IRRIGATION IN TEXAS. 



UTILIZING THE SMALLER RIVERS POSSIBILITIES OF ALLIED INDUSTRIES. 



BY F. H. NEWELL. 



IN regard to irrigation by means of storm water, I 

 must confess that after seven years of active serv- 

 ice in various matters pertaining to irrigation in- 

 vestigation and the measurement of water resources 

 of the co.untry in all the States and Territories of the 

 West, I am still far from confident as to the present 

 practicability in general of this method of develop- 

 ment. As conditions now .are, there are so many 

 localities where irrigation can be successfully con- 

 ducted by cheaper and more reliable means, that it is 

 only in comparatively exceptional cases that irrigation 

 by stored water can be practiced with profit. Some of 

 these exceptional cases are to be foun$ in your own 

 State, where, with favorable topography for delivering 

 and holding storm water at points where dams can be 

 cheaply constructed, it becomes feasible to hold large 

 quantities each year. Each of these cases, however, 

 must be carefully considered upon its own peculiar 

 merits, and no generalization can have much value in 

 determining upon a course of procedure. 



In the progress of the systematic topographic map- 

 ping of Texas, now being conducted by this Survey, 

 and in the examinations made by other parties, many 

 of these reservoir sites are being discovered, and their 

 existence should be made known at the earliest possi- 

 ble date to the public, in order that suitable .steps may 

 be taken to ascertain the exact cost and benefit of 

 water storage at each point, and that the question of 

 ultimate profits may be fully and carefully discussed. 

 During the existence of the irrigation branch of this 

 Survey a considerable number of reservoir sites in 

 different parts of the country were carefully surveyed, 

 the cost of dam construction under various conditions 

 ascertained, and the area of land to be benefited esti- 

 mated from the topographic sheets. A few of these 

 works have been constructed by private parties, but 

 by far the greater number are still considered as 

 matters for the future, when irrigated lands and crops 

 will have a greater local value following upon increase 

 of population. There are, as above stated, too many 

 opportunities for the development of agriculture by 

 irrigation by cheaper means. This is the point upon 

 which I would dwell in this brief paper. 



There is one thing which the people of Texas need 

 to keep constantly before their eyes, and that is the 

 possibilities of building up an innumerable variety of 

 small industries, these in the aggregate contributing 

 far more to the permanent prosperity than the great 

 enterprises usually discussed. This is true, not only in 

 manufacturing and in ordinary farming, but is es- 

 pecially notable in irrigation. Few people appreciate 

 the great advantages possessed by Texas in this line, 

 through the fact of the relatively wide distribution of 

 small perennial sources of water in the form of springs 

 and creeks, deriving a constant supply from seepage. 

 There is hardly a State in the West in which the water 

 supply, such as it is, is so broadly distributed in bodies, 

 each one of which can be easily controlled by a few 

 farmers. 



In looking over the statistics of irrigation, one of the 

 most striking facts is that the notable successes and the 

 rapid increases of wealth to a community have come 

 not through large enterprises in irrigation, but through 



the construction by the farmers themselves of moder- 

 ate size ditches leading from streams whose volume 

 is small and whose fluctuations, especially during the 

 summer time, are within narrow limits. These are 

 the men who have built for themselves comfortable 

 homesj who have reclaimed arid land and given it the 

 highest value to which farming land can attain. They 

 have, by concerted effort and the use of relatively in- 

 significant capital, year by year extended the ditch 

 systems and by personal management have kept the 

 expenditures for annual maintenance at the minimum. 

 It ie to the predominence of these in the Census Re- 

 port for 1890 that is due the relatively low average 

 first cost, and annual expense of irrigation. 

 Throughout the greater portion of the arid and semi- 

 arid regions the opportunities for such development 

 no longer exist. The choice spots have been picked, 

 and there only remain the larger, less readily con- 

 trolled sources of water or opportunities for storage. 



Texas, however, is exceptional. Irrigation develop- 

 ment has not proceeded rapidly, except in a few spots 

 in the more arid western part of the Stale. The op- 

 portunities for a great number of small enterprises 

 are still open. 



In sharp contrast to the development of irrigation 

 in a small way are the great enterprises, involving 

 heavy capitalization, and as an incident evil, the ma- 

 nipulation of stocks and bonds. Taking the country 

 through, nearly all of the great corporations which 

 have constructed extensive irrigation works are 

 verging upon bankruptcy, if not already in the hands 

 of receivers. In the main the difficulty of settling a 

 desirable class of farmers upon the lands under these 

 great systems, the slowness with which agriculture 

 develops, and the length of time required to acquire 

 experience in the handling of waters, has so retarded 

 the income of these companies that the cost of main- 

 tenance and interest charges have eaten up the re- 

 serve capital. As a result, the works have often been 

 badly managed, adding further to the discouragement 

 of the settlers under the great canals. These corpo- 

 rations or great companies are necessary to handle 

 comprehensive systems, xmless the State or Nation will 

 do it, and in the future must probably multiply in 

 number; but in the State of Texas at present, it ap- 

 pears that the first and best development, and the one 

 leading to the most good, will be through the utiliza- 

 tion of springs and creeks by associations composed 

 wholly of irrigators. 



The investigations being conducted by this Survey 

 have not proceeded sufficiently far to enable me to 

 discuss with any degree of assurance the volume and 

 fluctuations of the many important, though small, 

 streams of the State. To an engineer who has traveled 

 through the various portions of the United States 

 where irrigation is practiced, the striking opportuni- 

 ties of Texas along the beautiful, well-watered valleys, 

 where the marvelous springs, especially of the central 

 part of the State occur, it becomes evident at a glance 

 that a great increase of population is possible 

 when comprehension is had of the possibilities of em- 

 ploying this water upon the lands usually too dry for 

 the best success. 



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