406 THE IRRIGATION AGL. 



by irrigation than where you have twenty inches of rainfall and less 

 evaporation; so a given amount of water will irrigate more acres there 

 than farther west. 



"In that region we have two questions. In the Dakctas it is very 

 expensive to bring water from the Missouri river, and in Nebraska we 

 have the uncertainty at the present time regarding the state law as 

 to whether you could proceed under it. Nebraska is comparatively 

 well supplied with water. The North Platte is a stream that cannot 

 be utilized to any great extent in the West. The Loupe is a good 

 stream, and they have in these two rivers an opportunity for a very 

 large development. As you go south of that the difficulty in Kansas 

 is the question as to the extent of the underflow, and whether it is 

 practicable to get some means of pumping it up. 



"Again the regulation of streams that rise in a country to the 

 West. When you go south into Texas you have still a different ques- 

 tion In southern Texas there is a considerable territory that can be 

 irrigated from springs and wells, and this applies all the way through 

 Arizona and New Mexico. 



"A great many streams are torrential in character, carrying an 

 immense flow in character, carry ing an immense flow of water and then 

 running down to nothing. You must store these streams in order to 

 make much use of their waters, and the problem of storage is a com- 

 plicated one. It involves the question of the sediment in these south- 

 ern streams, the salt. It is an important question to build a reservoir 

 in the channel of a river, and when you have a large investment in 

 houses and people settled there, to have your reservoir fill up and you 

 have to move out. It is simply a waste of money and a waste of 

 energy. That is a question the Department of Agriculture is study- 

 ing, and arraugments have been made with the Agricultural college 

 of Texas to gather samples from these streams ana see what would be 

 the probable result of letting the mud they carry deposit on the soil." 





