THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XV 



CHICAGO, MARCH, 1901. 



NO. 6 



Irrigation National irrigation is being 

 In Russia, pushed by Russia. The gov- 

 ernment contemplates undertaking large 

 irrigation works in western Siberia. In 

 the districts of Tomsk and Omsk alone no 

 less than 833 artesian wells have been 

 bored during the last four years at a cost 

 of $300,000. Furthermore, there have 

 been constructed in the government of 

 Tomsk, in 74 different districts, altogether 

 276 miles of canals, while 85 miles of river 

 beds werrt cleaned from mud, thus reclaim- 

 ing through irrigation large areas of 

 country. 



Egyptian It is reported that but for the 

 Reservoirs, improvement effected recent- 

 ly in irrigation in Egypt, the unprece- 

 dented failure in the Nile flood ^this year 

 would have caused greatly increased dam- 

 age to the Egyptian cotton crop. All the 

 fine, long staple cotton in Egypt is raised 

 under irrigation. The construction on the 

 "Nile reservoirs" is pushing forward rap- 

 idly toward completion, and the low Nile 

 of 1899-1900 has greatly facilitated the 

 work. Ten thousand men are now em- 

 ployed at Assouan and ten thousand more 

 on the lower river at the Assiout reser- 

 voir. Twenty thousand men laboring on 

 storage reservoirs in the arid region of 

 the United States would mean the win- 

 ning of a new West. 



A Western Some hundred prominent dai- 

 Fight. ly Eastern newspapers recen - 



ly have editorially expressed views favor- 

 able to a system of national irrigation. It 

 would seem that the East is well in line in 

 wishing the development and reclamation 

 of the great area west of the hundredth 

 meridian, and that it is realized that such 

 a, development would benefit the entire 



country and be a national benefit, aiding 

 to the general wealth and power of the 

 Nation. While the East is thus willing 

 to assist and co-operate, it expects, of 

 course, that the West will make its own 

 fight. Every local Western organization 

 of whatever character chambers of com- 

 merce, clubs, business . associations 

 everything with a president and a secre- 

 tary should discuss and take action upon 

 this question of national irrigation and 

 Government appropriations for the build- 

 ing of storage reservoirs, and then stand 

 ready to co-operate with the National 

 Association, for whatever procedure is 

 necessary. 



Ornamental It was somewhat contradicto- 

 Plank. ry to hear Representative 



Mondell, of Wyoming, urging the recla- 

 mation of the arid lands, in the house of 

 representatives, and in invoking the arid 

 land reclamation plank of the Philadelphia 

 republican platform, and "Uncle" Joe 

 Cannon, of Illinoia, and Representative 

 Grosvenor, of Ohio, repudiating this plank 

 as "ornamental," not binding,. etc. If the 

 eastern republicans of the house are not 

 very careful and do not soon wake up to 

 the situation, they will get into an em- 

 barrassing tangle over the arid land irri- 

 gation question, which is growing strong- 

 er and stronger with each day. 



The opportunity was just right in the 

 house, had the democrats as a whole been 

 alive to the situation and to the strength 

 of the irrigation question, for the demo- 

 cratic party to place the republicans in a 

 bad predicament, for the key-note of the 

 Western irrigation question is "home- 

 building," and the republican party has 

 heretofore always championed this class 



