THE DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



31 



Irrigation Reservoirs. 



"One of the things which I think is most essential for every man to 

 consider who attemps to raise crops on these arid lands, is to augment 

 the Campbell system or the Cooke system by some process of holding 

 a small quantity of water, it may be, for irrigation. You will find that 

 nearly every piece of land consisting of 160, or 320 acres of land has a 

 draw or depression of some kind where a reservoir could be constructed, 

 small in size, but the quantity of water which will go into that each 

 year will be a surprise to those who thiuk this is an arid country. 



Flood Water. 



"In Colorado, on every railroad, on one side or the other, you will 

 find a ditch constructed for miles and miles. The first time I saw that, 

 because I came across the plains before they had any ditches at all 

 along the railroads, some thirty years ago, I asked after seeing those 

 ditches there what they were for and a railroad man told me it was 

 necessary to have those ditches to prevent, at certain times when they 

 have cloudbursts and great storms, the water from washing out parts of 

 the track. That apparently was right on the plains where, of course, 

 there was a declivity of some nature rising from the farther side Oif the 

 track. 



"Now, as they have found it essential to construct ditches along our 

 railroad tracks in order to prevent washing them away, or in order to 

 prevent the saturation of the earth so as to impair the railroad track, 

 you can readily see that, if that moisture was conserved, was gathered 

 together and placed in a reservoir, either above or near your farm, in the 

 dry seasons when the resources of the Campbell system have been some- 

 what exhausted, one irrigation would save the entire crop, and by reason 

 of that conservation of water, if a farmer will do it, you will find that the 

 great portion of your crops, even in the driest years, will be saved. 



Experimental Stations. 



"I find we are having legislation to a considerable extent in the ad 

 vancement of dry farming. Congress has before it today a bill appro- 

 pri-ating a considerable sum of money for the establishment of experi- 

 mental stations. I sent a telegram to our delegation in Congress last 

 week, urging them to endeavor to get that bill passed at this session 

 before it adjourns on the 4th day of March. The expectation is that 

 those experimental farms will be placed along the sides of the railroads 

 on perfectly dry arid lands, and that they are going to be cultivated ac- 

 cording to the Campbell system, or the Cooke system, and they expect 

 to make a showing so that every man on the cars that passes there will 

 have an object lesson of what dry farming can do. 



"My friends, I know that all pioneers have a hard time in the settle- 

 ment of a country. I know they always have disappointments and bitter 

 hardships, but in the long run, as Governor Brooks said thrs morning, 

 the dry farmer in the arid west has not had a harder time than the pio- 

 neers of New England, or even the middle states of the Union. 



