CHAPTER II 

 WATER SUPPLY AND PUMPS 



IN the Autumn of 19 lo President Taft was 

 asked by the State of Colorado to press the 

 button which opened the Gunnison tunnel and 

 turned the waters of die Gunnison River into the 

 Uncompahgre Valley. This splendid bit of en- 

 gineering will cost the United States Govern- 

 ment about five million dollars when completed; 

 but as a result one hundred and fifty thousand 

 acres of land will be irrigated and brought into 

 a state of cultivation, yielding a revenue suf- 

 ficiently large to repay the Government within 

 the next ten years. In choosing a farm, then, 

 it should be clearly understood that land with- 

 out an abundant water supply is as poor an in- 

 vestment as one could well make. When it is 

 borne in mind that water makes up a very large 

 per cent of the constituents of all our farm 

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