182 



THE IRBIGATION AGE. 



TEST YOUR LAND FOR WATER. 



Remarkable Development of Pumping Irrigation in Many Sec- 

 tions of the Arid West. 



M. C. Jackson read a paper before the National 

 Irrigation Congress at Colorado Springs in 1902 which 

 is of great importance as showing what can be accom- 

 plished by pumping up underflow waters to tablelands. 

 This .paper has been in great demand everywhere, and 

 the Colorado Machinery Company, of Denver, has met 

 these requests by publishing the article in pamphlet 

 form. A comprehensive abstract follows : 



"The importance of artificial means for bringing 

 the increasing underflow of water to the surface to be 

 utilized in converting wild grazing land into the most 

 productive soil on the Almerican continent, thereby in- 

 stantly increasing its value five to ten fold, is not gen- 

 erally recognized as it should be. We will cite but one 

 of many instances proving the value of individual 

 pumping plants. 



"A Weld County, Colorado, potato farmer owning 

 160 acres, forty-two of which were above ditch, and 

 was valued at $15 an acre for pasture land, installed 

 a $650 irrigating plant last May, and by the aid of this 

 plant the net product of this forty-two acres was 28 

 per cent greater than the best crop raised on that por- 

 tion under ditch; while the section under ditch was 

 short of water four to ten days at the time most needed, 

 the forty-two acres had water just when needed, and he 

 now says this land, worth but $15 last year, could not 

 be purchased for $150 per acre. 



"The value of this important feature in irrigation 

 will now be doubled annually since the great victory 

 gained by the arid West in the recent irrigation act 

 passed by the National Congress. This act provides 

 for $8,000,000 to be used for reclaiming arid and semi- 

 arid lands of the West, this amount to be augmented 

 largely each year by the sale of government lands in 

 sixteen states and territories of the West. This act 

 will attract widespread attention, increase the demand 

 for irrigated lands of the West, where additional thou- 

 sands will find prosperous homes. 



"Citing my personal experience along this line, I 

 will say that in 1881 I sunk a well sixteen miles from 

 the foothills along which irrigation ditches ran con- 

 veying water from the mountains. This well was sunk 

 eighteen feet deep, securing water enough to raise two 

 feet in the well and supply a hand forcepump for irri- 

 gating one-half acre. In 1884, three years after, I no- 

 ticed the water stood five feet deep in the same well, 

 and I could not lower it with the pump. In 1890, 

 nine years after the well was sunk, the water came 

 within four feet of the curbing, making fourteen feet 

 of water in the well instead of two the first year. This 

 practical test and additional experiments strengthened 

 my belief that as irrigation increases, spreading water 

 over the surface of the land, that the \mderflow would 

 increase proportionately. This water would eventually 

 form waterways, seepage courses and find its way to or 

 near the surface of the lowlands or plains, and possibly 

 several hundred miles distant from the mountains. To 

 prove this I have found a good supply of water in 

 wells from ten to thirty feet by digging in the hed or 

 near dry waterways until gravel is reached. In somn 

 cases a well from three to five feet in diameter will 

 give a sufficient supply of water. In other instances 

 I have sunk wells from eight to twenty feet in diameter. 



This, of course, depends on conditions, now of water 

 and amount desired. It is often the case that the un- 

 derflow of these dry streams is sufficient to yield a 

 valuable farm supply. 



"In 'prospecting' for water, select a point in the 

 stream bed where it seems to be confined by narrow 

 banks. Where a flow has been found the amount may 

 be largely increased by putting in a submerged dan) 

 to bedrock from bank to bank. Broken rock and ce- 

 ment, or rock and a good quality of clay, may be used 

 in the construction of this stoppage dam. If you have 

 a ?wamp or seepage tract of land, locate your pumping 

 plant on it. Throw the water up on a dry, unprofitable 

 tableland, and in this way make not only your swamp 

 land, but your tableland, productive and valuable. 



"The ownership of these individual plants is 

 growing very rapidly, and well it may, as the happy 

 possessor of twenty to fifty acres of good soil that he 

 can irrigate from a pumping plant of his own is the 

 owner of a sure, profitable and independent living. 

 No ditch bosses, no clouds to depend upon, and ex- 

 pense only nominal, make him independent and 

 thrifty. There are thousands that are even now op- 

 erating or expecting to install a plant of their own, 

 and the number of sources from which a sufficient 

 supply of water can be obtained surprises many who 

 have not given the subject thought. The few weeks of 

 drouth that occurs at the very season when most 

 needed, curtailing the supply of ditch water, has 

 greatly stimulated the introduction of these plants, 

 proving that forty acres well tilled will yield more 

 profit than several hundred acres farmed in the old 

 haphazard way. 



"Quoting such authority as Mr. G. E. Mitchell, 

 who says: 'If the underground waters of the Ea"st, 

 South and West, which are so near the surface as to be 

 easily raised, were used for the irrigation of the land 

 wherever there is such a water supply, the increased 

 production of agricultural wealth would be so vast as 

 to be almost beyond calculation; and it would seem 

 as though nature had planned that the waters which 

 she has hoarded beneath the surface should never be 

 monopolized; that this supply under the land is the 

 surest, safest, cheapest and most unfailing source of 

 water for countless rural homes, which those who own 

 the land may till it with their own hands and produce 

 from it an almost limitless diversity of crops. No vast 

 storage reservoirs are necessary for such irrigation, no 

 costly canals or irrigation works to bring this supply 

 from beneath the earth up to him who would use it. 

 This is a mine of wealth which lies under his hearth- 

 stone, and to which he can sink his own 'prospect shaft.' 

 He needs onlv a well, a pump and some inexpensive 

 power to utilize this water supply to unite it with 

 the land and reap the increased fertility it will create.' 



"Another feature I wish to call attention to: As 

 irrigation increases and is extended, just in proportion 

 will natural moisture and rainfall increase. This in- 

 creased humidity will produce more equable tempera- 

 hires, greatlv reducing the danger of either drouths or 

 excessive rainfall. I remember that twenty-five years 

 affo dews were unknown along the eastern base of the 

 Rocky mountain regions. At present dews are com-' 

 mon and heavy. To prove this more fully, I quote 

 from an authority the result of irrigation in Egypt: 

 'The great Egyptian Sphynx, the oldest and most 

 colossal statue in the world, is rapidly crumbling away. 

 Tt has stood for nearly sixty centuries, but now it is 



