THE IRRIGATION AGE 219 



mill irrigation is great and practically limitless. I think there is a 

 limit to the height water can be lifted for successful irrigation, and 

 where water can be had from comparatively shallow wells, as in a 

 great portion of western Kansas and Nebraska, from twenty to thirty 

 feet deep, it bids fair to produce the best results. 



We have heretofore made windmills for lifting water for animals 

 and domestic purposes only, but this field for irrigation has been 

 opened and bids fair to outdo all other uses that windmills and pumps 

 have been put to. Bear in mind, however, that the ordinary farm 

 windmill will not answer for irrigation purposes. This is where the 

 only failures have been made with windmills. No doubt the people 

 require some education on this question of irrigation, but it can be 

 safely said that a windmill plant properly conducted on a farm, will 

 double the value in producing power of the land anywhere from five 

 to ten times in the arid and semi-arid country. 



Arid and semi-arid America is one-half as large as the United 

 States proper. It has a population of about 5,000,000. With irriga- 

 tion at a reasonable first cost this section can support many millions 

 more. 



A family with ten acres of ground and a good well and windmill 

 with plenty of water has a sure living. 



Water has been pumped from 150- foot wells by windmills for irri- 

 gating, and some places deeper, but we think the best results can be 

 got from the shallower wells spoken of above. 



In the year of 1896 the state of Kansas appropriated $30, 000 to be dis- 

 bursed by a temporary irrigation commission in demonstrating the 

 feasibility of irrigation in western Kansas by means of the windmill 

 and pump systems. While it had been thoroughly understood that 

 from the shallower wells there was no question about the advantage, 

 what they were testing was deeper wells, from 100 to 200 feet deep. 

 We put in quite a number of plants during the latter part of 1895 for 

 the state of Kansas, but of course they have not done enough yet to 

 demonstrate how much land can be irrigated from these deeper wells. 

 The wells we have put plants on run from 75 to 185' feet deep. 



It will cost about $10 per acre to prepare and get ready with 

 machinery, windmills and pumps, to irrigate the land, and the most 

 fertile land known in the country can be bought for from $4 to $8 per 

 acre. You will see by adding 10 per acre to it you have a very cheap 

 farm and a certainty of a crop, with irrigation. This is more than 

 any of our farmers in the humid country can expect. It is either not 

 enough water or too much. 



The great trouble with the country being improved as fast as we 

 would like to see it, is the condition of the people, as they have but 

 little money to make any improvements with, having gone there and 



