Show III i THE STORAGE OF SUKPXUS WATER I 119 r q Edmund G Ross Governor of New = I Mexico in his report to the Secretary of I I 4 J the Interior last year suggested a II scheme forTthe storage surplns water I In his report this year made on the I i 38th instant he again calls attention to the subject by saying The system of I storage basins at the heads of severs streams especially the Rio Grande for which numerous canyons and aroyas are excellently adapted would This he says would reduce to cultivation cultiva-tion many million of acres of 1 roductive land now barren and desolate InC In-C eluding this branch of his report Governor Ross asks for a sufficient appropriation ap-propriation to at least satisfactorily est this theory Ve sincerely hope that the attention r Congress will be called to tbis matter i it is one of considerable interest to b intermountain region where toe farmer has to depend upon irrigation irriga-tion in raising his crop If the experiment experi-ment of storing water in mountain ia ls were to prove successful there could be reason to hope that some of be now desert valleys of Utah would come productive a as all that isle is-le Ided to bring vast areas of land under cultivation in Utah is a supply oi water for irrigation purposes But the expense attending the experiment 01 storing water in a system cf mountain reservoirs is so great and the issue so uncertain that private enterprise and capital aro appalled at the undertaking bht if government would make the experiment ex-periment should it prove successful private enterprise would doubtless carry it on Then should it be successful success-ful the sale of lands by government which otherwise will never be sold would > in time return to the coffers of the Treasury all that would be expended ex-pended in demonstrating that surplus waters could be successiully stored in mountain basins and canyons By al means let the experiment be made |