564 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



MARKED INCREASE IN PUMPING IRRIGATION. 



THERE is great activity this year in this section of the 

 irrigated West in irrigation t by pumping. This is 

 particularly true in the Arkansas valley and in eastern 

 Colorado. The successes in the Garden City district of 

 the Arkansas valley, and east of Colorado Springs have 

 directed attention to this means of irrigation and reclama- 

 tion of areas otherwise impossible of reclamation, and the 

 Eighteenth National Irrigation Congress meeting at 

 Pueblo, September 20-30, has acted as a stimulus to 

 endeavors along this line. 



Farmers on arid and semiarid lands, where it is feasi- 

 ble to obtain water from wells, underground flow, or 

 nearby rivers and ditches, may enter into a sort of school 

 of instruction and be taught the advantages and safe- 

 guards to crops by electrical pumping systems, within the 

 next few months. 



After the irrigation congress and exposition are over, 

 and at Denver, October 8, it is proposed to have a big 

 electrical pumping congress in the big auditorium and 

 invite agriculturists of the state and the adjoining western 

 Kansas section of the Arkansas valley which has been the 

 pioneer in this movement, to attend. 



Rock River, Wyoming, with Irrigated Meadows. 



The Northern, Central, and Southern Power com- 

 panies will probably have a number of working exhibits, 

 showing various methods of electrical pumping to reclaim 

 lands. Formerly, the high cost of power retarded such 

 development, but in recent years the cost of power has 

 declined, and it is felt its use is now a paying proposition. 



Activity is now pronounced in the territory east of 

 Colorado Springs, formerly regarded as almost hopeless 

 from the standpoint of reclamation except by dry farming 

 Also this is true in the Garden City, Kansas, district of 

 the Arkansas valley, where two projects are now being 

 proposed one to take care of 8,000 acres, and another 

 having a 5,000-acre area. 



Government statistics show that there are nearly 600 

 million acres of arid and semiarid land in the United 

 States. Electric power experts claim that a large portion 

 of this could be reclaimed by pumping water from wells, 

 rivers, ditches, underground flows and by draining water 

 from swampy land. 



The managers of the congress propose to obtain the 

 services of prominent reclamation experts to address the 

 meetings. The problems encountered by the agriculturists 

 will be ascertained by a question box. 



Farmers in the East are now adopting systems of 

 supplementary irigration. One of the experts to address 

 the congress will be Herman Russell of Rochester, N. Y.. 

 who is one of the foremost advocates of supplementary 

 irrigation in this country. Russell stated that New York 

 suffered severely last year by drougth, which could have 

 been avoided by supplementary irrigation. 



This branch of the ancient art of irrigation, so com- 

 mon in California and in the state of Washington, and 

 practiced for many years in the well-known Garden City 

 district of the Arkansas valley, has not been in common 

 use heretofore in eastern and southern Colorado. The 

 preachments of the Irrigation Congress and the publicity 

 aroused by means of the congress have brought attention 

 in all parts to this means of applying water to the land in 

 sections where gravity irrigation was not possible or 

 feasible. 



It is felt, and attention is being brought to the fact, 

 that investors and irrigation engineers should look into 

 the possibility of reclaiming arid lands on the plains by 

 pumping. The acreage is vast, and the soil when watered 

 is fertile. The first question is whether there is adequate 

 supply, and the next whether the cost of pumping would 

 be low enough to make ventures of that kind profitable. 



Tests have shown that a large part of the Great Plains 

 area is underlaid with water, and there is no doubt that 

 in many localities the supply is great enough to reclaim 

 in the aggregate a large area of land. 



Power for pumping can be supplied in two ways: 

 Either by power stations, local, or in the mountains and 

 conveyed by distributing stations and lines to the place 

 desired; or by means of denatured alcohol. 



It requires intensive cultivation to make irrigation of 

 this kind profitable, and that is exactly what exists in 

 the Garden City district of the lower Arkansas valley in 

 western Kansas. There are located in that district several 

 large and many private pumping plants, all in successful 

 operation. 



Years ago, Major Powell, then director of the United 

 States geological survey, expressed the opinion that the 

 Central Plains region might ultimately be put to good 

 use in this way. From its farms, the markets of the 

 central West can be supplied. Anyway, it is being felt 

 more and more that it is a profitable field for investigation 

 by the experts, and the great impetus and influence of 

 the Eighteenth National Irrigation Congress applies in 

 this as in many other instances. 



In this connection, the- fact that the National Irriga- 

 tion Exposition will be he'ld at Pueblo, September 19- 

 October 1, in connection with the Irrigation Congress, has 

 a salutary effect, since one of the principal features of the 

 exposition will be displays of pumping and pumping ma- 

 chinery. 



(Continued from page 557.) 



clear days, the Spanish Peaks which lie to the southwest. 

 There is no more delightful mountain view in the country 

 than can be had from the mesas and hills lying east of 

 Fountain. 



There are many ranches yet to be disposed of in this 

 tract and it is safe to say that there is not a ranch on the 

 entire project, after being properly cultivated, fruit trees 

 put out and some of the land seeded to alfalfa, that will 

 not readily sell for twice the figure now being asked by 

 the company. 



A large acreage of the Fountain tract has been set 

 out to cherry trees which will, when in bearing, bring 

 the value of the land up to $600 or $700 per acre. Cherries 

 in this section produce not less than $100 per acre per 

 year, and frequently one or two times that amount. It 

 is not uncommon to hear of a well matured cherry orchard 

 which is earning $200 per acre and one good feature about 

 this is that the large merchants in Denver and other large 

 cities of the state frequently purchase the fruit on the 

 tree and do the picking and shipping themselves which 

 relieves the settler from all worry attendant upon poor 

 help at a critical time in the crop development. 



An exhibit will be made of Fountain Valley products 

 both during the tin:e cf the State Fair and the Irrigation 

 Exposition. 



For additional information concerning this land ad- 

 dress the Fountain Vallev Land & Irrigation Company, 

 Colorado Springs. Colorado. 



*******'^******^*JJ*J***^ 





 Send $2.50 for the Irrigation Age 1 year, and < 



** cloth bound copy of the Primer of Irrigation ** 



