48 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



may be that the farmers cannot themselves 

 succeed in this enterprise but it is well 

 worth the trial. The experience of the 

 farmers about Fowler and Eaton will be 

 watched with interest by a vast number of 

 people throughout America. Colorado 

 Weekly Times. 



SILT. 



Irrigation now means fertilization. If 

 the facts are as shown by the Arizona Ex- 

 periment Station, and if the government 

 is to irrigate the arid West then it will 

 furnieh the poor settler with a farm, fer- 

 tilizers and a supply of water. As it has 

 already aided systems of transportations 

 with millions of money, and timber from 

 public lands to build farmhouses and 

 stables, there is little more to be done by 

 the government to enrich the settlers or in 

 aid of competition with eastern agricul- 

 ture. 



The Arizona station estimates that the 

 value of the silt deposits on irrigated land 

 of Salt River for one year, at commercial 

 rates for fertilizers contained, is about one 

 million dollars, and second only to the 

 value of the water for irrigation. The 

 potash, nitrogen and phosporic acid in the 

 waters of irrigation, per acre, are thus cal- 

 culated: 



Per ct. 



When silt by Com'l 



sampled, volume, value. 



Colorado River.. Oct. 14-20 7.88 $854 



Salt River Sept. 1-9 2.35 23.23 



Gila River..... Sept. 8.15 19.90 35.49 



As an illustration of the value of the 

 silt, a farmer is referred to who had a sur- 

 plus of water, and raised an embankment 

 three feet high at the lower end of a piece 

 of rough land, and in six weeks the em- 

 banked space was half full of mud, and 

 when drained became a valuable field of 

 fc-rtile soil. Thes^ facts are in line with 

 the high fertility and productivenss of the 

 silt of the Nile. 



WYOMING. 



The serious character of the recent July 

 droughts which so jeopardized the western 

 crops gives an unusual interest to the in- 

 vestigations of the United States Geologi- 

 cal Survey which are being conducted in 

 the Big Horn Mountains of Northern 

 Wyoming. It is in this section that the 

 porous water-bearing rock formations come 

 to the surface, which are known to under- 

 lie the whole of the Great Plains region 

 to the eastward, and from which are 

 derived the very considerable artesian 

 water supply which means so much to the 

 industrial and agricultural development of 

 the section. Along the slopes of the Big 

 Horn Mountains, the Black Hills and at 

 other localities, numerous mountain 

 streams flow across the upturned faces of 

 rock layers and furnish water .which slowly 

 works its way along under the plains to 

 the .eastward. In these mountain regions 

 it is possible to measure the thickness, 

 study the character of the rock lying 

 beneath them, and obtain other informa- 

 tion of value throwing added light on the 

 important question of the water resources 

 of the Great Plains. The work is being 

 conducted by Mr. N. A. Darton, who has 

 spent several seasons in similar investiga- 

 tions. 



THE LAST OF POOR LO. 



Civilization is having its effect upon the 

 Indian papoose as well as upon the war- 

 rior and medicine man, says the Delinea- 

 tor for February. In a few years more 

 there will be no more little full- blood ba- 

 bies, so fast is the extinction of the red 

 race being accomplished. And when the 

 redskin children are no more, the West 

 will note the absence of its most stoical 

 little Americans, the most picturesque of 

 all babies. In a well-illustrated article on 

 the subject W. R. Draper discusses the 

 passing of the Indians, of which the pres- 

 ent generation of full-blood babes will be 

 the last. 



