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PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY 



IRRIGATION IN CENTRAL KANSAS. 



BY A. C. EOMIG. 



TO irrigate or not to irrigate; that is the 

 question that has engaged the atten- 

 tion of many farmers in Central Kansas 

 for the last twelve months. 



In location we are occupying debatable 

 ground ; it is not definitely settled whether 

 we are arid or humid. 



From 1892 to 1896 we were decidedly 

 arid; but now that the rains have come 

 we think we are humid; and the hesita- 

 ting farmer has decided to postpone his 

 irrigation schemes indefinitely. He has 

 a conviction imprisoned in his brain, that 

 in the cycle of years, we have passed the 

 period of drought, and are entered upon 

 the threshold of a series of wet and pros- 

 perous seasons; that the dread calamity of 

 hot winds and crop failures are at an end, 

 irrigation unnecessary, superfluous, and 

 an expensive luxury. 



The buoyant hopefulness and simple 

 faith of the average Kansan is sublime. 



But the true advocate of intensive farm- 

 ing is not so optimistic, and is not so 

 easily swerved from his purpose by doubt- 

 ful promise of better seasons ahead. Too 

 often in the history of her existense has 

 the great Sunflower State, in emulation 

 of Macbeth' s witches, "paltered with us 

 in a double sense, has kept the word of 

 promise to the ear and broken it to the 

 hope." The wary irrigator is not de- 

 ceived; profiting from his experience of 

 1895, he is pressing steadily onward to 

 assured success and grander results in 

 1896. 



There is a phase of irrigation, however, 

 upon which we may all agree, the value 

 and importance of impounded storm 

 waters stored for future use or for imme- 

 diate service in flooding the ground for 

 the plow and seeding; in our prodigal 

 waste of this valuable element we 

 imitate the North American Indian, 

 whose chief concern upon receiving his 

 quota of rations at the agency, is to get 

 rid of them in the most expeditious 

 manner. 



250 



Instead of constructing ponds and 

 basins for the conservation of this wealth- 

 yielding fluid, it is our custom to open up 

 the sluice-ways and speed it onward in 

 its ra,ce to the sea where it is not 

 needed. 



But our people are learning a better 

 thrift, by study of the Orient, where irri- 

 gation has been in successful practice for 

 four thousand years, and where no drop 

 of water is permitted to run to waste. 



Central Kansans are becoming inter- 

 ested and much is being accomplished in 

 this direction through individual effort by 

 the construction of ponds and basins on 

 the farm. 



All over the plains of Kansas there are 

 low-lying flats or gentle gradients, where 

 an indifferent dam, easily and cheaply 

 constructed for temporary use, may serve 

 the purpose of flooding a considerable 

 area of ground, and hold the water im- 

 prisoned until absorbed by the soil and 

 well out of the way of plow and seed. 



This system of irrigation was in vogue on 

 the river Nile two thousand years ago, and 

 was practiced in a small way in Central Kan- 

 sas in the winter of 1894-95, and in every 

 instance the result was not only highly 

 satisfactory and the crops phenomenal, but 

 it was a revelation of possibilities within 

 the reach of every farmer however poor. 



There is thrift in the conservation of 

 storm waters. 



IRRIGATION ON THE SOUTH PLATTE. 



DETWEEN Julesburg, Colo., and Big 

 I-) Springs, Neb. , the towns being only a 

 few miles distant either way from the 

 state line, are a number of irrigation 

 pumping plants and also considerable 

 land under ditches. 



Starting from Julesburg and going 

 down the valley the first irrigated farm 

 reached is that of F. M. Johnson. Mr. 

 Johnson has paid for his windmills, made 

 a good living and now has about five acres 

 covered with a young orchard and small 

 fruits. 



The T. V. ranch owned by Omaha 



