The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-07-22
GREATEST DIFFICULTIES HAVE
BEEN CONQUERED BY ENGI-
NEERING WORKS.
MADE RICH FARMS IN DESERT

Vast Achievements Which Have Mace
Prosperous Homes for thousands
Out Of Region Formerly Lookeo
Upon as Worthless.
When you dig up the hard pan in
your city backyard, root up the plan
rain and burdock, sow grass seed'
make an infinitessimal lawn, grow
little lettuce, few roses, some
tomatoes and beans you light your
pipe anal sit on your back steps as
evening falls and contemplate with
satisfaction the results of your Ia
bors. You bring your visitors out to
see your garden" you tend 1t with
care, you are vastly pleased with H.
Uncle Sam for ten years has been
digging up an arid, sun-burned patcn
and making a garden Of it, and, as
the desert begins to bloom like the
rose. the lean gentleman in striped
trousers and star-spangled waistcoat
and beaver hat sits on the fence and
smiles complacently at the results.
In Uncle Sans back yard garden 1t
has been largely question OF water
ing the garden. He had no place to
which he might attach his garden
hose until he damned some OF the
streams; but now that he has fixed
it so one of the boys can turn on the
hose he has time to sit back and tell |
us how he did it.
The very stupendousness of the
contract, the expenditure of $751;
100000, the building of 1000 miles
of canals % miles of tunnels and
four of the greatest dams In the |
world and the transformation of an
arid waste into a productive garden,
all this gives the old gentleman
something to brag of.
The work of converting the desert
into a garden followed the passage
of the reclamation act of 1902. Sci
entific examination of the soil show
ed that all its dormant nutrient quail
tiles needed to make them valuable
to man was water. In 1905 the first
important irrigation project was nm
ished in Nevada, and since then the
activities OF the reclamation service
have been extended to % projects,
some of which are masterpieces of
engineering skill and daring.
Take the Roosevelt dam in Ari-
IONA, for instance-one OF the most
remarkable structures of its kind in
the world. This great concrete wall
towers to a hight of 280 feet and has
length of 1880. The reservoir
which it makes covers two valleys,
one IL miles long and the other Is,
with a width of from one to three |
miles. In places the water in these |
valleys is 200 feet deep, and II they |
broke ut in another Johnstown flood |
and could be confined within pre-
scribed area they would cover ter
ritory as large as the state OF Della
ware to a depth of IL inches.
Equaling the Roosevelt dam is the
Shoshone, on the eastern side OF yell
lowstone Park. Down these mount
ain slopes the melting SHOWS OF
spring for unnumbered ages poured
their water into the rapidly flowing |
Shoshone river, to plunge over dizzy
nights and beat themselves into foam
against the walls of the gorge. Now
the waters are confined by an enor-
nous concrete dam 32S feet high,
back of which extends a lake 100 feet |
deep, covering 10 square miles.
From this lake in summer, when
the soil is thirsty, a certain proper
ton of the waters is allowed to enter
the river bed. Further down they
are impounded by another dam and
diverted into a canal which skirts the
upper edge of a broad and fertile val