| Show irrigation the magician whose wand releases hidden resources of desert lands THE UINTAH WATERSHED ROOSEVEL TS GREATEST POTENTIAL ASSET roosevelt the center of largest irrigated area in in utah invites attention to its abundance of cheap water and cheap land developed to less than half its possibilities fourth installment series of fifteen articles which will be published in the standard one each week far a period ot of fifteen successive weeks for the purpose of outlining to our local people and the outside world the vast field of resources and opportunities existing here for advancement van cement success and tor for the promotion of the right psychology and optimism throughout Though out this period the standard will make every effort to show that there Is not a section of the entire intermountain inter mountain country offering a wider field of endeavor than roosevelt and its tributary territory every phase of industrial and business activity will be covered in a thorough and constructive manner facts and figures will be verified from the most reliable and authentic sources the carrying out of this industrial campaign has been made possible by many of the leading business of roosevelt the leading commercial center of this productive basin every reader of the standard may materially help in the campaign by sending hla his own copy of the paper to some friend or relative in some other section of the country that this relative or friend may learn of the opportunities offered by its tributary territory by EDWARD T BARBER irrigation represents one of the oldest and one of the newest activities cities of the uintah basin the oldest because remains of irrigation ditches and control works indicate that prehistoric men drew their food supplies from this basin and produced them by irrigation the newest because the present development rests tor for its success upon the application of irrigation methods to agriculture the prime factor in the irrigation of any section Is the area and nature of the water shed as to its ability to supply a sufficient amount the water supply being about the only factor entering into successful irrigation which is beyond the power of man to control an invest investigation investigate igat I 1 on of that factor is the first prime acton action in determining the value of an irrigation system the roosevelt territory presents an unusually favorable situation in this respect leaped its water shed lies entirely in the uintah mountains it Is a vast plateau averaging above feet altitude and bearing on its bosom a series of lofty peaks rising well above the foot mark nestled among these peaks are rum numerous erous mountain lakes which act as natural reservoirs tor for irrigation water heavy snows snowa fall in these mountains and during daring the summer months almost dally daily rains sometimes of torrential volume fall the altitude of the plateau and the protecting shelter of the lofty snow capped peaks holds back the melting snow until late in the irrigation season thus eliminating to a large extent the necessity of artificial reservoirs this is a wise provision of nature because of the tact fact that the rapid tall fall of the land the narrowness of the canyons and the nature of the soil are not well adapted to art artificial reservoirs these great natural reservoirs contributed tri buted wonderful assistance however to the development of the irrigation systems in use by reducing the cost of placing water upon the lands it Is estimated that the average construction cost of the irrigation systems now in use in the valley does not exceed 10 per acre this Is probably the cheapest per acre cost of any system in the irrigated west covering any thing like as many acres as are now under water there are now under water in this territory acres more than halt half the irrigation water in a the state of utah Is stored in this athla water shed of the Ul there are more irrigated acres with continued on page 3 UINTAH WATER SHED ROOSEVEL TS GREATEST POTENTIAL ASSET continued from page 1 in a radius ot of 20 miles ot of roosevelt than ihan any other city in utah and less than halt half the possible acreage has been develop id the storage capacity of the uintah water shod shed with its known supply of snow and rain make it the most valuable asset ot of the state or of utah it is worth more than all the mines and factories and other resources combined since it Is a perpetual source of income which may be developed into multiplied millions million of dollars annual annually ay without fear of if exhaustion thi Is a factor which should appeal strongly to every or investor an Jiri gated section with an assured water supply of proven quantity sufficient to insure against shortage is a prize not to be overlooked to use this vast resource and convert it into what our banker friends might term a liquid asset to develop it to its maximum capacity so that every second foot of water in it will contribute to the cash assets of the community is merely a matter of further development present development the roosevelt territory terru ory was held locked up as an indian reservation until 1905 when it was thrown open for white settlement under the homestead act its from transportation and the restrictions restriction pertaining to reserved indian detracted from its appeal to chite settlers and especially to tile gie investment of capital in its development the pioneers who appreciated its great value were left to their own limited cited resources to develop their irrigation system and solve their irrigation problems most alost of those these people were inexperienced perien ced in irrigation construction they knew how to apply the water to the land but were inexperienced in construction methods they took id td vantage of the vast storage capacity of the water shed and constructed their ditches and control works to use water direct from the rivers these early settlers faced the double financial problem of constructing ting their own irrigation works and at the same time opening up new farms from the raw desert lands it was a mighty task but there were q mighty men tackling it and these men have won the victory they have succeeded in placing under water acres of 0 the ilchert land in utah their irrigation woi ks which were at first hastily constructed 1 by I 1 eason of the stress of circumstances cum stances are rapidly giving away to lo more permanent structures they have opened their farms and built their ir irrigation works and kept their irrigation companies practically tree free of debt in the beginning of this work each settlement organized its own irrigation company and operated independently of all the others this resulted in much duplication ot of work frequently ditches paralleling each other for miles and increased the administration expenses slowly the settlers ara are learning the of such waste of energy and capital and are combining their systems for administrative purposes the dry gulch company is a fine example of this it represents several companies and now controls the abe distl button of acres of water p r educational n la t 9 IT in progress which has for its end the formation of the entire uin tah dasin basin into one big irrigation district tor for the more economical administration 1 of existing systems and the development of the entire water supply of the water shed to its maximum capacity it requires no great vision to see that such a move would make roosevelt territory capable of supporting a population of ten times its present number and that roosevelt could thus be made at least the second largest city in utah rivaled only by salt lake city A proposition of such magnitude requires time and intelligent agitation to bring it to fruition it justifies calra calm deliberation and the highest form of financial statesmanship obstructions may be thrown in its way by men who fall to sense its value or actuated by other motives these tactics may delay its development but they can never defeat it the secret value of irrigation A vast multitude of farmers on the high priced lands of the Alls mississippi sis valley are looking for just such locations as roosevelt offers of cheap lands and salubrious climate but still with modern conveniences these fa farmers have heard of the wonders of irrigation in stories of production which to them seemed a dream of a brain crazed with some stimulant here are a few facts explaining why irrigation excels their system desert lands retain all their virgin qualities of mineral elements essential to plant growth because excessive rainfall has not bleached them out of the soil item one plant food must first be dissolved to be available plants are greedy feeders if the supply Is present PI plants aks pass through stated periods period s of development just as animals do if during any given stage of development a plant is overfed as w when hen a field of grain is developing straw it tends to continue that stage to the injury of the next to follow the development of the head A rain on a field of wheat just at the time when the straw growing period should cease and the heading begin will cause the straw growth to continue and produce a great crop of straw but a small crop of grain the irrigation farmer controls the ho food supply and checks or stimulates the various development periods in his crops so as to produce the maximum results that is it if he be is a scientific irrigation farmer and knows the laws of plant growth item two scientific irrigation farming approaches pro aches the status of manufacturing there is no element of luck entering into the amount of flour |
