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Show u WINNING THE ARID WEST. By Frederic J. Haskin. When Theodore Roosevelt wrote the "Winning of the West" he told C the tale of combats with the Indians which preceded the triumphal march of the , American empire westward from the Alleghenies. Under the administration ad-ministration of Theodore Roosevelt as President of the United States the most savage of the aborigines the Apache has forakcn the blanket for overalls to aid in the conquest of the p desert lands of his fathers. i J The Egyptian knew the secret of irrigation before the day when Joseph donned the coat of many colors, and in ancient times a great empire was built in Arizona by artificially supplying supply-ing water to quench the age -long thirst of these lost lands. Then for centuries and centuries man neglected his work of applying the needed moisture. mois-ture. In fact, the desert was left to itself so long that it came to be look- cd upon as a mistake of nature. But now the wide sweep of a circling ag; has brought the engineer and his diggers dig-gers once more to the fore-front of empire builders, and the waste place8 arc being made to bloom again. In Arizona the United States Government Gov-ernment is digging hundreds of miles of irrigation canals along routes carefully care-fully surveyed by the most expert of engineers, Taut these routes follow clearly the course of those ancient canals which supplied the moisture to turn a brown desert into a geen garden long before the Romans built aqueducts to supply their luxurious baths. In fourteen Western States and two Territories the United States I is behind the work that will eventually iM 'cause the name desert to lose its sig- fl nificancc. The irrigation projects v now in process of construction by th'- Fcdcral Government will give an irrigable ir-rigable acreage of nearly as much land as is comprised in the improved farms of Louisiana and will cost over $50,000,000. Other projects under consideration will reclaim about three times as much more land to the uses of agriculture. All this vast work is being accomplished accom-plished without taking one cent from the general funds of the Government, and without the imposition of a dollar dol-lar in taxes. The reclamation act 0 V" passed in June, 1902, just five years ago, provided that all money derived from the sale of public 1' ids in fourteen four-teen Western States and two Territories Terri-tories should be set aside and appropriated ap-propriated for the reclamation of arid ar-id lands by irrigation. The hnds thus reclaimed arc charged with their proportionate cost of irrigation work and arc opened to settlement under, the homestead laws. The settler must U take water from the Government supply, redeem at least half of his entry en-try for agriculture, and then pay the cost of the irrigation project. The money thus paid back to the Government Govern-ment is continued as a part of the reclamation funds and is used to fur ther new irrigation projects and to maintain the old. It is a simple plan, and one which does not cost anybody anything, because it soon pays for itself from the hitherto worthless desert land. In these short five years the Federal Fed-eral Reclamation Service has worked wonders and performed miracles. Over 1,400 Miles of principle canals have been dug, a distance equal to that from Boston to New Orleans. Work has been begun on the largest dam in the world, the Shoshone Dam in Wyoming, which will be 310 feet from the bedrock. Another great dam is being built at Roosevelt, Ariz., which will form the largest artificial lake in the world. This dam -will be 286 feet high and 800 feet long at the top. The city of Roosevelt has been built by the army, which is winning the arid West. It is doomed to be destroyed by that same army, for when the dam is completed and the lake filled, the water will be 200 feet deep over the site of the now bustling bust-ling city, with its electric lights, its waterworks, -its schools, its public library and its hospital. Here, too, is the great Government factory, making the cement being used in the dam and canal construction, and when work is done the scars it makes upon the face of the earth will be hid in the bosom of a lake twenty-five miles long and two miles wide. Here at Roosevelt the Apaches, who once followed Geronimo, have buried the hatchet and arc peacefully at work making roads, making concrete con-crete and earning their living in the sweat of their faces. They have forsaken for-saken their war paint and no longer resist the onward march of a new civilization. A quarter of a million acres of land will be given water from this lake, and the wonders which have already been accomplished accomplish-ed by private irrigation in that land of never-ending sunshine and opalescent opale-scent vistas will be multiplied. Far to the north of Arizona is the wonderful Yakima Valley, in Washington. Wash-ington. This valley is the rival of the rich Redlands and Riverside of Southern South-ern California, and to those who find a perpetual summer enervating it Is without an equal. A country where apple orchards yield $1,800 an acre and where hops bring from $400 to $600 an acre is a good country for agriculturalists, and it is little wonder won-der that Yakima Valley orchard lands sometimes sell for $2,000 an acre, or even more. In this valley the Federal Reclamation Service is spending $13,000,000 in canals, ditches ditch-es and storage dams. This work will give the necessary water to 400,000 acres of land, which, with an assured water supply, will be worth fortunes. All of this land will be reserved tot the actual homesccker. No great companies can gather it in, for it will be sold only to actual homescckers in very small farm units, probably forty or eighty acres, certainly not more than one hundred and sixty acres. The project in this valley will take some years to complete, and in the meantime a workingman seeking seek-ing a home has an opportunity to earn wages in the construction works. Nearly four miles of a six-mile tunnel have been completed in Colorado Co-lorado throuh which the waters of the Gunnison River will be diverted to quicken into life 150,000 acres of land now lying dead in the Uncom-pahgrc Uncom-pahgrc Valley. In this valley there arc irrigated lands which prod'icc sugar beets that netted the fanners from $50 to $80 an acre. Sonic fruit orchards, twelve years old, netted $500 an acre. To bring water here and increase in-crease the area of this fertile field, the engineers encountered difficulties involving almost incredible hardships. hard-ships. In the roughest country in all the United States. The engineers explored ex-plored a canyon through which no man had ever passed, and located a tunnel there. Then a road was made leading down into the frightful gorge a road good enough to carry heavy machinery over. A power plant was built, a town established and named RTvct Portal. This town, like others built by the service, has a free reading read-ing room, a hospital and a good school. Through this six-mile tunnel tun-nel the water will pass under a high divide and bring riches to a great valley which has been lying there for hundreds of centuries, idly waiting for water to bring it into life. The first fruits of the National reclamation re-clamation service ripened in Nevada, where on June 17, 1907, the third an-nivcisary an-nivcisary of the reclamation act, the Truclcc-Caison Canal was thrown open. This canal is thirty-one miles long and diverts water from Truckec Riv.r to the channel of Carson River, where a storage reservoir will be built. Water is now ready for delivery de-livery through several hundred miles of lateral ditches to about 50,000 -teres, 30,000 of which arc public lands open to homestead entry. An assessment of $26 an acre is made against this land for water rights, payable in ten annual installments allowed by the reclamation scheme. When the Trttc- keeCarson project is fully complete, H 350,000 acres will have been reclaimed. H In Montana, as in Arizona, the In- H dian-, arc aiding in the work of con- H qucring the desert. The Blackfcct H Indians arc being employed on the H Milk River project, which proposed H to redeem a tract of a quarter of a H million acres between Havre and H Glasgow, M'ont. In addition to regit- H Kiting the flow of Milk River, the H water supply will be supplemented H from St. Marys Lakes. The water H will be stored and then conducted H through a canal, twenty-six miles H long, to the headwaters of Milk Riv- H cr. This is hut one of several Mon- B tana irrigation projects now under M w ay. M New Mexico has held a public Tcr- fl ritorial celebration in honor of the M advent of the Federal reclamation M work, money having been appropriat- M cd by the Legislature for that pur- M pose. Here in the Fccos River Val- M ley irrigation works were constructed H by private enterprise. Although the M construction was imperfect, the water M was carried to the land and its won- M dcrfttl fertility fully demonstrated. M The country became famous for its fl fruit within a few years. Then came fl a disastcrous flood three years ago fl and swept away a large portion of M Avalou dam, ruining the whole irri- fl gatiou system. An appeal to the Gen- M cral Government was made, and the fl response was ready. The work of re- M construction was taken up and water fl is now being served. The defects of M the old system were remedied, and M there is now assurance of a water M supply every year. The Yuma pro- M jeet in Southern California and Ari- ' M zona has been the subject of a Frcsi- M dcutial message to Congress. It will M add much to the wealth of the "Egypt M of America." Other projects arc un- M dcr way which will redeem large sec- M tions in Texas, North Dakota, Utah, M Oregon, South Dakota, Idaho and M Kansas. M When the twenty-five irrigation M systems now under way arc completed M and the thirteen yet in abeyance are M taken up and finished, this work will H have added to the crop-producing area H of the country lands equal in extent to the improved farm acreage in the M States of Massachuscttes, Connect!- M cut, Vermont and Maine. This is one H way of annexing new terri'ory that H will find no political opposition. H On these irrigated lands the cle- H ment of ch vncc is removed from the H pursuit of agriculture. The farmer H knows exactly when he will plant his H crops, and exactly when to expect his H harvest. There is no problem of a H too wet spring or a too dry summer. H On these vast tracts of the arid West, H beins won from Mic acscrt by the en- H ergy and genius of the American en- ginetr, agriculture will become a H science almost as exact as mathemat- I I |