ISO- 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Land Sharks; Something of Importance to Those 



Who Contemplate Going West ; Failure of 



Water Supply in Irrigated Districts. 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



The original plan of our trip was to see the 

 Arkansas \'alley, with a view of locating 

 there. I could not make up my mind 1o leave 

 the alfalfa country entirely. Besides, after one 

 has lived a few years in a dry country he has 

 a dread of rain and nuid, so I hoped to find in 

 the .\r,cansas \'alley a low enough altitude to 

 suit my wife, and yet remain in the alfalfa 

 country, dry climate, and irrigated lands. 

 The difference in latitude between the Big 

 Thompson Valley at Loveland and the Arkan- 

 sas \'alley makes the winter about four weeks 

 shorter in the latter. The wintering problem 

 is not so much to be feared as we get more 

 south, which thought also led us in that direc- 

 tion. We intended, however, to view the val- 

 ley to at least near Central Kansas, thence go 

 north to Lincoln to be at the meeting of the 

 North American in October, beginning the 7th. 

 From Lincoln we were to pass east into South- 

 west Iowa, my old home, then from there 

 south through ^Missouri and Arkansas to Tex- 

 as. As we left Loveland Sept. 2d we had but 

 34 or IJ.j days to make a drive of 800 miles or 

 over, see the country, talk bees, and other 

 matters, and visit some friends along the route, 

 etc. Counting out Sundays and all other stops 

 we must average about .30 miles a day, else we 

 should miss the convention. We arrived at 

 Lincoln just after noon of the first day of the 

 convention. 



I think perhaps a goodly number of the read- 

 ers of Gle.\nixg.S will be interested in know- 

 ing what we fourd on that trip, hurried as it 

 was. Some are looking w^estward for locations 

 because the state of their health demands a 

 change. Others are looking only to find a 

 place to obtain big crops and make money. 

 All together I know that many are anxious to 

 know what is in the West for them, and, know- 

 ing this, it is my desire to show Colorado as it 

 is; and right here I want to say to all who may 

 read this, that, should you get "boom adver- 

 tisements " of favored locations in the West, 

 don't you believe the lies they tell. 



The Arkansas is a large stream. We found 

 considerable water in it at Pueblo, and quite a 

 strip of country down the valley that was wa- 

 tered and making comfortable 'hom€s. This 

 river, as do nearly all mountain streams, has a 

 rapid fall. A stream to supply irrigating wa- 

 ter at any reasonable cost must have from 10 

 to 20 or :;0 feet fall to the mile, that the water 

 rtiay be gotten out to the lands without the 

 ditches having to be very long. 



Reader, just think of any ordinary river 

 that you know of, then think how many 

 ditches or canals it would take to lead all its 

 waters out. A ditch five to twenty feet wide 

 here; another a little further down on the oth- 

 er side. Travel along your river for fifty or 

 one hundred im'les, and see every few miles 

 ditches that are almost rivers in {liemselves, 

 and many .smaller ones, all leading the waters 

 out, the.se ditches themselves being divided 

 and subdivided, spreading out the waters un- 

 til they simply run out, and you have some idea 

 of how the waters of our streams are utilized. 



Think of it in another way. Think how 

 the tiny streams from a great spread of coun- 

 try keep gathering into one another, uniting 

 and reuniting until they become rivers. Just 

 reverse the whole order of this, and .send the 

 water out into the vast army of little streams 

 and springs, and you have a system of irriga- 

 tion in operation. Thus it is that the waters 

 of large streams are turned from their courses 

 and spread upon the diy earth until the river- 

 bed becomes dry. Before we got out of Colo- 

 rado we forded the Arkansas (rather, crossed 

 without a bridge) where the channel was near- 

 ly half a mile wide, and not one drop of wa- 

 ter was visible — nothing but dry^ sand and 

 gravel. Now, suppose you had been an early 

 settler there, and had made a ditch from the 

 river, and watered your farm. In the course 

 of years many other settlers have passed be- 

 yond you, and taken claims, and made ditches 

 until the river brought you no water, making 

 of your farm what it originally was — a desert. 

 Well, just such things did happen, in more or 

 less degree, until our legislatures took hold of 

 the matter, and now it is so that, as long as 

 the stream has in it " unappropriated water," 

 one may appropriate and take out water; but 

 since the snow supply in the mountains varies, 

 and as it becomes less, the last appropriation 

 is the first to be denied the right to draw un- 

 til the " prior " rights are satisfied. 



Last year was one of short water-supply, 

 and we .saw ditches t lat had not had water in 

 them the whole summer — r itches miles and 

 miles long, covering dozens of farms, and 

 costing thousands of dollars. I verily believe 

 that there is enough barren land — barren only 

 for lack of moisture — east of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains and west of the Missouri, to consume 

 the waters of both the Missouri and Missis- 

 sippi. 



Now, can you realize what it is to come to 

 Colorado to farm ? No, you can not. Come 

 and see it, and still you can not fully realize 

 it. Some boom paper will offer "lands under 

 ditch; " and when you buy and go to farm it 

 you find the ditch dry, or nearly so. Colorado 

 has some fine productive farms, some well-wa- 

 tered country, some nice cities and towns, and, 

 above all, a sunny and rather genial climate; 

 but if you are not familiar with conditions and 

 environments, come and see it before you sell 

 out and leave comfortable homes elsewhere. 

 Almost every one knows pretty much what the 

 East is; but very few in the East know what 

 the West is. 



The Arkansas Valley is surely very produc- 

 tive where they have the water-supply ; but 



