3GS 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



IRRIGATED FARM LANDS 



Of the Arkansas Valley of Colorado Under the Amity 

 Canal and Reservoirs 



Did you ever hear of the Arkansas Valley? 



When you ate that juicy Rocky Ford cantaloupe last fall 

 did you know where Rocky Ford was? 



Did you know that three times every day you used sugar 

 made in the Arkansas Valley? 



What about the alfalfa and alfalfa meal you feed the milk 

 cow, did you know it was grown in the Arkansas Valley? 



These products which you use every day are grown 

 equally well from the Kansas line west to Pueblo. Here the 

 water of the Arkansas river, diverted from its original chan- 

 nel, winds in dozens of canals out into the smooth table lands 

 where it has redeemed hundreds of thousands of acres of 

 arid lands and made them into homes for thousands. 



The eastern farmer worn out by many years of drouth or 

 floods in the East, has made his home here in the Arkansas 



you think it would be in answer to your prayer? No, it 

 would merely be a coincidence. When it did rain, would it 

 rain on your corn alone? No, it would rain on your corn, 

 wheat, garden, roads and on everything that a rain would 

 harm as well as on crops it would help. 



A rain is no respecter of persons or things and even you 

 would be driven to shelter where you would probably send 

 forth as fervent prayers to have the rain cease as you had 

 previously done to have it commence. 



This is the secret of the success of farming by irrigation. 

 The rain is subject to the call of the farmer. He can use 

 it on the crops that need it and can keep it off of those that 

 don't. His roads are always dry and every day is such that 

 he can be out at work. 



To secure this ample supply and even flow of water, two 

 things are of paramount importance. First, that the lands 

 to be irrigated have, besides a direct flow of water from the 

 stream from which it irrigates, a supply of storage water to 

 fall back on large enough to carry them through such times 

 that this stream may be low. 



The Amity Canal which irrigates 75,000 acres of land 

 in the Arkansas Bailey in Prowers County, besides one of 

 the earliest priorities on the Arkansas river, which assures 



Valley where this item, so essential to successful farming, 

 plenty of water at the proper time, is assured. Suppose you 

 who are farming in the rain belt, look over your corn crop 

 and say "this needs a rain." Can you get it? You might 

 pray for rain for hours and all your neighbors might be 

 helping you, but you would not get it. Suppose after spend- 

 ings days of anxiety praying for rain and watching your 

 corn crop burn up in the sun, there should come a rain. Do 



it of an ample supply of direct flow water, has the largest 

 reservoirs in the country in which to store its wa^Bf- These 

 reservoirs cover 13,000 acres of land and contain an available 

 supply of 167,000 acre feet of water or enough \vatw to cover 

 167,000 acres one foot deep. 



An article appearing in this magazine last month ex- 

 plained the sufficiency of these reservoirs' ' This article will 

 confine itself more to the construction work of the Amity 



View on Kicking Itird Canal. This canal is the inlet to the reservoirs. It is 3G 1 /- miles long and although not full when this view was taken, 

 is 60 feet wide on the surface of water. It has a capacity of 1,000 second feet. 



