OCR Text |
Show Ikousands of new farms ' Hstern View of the Great Results to Be Achieved in the H West Through National Reclamation of Arid Lands. HrarlnR the present tension of Congress H-arefnlly pHnncd campaign Is to be ftde In both honsoB to procure the BBn?)' n ce iry to maku a suhstantial H Inning nt the , e-tt work of recHlm-H- the nrM lands of the est by means irrlga'ton f is the Drookljn Kagle. H this itt mt Is successful as It Is MtislrWf 1 nlmost to he sure, it will cre-Ht cre-Ht no new dram upon the resources of K Gov rnment. The necessity money Ho h obtalne 1 by setting aside as an Hfl;aMon fund the money which is oh. B ed from the sale of public lands At 'tnt his money Is turned oer to a Bcrnmental fund where It lsaallahlo Bthc general purrc- s of the Govern-ftit Govern-ftit Th-,e purposes as a rule, do not Bulre the m. of the sum so that it B Idle as an a umulited surplus In BB opinion of tlioie who ar Interested BBhe sue es of the Irrigation meisures BB) diversion of the money will not be BB while the good that will be done BBStne uWntlrn of the money for irrl-BBllon irrl-BBllon purposes Is slid to be lncalcu-BBJjle lncalcu-BBJjle BBB is incdrd that Pro ildent Roose-BBCt Roose-BBCt will makr an Irrigation law of com-BBfthenshe com-BBfthenshe proportions one of the fea-BBtcs fea-BBtcs of his ndmlnstn'lon The mem-BBws mem-BBws of Con r ri from seventeen States BBk lerrlton s concerned In the subject Irrigation thoroughly understand BBs' NNI" ha the White iloute support a practl I and comprehensive V can bo pics nt a and they are in-flbtrlously in-flbtrlously at wntk trilns to agree on leajure The Ftatc and Territories Klgnated b the rt cut Irrigation con-BBw9'1 con-BBw9'1 to father th bill are North and HHfith Dakota Nebraska, Kansas Mon-via, Mon-via, Wyoming, C olorado New Mexico, izona. I tah, Idaho, Oregon, Wash-:ton, Wash-:ton, Nevada, California and Indian rrltory. ( veml'ice the beginning Of the session Bf Senators, Representatives and dele-j'efi dele-j'efi from these States and Territories ve lieen holding nlmost nightly meet- for the puip.'e of agreeing upon n JBJ There have been nil kinds of tHltchlng and changing of positions but jlast a practical agitement has been hed The hill will be Introduced In Senate hj Senator Hansbrough, the ilrman of the Committee on I'ubllc nds, and will he terorted ns a substl-e substl-e for a dozen hills now pending nn Ir-atlon Ir-atlon Delegates fiom nil the Statei fl Territories inteiested will meet with committee of seventeen and put msclves on record as favoring the Bfrhe Western members will hold as a Misistent rollcy that the West has as Hich right to demand aid In promot- irrlg tlcn as the Cast and bouth v' to exp-r Tederal help in Improv-HK Improv-HK the wuiei vas. It Is known that H Semtoi Carter of Montana talked H rivers and harbois hill to death nt M last session of Congress, because, of B refusal uf Congress to even consider BBBl Vu "?' cnnSf' lence to the nr West. HH the Senate the. Mends of Irilgutlon SBE1 count upon twenty-six posltlvo ,",aJre.n,ilh hlch cannot be over-Ic-il. IhL bill whlih has been vlttual-Hagrced vlttual-Hagrced upon follows clonelj the provl-BBS??. provl-BBS??. . '.V." "nhroiiKh 1)111 Introductd l" the seion With soma dozen Bl,?.?!,0"',? '"I18 PWrtlns for irrl-BM.-,? the Hansbrough b'll was ie-BBlmh ie-BBlmh '"I'l0 .milee of seventeen Bmbera of both houses unofficially, se-Bfll se-Bfll Th.'!8' .UIn n" l"ll.utlon mens-BBW. mens-BBW. .r' parf ?f ,1B I'residenfs rnets. Bflln .hm.nSi,Uh JhB ""hject at Irrlga-BW,1f-h.."'li0.'V.c'""el this commlttea BBlrniioMC!l".t ,he tollcy "c "ie admin-BBlkhin. admin-BBlkhin. I,n,.h0 ubiect. After much BBmnt., I lnl?re,lt'i he committee, of BBlenP han",u?ttl1 u ,,ln lci P-BBmnv'ii1 P-BBmnv'ii1 ,nes"i compromlsa of the BBffiSL .ertcs ot "Plnhiri which pre-'led pre-'led as to the prorcr manner In which BBlitrni i.fvH""-ni ,'ontended for Btuto BBftd annfl,""1 10,k' ,l10 WUter Und "l8 BBfco'ntro nr'f eme".1; 'OUB"t for reQe" coiitrol uf t,o entire mlcrpilse BBW,I15tori?1,anabroiiBh of North Diko- BBl Senali",1? ,l"C,!1(!nt rr ' " ' W benate. sal 1 n, dlscusslni,- tlio mat- bbIi as it ?nr' f,':cU:r ln fnvor " the BBliolv !!fi i of,e,v"'teen Is thut mo-BBK mo-BBK 1,,',,,".? " ba Impossible. This BBYinr ?h!j0,en,enr after the complo. BBU3tt 3 0t th en-at West will, nn BBVles ami ', Wl'to-'lo population lBfcu N'SIJ ?? f K,lnsa Colorado Art-BBf Art-BBf north ,i'rxlco nntl ,he stlltes """ IHnM or '1"1'1,"est. nd this wide ex-BbI ex-BbI neaihiLrtor'J1" '"-"'me one of BBl vJhn i e ' n'1l ,l,OH' important of BBlieruiK,,ro,"u,.y' 'rh0 'HI' has ben BWesult w"Vn ln "'" '"eit "f uch BBtrfdltlon Mr h0 Prodded against any es" rrH"Lnr'llr".,wn'1-1' will .onvut f lrr'K ed settlrns Into grazing BBl -th 2mi,Ve ""ht them reservtnl 'rovvirh?,1.'..""''.-,""1'1"1- who "I" k BBl ?. Ke tn" dMert blossom like BBlteil lan,l uinm' Judfc""-t Mils Irrl-BBTultuia Irrl-BBTultuia i .IJi'i becom8 tho greatest ag-BBT ag-BBT lield tcUon of ,lle ""I""' ",oth " at yleMPwnnChrr. ""I"" ,'1 ,he ic BBjnd ' brlntt tne ner of the BVnnarffSan. .Ueed,r of Kansas has on a cnn?V .Hu '" "i far "c na- MlnTJ"" f "1" uorl!- d J8 OP rre8sa,n?ta,p''roP':'1''on '" ""-tion by Blot rLSlch wouTd enlarge the pow- 'lans nni80""0"" an rlnif of pol. tstern V,1" 1-T ' nn of tho BBTwible ihn " nr Territories It Is !? ivi5 i' ln def0",nce to Mr Iteeder ould inEft'im,!n,al iTlBatlon hcheme 'B In wL'i? ""lISKliiB "f nn artesian BBlie ul nu,rn Kansas to demonstiate BBVouni ,f-?f adeelopment of under-BBVtir.!a,'r.now under-BBVtir.!a,'r.now "'i replenishing the '," of surface stieains BBln !,". unrtfr. consideration for pre iiBtion to Congrera provide for the f working out of seven distinct ptojects These plans necessitate the ependi Hue of between $4 000 000 and 5 000 00) This money, as will t resent ly be explained ex-plained will bo meily Invested In th lirlgatlon project and will be repiid to the Government Geneiallj speaking, the plan Is to construct large reservoirs on certain of the Western rivers that nave periodical Mood tides. All of the rivers thus se-lected se-lected ale so located tnat water can be led from them either direct or through reservoirs, to wide stretches of arid land that are now barren because be-cause of a lack of water. The chief of these reservoirs will be built at San Cailos, on the Gila river, In southern Arizona. If the bill Is passed and the work undeitaken this particular reservoir res-ervoir will cost Jl 00000O, but It will render 100 000 acres of desert land fertile fer-tile and easy to cultivate, beside providing pro-viding plentj of water for the Indians of that legion Another reservoir would be built on the Carson and Truckee rivers, Ijlng In California to irrigate some of the arid lands of Nevada This reservoir would cost only $i!0O00O hut would Irrigate Irri-gate and rcider fertile as much land as the larger reservoir nt San Carlos Oth-ei Oth-ei reservoirs would be constructed at Kings river, in California, the Humboldt Hum-boldt liver, ln Nevada, on Rait river. In Arizona, on the Bt Marys river. In northern Montana and on the Gunnison Gunni-son liver. In central Colorado Onlj the principal reservoirs pioposed have been enumerated In the foregoing Nevada, which is one of the Mates destined to be improved by the piovl-slons piovl-slons of the Irrigation bill, furnishes one of the best or worst examples of tho effects of ardity upon progress and at the same time furnishes the advocated advo-cated of Irrigation with ono of their most powerful arguments ln favor of GoTernmental control of tho Irrigation of the arid lands of the West. The friends of Irrigation declare, In short, that the poverty of Nevada is due to the greed of land speculators of the same class that now advance Arguments Ar-guments for the Individual Stao control con-trol of Irrigation matters In Nevada there are onl about 40 -000 people the population has de-creased de-creased In the last ten ears and today to-day Nevada can barely support a State government. A blight has fallen upon the State and the reason Is not far to ECfl: Instead of taking her school land grant as other States took It, that Is to ray, the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections sec-tions Nevada held out for a grant ot 2 000 000 acres, with the privilege of locating lo-cating the grant whcie she pleased Tho icsult was that a gang of land sharks bought up the votes and powers pow-ers of the State officials, acqulKd the school grant lands for a millionth part of Iheli value, anil thin proceeded to locate the grant 'where they liked' which was on both sides of ever stream and water course In the Stati of Nevada ln consequence of this, theie is today not a single quarter section sec-tion of land ln the whole of Nevada upon which a settler could And the necessary water or upon which he could locate and build u home One of the best examples of the wonders won-ders already worked by lriigatlon of arid lands Is a matter of record One ear ngo the destrt of Coloiado a sandy waterless uml apparently useless tenltory was absolutely unpopulated Life could not exist upon It. Today moie than a thousand persons have their homes on the land und hundieds ot other families ure only awaiting the anival of the pieclous water at ttulr lespeitlvo farms to take possession of a section and bcfcln the cultivation of the soil Indeed, the settlement of this tntlio district is progressing so rapidly that the population of the desert part aluue Is Increasing at tho late of ten persons a day, whllo the general rate of ciop Increase Is lislng steadllj. lirlgatlon has, In fact, produced such wonders In tho uild Ian Is of the West that In almost every State west of tho Mlssouil river the Interest in the subject sub-ject of nn artificial water supply for agricultural purposes has eclipsed all utheis as a question uf public policy, AM lhr onttmrtlnsm fmmerlv devoted ta All tho enthusiasm fonnerly devoted to political and moiKtaiy questions Is now ccntuied ln the discussion of lriigatlon lrii-gatlon I'sitally theio ale bitter oppon-ents oppon-ents to eveiy measure proposed, but In this matter tho opinion of tho West sttms to have become cij utilized into in-to such unanimity that detei mined ad-versuileB ad-versuileB aio hard to Und Tha few opponents who do exist uro holders of large traits ot land, held nt Infinitesimal Infinitesi-mal lentuls und used for gracing purposes, pur-poses, which, undei the lirlgutlou plan would be cut up Into small fatins and homestead. The objott of those who advocate irrigation ir-rigation ut wholesale Is, brlelly, to accomplish ac-complish tho letlamatlon of more than one hundred mllllo 1 nines of slid Ian is In tho West, evtiy ucie of which It la claimed could ba made fertile and tillable It storm water that now goes to waste could bo stoied and led out upon It The advocates of irrigation say tot theie uia many ways ln which thla mammoth work can be accomplished The consensus of opinion In the West is that It can best be done by tho Governmentthat Gov-ernmentthat lirlgailon Is, in fact, a legitimate part of the Tedoral tunc, tlon Theie uie already in existence a great many Irrigation companies and It would not be dlHlcult to raise sum-dent sum-dent capital for much of the woik o he unlTtsken bv a private corporation corpora-tion This, however, the West em-practleallj em-practleallj does not wnnt The people ot tho West do net forget that there aro among them Interests which may he expected to be antagonistic antago-nistic to a national' li ligation polUy Those Interests consist of tho people who make an organized industry of the absorption ami conversion of the public domain Into prlvati ownership That business Is going on actively today and U about'fhe only thing which tho advocates advo-cates of Irrigation llnd In tnelr way The FMral Government owns and controls all tho rest ot tha urld and des ert lands of the West The advocates of Irrigation say that fully 100 OuO 000 acres f this land could be rendered fertile and optned for settlement if water were brought to It Apprehending the danger dan-ger whUh might be expected to result If the Irrigation of this country was undertaken either bj the Stutes or by trlvate individuals a number of prominent promi-nent and Influential Western men have determined to try to obtain Immediate Congressional nctlon They are even afraid of waiting for another session Thiy say that the fate of Nevada Rhows whnt would happen If private speculators specula-tors were allowed to tal'e charge of the irrigation works and that the samo State demonstrates the almost unlver sal Inability on the part of the various States to look after the matter properly themselves It Is, unfortunate), i-as enough for Slate Legislatures to be Induced to make gfanto of public arid lands, if they have the power, but It has never been found easly for the peoplo afterward to resume their rights In such territory The thing w hlch the friends of Irrigation desire Is lh" greatest good of the greatest number They do not wish to create great Ungated estates or fruit plantations, hut to make numberless number-less small and well Irrigate! farms They wish to see the Irrigated territory held for actual settlers only If that is done It is predicted that the whole West will be populated as quickly as Oklahoma Okla-homa was settled and with the same class of people Towns will spring up, weilth will be created, and there will be created new and wide demand for farm Implements, vehicles, and the other necessities of an agricultural community Necessarily, It would be Impossible to Irrlgatn all these lands at once It would be a matter of years, but engineers engi-neers say that it could undoubtedly ho done Some of the best authorities upon up-on Irrigation In the world men wha have marfb fertile the arid lands of South Africa and India have visited this country examined the land and declared that few countries offer better opportunities for scientific Irrigation Under the plans suggested to Congress great main line canals are tn be built. Some of these will connect directly with reservoirs while others will be carried through tho arid territory ln such a way that settlers can run their own Irrigation Ir-rigation ldtches and laterals to connect with tho main canals Tha reservoirs will be used to store up the flool waters of the Western rivers and creeks some of which run bankful! for part of th jear ami are as dry as sand the rest of the time. Irrigation exports say that If all the water that la aliened to go to waste in the form of flood waters could be saved there would be enough of It to convert the whole of the arid lands Into rice marshes If necessary No one Is a greater friend to the Irrigation Irri-gation plans of the Westerners than President Roosevelt In this he Is well rupported by the Secretary of the Interior, In-terior, who devoted the greater part of his last rerort to a thorough discus-slon discus-slon and explanation of the need of irrigation ir-rigation In tho West He gave his enthusiastic en-thusiastic Indorsement to the plans proposed pro-posed before Congress President Roosevelt, Roose-velt, In his travels recently in the West, had plenty of opportunities to Judge of the necessltj for Irrigation His long residence In Wyoming also gave him many chances of hearing from the settlers set-tlers themselves their views on the subject of irrigation In his last mes-sage mes-sage to Congress President Roosevelt hod many Interesting things to say about the need of irrigation, and showed h.mself to be one of the most advanced thinkers on the subject. Many people. In discussing the matter, have hesitated at considering irrigation as a legitimate function of Government, but President Roosevelt has no such scruples In his message he says, in his downright way "Irrigation Is propeily a national function, at least In some of Its features It is ns right for the national na-tional Government to make the streams und rivers of the arid region useful by englneeilng works for water storage as to make useful tho livers and harbois of the humid region by engineering works of another kind Tne storngo of the waters In reservoirs at the head waters of our rivers is but an enlargement enlarge-ment of our present policy of river control, under which levees uro built on tho lower teaches of the samo sticams. 'The Government should construct and maintain thcte reservoirs as It does other public works. Where their pur-pose pur-pose Is to icgulate the How of Mreusis, tho water should be turned freely into Ilia ihunnels In the dry season to take the samo course under the samo laws as the natuial How 'The reclamation and settlement of tho arid lands will enrich every portion ot our country, Just us the settlement ot the Ohio and Mississippi valleys biought prosperity to the Atlantlo States." That Is tho opinion of tho Piesldent, nnd, bh can ba seen, his statement covers cov-ers the ground veiy thoioughly. Ho has overlooked none of tho Important puhlio features of tins undertaking and his advocacy ad-vocacy ot the Irrigation plan has proportionally pro-portionally delighted those who have been bittllng foi tho irrigation bill In Washington Ihey die the moie pleased because, thej peicelve that tho President haa uIm) been alive tu the danger appreciated appre-ciated by few L'uatern men the clanger ot having the undertaking fall into the hands of land sharks and speculators Piesldent Roosevelt clearly perceived this danger und added to his messige on Irrigation this significant warning "At the verj beginning tho Government Govern-ment should make rltar, bejond the shadow of a doubt, Its Intention to pursue pur-sue this policy on lines of the broadest publln Interest, No reservoir or ennnj should ever be built to satisfy selfish personal or local Interests, but onl In accordance with the advice of trained experts after long Investigation has been shown Iho locality where all the conditions combine to make the woik most needed fraught with the greatest usefulness to the community ns a whole There should be no extravagance, and tho belleveis In the need of Irrigation will most benefit their causa by seeing to it that It Is free from the least taint of excessive or leckless expenditure of the publlo moneys ' , Ono of the things accused ot hindetlng agriculture In many of the Western States has been tha 'lack of suitable soil " Ab a matter of fact, say the irrigation irri-gation experts, the trouble is hardly ever with the soil Crois ot a sort can be made to grow ln almost pure sand, piovldlng the sand Is wet enough What Is wanted In the West, they sal. Is not better soil, but more watel Curiously enough, much of the randy charactei of eel lain Western plains Is actually due to water. Long ago these sandy wastes were covered with water Into which streams ran These rivers an 1 streams brought with them quantities of silt suspended In the water The silt settled' at last, forming the deposits of sand which now' hinder agriculture This is particularly true In the desert of the Colorado, which, so It Is alleged, was formed entliely bv the deposition of silt at the deltu, or D -shaped piece of ground at the mouth of the river Olten enough when this sand or silt Is washed avvaj, good workable earth or elay is found beneath There ar' of course, many pieces where the dead, useless hopeless sand lies upon solid rock That sort of land Is praitlcally useless, but It fortunately forms the minority mi-nority of the acreage of the aild lands All over tha settled Stairs ot Nebraska and Kanras, and even further east to Illinois and Ohio, there are thousands and thnurands of acres of this sandy sell which would be arid and useless if it wero not for irrigation A handful of earth taken from a Held bearing a plentiful plen-tiful rrop In Illinois will often if ill led out be found to resemble clorely a handful of earth taken from the worst of the arid districts of the West. All that is needed to make the atll land bear good crops is water. There are miles of territory In Wyoming, for Instance, In-stance, which now support nothing but sagebiush, which could be made to produce pro-duce valuable crops -if water could be brought to them There seems to be no question of the actual utility and profit to be derived from Irrigation By means of Irriga-tlon Irriga-tlon the fanner Is lifted at once from the position of a mart dependent upon chance to one who practices an exact science. At present the farmer of the West Is at the mercy ot the rainfall The dreaded 'drought ' Is upon him With the Installation ot a main line ca-nal ca-nal tapping an unfailing water supply, the condition is changed over the entire conutry side Crops can be counted upon up-on as surely as the Interest upon Government Gov-ernment bonds Another most decided advantage of Irrigation Ir-rigation Is that It produces finer, larger and mora luscious fruits vegetables and grain than can be obtained by the ' wait for rain" process Just as the garden that It watered regular! s produces better bet-ter flowers and foliate than one which depends upon chance showers, so the irrigated ir-rigated farm bears better crops than tho farm which depends merely upon the rainfall bo great Indeed, is the difference dif-ference between the productivity of an Irrigated farm as compared with one that Is without watr supply that If the Government finally undertakes the work of irrigating the arid lands It Is likely that the standard for allotments will be changed At present a settler is allowed to lay claim to 160 acres of land. It being be-ing widely believed that this amount of land is necessary for the support of a famtlj When Irrigation la practiced, It has beeiif oncluslvely shown that half the acreage of land eighty acres Is ample for the support of a family, owing ow-ing to the greatly Increased amount of pioduce which can ba obtained from the giound When the Government scheme of Irrigation Is carried out It Is probable that In most districts the land will be subdivided Into farms of not exceeding twenty acres Upon these farms the settlers will be able to raise fruit, poultry poul-try and green stuff Some stock will probably be kept at least enough to provide butter but, in general, stock farming will not be followed because the land will be too profitable for agrlcul-tural agrlcul-tural purposes Eastern merchants, who were at first inclined to oppose the wholesale Irrigation Irriga-tion plan because they had a hazy idea that It would interfere with Eastern farmers have been converted to a better bet-ter faith They now comprehend that every article used by the settlers upon the urld lands will have to bo put chased In tho citlss. and that the East will get Its full share of this class of trade. The produce of the Western furms will not come Into competition with those of the East because the Western divide of this continent and the Asiatic market is expected ex-pected to create a gi eater and more piotltnblc demand. |