THE REVOLUTION ON THE PLAINS 



before, is the ninety-seventh meridian west from Green- 

 wich. It divides the United States almost exactly into 

 halves, running through the middle of North Dakota, 

 South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, mid 

 Texas. The vast territory lying between this meridian 

 and the foothills of the Rockies, bounded on the north 

 by Canada and on the south by Mexico, is the semi-arid 

 region of the Great Plains. Over all this vast district 

 the tide of settlement had flowed and ebbed again, as we 

 have seen. It now awaits the full development of the 

 fourth epoch in its eventful and romantic history. The 

 character and extent of this development is governed by 

 the nature of the water supply, which differs materially 

 in the several States. 



The utility of irrigation on the plains was revealed in 

 a curious way. In Finney county, near the western bor- 

 der of Kansas, thousands of acres were planted to wheat 

 in the summer of 1878, and it seemed the sanest of proj- 

 ects to build a grisfe-mill to grind the crop. This was 

 undertaken near the Arkansas river by enterprising 

 merchants in the neighboring community of Garden 

 City, but the new institution began and ended with a 

 mill-race. Before the building and machinery were re- 

 quired, the wheat had surrendered to dry air and hot 

 winds. Not an acre of the crop was harvested. And 

 yet the blighted seed was destined to bear another and 

 far more fateful crop and the forgotten mill-race on the 

 banks of the Arkansas to grind a grist that would prove 

 historic. 



A few settlers remained to rake amid the ashes of 

 their ruined hopes. Among them was a man who had 

 learned the methods of irrigation while living in Call- 



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