THE IRRIGATION AGE. 271 



pipes driven into the sheet water, and the deeper they go the stronger 

 the flow of water. In many cases the water rises near the surface of 

 the ground, and if, as I suggest, concrete cisterns were constructed 

 before the drain pipes are driven into sheet water, these wells become 

 artesian and the water will flow over the floor of the cistern and it is 

 by this means the government will get at the flow of water in the 

 mountain springs and from rain and melting snows of the Rockies. 



These concrete irrigation canals need not be over six or eight 

 feet deep, and perhaps not that depth, by 30 or 40 ft. in width. Judg- 

 ing from the experience of concrete pavements, the expense of these 

 canals need not be over $10,000 per mile. Now that the government 

 has received from the owners of these lands their value and they are 

 not remunerative for the want of moisture, it would seem to be the 

 duty of the government through irrigation to aid in making them 

 available for raising a crop. 



Again, the certainty of a crop under a ditch, the owner of each 

 farm would gladly pay a tax of $2.00 and $4.00 per acre to the govern- 

 ment for water, and the government would in this way be reimbursed 

 to some extent for the outlay in building the concrete canal. I cannot 

 imagine any duty on the part of our government more sacred than 

 putting within reach of the toiling millions of the farms in the states 

 we have referred to, the means with which to make a living, while 

 they do live, and when the farmer dies leaving his family in posession 

 of the means of maintaining his wife and children. 



I can only say, let the government construct a few miles of con- 

 crete canal, build a reservoir with side ditches and sink in the same, 

 drain pipes and bring the sheet water to a given center, and by means 

 of elevators, lifting the water into the ditches in any desired quantity. 

 We shall no longer be experimenting by sending into the clouds- bal- 

 loons and exploding dynamite in vain], efforts to force rain from the 

 clouds, especially when there is within ten and twenty feet of the 

 surface of the ground on territory extending fully 1000 miles each way. 

 an abundant supply of water for grain, grass, garden and fruit 

 harvests. 



ALEXANDER HOAGLAND. 

 KANSAS CITY, Mo. April 23rd, 1901. 



MR. ALEXANDER HOAGLAND^ Louisville, Ky. Dear Sir: I have 

 beeen dealing in and selling pumps and sinking wells in the various 

 parts of the country for the past 13 years. I have examined your 

 newly devised plan for concentrating^ sheet water in reservoirs by 

 means of bringing up the sheet water through a series of strainers or 

 drive points, and am convinced that the plan is entirely feasible, and 

 I can see no good reason why the government should not give the de- 



