OCR Text |
Show IRRIGATION. ;.fl Since Congress adjourned many of the East- M ern journals are discussing the subject of irriga- J ' M tion, some of them understanding. But there II is a tone about nearly all of the articles which f 'jA makes clear the fact that the writers consider Ixfidl i Us mH the subject as altogether western, as attaching ex- NlfB clusively to the arid belt. But when the farmers I ft - )'M in tho East realize the importance of the question H they will cease, in a time of drought, to sit on their J i , H fences and deplore their hard fate, all the time lil permitting beautiful streams of water to run un- 'if ( IIJ vexed by their doors on their way to the sea. ' j k Nearly every spot in the United States has its arid j H seasons, and in most cases an intelligent use of I H the water flowing to waste by the farms that llJBI are burning up with the drought would save the f'fflH crops. Many farmers love to tell about the rich l 4H soil on their farms and never stop to think that " IH the farm would, nevertheless, be a desert If it fwalB were pot for the moisture in the soil, or that when ill that moisture Is curtailed for want of rain, it can "fttllllJlH be supplied satisfactorily artificially by using wa 111119! ter that is running to waste. When the fact is IbEIhI fully understood and appreciated irrigation will f&Hnl not be confined to the West. The August For Mpfl estry and Irrigation Magazine has an illustrated HSiiH mmmm . ! lin article on what one man has accomplished through 1HS irrigation in Texas. Mr. F. P. Collins went $p j 1 Texas shortly after the close of the great Civil ' war, and for a time was engaged in the live stock H business. But finally he went out upon the black m mesquit plains in the outskirts of San Antonio, P. purchased 148 acres of land, sunk an artesian well, raj and at a depth of 600 feet tapped a channel that H''riit HI supplies 1000 gallons of water per minute. The ro- lif ' M m sult Is that be receives from Italian market gar- flv!1; 11 deners an annual rental of $22.75 per acre, the R$Lr,I$ til gardeners, even after paying the rent, clearing HSfVf'I i; $20 per acre per annum. The further result is that Bn i Si the land in that region has advanced to $100 per BtT' HI acre Tlie farm is a reSular Wect lesson to Tex- Bwfnfft ill ans and ln a way a schoolhouse to thousands of V; W them. |