ROBERT A. THOMPSON-STORM-WATER IRRIGATION. 
77 
The sub-humid region at present requires particular attention, and a 
short review of the history of farming in this belt may not be found in¬ 
appropriate, and will be found full of instructive lessons. Experience 
shows that the wet and dry seasons alternate in groups: two or more wet 
seasons will be followed by several successive dry ones. When the period 
of several seasons in succession of sufficient rainfall comes, the settlers, 
tempted by the fertility of the land and salubrity of the climate, flock to 
these regions, and their first years are marked by prosperity; but when 
the succession of dry years comes, and one crop after another fails, their 
stores melt away, and poverty and famine result. Lands are mortgaged 
to speculators, houses and cattle are sold, and disaster to the country is 
a consequence. Perhaps in the history of the United States there has 
never been so large a body of people who have been a prey to land specu¬ 
lators as those who have from time to time settled in this sub-humid re¬ 
gion. As a rule, they return to the humid regions and endeavor there 
to retrieve their shattered fortunes. Soon another succession of good 
seasons comes, and these lands are again sold at a fair price—the new 
settlers to suffer the same sad experience. 
This condition of affairs should not exist; there is a remedy for it. It 
is a well known fact that throughout the world similarly situated and less 
fertile lands support a large and prosperous people, who with irrigation 
cultivate orchards, gardens and small farms. The arid West can support 
a like people if only they provide themselves with a means for artificially 
watering crops. Often a store sufficient to give a crop two or three 
floodings will be ample; sometimes more will be required, and again the 
precipitation will be sufficient to require none. 
When considering the available systems of irrigation for a region, it 
will be seen that for those lands that can be brought under the influence 
of perennial waters the systems utilizing these will be most economic; 
but for the upland valleys and valleys of the minor streams the “ storm¬ 
water” storage system is the only one practicable. For each small valley 
a storage reservoir can be built near its head, and lands below irrigated 
with the water collected. Nearly every farm possesses a reservoir site 
where water can be stored for at least a portion of its land. 
Even in very humid regions the value of a supply of water reserved 
for the occasional drouths that occur, is realized, and by so doing many 
crops are saved or their yield increased. This practice is followed yvitli 
advantageous results in France and Spain, where the annual rainfall is 
from 40 to 50 inches. In India irrigation is extensively practiced, where 
the total rainfall (annual) is greater than it would seem would make irri¬ 
gation necessary to produce crops successfully; but though the fall is 
sufficient, the distribution is so irregular that the natural supply can not 
be relied on, and artificial watering must be resorted to. The Upper 
