THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



267 



IRRIGATION IN WASHINGTON, PRESENT AND 

 PROSPECTIVE. 



BY WALTER N. GRANGER. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Writers upon the subject of irrigation generally 

 preface their remarks with statements to the effect that 

 irrigation is older than history, as old as husbandry it- 

 self. One says, upon unquestioned authority, that the 

 original habitat of man was an oasis in the desert and 

 that as the race multiplied and "outgrew nature's fertile 

 spots, there being no rain, but springs and streams, 

 he led these from their channels to the surrounding 

 waste and caused it to produce abundant harvests." 



and Arizona, as going to establish beyond a doubt the 

 great antiquity, importance and value of irrigation. 



It is further pointed out in this connection that 

 these remains of former greatness all attest that wher- 

 ever irrigation was practiced, "wealth accumulated, 

 opulence held sway and large cities nourished rich in 

 their homes and public places." 



This practice upon the part of irrigation writers 

 may be due in part to the scientific spirit, which seeks 

 to trace things to their origin, but more largely per- 

 haps to the consciousness that to their readers, who are 

 inhabitants of the humid regions, the term irrigation 

 is but a name, suggestive perhaps of some new-fangled 

 experiment or of hardships and privations for which it 

 is but an amelioration. 



A Highly Improved District Near North Vakima, Wash. 



Another says that "under the ruins of the tower of 

 Babel, in the ancient city of Babylon, have been found 

 still more ancient ruins, evidences of civilization that 

 had lived and gone to ruin and been buried by the ruins 

 of succeeding civilizations, which in their turn had 

 lived and died and that among these most ancient ruins 

 have been found tablets of stone on which are written 

 laws governing the use and distribution of water for 

 irrigation purposes." 



Other antique writings are referred to, as well as 

 the ruins of important irrigation works, some of them 

 evidently on a scale far more colossal than any of pres- 

 ent times, in Egypt, India, South America and within 

 our own country in southwestern Colorado, New Mexico 



BEGINNINGS OF RECLAMATION. 



Unquestionably, through the aid of irrigation liter- 

 ature much has been done to dispel the ignorance and 

 prejudice of the people of the humid States upon the 

 subject. Much has been done by personal missionary 

 effort and by the display of irrigation products in ex- 

 hibit cars and at fairs and expositions. But the most 

 effective factor in the settlement of the reclaimed lands 

 of the arid West has been the willing testimony of the 

 older settlers and the evidences of thrift and prosperity 

 which their farms afford to the homeseeker. Here- 

 tofore the conquest of the arid West has been an indi- 

 vidual fight and the points of attack have been many, 

 throughout the valleys of the entire Pacific coast and 



