Show SHORTAGE OF WATER Increase in irv Agriculture Necessitates Necessitates ta tates es Use of Reservoirs Reservoirs All Available Sources of Supply are Being Empl Employed to Render Render SerVIce ServIce Service ice Until Mountain Streams 11 are Used Several Times Times' The shortage of Irrigation water In the natural streams last season recalls recalls recalls re re- re- re calls the fact that the waters used for Irrigation In earlier years were derived directly from the melting snows snows' of the mountains to much greater extent than at the present time The cold of the higher altitudes was then the only I c cause use preventing tho the waters falling InI in I those regions or formed by the m meltIng melt melt- lt- lt Ing lug of the snow from flowing rapidly from the place of their precipitation to the lower reaches of the rivers through which they find their way to Join the oceanic waters writes W. W P. P Hadden in the Denver Field and Farm This agent is as active now as then but alone atone Is Inadequate to effect a Do sufficiently sufficiently sufficiently suf suf- regular distribution of these waters to meet the varied and growIng growing growing grow grow- ing retirements of agriculture and it has been supplemented by the tho use of reservoirs to store the waters and prevent them from going to waste Not only has the attempt been made to store the flood and other surplus waters in order to subsequently distribute distribute distribute dis dis- dis- dis tribute them that they might add to the well-being well and md prosperity of those living in sections further down the stream but our agriculture has so Increased increased In In- creased that much more water Is required re re- re- re than formerly and in order to meet this requirement our reservoir systems have constantly grown All All' available sources of water are rapidly being made to render service until the waters of the mountains are taken out of the streams and returned several several several sev sev- eral times before they are finally discharged discharged discharged dis dis- dis- dis charged Into the bigger streams We may yet learn to further Increase the tho duty of water but if It we do we will not lessen the questions relative to th the changes produced and suffered by these waters used for the purposes of Irrigation We will on the contrary Intensify them and proba probably ly find that that new questions will be bo raised It Is well known but still more generally generally gen gen- accepted as a fact that the Waters waters wa Wa- of ot rivers rising In high mountains where there is little soil son scanty vegetation vegetation vege vege- tation and no human beings to pollute pollute pol pot lute them are comparatively pure many of them very pure indeed This Is the case with the waters of our mountain streams and Is not a fancy arising from the notions which we wi associate associate as as- as- as with the the mo mountains and their seclusion The rocky face which their surface so generally presents does not wholly withstand the attack gentle genUe though It seem Beem of the falling rain or melting snow The rocks yield little by little It Is true but the water Is never able to enrich Itself greatly In mineral matter at their expense The work done by the waters in a year a month or even in ma a n week when measured measured meas meas- in the aggregate is surprisingly large but no given quantity of this water a n gallon or so carries more than an nn infinitesimal part of the pro pro- duct duet This water r Is usually colorless and free from organic matter because we have bave no accumulation of decaying organic organic organic or or- ganic matter such as ns peat etc to contaminate it Where the surface Is covered with soil son there is little difference difference difference differ differ- ence between the soil and the rocks on which the soil rests J I do o not know whether the changes which take place In this soil solI proceed more rapidly than thanIn thanin thanin in the rocks proper o or not It t Is pre- pre Burnable that they do but they are essentially essentially essentially es es- es- es of the same kind and this Is true throughout the mountain region These waters suffer little change so long longas as they continue to flow over 0 0 me ne rocky beds which they have cut I for themselves In the flanks of the mountains or so long as they move through the soils which are littlemore little littlemore littlemore more than the pulverized rock on which they lie He This however i is no longer true when they Issue from fron the mountains and enter the plains I |