American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1911-04-29
SHORTAGE OF WATER|
Increase in Agriculture Necessl-
tates Use of Reservoirs.
All Available Sources Of Supply are
Being Employed to Render serv-
Ice Until Mountain Streams
are Used Several Times.

n shortage Of irrigation water
In the natural streams last season re-
calls the fact that the waters used for
irrigation in earlier years were derived
directly from the melting SHOWS of the
mountains to much greater extent than
at M present time. The cold of the
higher attitudes was then the only
cause preventing the waters falling in
those regions, or formed by the melt
Ing of the snow, from flowing rapidly
from the place Of their precipitation
to the lower reaches of the rivers,
through which they find their way to
Join the oceanic waters, writes w. P.
MADDEN in the Denver Field and Farm.
This agent Is as active now as then
but alone is inadequate to effect a suf-
nciently regular distribution of these
waters to meet the varied and grow
Ing requirements of agriculture, and
1t has been supplemented by the use
OF reservoirs to store the waters and
prevent them from going to waste.
Not only has the attempt been made
to store the flood and other surplus
VIZ III " o~uDoCQuCuIly dlb-
tribute them, that they might add to
the %well-being and prosperity of those
living in sections further down the
stream, but our agriculture has 80 in
creased that much more water Is re-
quired than formerly and in order to
meet this requirement our reservoir
systems have constantly grown. All
available sources of water are rapidly
being made to render service, until
the waters of the mountains are taken
out of the streams and returned sew
eral times before they are finally dis
charged into the bigger streams. We
may yet learn to further increase the
duty of water, but If we do we will
not lessen the questions relative to
the changes produced and suffered by
these waters used for the purposes of
irrigation. We will on the contrary
intensity them and probably find that
new questions will be raised.
1t is we'll known but still more gen
orally accepted as a fact that the wa
tiers of rivers rising in high mountains
where there is little soil, scanty vege-
tation and no human beings to pol
lutte them, are comparatively pure,
many of them very pure indeed. This
Is the case with the waters Of our
mountain streams and is not a fancy
arising from the notions which we as
sociate with the mountains and their
seclusion. The rocky face which their
surface so generally presents does not
wholly withstand the attack, gentle
though 1t seem, of the falling rain or
melting snow. The rocks yield little
by little, 1t is true, but the water is
never able to enrich itself greatly in
mineral matter at their expense. The
work done by the waters in a year., a
month, or even In a week, when eas
ured in the aggregate is surprisingly
large, but no given quantity of this
water, a gallon or SO, carries more
than an infinitesimal part of the pro-
duct.
This water Is usually colorless and
free from organic matter because we
have no accumulation of d%ecaying or
ganic matter such as peat, etc, to
contaminate 1t. Where the surface is
covered with soil there is little differ
ence between the soil and the rocks
on which the soil rests. l do not know
whether the changes which take place
In this soil proceed more rapidly than
in the rocks proper or not; 1t is pre-
sumable that they do, but they are es-
sentially of the same kind and this is
true throughout the mountain region.
These waters suffer little change so
long as they continue to flow over
the rocky beds which they have cut
for themselves in the TANKS of the
mountains. or so long as they move
through the soils which are little
more than the pulverized rock on
which they lie. This however is no
longer true when they issue from the
mountains and enter the plains.
Sittinu Hens.