Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-06-25
WATERFOWL AND PROGRESS.

The writer hereof has visited many hamets and villages, many
cities and towns, within the past month, and in none of them has he
witnessed greater evidences of progress than are to be seen In Wa
lertown today.
These places m situated within areas Of widely diversified in
terests, ranging from bhsk and rugged rocks where mining is the
principal occupation and Where all the riches gathered arc found
many feet below the surface on through sections whose main resource
consists Of the cattle on the thousand hills down to the prairies
where farming operations are combined with stock raising, and
throughout the entire journey approXimatmg fifteen hundred miles
no section appeared more prosperous than the region between Clark
ind Watertown.
We passed over lands that rarely ever feel the rcjuycnating in
s3uence of rains, and where the stock ranges are extensive and
where the grass scarcely ever attmns to a growth exceeding a few
inches each season. Here, of course, cattle must have vast areas over
which to roam, and here the ranch houses are frequently miles apart
We have likewise passed through sections where practically all
*e watering Of the crops is done by the hands of men, the supply of
water coming from river or mountain stream fed by the eternal
SHOWS We have noticed that where man himself (who frequently
complains of either too much or too little rainfalN controls the water
supply he is apt now and then to emulate Nature either in with
holding the water or in supplying it too abundantly for the best de-
gelopment of the crops.
One great drawback in nearly all of the irrigated sections is the
lack Of proper drainage 1t may be thought that where it never
rains there will be no land that needs draining, but the reverse isl
true, generally speaking. Thousands upon thousands of acres Of
me land have been allowed to become useless for any purpose in
nearly all Of the irrigated regions because a proper drainage system
was not provided when the land was brought under the water rights,
Il rather when the water was conveyed to the land. The divering
OF the streams and the constructing of canals for carrying water
and the constant application Of water to the growing crops have re-
suited IN filling the subsoil in many sections with water, rendering
much OF the land swampy.
In the western part Of South Dakota and the eastern mart of
~ NoNb1tAE- ihAC LC hrl
nual rainfall cannot always be depended upon to produce a crop I'M
der the ordinary system. of farming. Some years these dry farming
operations have produced large profits while other years all the labor
BIAS been lost, Some private experimenters are seeking to develop
a system OF cultivation that will assure an annual crop. and theI
state OF South Dakota is also conducting some experiments along
the same lines near Cottonwood, while the United States government
has quite an extensive field station at Ardmore, in the extreme
southwestern portion Of the state, and it is hoped that out of the
aaaitpn n OF these experiments some system may be developed
sthat Will assure crops during the dry seasons. But as to these expert
liments more will be said in a subsequent edition.
Mhen one approaches the great Sioux valley, near the head OIL
which NatertoWn is situated, he beholds farming such as his grand
father FUSED TO do with such modern improvements in methods as have|
Speeh developed m the past decade or so. That there is yet room
g further improvement is obvious, and yet no region shows great
er evidences of prosperity. II the so were more in evidence in the
vast SIOUX vany this region would surpass the famed section between
penVer and Greeley, where irrigation is the rule and where the sio
looms up on every hand.
- as our opinion that, considering the cost of production lin all
frigated sections the expense of watering the land ranges from d few
dollars per acre per season up to as high as thirty dollars per acre.,
the labor, there is no section OF country between tbe|
Mississippi river and the western coast where farming is as profit }
able, or can be made as profitable, as in the Sioux valley in South
Dakota