PULSE OF IRRIGATION. 



A Striking Contrast. 



One of the members of the United 

 States Geological Survey recently called 

 attention to a striking contrast in the de- 

 velopment of the country lying on each 

 side of the boundary line between Oregon 

 and Idaho. In southwestern Idaho, near 

 Boise City and the state line, there is a 

 considerable section well developed by irri- 

 gation. Owing to the combined advan- 

 tages of the rich character of the soil, the 

 favorable conditions of the climate and 

 irrigation, this district contains some of 

 the best fruit growing country in the 

 world. Just on the other side of the 

 state line in Oregon along the Malheu and 

 Owyee rivers exactly the same conditions 

 exist rivers, soil and climate with the 

 exception of the application of water to 

 the land by irrigation, the vital condition. 

 In consequence this section, though but a 

 few miles distant from the other and just 

 as capable of high development, is a des- 

 ert country. Here is the whole important 

 question of irrigation in the arid West in 

 a nutshell, with its homes, farms and in- 

 dustry; without it, a desert. 



A Curious Result of Irrigation 



Experienced irrigators of the arid lands 

 of the West say that where the character 

 of the soil is loose and sandy, as it is in 

 many parts of the central valley of Cali- 

 fornia and often elsewhere in the West, it 

 drinks up the water put upon it in a most 

 astonishing way. Thousands and thou- 

 sands of gallons are run over and quickly 

 absorbed by the thirsty soil when irriga- 

 tion is first begun, and this may be con- 

 tinued for two or three years if the soil is 



deep. After several years of continuous 

 soaking, however, during which time the 

 ground has taken in great quantities of 

 water, it reaches a condition approaching 

 saturation, when it no longer needs more 

 to make it suitable for crops, and the ques- 

 tion may even become one of getting rid 

 of the surplus. It is a well known fact 

 that the country where Fresno, in South- 

 ern California, stands to-day, was origin- 

 ally a desert, arid waste where sheep had 

 to scramble for a living in a good year and 

 frequently starved to death in a dry one. 

 To-day there are thousands of acres of 

 land under cultivation there and the prob- 

 lem is no longer one of irrigation, but of 

 drainage; and there is being now seriously 

 agitated in the San Joaquin Valley the 

 question of the construction of a great 

 drainage canal to drain off the irrigating 

 water. In the city of Tulare when the 

 white people first went there, water could 

 not be found in wells at depths less than 

 75 to 100 feet below the surface of the 

 ground. To-day it is impossible to pump 

 a well dry; it is even difficult to puuip it 

 down a foot; 10 or 15 feet below the sur- 

 face the country seems to have become a 

 great sponge. The reason for this rather 

 surprising result of irrigation is that waler 

 introduced upon a given tract, sinks into 

 the soil and in the course of years widely 

 overflows, its boundary, thoroughly moist- 

 ens the adjoining lands and completely 

 changes the character of the whole sec- 

 tion. The significance of this result is 

 that though at first investments in irriga- 

 ting plants give returns for but a limited 

 area, in the course of years the same 

 plant will have opened up for occupation 



