IRRIGATION BY ARTESIAN WELLS. 547 



streams flowing down from the Himalayan range and in canals taking 

 water from them varies from 9 to 43 parts in a million, and the proportion 

 of common salt is from 0.23 to 15 parts; yet under the dry climate of north- 

 western India the natural evaporation of so nearly pure water, and its use 

 in irrigation, have caused extensive tracts of land formerly productive to 

 become barren.' 



Neither the water of the Red River at St. Vincent nor that of the very 

 slightly brackish artesian well at Carman is more suitaljle for irrigation 

 than the Himalayan waters mentioned; while the bitter water of the James- 

 town and Devils Lake artesian wells, on account of its larger content of 

 common salt and of Glauljer's and Epsom salts (sulphates of soda and 

 of magnesia), would be far worse for the land, in which saline and alkaline 

 matter would be accunuilated by the evaporation of the water. 



Concerning the results following the use of artesian water for in-igation 

 in the Red River Valley, Prof. C. W. Hall, of the University of Minnesota, 

 writes me as follows, under date of January 14, 1891: 



Officers of our agricultural experiiueut statiou say that in the Red River Valley 

 experiments already show that ground watered from artesian wells is, after three or 

 four years, almost wholly un.suited to raising the current crops. Several large farmers 

 iu that region have sunk wells to secure a supply of water for gardens, and have found 

 that very soon their garden patches must be moved to other places. 



In many portions of the great arid region of the western plains and 

 the Cordilleran mountain Ixdt sufficiently pure water for irrigation is furnished 

 by streams, especially where they flow from neighboring mountains, and less 

 frequently by artesian Avells. But it must be reluctantly said that within 

 the agricultural area of Lake Agassiz, and upon the adjoining district of 

 North and South Dakota, neither the rivers nor artesian wells can supply 

 water well adapted for application to the land during a long series of years. 

 Fortunately, irrigation is not greatly needed iu any part of this lacustrine 

 area; and on the adjoining region the bountiful harvests of the years of 

 copious rainfall may fully offset the occasional failure of crops." 



' Medlicott and Blautbitl, Manual of the Geology of India, pp. 413-415. 



= See Report of the Special Committee of the United States Senate on the Irrigation and Reclama. 

 tion of Arid Lands, four volumes (hound iu two), Washington, 1890. 



