IRRIGATION IN UTAH. 



THIS STATE THE BIRTHPLACE OF MODERN IRRIGA- 

 TION IN AMERICA. WHAT WE OWE TO 

 THE MORMON PIONEERS. 



BY JOEL SHOMAKEK. 



Utah is the mother of modern American irrigation and originator of 

 practical community co-operation The Mormon pioneers of 1847 con- 

 structed the first ditch or canal on the present site of Salt Lake City. 

 They knew nothing of irrigation but were compelled to devise some means 

 for ovei-coming the aridity prevailing in their chosen valley, and there- 

 fore flooded a section of the desert by water taken from the mountain 

 stream near which the city was afterwards erected. The result was mar- 

 velous and even by many regarded as miraculous. Vegetation sprang 

 up everywhere that moisture touched the sandy plain and a worthless 

 desert became a veritable grassy paradise. No one attempted to meas- 

 ure the flow of a stream or estimate the duty of water, but simply con- 

 veyed it in small furrows to the cultivated area and applied it when the 

 surface seemed dry, allowing it to run until the seepage denoted a per- 

 fect meeting of moisture between the rows of grain and potatoes. 



The colonists- constructed their canals on the co operative plan, using 

 labor as the basis of all calculation, and issuing shares in ditches in ac- 

 cordance with the work performed. They divided the land, which was 

 all government possessions, into live ten and twenty acre tracts and 

 allotted these areas to men who could cultivate them. Thus a farmer 

 would get the full acreage while a carpenter, blacksmith or other trades- 

 man received the smallest portion. This equalized the water distribu- 

 tion in proportion to the time each man could devote to his tillable land. 

 The city contained ten acre blocks, with a residence on each corner, so 

 that every family could live in the city, grow a garden and small fruits 

 on the lot and cultivate the field as required. One ditch would carry water 

 to many small tracts, hence every man along the line was interested in 

 the construction and maintenance of the ditch, and proper distribution of 

 water. A water-master arranged the periods of irrigation and notified 

 each property owner when to take the water and when to cease using it. 



With the growth of the territory new fields were conquered by irri- 

 gation but the original plan of co operation was practiced in the settle- 

 ment of almost every one of the 320 cities, towns and villages in the 27 

 counties now comprising the state. The original cost of making co-op- 

 erative farm ditches averaged about $10 per acre, which was paid in 

 labor, lumber, stone or other material used in ditch building, makirg 

 dams, flumes or distributory gates. The land was chiefly taken under 



