THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



187 



and works must be held for the cost of reclamation. 

 This is not a new plan. It has been advocated be- 

 fore ; in fact, the Oregon irrigation district law, like 

 many others, makes provision for financing in this 

 manner. 



It is not enough that the irrigation works be 

 constructed, but each acre for which the works are 

 contructed should be made to produce a crop. 

 Within the limits of practicability, every acre of land 

 subject to irrigation in the United States should be 

 commandeered, if necessary, and sown to wheat, 

 making proper adjustment with the owner after tak- 

 ing into account the improvements to the land. 



The question naturally arises : Could this be 

 economically done? Would it not involve waste? 

 Viewed from the conservative standpoint of anti- 

 war conditions, it probably would not be considered 

 economical. However, we must not overlook the 

 high price of wheat, nor that the problem today is 

 production, not purchase. Can it be accomplished 

 in time to be of assistance to the nation during the 

 war? The reply is another question: How long 

 will the war last? It is not safe to rely upon predic- 

 tions as to when the war will end. Who can say 

 whether next season will bring forth rain or drouth, 

 plenty or scarcity, food or famine? 



Seventy-five million dollars is a large sum of 

 money ; not so large, however, as it seemed before 

 this war, which' has taught us to think in billions. 

 It is in fact less than the amount now expended by 

 our nation every four days for war expenses. If 

 this money, expended in irrigation, will not do as 

 much for our cause as it would expended in some 

 other way, it should not be used for this purpose. 

 However, it must be borne in mind that irrigation 

 is not only a war time necessity, but will con- 

 tinue in peace times as a great national asset, the 

 cost of which will be repaid to the government. 



It would seem that all organizations and in- 

 dividuals interested in irrigation might well con- 

 centrate their efforts in the enactment of national 

 legislation providing for irrigation development on a 

 scale that will assist in meeting the needs of the 

 nation for a greater food supply. 



CORRESPONDENCE 



Nisland, S. D., Sept. 8, 1917. 

 Irrigation Age, Chicago. 



Dear Sirs : Enclosed is my check in the sum of $2.00, for 

 which please extend my subscription to March, 1919. 



I like the work you are engaged in in behalf of the set- 

 tlers on Government projects. We need all the help we can 

 get "in the trenches somewhere out West." Hope you will 

 meet with entire success in your new home, Salt Lake City, 

 which is my "old home," by the way. Was there from 1887 to 

 1903, the period known as the "building boom." Hope you 

 will also experience a boom. With best wishes, 



A. M. ROSS. 



Chicago, Sept. 24, 1917. 

 Editor Irrigation Age, 



Chicago. 



All the land in the U. S. now in cultivation is a little less 

 than thirteen times as large as Illinois, leaving about 35 states 

 untouched by plow or hoe. 



We have more than two hundred million hydro-electric 

 horsepower available for development in these United States. 



Only about one-third our available lands are in cultiva- 

 tion. There are thousands of acres of unclaimed Government 

 lands within 100 miles of Chicago. 



Less than one-ten-thousandth part of our waterpower is 

 or ever has been developed. 



We have one river alone in the U. S. with 1,000 miles of 

 desert to the East of it, and 200 miles of desert to the West 

 of it, extending a length of 2,200 miles through this desert, 

 with eleven great tributaries coming down from the West 

 and Northwest, with one great branch straight away from 

 the North with eleven great tributaries of its own. To the 

 East and Northeast are seven great branches flowing down 

 to this mighty river, two of these boasting ten subtributaries 

 each. This system drains the major part of five great states, 

 and a minor part of two other states, and the whole of one 

 great state, the Sharon Rose of this mighty cluster, the 

 land of big endeavor, the sanitarium of the world, fair, sun- 

 kissed Arizona. 



And here within the network of this mighty river system, 

 we find the tenth part of the waterpower of this mighty land 

 of ours, a network draining 11 million square miles, or more 

 than a billion acres of land, more than half of which is 

 tillable, discharging more than an average of 60,000 cubic 

 second feet of water into the sea every second of time 

 throughout the year (132,000 maximum, 5,000 minimum flow), 

 presenting a panoramic landscapery unlike anything else on 

 earth, together with more than 5,000 dam-sites for reservoir- 

 ing, diverting and controlling the waters that will bring under 

 active and intensive cultivation more than 500 million acres 

 of land richer than the inexhaustible prairies of dear old 

 Illinois, incidentally furnishing 20 million hydro-electric horse- 

 power to light, heat, mine, railway, manufacture, cultivate, 

 telephone, telegraph, trolley line; in short, electrify more effi- 

 ciently than has ever yet been done to any land or city how- 

 ever large or small, this gigantic empire, equivalent to ten 

 states as large as Illinois. Incidentally, again, the hills and 

 mountains, now barren as ash-heaps, surrounding these fer- 

 tile valleys, as they then will be, will receive from these irri- 

 gated vales vapor sufficient to cover them over with richest 

 verdure, thus recovering or reclaiming, without effort or pain 

 to man, the whole of the Rocky Mountain desert region to 

 gradually become the finest pasture lands for small cattle in 

 all the world, and the Great American Desert shall be no 

 more; its remotest and most barren parts shall blossom as 

 the rose a desert that divides and threatens our very exist- 

 ence today from a military standpoint. 



The 5,000 dam-sites will give as many lakes, similar to 

 that above Roosevelt dam near Phoenix, ranging from one 

 to ten miles wide and from ten to fifty miles in length, an 

 untold source of pleasure and profit to the people. 



All this mighty work may be accomplished at a cost of 

 about 5/2 million dollars for each dam, or 2 l /2. billion dollars, 

 and the work can be done in from five to seven years. 



What a work for an Empire Builder. The figures are 

 staggering, breath-taking! This Colorado Country, as above 

 set forth, is the "Land-of-Mighty-Endeavor," and its reclama- 

 tion, the answer of grateful mankind to its patient, mute, 

 pathetic, appealing, age-long call for loving opportunity, is 

 worthy the mighty genius of the mightiest nation God has 

 yet raised up, our own beloved America. 



You scoff my figures! Twenty million horsepower ! That 

 is more than there is in the U. S. More waterpower than 

 there is developed in the world at the present time ! Granted. 

 What of it? Listen; with Z l /2 billion dollars, we have at 

 least 1,000 engineers in America that will develop that amount 

 of power in Grand Canyon and its 500 miles of upper and 

 lower degradents, and any one of them capable of doing the 

 work. Reservoiring the head-waters and sending it down in 

 a steady average flow of, say, 30,000 cu. sec. ft., they will 

 give you a Niagara every half mile of its length, every ounce 

 of which will be utilized for power, and they will add to and 

 not detract from its gigantic beauty, leaving its unspeakable 

 grandeur unmarred and untouched. 



If you would like a paper outline of each tributary, and 

 its possibilities, and the wonderful merging into one Herculean 

 task, as it moves from source and rolls onward to the sea, 

 reclaiming an empire, fulfilling the age-long dream and prayer 

 of the desert lands, making of a nation's weakness its 

 mightiest bulwark of strength, the pleasure shall be mine. 



JOHN M. HESS, 



[Arrangements have been made with Mr. Hess for a 

 series of descriptive articles on this subject. Editor.] 



