THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



43 



FORTIER'S WARNING. 



BY T. S. VAN DYKE, DAGGETT, CAL. 



I have seen nothing from the Irrigation Congress 

 for years as important as the note of warning Mr. 

 Fortier sounded at the last meeting in Sacramento 

 concerning the possible failure of some of the national 

 irrigation enterprises, and lately printed in THE IRRI- 

 GATION AGE. Since Imperial came into being it has 

 been fashionable in some quarters to discredit govern- 

 ment experts. But no one can deny their frank hon- 

 esty about telling the truth as they see it. While we 

 all deprecate anything that can "hurt the .town" and 

 despise "the knocker," we should also welcome the 

 truth. There is no knocker worse than the man who is 

 proclaiming eternally from the housetop that all that 

 is, is great, good and glorious and leaving to implication 

 the assumption that there is not a shadow on the rain- 

 bow. 



Every one who knows the history of irrigation en- 

 terprises knows that the greater part have at first been 

 financial failures, and that in many cases the builders 

 were not the only sufferers. On the contrary, the build- 

 ers have often suffered because the settlers made the 

 failure or a partial failure. There is no reason why 

 the same causes may not operate so as to leave settlers 

 unable to meet their payments to the government on the 

 water right. In such case we may expect a merry howl 

 from all that part of the Union that knows nothing of 

 irrigation. And it will not take many failures to have 

 the whole thing slow down to a serious dullness if not a 

 temporary stoppage. Mr. Fortier told the exact truth 

 in that address. It was lately published in THE IRRI- 

 GATION AGE, but should be in everything devoted to the 

 subject and well heeded at Washington. 



I wrote something on this subject in THE IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE some fifteen years ago, but could not go into 

 it fully, and cannot now, for it is a long subject. The 

 plain fact is that the lands in which nothing of value 

 can be raised without irrigation are no place for the 

 poor pioneer with little or no capital but a pair of 

 horses, a wagon and a lot of small children, with a sick 

 wife, perhaps. Thousands of such made a success on 

 the prairies of Illinois and Minnesota, because there is 

 pasture and wild hay at hand ajt the start and the up- 

 turned sod will raise corn, beans, potatoes and enough 

 other things to give a living in a very few weeks for one 

 who is contented with a cheap living while waiting for 

 the sod to decay. With that kind of farming it is not 

 possible to make many bad mstakes which cannot be 

 quickly rectified. No question arises about the proper 

 laying out of the land unless it is a question of drainage 

 on swampy land ; of alkali he need have no fear, and of 

 the effect of extremely dry air on certain crops he need 

 know nothing. 



-Under certain conditions of rare intelligence, in- 

 dustry and economy such persons have mastered the 

 desert. But it has generally been only after a long and 

 painful struggle, while the number of those with a 

 respectable "wad" who have dropped it in the sands 

 of the desert and wondered where it went is amazing 

 when compared with the success that is attainable by 

 following the proper course. All desert land is not 

 wonderfiilly rich, as is so often implied by those who 

 do not state it directly. On the contrary, some of it is 



so deficient in humus or vegetable mold that it is won- 

 derfully poor. I can show plenty of it on my ranch 

 that will not raise corn two feet high, and most of it 

 won't be over a foot. But it raises marvelous alfalfa 

 after the alkali is taken out. It is a remarkable proof 

 of the theory that alfalfa takes its nitrogen direct from 

 the air; for that same soil raises exactly the same alfalfa 

 as land that will grow corn eight or ten feet high. The 

 reader will appreciate better what I have to say about 

 this if he will bear in mind that I have nothing to sell, 

 nothing to recommend and no time to answer letters 

 even with cash enclosed. 



No matter how much you think you know about 

 soil making you know nothing until you meet soil very 

 deficient in humus. I actually have to take a screw- 

 driver to harvest a radish ; the third day after irrigation 

 and carrots require a pick, or even a crowbar. This 

 is no joke either. It took me four years to find out 

 how to raise them as well as many other things that 

 is, in large quantity, cheap. I can do it now in im- 

 mense quantities, but if I had depended on raising my 

 living, or even half of it out of the soil the first three 

 years I should have had to quit. 



With plenty of water any fool can raise a cucum- 

 ber. I am considerable of a fool, but I cannot do it. 

 This is the sixth year I have experimented with differ- 

 ent varieties and can eat the whole crop at one meal 

 every year and hanker for more. I think the total 

 yield of string beans for the same period would just 

 about equal the weight of the seed, while it is much 

 the same with tomatoes and about all the good varieties 

 of sweet corn, as well as field corn. Hubbard squashes, 

 pumpkins and common squashes, except summer 

 squashes, are about the same. This is the effect of dry 

 air checking pollination, as can be plainly seen in corn, 

 where the tassel will rub into powder, although it looks 

 all right. The cornstalk will grow all right and the 

 silk come out on the ear, but the cob will run out from 

 ten to twenty kernels on an average. I have seen fully 

 developed cobs with silk fully grown with never a 

 kernel to show. This is something the poor settler 

 rarely hears about until he comes in contact with parts 

 of the desert. 



Such a settler may be dumfounded to find he can- 

 not raise a potato on which he confidently relied for 

 part of his living. I cannot do it yet. The seed will 

 not start quickly enough in spring to make the tubers 

 before the extreme heat comes to stop the growth of 

 the plant, and in the fall it is too slow to make before 

 frost comes. It wants seed a year old, and it is very 

 hard to keep seed potatoes that long. My latest con- 

 clusion is that the way to do is to plant late enough 

 in spring to keep from making any tubers at all. With 

 very little water the small plants then lie dormant all 

 summer and go off with a rush when cool weather 

 comes in September. But it has taken six years to 

 learn this, and it might not work at all in many places. 



All these troubles make it necessary for the settler 

 to have some money, yet they are nothing to some 

 others. The first great difficulty is generally in bad 

 laying out of the land. You may be led into this in 

 many ways, but the most common is anxiety to have 

 something green as soon as possible. Even where one 

 has money enough to buy hay he wants to see something 

 growing and his desire for a garden and fruit trees is 

 still greater. Is there anything worse than to see a 



