RECLAIMING THE WASTE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 67, 12 December 1907, Page 9

RECLAIMING THE WASTE.

A MARVELLOUS RECORD. WHAT THE UNITED STATES IS DOING. (J 1 rom Our American Correspondent.) " Undo Sam is rich enough to givo us all a farm " —so the European emigrant used to sing on his way across tho Atlantic. And in those plothoric days Uncle Sam was rich enough to give to overy actual settler a homestead of 160 acres, or double that, in consideration of tree-planting and other improvements, or to sell outright, to all who applied land to any amount at ono dollar and a quarter per acre. He sold nil —wheat-fields, coal-beds, mines, and forests—apparently rejoicing that his ownership swiftly decreased. But ono. day 110 woke to the fact that 110 had no moro lands to. givo. His lands were alienated, but settlers still came crying,' " Give us land." Tho tidos of settlement had reached tho western limit, and woro turned baok upon themsolves. Reclamation—Failure and Success. At this juncture Uncle Sam bethought himself of eortain large areas, marked ou his map " Dosort." Bottlers had crossed thom 011 their way westward as places accursed. But Unclo Sam said, "These areas wo will reclaim." So thore came into oxistenco the Reclamation Scrvico of the United States Government. Upwards of seven millions of aores in tho western States will by this service bo added to the habitablo lands of the Globo —saved from tho sago-brush and cactus for tho uses of man. Lot us see definitely how the situation stands now in the- States.

No account can lioro bo given of tho many private projects for land reclamation. Somo of them have succeeded, more have signally failed—failed mainly from ignoranco of tho real problem of reclamation and want of wio manifold data respecting soils, water supply, etc. Only tho gonoral Government has ueen ablo to afford the time and expense necessary to gather knowledge concerning geology, meteorology, chemistry, and engineering, without which any attempt at /Solving probloms of reclamation are doomed to failure. A private company built tho groat Sweetwater dam near San Diego. It turned out that'there was not- enough water in the Sweetwater river to irrigate the dam, to say nothing of the 90,000 acres a canal was supposed to supply. , No " Bad Lands." . Secretary Wilson, of tho Department of Agriculture, assorts that we have in this country 110 " bad lands." All the swamps may bo drained, all ■ tho deserts irrigated. With a few years tho United States Government has entered upon a task many times greater than building tho Panama Canal, and is prepared to spend for land reclamation possibly a billion dollars of money. It' is now engaged upon thirty-eight different projects in tho Western States, which will require an expenditure of forty millions of dollars. By theso works nearly seven million acres. of fabulously rich lands 1 will bo opened for sottlomont, for there aro rio richer lands in tho globo than desert lands when touched by tho magic hands of water.

Without saying much about, it the Government is now carrying out somo of tho most colossal and daring enterprises of modern times." Tho Reclamation Service is building two of tho highest darns in tho world.' It is boring the largest tunnel in this country. It is making a dam of masonry on a bed of sand. It is constructing a reservoir 1000 milos away from tho lands its waters are to supply. It is transferring rivors from ono watershed to another, carrying ono river right across, tho Continental Divide,-so that its waters will enter tho Gulf of Moxico instead of Hudson Bay. It has built over a thousand miles of canals, its excavations already amounting to about one-fourth- the estimated yardago' of the Panama Canal. It has in its employ a corps of skilled engineers and over ton thousand men. As fast as ono project is coniplotcd another is undertaken. Tho story of tho Scrvico will' form 1 ono of tho romances of history. Highest Dams and Biggest Tunnel. First in spoctncular features stands tho Shoshone project, which, wlion completed, will introduce the arts of peaco in two hundred square miles of the Big Horn Basin, whero now rovo tho outlaw tribe of maii and beast. The Shoshoiio dam, tho highest in tho world, will back up the waters of a wild torrent in a granito canyon 1400 feet deop. _ It is a solid piece of masonry, thicker than it is wide, and twice as high as it is thick, and fits into its site as a peg into a hole. Its height is 310 feet.

The Roosovelt .dam is forty feet lower than tho Shoshono. It is part of an irrigation Bcliomo to supply 200,000 acres of an Arizona dosert with wator—a desert of tho driest land, the natives say, " between Death Valley and Hell."

. Tho tunnel referred to is to bring tho waters of tho Gunnison River in Colorado to tho help of another river not sufficient to irrigate a very fertilo valley in which most of the market canteloupes aro raised. The Gunnison flows through ono of tho wildest canyons in Colorado, and roaches scarcely an acre of arable land. By tunnelling a high ridge, tho Vernal Mesa, for 30,000 foot, the useless Gunnison torrent will be' diverted to the sorvice of tho valley folk. Wondarful Yuma Scheme. Tho Yuma project is the most peculiar of all. Yuma is on the Mexican border, and onjoys a gonial summer heat of 120, and gets along 011 an annual rainfall of 2Jin. With irrigation Yuma would bo for fruit and vegetables literally a forcing bed, a vast unglazed hot-house. As it is, tho date, t-lio olive, tho pineapple, and the finest oranges in the country flourish. Yuma is on tho Colorado, tho dirtiest river in tho country, making the "muddy Missouri" 'limpid by Contrast, but for this reason an oxcollont fertilising agent. On tho flat delta lands of tho lower Colorado there is, no site for a dam. What did tho ongineers do but go half-way to Canada, and make a reservoir for the storage of water to be used' for irrigation at Yuma a thousand miles' away! When thoso dams arc finished, tho river that cuts tho Grand Canyon, tho most sublime gorge in the Continent, will bo but the outlet channel of an irrigation roscr r voir. ' !

There is anothor peculiar feature in thi Yuma project. The yellow broth that docs duty for water in the lower Colorado IB not even fit for irrigation. To construct, a reservoir for the purpose of cleaning the water of some of its silt, a sort of floating dam was devised—a flat sill of masonry 267 feet wide and 19 feet high, which rests upon the sand, and dams the river enough to produce a settling basin. Only the water of the top foot in this settling basin! is drawn off to tho canals. ' Rio Crando Undertaking. j Tho Rio Grando project oomes as a solution of a most complicated problom. Tho Rio Grande is a long, flat river, as muddy as tho Colorado, and flows through three American States and into Moxico. The Mexicans were tho 1 first to use tho river for irrigation. Then tho Toxans discovered its value, and, as tho river in its dry season is but a trickle through tho sand, tho Mexicans went dry. Then the people above took tho water and Texas wont dry. Tho farmers on tho upper readies of tho river finally were tho only ones to profit by its uso, and below them rich lands woro lapsing into desert. Yet at flood tide enough water for everyono ran useless to tho sea. Tho Reclamation Sorvice studied tho situation, and drew its plans for pleasing all tho States and settling the complication with Mexico. These plans involve tho construction of an artificial lake in tho State of New Mexico, large enough to store the flood waters of the upper streams. This lake will bo forty miles long, tho biggest construction of tho kind to bo found anywhere—but no task is \too gigantic for the Reclamation Service.

In nil tho history of irrigation there is nothing more curious than tho Millt River project in Northern Montana. The Rio Grande created difficulty with Mexico; tho Milk River made strife with tho Canadians. It is this way: Tho Mills. River rises in Montana, near tho double Continental divide—that is, at the watershed dividing north from south and east from west. It flows into Canada^

and back again into Montana, emptying into tho Missouri. For many years tho Montana farmers have boon using tho supply for irrigation. But latterly tho Canadian ranchers hnvo boon diverting tho greater part of tho river for their own uso. Tho problem ivas prosonted to tho Reclamation Service. Near tho head-waters of Mill; River rises another river, tho St. Mary, but. it turns northward down tho other sido of tho Divide, and empties finally into Hudson Bay. It is proposed to dam tho St. Mary, back its waters above its source, load them in a. canal across tho Divide, and pour them into tho Milk, tho enlarged Mill: giving water enough for both Canada and Montana. This project is now tlio subject of diplomatic negotiations between the two .Governments. In case Canada objects, the Service is ready with another plan, which is more curious than the other. In this plan, tho entiro St. Mary supply will bo diverted into other channels ana carried to tho lower Milk Valloy without touching Canada. Potentialities of the Desert. These are among tho projects undertaken by tho Reclamation Servico,' which has had an ollicial existenco of less than five years. With a debonair indifference to tho difficulties or magnitude of tho task, tho Reclamation Servico promisos to find water fqr tho irrigation of not loss than fifty million, acres of what. is now desert.land. This means a tract tho size of Now Zealand. Potentially desert I?r i are fertile lands oii tho globe, Without water they arc as barren as tho high , Himalayas. It will tafe a billion dollars to transform thoso desert places into gardens but Uncle Sam is still not too poor to face such expenditure. Jho peculiarity of these irrigated liinds is that their richness is such that fivo to fortyacres aro sufficient for tho support of a family. In such places, therefore, will grow up rural settlements of tho typo of Rcdlands and Riversido, in California." Thoso are essentially cities of farms, having tho advantages of both t.own and country, and permitting that indopendonco and play of individualism, .which is threatened by tho merciless collectivism of our industrial life. This suggests tho sociological sido of the Reclamation bervico.

Tlio Government ts now giving its attention to the inland rivers. Next will como the drain age. of swamps and low lands. In science, it is well to remember thcro are no bad lands. 1