The La Jara chronicle., 1911-01-27


the skill, energy and money of
man to give labor, plenty and
homes to millions of His children.
The waters that run in our riv-
ers and streams, the underflow
that can be led or pumped to the
surface, the winter SHOWS and
summer rains and floods that
may be impounded, are not
all. In many parts of the state,
especially in the great San
Luis valley, nature has placed
artesian flows that will never
exhaust so long as snow and rain
fall upon our mountains.
Last summer w. j. Bryan, at
the Irrigation Congress, in con-
testing Colorado's control of her
own waters, said that if Colorad
uses all the waters of her streams
in normal flow, she must stop the
floods that come from your high
lands" We answer that Colora-
do will do both: she will use all
the water in ordinary times and
all flood waters so they may be
preserved and used where needed
to produce human food. Colorado
claims the right to use every
drop of water that gurgles from
her mountain springs or falls L;'-
on her soil. Colorado loves h.r
neighbor states and she will soon
insure Nebraska, Kansas and New
Mexico against loss or liability on
account of flood and overflow
damage.
The value of our flood waters
is only now being appreciated.
In the Arkansas valley many res
ervoir enterprises are now being
developed. Last month the Great
Western Sugar company set aside
a half million dollars with which
to build a flood water reservoir
down the Platte. This is not a
dream or a scheme, but prac-
tical enterprise to be carried out
by expert hydraulic engineers.
They know the water can be had
to irrigate thousands of arid acres
and give new fields for the build
ing of hundreds of homes. They
ask no help, but put their own
money in. They are not philan-
thropists, but keen, selfish busi-
ness men who need more lands
and more beet raisers as an an
mex to their sugar factories. In
every part of the state similar en-
terprises are being inaugurated-
the Gunnison Tunnel is the real
ization of one of our irrigation
dreams.
Would you know the magic
of water, go into the Uncompahgr
valley and try to buy some of the
land covered by the Gunnison Tun-
mel, which before it started could
have been bought for $1.25 per
acre; $4,000 would be the mini
mum price for that land to-day.
The news from Washington tells
of four million dollars being set
aside for new and old irrigation
enterprises in Colorado. The ag-
gregate of all these ventures
makes a tremendous movement
toward the conservation of water
1t means much for Colorado. 1t
means a doubling of our popula-
tion in a short time. ,.
Naturally a magnificent oppor.
tunity has developed the avarice
and energy of the promoter. Many
of them have schemes of merit !;
some have more water in their
stock than in their reservoirs.
Some of our dry land promoters
need rain makers more than set
tiers. In some offerings there
is not moisture enough to rust a
tin whistle. Colorado is the land
of opportunity. A new dispensa-
ton of irrigation is coming to
her. Her soil holds the richness
o. ten thousand fallow years, but
with her potentialities she can
not fill granaries from aridity.
Even here the crops that can be
raised with phantom water will
prove to be ghostly harvests.