232 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



they had visited any of the irrigated districts in Kan- 

 sas, Nebraska or Colorado. 



Their answer was, " No;" they did not have any 

 faith in it. They had tried to irrigate their cornfields 

 but could not get the water a hundred yards from 

 their puinps. Upon further inquiry I learned that 

 their pumps were about an inch and a quarter in 

 diameter, that they had no reservoirs, never let the 

 pumps run except when watering stock, until in sum- 

 mer when their corn was withering, they would start 

 the pumps and try to run an inch stream of water out 

 over the hot, dry ground. People like these, will op- 

 pose every enterprise in this direction. 

 . If individuals, communities, townships, counties, 

 States and the general government will articulate 

 action in this direction, soon great quantities of the 

 flood waters will be stored upon the plains. The 

 lower Mississippi can then be kept within bounds with- 

 out the annual expense of millions of dollars for sand- 

 bags, rip-rap, etc. 



There are thousands of places where the overflow 

 waters of the upper Concho, Colorado, Brazos, Wich- 

 ita, Pease, Red, Canadian, Cimaron, Arkansas, Smoky, 

 Saline, Solomon, Republican, Platte, Rattlesnake, 

 Niobrara and Missouri rivers can be stored with mod- 

 erate expense, and we believe that it is the duty of 

 our Congressmen to press this matter until some defi- 

 nite action is taken other than appointing a commit- 

 tee to ride in sleeping cars to the Pacific over one 

 route and return over another. 



The reservoirs, large and small, should be stocked 

 with food fish, and be surrounded with fruit and 

 forest trees. All the ground should be thoroughly 

 cultivated, no vegetable matter ever be burned except 

 in the stove, and for several years no grass sown ex- 

 cept alfalfa. In order to reach this high state of culti- 

 vation the farms must be small. 



Any family can have abundance and much to sell 

 from forty acres under good cultivation. If people 

 want homes, forty or eighty acres will be enough, 

 but if they wish to engage in shipping and specu- 

 lating in grain, it will be better for the country if they 

 do not own any land. 



Pumps should be from four to ten inches in diam- 

 eter, and be allowed to run day and night, winter and 

 summer. When one reservoir is full, flood the ground 

 or fill another reservoir. Long and deep furrows can 

 be plowed on the high ground to collect the winter 

 snow and rain. As soon as you have enough water, 

 thoroughly soak the ground, whether it be fall, win- 

 ter, spring or summer. In many places along the 

 river, side pits can be dug, and siphons, chain-buckets, 

 pumps or Archimedes' screws be used. 



Every acre irrigated will diminish the necessity for 

 irrigating the adjoining acres. Let us briefly con- 

 sider the effect of the conditions named: As the air 

 moves along it will pass over water and over land. 

 The water will be evaporated, and every drop of water 

 taken up in the form of vapor into the air will lower 

 the temperature of the air, as can easily be noticed 

 by sprinkling the floor, porch or yard in hot weather, 

 or by standing on the windward side of any lake or 

 river. Also in the summer when it rains a few miles 

 from you, the wind from that section is cool so long 

 as the water is evaporating. 



As the temperature of the air is lowered, its capacity 

 for taking moisture out of plants is diminished. It is 

 therefore rendered harmless even when passing over 

 the hills where water can not be applied. The weight 

 of the atmosphere is also increased by the hundreds 

 of tons of water taken up and its velocity retarded by 

 its increased weight, by local conflicting currents, and 



by the numerous groves, orchards, buildings, etc. As 

 an explanation of the local conflicting currents it is 

 enough to say that the air that rests on the water be- 

 comes cooler and heavier than the air that rests on the 

 land. This in the daytime at least will cause outward 

 currents from all the large bodies of water. 



The hope of this country is in atmospheric irriga- 

 tion. With our country well plowed, subsoiled and 

 cultivated, and water stored along the plains, the air 

 could not acquire a damaging thirst for water, and 

 good crops could be raised on hill and valley in nearly 

 all parts of our country without any artificial watering 

 of the ground. Even now, with one hundred acres in 

 buffalo sod to one under cultivation, fair crops could 

 be raised in most parts of the country nearly every 

 year without watering the ground, were it not for 

 the thirsty winds. 



In one of the '80s, on the fourth day of July, 

 the corn everywhere was healthy and growing rapidly. 

 Three days later the corn all over central and western 

 Kansas was dead. The wind then changed, rain fell 

 and the remainder of the year was seasonable, but 

 the damage had been done. The corn crop was a 

 total failure. This is almost an annual experience on 

 the plains. Whether the hot winds come in the 

 spring, summer or fall, all that they are greedy for is 

 water, and they demand that only in the daytime. 



The more we irrigate the less we need to irrigate. 

 If reservoirs be placed well south and along the 

 plains the air will not acquire much thirst and the 

 little that may be acquired will readily be satisfied 

 by the water in numerous reservoirs. As the rainfall 

 would thus be kept in the country, the quantity from 

 this source would annually increase. To this surplus 

 would be added the great amount brought to the sur- 

 face by pumps and led out from the rivers by ditches. 

 This would furnish sufficient moisture for the crops, 

 and the increased evaporation from reservoirs, earth, 

 crops and groves would undoubtedly cause local 

 showers. 



For our rainfall now we are indebted to the cyclonic 

 winds that bring us moisture from the Gulf of Mexico 

 and to the friendly mountain breeze that lowers the 

 temperature to the point of saturation, but we are 

 probably more indebted to the grand old Pacific that 

 slops over the continental divide and sends streams of 

 pure water through our arid plains and a shallow 

 ocean of water beneath our feet. 



After eighteen years spent in scientific work in the 

 laboratory and one and one-half years spent as geolo- 

 gist on the plains, from the Concho valley to the 

 north line of Kansas, I commenced in 1886 to work 

 up the subject of atmospheric irrigation. In seventy- 

 five articles written since that time I have urged the 

 same thing, and I offer this communication in the 

 hope that it may help a little in the study of these 

 great fertile plains, destined and reserved, as I be- 

 lieve, for the scene of the grandest triumphs of art 

 and science, where, with small farms and intelligent, 

 happy citizens, the advantages of both city and coun- 

 try life will be happily blended. Industry, frugality, 

 intelligence, independence and contentment will 

 characterize the people; the music of church and 

 school bells and the song, " Home, Sweet Home," will 

 be heard from home to home, from church to church, 

 and from school to school throughout the length and 

 breadth of this great fertile belt. 



The population of the United States is increasing 

 about a million a year, and the rising generations 

 must have homes or be homeless tramps and pests. 

 We must be a nation of citizens or a nation of dis- 

 satisfied, turbulent paupers. 



