BY "OLD IRRIGATION," IN THE REFLECTOR, 



ABILENE, KAN. 



Again in the cycle of time, the people of central Kansas find 

 themselves face to face with conditions of aridity, hot winds and crop 

 shortage, that recall vividly the disastrous seasons of 1860, 1874 and 

 subsequent years, and emphasize now as then the necessity of artifi- 

 cial aid in the distribution of moisture, if we would have reliable and 

 satisfactory results from crop returns. 



In memory of the unmerciful joshings meted out to the advocates 

 of irrigation in recent seasons of favorable conditions and excessive 

 rainfall that threatened to develop a species of web-footed bipeds we 

 trust that our friends will not be severely critical if we take advan- 

 tage of the present atmospheric status to score a few innings by way 

 of reprisal and to even things up generally. 



The spasmodic, incomplete and unsatisfactory efforts at irrigation 

 during periods of drouth in the last decade and the prompt abandon- 

 ment of such effort on the first indications of rainfall, is proof conclu- 

 sive that the people of central Kansas have no relish lor a persistent 

 and systematic movement along those lines, such as is practiced in 

 the more arid regions of the west, where irrigation is an absolute 

 necessity and where conditions make it a case of "Root hog or die." 



We are forced to the conclusion that our people would rather trust 

 their crops to the lottery of atmospheric change, accept what they 

 , can get and be satisfied, or develop into a knocker with this evident 

 reluctance to adopt a system of intense farming. It is manifest that 

 if we are to have increased humidity in central Kansas it must be 

 brought about by some other method than that of individual effort 

 through the medium of pump or diverted stream, presumably by a 

 change and betterment in climatic conditions. Can such a change be 

 accomplished and how? We answer unhesitating, yes, by the conser- 

 vation of storm waters through a system of artificial lakes, storage 

 reservoirs, catch basins, dams and ponds, as outlined by Elwood 

 Mead, Major Powell, officials of the coast and geodetic survey and 

 other eminent civil engineers, advocates for the reclamation of the 

 arid west. 



When the general government shall take the matter of reclama- 

 tion well in hand (as it will in the near future) complete the system of 

 segregation so auspiciously begun, and construct the necessary res- 

 ervoirs throughout the vast area bounded by Old Mexico, Oregon and 



