Show IRRIGATION THE CURE FAILURE OF CROPS DIStJEADT CNCD FARMERS OF KANSAS Otsey Otevsd Away and Tnn tools dial In lIhlott has 5 Volllorl Ian Uomonlnl1 1vlat Coo1 its lion by Inlcollon V N Flnnoy county near the western border of Kansas let i thouiandi of acres were Panted to ft wheat and It seemed seem-ed the sanest of led j > J ts to build o ftJl KHslmlll to grind ti the crop This was undertaken near CJ ok vlle the Arkansas river by enterprising merchants In the neighboring neigh-boring community of larden City but the new Initltutlon began and ended with a mill race Hcforo tho building and machinery were required the wheat crop had surrendered to dry air end hot wind Tho semiarid character char-acter of tho great plains west of the I hundredth meridian long known to tockmen and Indian but denied by greedy land agents end dlicrodllctl I by i eager and hopeful settlers I had again I nmrrtH bell with unmistakable em I I phasls Not on aero of the crop was harvested I The prairieschooner set null nnd steered for other parts Towns dwindled to mero hamlets All the nebulous Industrial educational and railroad projects suddenly descended from Ihe siibllmo to the ridiculous < And jet the blighted iced was destined to lesr another rind far moro fateful crop and the forgotten mlllraco on the banks of the Arkansas to grind n grist that would prove historic I A few settlers I remained to rake amid er r the ashes of their I ruined hopes Among them wns n man who had learned the I mtloiU of Irrigation whllo lit Ing In Csllfornla nnd Colorado It happened 1 I that his land adjoined tho abandoned I millrace and ho readily obtained the right la turn tho water upon n part of I his farm Tho result though not surprising sur-prising to Iho practised Irrlgator was a revelation to his thoroughly this hoarlcnod neighbors Tho soil which had produced 1 nothing In the previous summer responded l to the now method of cultivation with enormous crops of all varieties of products prod-ucts In quality they surpassed anything any-thing previously grown In that region As these fads becamo known a new hope arose Ilko a star In the night against the dark background of past dlKourngcmonts Tho Harden City experiment became the Mecca of students stu-dents of Irrigation throughout tho wide regions devastated by the drought Tho ruined crop of the previous year and tho melons millrace gave birth to nn Influence which In fifteen pears has ntiumcd tar rraching proportions This Influence by ravcallng tho need of Irrigation I Ir-rigation In a territory which had hitherto hith-erto depended entirely upon the rainfall rain-fall extended the known limits of arid < l America hundreds of miles to the eastward east-ward and moro than ono thousand miles north and south thus adding to the empire of Irrlmtlon all tho western portions of the Dakotas Nebraska Kansas Oklahoma and Texas together with eastern Colorado In this vast district It has begun to rovolutlonlia both the Industrial nnd social life of tho people It has compelled com-pelled tho attention of legislatures created now laws and administrates systems In several states wrung n few nieagrn appropriations from congress and set on foot parlous Industrial and educations undertakings Tho problems prob-lems of tho s < mlarld region are peculiarly pecu-liarly Its own differing materially from those of tho desert state west of tho continental dltlde Thu movcmcu which has wrought these momentous changes nllko In public sentiment and In methods of Industry has found Its warmest championship In Kansas where It tine been reduced to perfect orgaaltatlon through the luitrumental Ity of press and platform Throughou the Bowlarid region but particularly In Knnni there am effective state county nnd ovtn hlp associations lire I lug tho adoption of Irrigation as the pries of prosperity and extending by means of contentions and popular lit eicture the common knowledge of ha practical aspeahsWaya and Means In Arid America by William K Smyth In tho Century |