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Show WATER SUPPLY, Salt Lake City, Nov. 13, '79. Editors Herald: "Taxpayer" sayi, "Let us have the canal." So say I. Let us have that, Of any other reasonably feasible means of increasing the available supply of water for irrigation. . An arid country must have irrigation of ome sort, if it is to grow and thrive satisfactorily. At least this arid region re-gion must. Canals have been the principal means hitherto relied upon, and perhaps in the future all other means will be supplementary to canals, but probably supplementary means could be adopted to advantage in some instances. Among the possible possi-ble supplementariea I class artesian wells, and among the certain Bupple-mentaries Bupple-mentaries I class suction, either from wells or streams, as may be. I have no doubt whatever that in many places in tbe lower parts ot this - city, all the irrigation that would be - needed for them could readily be ob I tainwd from Buction wells. The only r serious questions fur Ench localities t are, what shall be tbe lifting force, and bow shall it be economically ap-( ap-( plied so as to make it pay? Vast ' quantities of water are raised by 1 pumpa in the land of the Dutch, i " Two of tbe main things wiln wells are capacity and eupply. In these ( things different wells vary greatly. Capacity is a ontrolable matter, which can hardly be said of supply. Naturally a small well could be emptied emp-tied sooner than a large one, in part independently of the matter of supply. sup-ply. Manyordioary wella, especially in an irrigated country like this, have a constant store of water ten or twelve feet deep in summer, though they may have much less in winter and spring. But in summer, when it is usually most plentiful in wellj, is tbe time the water ia must needed on tbe surface. "TaxDayer" thinks wells would not hold out long with a powar-lul powar-lul pump. Tbe time of holding out would vary in different wells according accord-ing to their capacity and store and according to the supply from tbe subterranean Btreama or draina by which they were fed, which oould be accurately ascertained by experiment only. Part of the Briant Stringam lota, South Temple street east, ia little better than a bog most Bummers. Suppose a part of those lots was bought for the purpose and made into a vast well, ten rods square or so, and twenty feet deep, or as reasonably deep aa it could be made. There would be more than u hundred cubic rods of water at limes, and it is very doubttul if tbe well could be emptied and kept empty any length of lime in the summer. That ia, tbe supply, which cannot be a Bmall one, would be there every summer time, and it would have to be a very powerful pump to keep it dry then. The excavation for such a well would be about aa much as in a mile and a quarter of canal a rod wide and five feet deep, not a very great job. Of course a circular well would bold more water for Ibe amount of digging dig-ging than a well of any other practicable practic-able shape. Tbe well might be puddled, except at tbe inflowing places. I There is another thing in this instance. in-stance. The expense of the steam pump, fuel, attendance on the engine, en-gine, etc., might be all avoided. The Stringam lot is bi;h up, compared with most of tbe land BOuth and weBt of it. A large syphon could be put in this half acre well and the water could be drained from the very bottom of the vertical twenty feet, if required. Thus, according to the supply, the capacity ot the syphon and the discretion discre-tion of the watermaster, a constant or an intermittent stream could be kept up, to bo me extent as might be most desirable, to irrigate tbe lots below all Bummer. The fall ib ample to drain tbe entire well. Thus a large amount of water.I might say at tbe minimum of expense, might be supplied lor that part of tbe city. Tbe exact amount of water thus available, must be left to experiment experi-ment to decide; but there can be no doubt that it would be ample, in ordinary seasons, to water a large number of lots. It might prove that the experiment was well worth try iog. Perhaps similar natural advantages, ad-vantages, if not to so great an extent, could be found in Borne other part of the city- The well beiDg very large and open would be an advantage in other ways. TheBummersun would have considerable consid-erable play and power upon the water, and everybody knows that water slightly warm is much better than cold water for irrigation. For that reason, such a well would be better without any shade around it thao with, though shade hinders evaporation. The first expense would be tbe last, almost entirely. For tbe well, when made and well made, would need no special attention, though the syphon might require a little occasionally. In making such a well the ground purchase and the aypbon would require money. Labor i could dn all the rest. Lastly, this undertaking would turn a now bad thing into a great publio and private benefit, for a sufficient supply of water to cultivated land is ' one of the moat beneficial things i imaginable in temporal concerns. Huao. |