THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



JUNE, 1893. 

 IRRIGATION IN THE ARID STATES. 



BY CHARLES HOWARD SHINN. 



A MOST vital change is going on in the region west of central 

 Kansas a change which will in the near future profoundly 

 affect many if not all classes of agriculturists in other American 

 States, and incidentally in Europe also. I refer to the change 

 that has been brought about by the success of private irrigation 

 enterprises, by important alterations in the laws respecting irri- 

 gation, by district irrigation under such laws, and by the steady 

 growth of a public sentiment favorable to the irrigator, even 

 when his necessities override ancient precedent. 



It is my purpose in this article to give, as far as may be, a 

 faithful and conservative account of the present condition of arid- 

 land irrigation enterprises. My account will be statistical as far 

 as acreage, flow of water, cost of construction, and similar items ; 

 it will be descriptive, and largely from personal knowledge, as 

 regards practical methods and their results. The entire subject, 

 it seems to me, possesses an immeasurable interest for farmers 

 elsewhere, and for all who are in any way dependent upon the 

 farming class. Successful irrigation upon a large scale intro- 

 duces, it is true, a new kind of competition, but it also urges in- 

 telligent farmers to adopt improved methods of farming in their 

 own defense, and often leads them to apply the water of neglected 

 streams upon their lands. Even the general reader is often inter- 

 ested in discussions upon farm mortgages, farm rents, wages of 

 laborers, taxes on crops, cost of fertilizers, and similar agricul- 

 tural problems of the present time, because he has learned that 

 they affect his own welfare. Much broader is the application of 

 arid-land irrigation to every occupation and industry. America 



VO! . XLIII. 1 1 



