THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



207 



WESTERN KANSAS IRRIGATION ASSOCIATION. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS OF IRRIGATION CONVENTION, 

 GARDEN CITY, KANSAS. 



This is a new association organized "for the pro- 

 motion of practical irrigation." A convention of repre- 

 sentative farmers and business men of the Arkansas 

 valley met at Garden City, Kansas, April 16 and 17, 

 and the above organization was the result. 



There was nothing "political" in the convention, 

 and its labors from beginning to end were actuated by 

 public-spirited motives, and the public welfare. I. L. 

 Diesem was chairman and the convention was addressed 

 by numerous practical men. The Eepublican and 

 Democratic candidates for congress addressed the con- 

 vention and other noted persons also spoke, among them 

 Senator Dumont Smith, Professor C. T. Johnson from 

 Wyoming, Captain Hall of Syracuse, W. B. Hopkins of 

 Garden City, Victor Murdock of Wichita, Thomas Lloyd 

 of Bocky Ford, Colo., General Booth-Tucker, and Cap- 

 tain Hoiland. Vandergriff Turner of Wichita, by means 

 of a chart illustrated his plan of using the underflow, 

 by means of a large well and pipes for two 

 or three miles, carrying water to the surface, to 

 be distributed over the lands. The persons in 

 attendance are very enthusiastic in their ideas of 

 the possibility of the underflow, and seem to be almost 

 unanimous in believing it is the only successful plan 

 for permanent irrigation, and it only remains to develop 

 some plan to bring it to the surface, at a reasonable 

 cost. One of the objects of the convention is to assist 

 in devising some plan to accomplish this purpose, also 

 to get the government interested in reservoirs where 

 there is no underflow. 



General Booth-Tucker and Captain Holland were 

 not on the programme, but their addresses were of par- 

 ticular interest on account of the relation to their irri- 

 gation and colonization experiment. General Booth- 

 Tucker, before he took up Salvation Army work, was 

 lieutenant-governor of a British province in India, and 

 there became familiar with the crude methods and suc- 

 cess of irrigation in that country. He said if the same 

 industry and perseverance should be employed in the 

 Arkansas valley with the modern machinery obtain- 

 able here one million persons might be settled in the 

 Arkansas valley between Garden City and Eocky Ford. 

 This region, he declared, with proper energy and small 

 farming, ought to sustain a family on every acre. What 

 if, needed are men and money, live people and more 

 cash to settle these people. Colonization is the hand- 

 maid of irrigation. Four hundred persons have settled 

 at Amity since the colony was established five years ago. 

 They are good families and getting on well. 



TWENTY-ACRE FARMS. 



Every family, the general said, has twenty acres 

 and a home, and the head of every family possesses 

 from $4,000 to $5,000. All this was accomplished 

 within five years. The Salvation Army has spent $150,- 

 000 to establish this colony, but it will all come back. 

 It costs about $500 to settle a family in the colony, 

 and the colonists do the rest. One-half the colonists 

 are children and they are useful in weeding sugar beets. 

 The colony maintains an orphanage. If the army had 

 the money it could easily settle 50,000 persons in the 

 valley. The army bought 2,000 acres and divided it 

 into small farms. 



General Booth-Tucker believes in small farms and 

 intense cultivation. The army sells the land at $40 an 



acre. Town lots are put up at $300 to $700. This is 

 high, but the scheme is to keep the people on the farms 

 Captain Holland spoke of the methods of the col- 

 ony in detail and said the principal products are sugar 

 beets, cantaloupes and cucumber seeds. 



OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



Following are the officers of the association until 

 the first annual meeting: President, I. L. Diesem, Gar- 

 den City; vice president, J. C. Starr, Scott City; sec- 

 retary, C. A. Loucks, Lakin; treasurer, John Hall, 

 Syracuse ; executive committee, E. M. Lawrence, Garden 

 City; W. 0. Bourne, Scott City; E. E. Thorp, Lakin; 

 J. T. Hastings, Cimarron ; I. H. Churchill, Dodge City ; 

 Paul Eich, Coolidge; A. A. Barlow, Santa Fe. 



RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED. 



The convention adopted the following resolutions : 



In view of the fact that the Dodge City land dis- 

 trict, of which Southwestern Kansas is a part, has con- 

 fund segregated and set apart by the Federal Govern- 

 fund segregated and set apart by the federal govern- 

 ment for irrigation purposes, we urge our senators and 

 members in Congress to use their united influence to 

 secure at an early date the appropriation of a part of 

 this fund for use in this territory for the building of 

 storage reservoirs or otherwise as may be determined to 

 the best interests of irrigation in this vicinity. 



We call attention to the splendid results that have 

 so early been achieved in the Arkansas valley with sugar 

 beets as a result of the bounty generously granted by 

 the two preceding legislatures of. the state and hereby 

 express our gratitude to the members of those two bodies 

 who supported and voted for these appropriations. VVe 

 call attention to the fact that the foundation for a great 

 and growing industry has so cheaply been laid, diver- 

 sifying and extending our resources, enabling us to sup- 

 port- a larger population and to add to the wealth of the 

 state. 



Believing that in the economical utilization of the 

 great Arkansas river underflow lie the greatest future 

 results to this valley, and realizing that it is impossible 

 to enlist private capital in any untried experiments 

 looking to that end ; and believing that with the expen- 

 diture of a limited sum it would be possible to demon- 

 strate the practicability of a plan to bring this underflow 

 to the surface by gravity or otherwise, thus insuring a 

 water supply for the whole valley, we urge the next 

 legislature to make an appropriation for that purpose 

 to be expended under the direction of competent engin- 



eers. 



THE KANSAS-COLORADO WATER CASE. 



Senator Frederick Dumont Smith explained to the 

 convention the purpose of the suit of the state of Kan- 

 sas against the sate of Colorado over the right to use 

 the waters of the Arkansas river. The convention feared 

 that the suit might affect the farmers living in the 

 valley east of the state line, but Senator Smith relieved 

 them of this apprehension. He said : 



"The suit of the state of Kansas against the state 

 or Colorado is a bill in equity for a permanent injunc- 

 tion against Colorado, restraining that state from grant- 

 ing any more charters or other rights to take water out 

 of the Arkansas river. The suit will not affect any 

 ditch now existing, appropriation of water now effected 

 or water rights now vested. It will not affect the rights 

 of any riparian owner. It is to prevent the taking of 

 water from now on, not for riparian lands, but for 

 lands back on the upland, wholly non-riparian in char- 



