Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1893 — SUBJUGATION OF THE DESERT. [ARTICLE]

SUBJUGATION OF THE DESERT.

Surprising Results Obtained by Irrigation In the Southwest. We have a vast domain of arid land which, under scientific irrigation, will some day support a great population. The Mormons have compelled the desert to produce fruits, grasses, and cereals in abundance, and Joseph Smith’s followers may justly claim to be the pioneers in the practice of that sort of agriculture on a large scale in this country, though the ancient mission farms and vineyards of Southern California were Irrigated in a crude way. What the Mormons did half a century ago and the Spanish missionaries more than a century earlier still, the modern farmers of California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and half a dozen other States and Territories are now repeating with profit and on a rapidly increasing scale, until 3,000,000 acres of land, comprising 54,000 farms, are now under irrigation and the average value of their products ranges from $8.25 to $49 per acre. Surprising results are obtained ou these lands where man is his own rainmaker, for the soil is of the richest, and once the irrigation system is in operation there is no interruption by drought The magnificent crops of corn, alfalfa, wheat, and hay obtained, the wonderful yields of fruit and the possibility of uninterrupted pasturage for cattle have given a great impetus to irrigation In the far West and the next few years will witness a rapid expansion of the productive area of that region. Less than one-half of one per cent, of the total arid region of the country is now under irrigation, and of the 883,000,000 acres so classified there are 616,000,000 acres upon which water would produce crops. Of the remaining vacant public lands, ninety-five per cent., or about 542,000,000 acres, are in this region. The free arable lands having been taken up and laud that was cheap a few years ago rising rapidly in value, it is easy to see that the next step must be the reclamation of the “Great American Desert’’ by irrigation.—Minneapolis Tribune.