OCR Text |
Show I IRRIGATION I "' IRRIGATION IN THE WEST. H No consideration of irrigation enn be complete without a thorough un- B dcrstanding of the conditions th.it fl prevail in' the western part of the B United States at the present time H and of the big changes which have H taken place throughout this enormous M, portion of the country in the last few B years. From being an aggregation of B frontier settlements, the West has H surely and rapidly changed its char- Ifl actcr until today we find in all habit- M able portions a density of population B often equaling that of the East and B an awakening to a manufacturing and B commercial life, the vigor and vitali- M ty of which has never been equaled M in the history of the world. B As the greatest single fundamental B reason for the development of the B new spirit of the West we turn to ir- B rigation and find in it the thorough B explanation of this new activity. Only B a few years ago our maps -contained B such statements as "Unexplored Tcr- H ritory," "Great American Desert' etc. B Here today are found productive m( farms, thriving cities and a population rich in all the luxuries of the eastern suburban -districts. With the exception excep-tion of a small strip of land along the Pacific coast, practically all the country coun-try west of the Missouri river has o rainfall of less than 20 inches, most of it less lhan 10 inches, which is far insufficient for the production of farm crops. While this amount of rnois turc may in some cases Ibc sufficient lo supply sage brush and other arid vegetation, until recent years it has failed utterly to furnish food for the growing multitude depending upon at, and with the enormous increase of population which has recently taken place in the mining districts and manufacturing man-ufacturing centers of the West has come an insistent call for a larger production of food stuffs which has resulted in wide attention being given to the subject of irrigation. It may be surprising to many Eastern minds to know that the number of inhabitant inhabit-ant per square mile of actually farmed territory in the "inter-mountain country" coun-try" will exceed similar statistics for Illinois and other Ea&tcrn States, for while Illinois, as nn example, is probably prob-ably farmed to 90 per cent of its area, it must be remembered that a State like Utah contains only 7 per cent of flat land which is possible of agriculture ag-riculture and of that amount only slightly over half is at present under cultivation owing to the limitations imposed by the amount of water flowing flow-ing in the streams. Even the more mountainous portions of the State arc today producing mineral wealth and supporting a population which depends upon this small proportion of farm land for its very existence. Brigham Young once said, "If you dig for gold, a few of you will get rich; if you raise vegetables, fruit and live stock and feed the miners, you will all grow rich. Miners camp out, but you will own homes." The high prices that prevail for all kinds of farm products throughout the West arc due to the large mining population popula-tion which must be fed and it should be noted that these prices arc not transient, high today and low tomorrow, tomor-row, but arc based on a permanent condition of affairs, ba&cd on a popu-lation popu-lation which is steadily increasing its demand, and based on an available farmi acreage which cannot increase beyond a certain limit which is nearly reached today. Throughout the East for many yearn, irrigation implied a hardship, its necessity a misfortune, M but today a questioning feeling has !$ arisen and a doubt is being fostered .wj' regarding the truth of these views. pj As a matter of fact, the very ncccs- ft j sity for irrigation implies a favorable $ combination of circumstances. It S means a climsitc that is necessarily ' ,j warm and dry with absence of sudden changes of temperature. The irriga- it tion districts of the West arc peopled 3 by farmers who came from Eastern 11 districts and who havj had experience M with both natural rainfall and irriga- wy tion and it is impossible- to find among them a single one vho would ex- f) change certain sure water supply and Bj continuous sunshine for the former w uncertain condition of natural rain- I; fall. 1' Fundamental Conditions. I In any irrigation distract there arc' four fundamental conditions which Mi must be found complete in all details 1 f l " to 'secure financial success. Rich, y deep soil; suitable and agreeable v climate; safe and abundant water sup- ply, and favorable markets. Also 4 there should be considered general conditions of comfort, convenience, i ease, and pleasure of life. The farm soil of all Western dis- tricts largely consists of decomposed I granite deposited by the wear of time on the surrounding mountains, by volcanic vol-canic action, or some other natural cause, accumulations of plant foods, rich to an unbelievable extent, which have for ages remained undisturbed and which have not been washed out and weakened by influence of natural rains. The Sevier Valley in Utah is formed by a deposit of granitic volcanic vol-canic ash, rich in fertilizing value and of unknown depth, but certainly ranging rang-ing above ioo feet. It is absolutely free fromi rock and alkali and its open structure together with its slope or about zVi feet to the mile, assures the drainage so necessary wherever irrigation irri-gation is practiced and permits irrigation irri-gation water to be spread evenly and ( with little care. No stumps nor other rough clearing of any kind is required -and the smooth character of the land permits an unbroken furrow to be , driven for miles in any direction. |