IRRIGATION IN MINNESOTA. 417 
= IRRIGATION ON THE PRAIRIES. 
Doubt obtains as to irrigation to any practical extent in the prai- 
ried portion of our state. We should calculate the fact that it re- 
quires but slight descent for successful irrigation, and then where 
‘thisis not naturally obtainable it pays largely to force water up to 
required height, as is done in some farm districts among the Rocky 
Mountains, where actual deserts are thus speedily converted into 
Edens. 
RESERVOIRS ALSO IN WESTERN MINNESOTA. 
According to the annual report of Maj. W. A. Jones, of St. Paul, 
engineer in charge of the government works on the rivers of the 
Northwest, a great reservoir system on the Red and Red Lake riv- 
ers is unquestionably feasible. The Major has already established 
five great reservoirs among the headwaters of the Mississippi, and 
now suggestively proposes an extension of the system. 
“Tt is well known” says the Daily Herald, of Grand Forks, N. D., 
“that the northern portion of the state of Minnesota, and especially 
the portion directly east of the Red River valley, is composed, to a 
large extent. of a vast number of small lakes, besides Red Lake, 
which is of considerable area. These lakes comprise a number of 
great water basins forming the head waters of the Mississippi and 
Red rivers. The waters east of the “divide” going tothe Mississ- 
ippi and thence to the Gulf of Mexico, while the waters to the west 
of the same divide, eventually find an outlet through the Red 
river to Hudson’s Bay. The topography of the territory comprising 
the head waters of the Red river is shown by the investigations of 
Major Jones to be admirably adapted to permit the formation of a 
large storage reservoir, which will not only allow the vast quanti- 
ties of water which occasion the spring floods to be held in check, 
but admit of the same water being utilized in increasing the volume 
of water during the dry seasons. Red Lake can be utilized in the 
Same manner as a storage reservoir by the construction of dams at 
the outlet of the lake, which will raise the water two feet above its 
normal height when needed, and also by means of dredging permit 
the water in the lake to be lowered two feet when needed to keep up | 
the volume of water in the river. Major Jones is confident that by 
the judicious arrangement of dams and the reservoir system pro- 
posed, not only will the inconveniences from floods and low water 
be largely done away with, but the Redriver will be made navigable 
throughout the season from spring to freeze-up in the fall and the 
Red Lake river will be made navigable to the entire distance to Red 
Lake.” 
WHERE CONSTRUCTED. 
In concluding his report, Major Jones says: 
“An increase of 1,000 cubic feet per second to a low water discharge 
of 350 per second would render further operations under our project 
for improvement unnecessary and make an exceedingly fine line of 
water transportation. 
“In order to furnish this increase to the volume of discharge, the 
waters from the watershed of Red Lake could be assembled in one 
reservoir, and those from Otter Tail might be gathered in Lake 
Oo et hs en Oy 
