THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



341 



America's Valley of the Nile 



Scott's Bluff Country a Marvel of Fertility Payne Investment Co. at the 

 Sales Helm Comment on Its Aggressive Tactics. 



That is the striking and suggestive name recently given 

 to the irrigated lands in western Nebraska along the North 

 Platte river, particularly in what is known as the Scotts Bluff 

 country. The name was first evolved from the fertile brain 

 of that very resourceful man George H. Payne, president of 

 the Payne Investment company of Omaha. 



The name is suggestive in the sense of expressing a mar- 

 vellous fertility of soil. Tradition, history and statistics all 

 combine to declare the Egyptian valley of the Nile the most 

 fertile land in the world. To modernize seems to violate 

 traditions, as if one had laid violent hands upon a sacred 

 image. 



Yet as compared with the modern Nile, under its new 

 system of irrigation the application of the name to the Scotts 

 Bluff country is fitting. The magic of irrigation is doing for 

 that country just what the IRRIGATION AGE tells us is being 

 done in many parts of the semi-arid west making a garden 

 from the desert. 



Considerable of historic interest attaches to the Scotts 

 Bluff country. The old "Oregon Trail" wound its sinuous way 

 through that land, Mormons were massacred there. The first 

 surveys for the Union Pacific in building its trans-continental 

 line were made up this valley, but the work was abandoned on 

 account of the persistently warlike attitude of the Indians, 

 who plundered and murdered continually. The famous trail 

 that led the goldseekers to fortune or famine, is now a great 

 canal carrying a flood of waters and bringing back the gold 

 that the pioneers of '49 failed to find. Yes, there is wealth in 

 the mountains, but it is in the gulches and on the peaks and 

 trickles down into the ditches and across the plains, and in 

 this valley of the North Platte there is a Pharaoh in every 

 town and a Joseph on every section who gathers each season 

 great crops of wheat and oats and potatos, beets, onions and 

 vegetables. The new "Valley of the Nile" is a land of plenty. 



Unlike many of the irrigation enterprises, this valley has 



more water than can be utilized .there is not enough irrigable 

 land to use it all. The Pathfinder dam built by the Govern- 

 ment, miles to the west in Wyoming, is storing over a million 

 acre feet while the valley below has only about 700,000 acres 

 which can be irrigated. Little of this in Wyoming, and the 

 largest acreage is in Nebraska, in the Scotts Bluff and Morrill 

 counties. In the Scotts Bluff county are eleven irrigation 

 canals, watering 153,000 acres as follows : 



Minatare 9,000 



Bayard 4,000 



Gering 15,000 



Mitchell 13,000 



Winter's Creek 7,500 



Enterprise 7,500 



Central 4,000 



Ram's Horn 3,000 



Castle Rock and Steamboat 8,000 



Inter-State (government) 37,000 



Tri-State 45,000 



Total 153,000 



It will be noticed that the Tri-State supplies the largest 

 area and it is indeed an irrigation enterprise of considerable 

 magnitude. It is the successor to the Farmers Canal, organ- 

 ized as far back as 1887 and having a priority of water right 

 to the extent of 1,143 inches per second. This right has since 

 been recognized by the government in its reclamation service. 

 Like many of the pioneer irrigation schemes, this one was not 

 as successful as was hoped by its promoters. As the name 

 indicates it was built by the farmers men of small means. 

 ^They had not the capital to develop the plans as formulated. 

 It was sold to another corporation with unlimited capital and 

 with stockholders who saw the opportunity. They invested 

 largely in raw, arid lands and then began putting money into 

 a big ditch. About $2,000,000 has been spent in construction 



Plowing Out Sugar Beets in Scotts Bluff Country. As high as 33 Tons to the Acre Have Been Produced. 



