148 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



WINDMILLS THEN BIG PUMPS IN PANHANDLE 



By D. L. MCDONALD 



of (he Bessmer Gas Engine Company of Grove City, Pa. 



TJ EREFORD, Deaf Smith county, Texas, lies on 

 rl the hanks of the peaceful, meandering Tierra 

 Blanco an unassuming little stream, the real head 

 of the Red River. The Tierra Blanco is famous as 

 a watering place for buffalo, antelope and wild mus- 

 tangs in the old times, later for cattle and today for 

 its magnificent black bass. It is the only stream 

 on the Texas Plains inhabited by real live fish, be- 

 cause all other water courses during dry periods 

 "go dry." During periods of prolonged drought 

 and prolonged drought here doesn't mean a few 

 weeks or a month, but years the Tierra Blanco has 

 always remained bank full of pure, clear water. 



Hereford derived its name from the immense 

 herds of white face Hereford cattle which have 

 always grazed the millions of acres of fine buffalo 

 grass of the plains 

 country. It was lo- 

 cated on the Tierra 

 Blanco on account 

 of easy water con- 

 ditions. In 1898, a 

 little before the 

 Santa Fe built in, 

 a hotel was built, a 

 water tank put up 

 and a well drilled. 

 Water was found 

 at forty-six feet, a 

 windmill erected 

 and the town was 

 off. When a new 

 house was built a 

 new windmill went 

 up, and this was 

 continued until 

 over four hundred 

 windmills could be 

 counted. In addi- 

 tion to the great 

 number of wind- 

 mills the town now 



has a splendid water works plant of half a million 

 gallons daily capacity. 



While the town was well watered, as much 

 could not be said of the surrounding cattle range, 

 which, by this time, was being cut up into small 

 tracts. These cattle ranches were surveyed off into 

 farms and during two years of good rains were sold 

 to a land hungry people for agricultural purposes. 

 A great boom was on such rich, productive land 

 must go to $100 an acre in a couple of years but it 

 didn't. Drought came five years of the severest 

 drought ever experienced in any part of the west. 



It just simply couldn't rain sunshine month 

 after month. The cattle men knew it never was a 

 farming country and never would be. The land is 

 good, but it doesn't rain, and you can't farm with- 

 out rain. 



But the four hundred windmills in Hereford 

 continued to deliver their three million gallons of 



One of the Texas panhandle gushers. Courtesy of the Bessemer Gas 



City, Pennsylvania. 



water every twenty-four hours and the Tierra 

 Blanco never slipped an inch "Oceans of water" 

 there must be to feed all these windmill suckers 

 and the endless flow of the Tierra Blanco. It's 

 easy we'll drill a big well, get a big pump and 

 drive it with a big engine. We'll get our rain from 

 underground in place of from the uncertain clouds. 

 A great idea but, listen ! "Who wants irrigation?" 

 "It'll spoil the land business." "If we try to irri- 

 gate it's a sure sign we don't have rain enough." 

 "This grass is too good grazin' to break up for any 

 farm." "Then don't you 'spose if God Almighty 

 had a wanted this land wet He wouldn't a made 

 it rain?" "Go ahead and put in your big pump and 

 you'll suck every stock well dry in the country 

 nobody but a damn fool would try it." Encourage- 

 ment from the na- 

 tives always. 



When some fel- 

 low comes along 

 and wants to grow 

 ten hogs where one 

 jack rabbit had a 

 hard time making a 

 living there is al- 

 ways sure to be a 

 remarkably efficient 

 co-operative spirit 

 hatched up. In spite 

 of this enthusiastic 

 feeling on the part 

 of the natives, the 

 big pump went in, 

 she belched forth a 

 mighty stream of 

 water and not a 

 windmill well went 

 dry. Hundreds of 

 these big wells are 

 in operation toclav. 



Engine Co., drove . r 



delivering water 

 for thousands of 



thirsty acres. There has not been the least indica- 

 tion of a diminishing water supply the windmills 

 continue to water their stock just as they did before 

 the big irrigation well was thought of. 



Some remarkable results have been achieved 

 from this system of farming. That it is a modern, 

 twentieth century way of operating a farm there is 

 no doubt. The moisture question is so certain that 

 a maximum crop may be grown EVERY YEAR. The 

 crop never sees the time when it really needs 

 water, because it has been supplied regularly with 

 moisture and attains its growth without delay or 

 stunt. 



Alfalfa is the main money crop, either sold as 

 hay or used for the production of pork. In 1913 

 alfalfa produced as much as $90 worth of hay to the 

 acre at $18 a ton. During 1914 hogs grazed on 

 alfalfa made as much as $100 an acre, and there is 

 not a man who hasn't made money at the 



