THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



95 



the capital to back them is but another proof of what 

 irrigation is doing. Without irrigation there would 

 be no new railroad building talked of on any of these 

 routes. 



Attention has been called many times of 



Proving . .... , , , , T T 



His' late to the energetic efforts of Mr. L. H. 



Value. Taylor in connection with the study of 

 irrigation and kindred subjects. The State of Ne- 

 vada has produced many able and useful men, and 

 Mr. Taylor is making himself felt among the foremost 

 advocates of her future possibilities. He was born 

 in Texas in 1862 and came to Southern California in 

 1854. He spent his boyhood on his father's farm, and 

 at the age of 18 began teaching school. After two 

 years he turned his attention to surveying and engi- 

 neering, gaining a thorough knowledge of the pro- 

 fession through close study and practical work in the 

 field under the guidance of older men. He early 

 made a specialty of irrigation work, and since 1886 

 has had responsible charge of a number of important 

 works, mainly in California, where his word goes a 

 long way with capitalists, business men and writers. 



In the spring of 1892, after looking over the ground 

 carefully and having faith in the future of Nevada, 

 he decided to locate in Reno, proving his good faith 

 by purchasing a pleasant home upon the banks of 

 the Truckee. He was the author of the irrigation 

 bill modeled after the Wyoming law, introduced in 

 the last session of the Legislature. He was the 

 organizer of the movement begun at Los Angeles 

 during the recent Irrigation Congress to secure the 

 next meeting in Nevada. He was later elected sec- 

 retary of the Nevada Commission and is now 

 engaged in making a study of the water resources of 

 the State for the Commission, and has been placed 

 in charge of the preparation of a pamphlet on the re- 

 sources of the State, to be used at the Mid-winter 

 Fair. 



Nevada is fully awake to the necessity of an en- 

 lightened irrigation policy, and there is hardly a 

 doubt but that the Legislature will act next winter, in 

 which event the friends of irrigation in the State pro- 

 pose that Mr. Taylor shall accept the position of 

 State Engineer. 



The development of irrigation in Kansas 

 Birth of , 

 Irrigation has grown from the use of water from an 



in Kansas, abandoned mill-race, the appendage of 

 a mill that was never built, which was projected to 

 grind a crop of grain that was never grown. 



The year 1878 was one of those exceptionally favor- 

 able years which periodically smile upon western 

 Kansas, and a wave of immigration filled with people 

 the country about where Garden City now stands, and 

 they seeded thousands of acres to wheat that fall. 

 Landis & Hollinger, an enterprising firm at Sterling, 



who had started a branch store at Garden City, began 

 preparations to erect a mill at the latter place to 

 grind the expected wheat crop. The succeeding year 

 proved to be one of those popularly said to contain 

 thirteen months of dry weather. Not an acre of the 

 wheat sown ever was harvested probably not one per 

 cent, of the seed ever germinated and the people 

 disappeared as rapidly as they had come the preced- 

 ing year. The mill project was abandoned, of course, 

 but a part of the race had been made, and 'Squire 

 Worrell, an experienced irrigator, who had resided 

 for some years in California and Colorado, and whose 

 land lay alongside the mill-race, obtained water from 

 it to irrigate a few acres. The crops he produced 

 were a revelation and an inspiration to the few people 

 remaining in the country, who immediately became 

 enthusiastic irrigators. James R. and William D. 

 Fulton, the founders of Garden City, aided by W. H. 

 Armentrout, Levi Wilkinson, John A. Stevens, W. R. 

 Hopkins, J. W. Weeks and others, immediately en- 

 larged the mill-race into an irrigation canal, and other 

 canals were projected and built in rapid succession. 



Settlers were attracted, capital became interested, 

 and the fame of irrigation in western Kansas was 

 spread abroad. Prof. Hay has found that as a matter 

 of fact, a small irrigation canal had been made and 

 used by a farmer in the valley of the Smoky, in Wal- 

 lace county, prior to the beginning at Garden City, 

 and I am under the impression that it is still in use. 

 But it did not produce such results as to attract atten- 

 tion or excite emulation. The Worrell farm at Garden 

 City, on the other hand, became famous. It was for 

 years the example to which prospective irrigators in 

 southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado were 

 cited the Mecca for seekers of information relative 

 to this new feature of agricultural industry. And I 

 may add that no seeker after information ever went 

 away from the Worrell farm unsupplied, unless the 

 proprietor was absent. 



, It is perhaps not too much to say that of 



His Good 



Work for the men who have been instrumental in 



Irrigation. crea tj n g faith in irrigation enterprises 



and giving dignity to irrigation securities, Charles 



W. Aldrach, of Salt Lake City, stands in the front 



rank. 



In considering a project of this nature* from its in- 

 ception to its completion, Mr. Aldrach is what may 

 be termed an "all arpund" irrigationist. There is no 

 branch of the work with which he is not familiar, and 

 up to the present time success has marked his every 

 effort. THE AGE does not believe that in thus giving 

 credit to this one indefatigable worker it is at all 

 detracting from the merits of other prominent irriga- 

 tion promoters and experts. Mr. Aldrach's ability in 

 this line has been most fully demonstrated. Success- 



