IMPORTANCE OF IRRIGATION. 
309 
tnral interests. One, the great West, we have already treated of at 
length. The other is the low lands of the Mississippi Delta. Every 
flood in the great branches of the Father of Waters carries destruction 
to thousands of plantations in the South, destroys hundreds of thousands 
of dollars' worth of property, and leaves in its path deadly miasmas for 
the destruction of human life. A system of levees, constructed at an 
expense of millions, affords but partial protection, and costs large sums 
each year for repairs. 
These levees can be regarded, in the light of modern engineering science, 
but as a temporary auxiliary in the great work of protecting this rich 
alluvial region. The true way of solving the difficulty of curbing the 
violence of this great river is to strike at the root of the matter, and 
prevent the floods. The only way to effect this is by the construction of 
reservoirs wherein the flood waters shall be gathered, and whence they 
shall be allowed to flow in a quiet, orderly manner. This is no new idea. 
It was proposed many years ago by Ellet, but at the time was buried 
beneath the pouderous arguments of the Engineer Corps. 
Not long ago it was revived under their own auspices, and the experi- 
ment of controlling the Upper Mississippi by reservoirs in the lacustrine 
region of Northern Minnesota is now being tried. It will be, measurably, 
a success. 
This work should be extended to the Missouri, the Plattes, the Arkan- 
sas, and the Red Rivers, and it should be combined with the irrigation 
interest in such a way as to serve the latter as perfectly as possible. 
These streams and their upper branches should be turned into reservoirs 
at or near their points of exit from the mountains. These reservoirs 
should be, collectively, of sufficient capacity to hold all, or nearly all, 
the vast amount of water brought down by the melting of the winter's 
snows. The construction of a series of small, rather than one or two 
large reservoirs, will probably prove most beuencial, both as costing 
very much less, and also because the water would be placed more conve- 
niently for use, thus lessening the length and consequent expense of the 
irrigating mains and secondary ditches. There are, on or near the 
course of every considerable stream, among the swells and billows of 
the plains near the base of the mountains, an abundance of hollows suit- 
able for reservoirs of greater or less magnitude. No great canals need 
be constructed, as sufficient reservoir capacity can be obtained on or 
near the streams, and all the water can be used by a comparatively nar- 
row belt of land in close proximity to the rivers, where the laud is more 
level and consequently better suited for irrigation than near the divides. 
Other things being equal, the water should be used on land near the 
mountains rather than on that far away, in order to avoid loss by evap- 
oration and sinking, or "seepage," as far as possible. 
As the land is placed under irrigation, it might be sold by the gov- 
ernment with the water-right attached, i. e., the right, in perpetuity, to 
the use of sufficient water for the irrigation of the land, at the rate of a 
