scrss were under irrigation iu The United
States and none of the work was beins
done lv the government Private farmers
had taken up the work on their own land.
Or had banded together and installed sys-
TENS covering several farms Here and
there corporation mad undertaken the
work. but had. for the most part, failed,
as far as profit and success went.
Between 1870 and 1850 irrigation made its
greatest strides up to that time. One hun
d-ed thousand acres We're reported TO the
Department of Agriculture as reclaimed.
The state governments were taking in
terest I'M the matter, and were building
reservoirs which. though small had on en-
coIragiuc effect with the farmers and with
pioneers who We're going TO the great
West. In 1Ss9 S,5544l6 acres had responded
70 the efforts of the farmers. and by 1899
that acreage had doubled itself. Colorado
and. California at that time each had over
ne million acres under process of irriga-
ton. and the United States government
vss beginning TO take little interest in
The matter and was doing experimental
irrigation on the Indian reservations.
The government turned it's attention 10
the arid districts Of the West. and sent
surveyors into that yet partially surveyed
region. The reports OF the engineers were
amazing 10 the authorities in Washington.