Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 26

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432

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of that produced in the northwest, being of unusual excellence for making meal. It is a hardy plant, and upon the whole considered a very safe and reliable crop, being subject to fewer diseases and in- sect pests, and is less exhausting to the soil than any other of the cereals. It has been known to. yield as high as 119 bushels to the acre in Dakota, the average, however, being from 40 to 80 bushels, and weighing, generally, 42 pounds to the bushel. In 1860 the crop was 2,540 bushels; in 1870 it was 114,327; in 1880 it was 2,217,132; in 1885 it was. 22,970,698 ; in 1888 it was 30,408,585 bushels, and only thirteen acres of each 1,000 in the territory in cultivation with the crop. The crop of the year 1898 was 11,311,556 bushels for North Dakota alone.

Barley does remarkably well in North Dakota, the product being of unusual brightness and highly prized by brewers, who take the entire yield for the production of malt to be used in brewing. In European countries it, with rye, constitute the chief breadstuffs used by the peasantry, the two cereals. making the black bread they eat, wheat or white bread being almost unknown to them. The yield in the territory of Dakota is given as 4,118 bushels. in 1870; 277,424 bushels in 1880; 2,170,059 bushels in 1885, and 6,400,568 in 1887. The production of North Dakota, alone, in 1898, was 5,123,919 busliels.

Next after the cereals the potato constitutes the principal vegetable food of the American people. The quality and quantity of yield of these vegeta- bles cannot be excelled anywhere in the United States. They grow to immense size, some even attaining a weight of six pounds; are uniformly sound, very meally, and are conceded to equal those grown in Colorado, or any of the older states of union. They yield from 150 to 500 bushels to the acre, and are such good keepers, owing to their soundness, lasting until late in the summer, that their future commercial value is immense. The. crop for the two Dakotas was, for 1860, 9,489 bushels. In 1870 this had arisen to 50,177 bushels ; in 1880 to 664,086, and in 1885 to 3,868,860. The product of North Dakota for the year 1898 was. 1,770,390 bushels.

Onions are a prolific crop, growing to an enor- mous size, and yield from 400 to 800 bushels per acre.

Turnips and all other vegetables, also, do ex- ceedingly well, making large returns to the farmer who engages in their cultivation.

The native, nutritious grasses indigenous to the

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country are relied on mostly for forage for stock and to make into hay, not many farmers making much of an effort to cultivate the domestic grasses. Some timothy, some clover and some alfalfa are raised, but not in any large quantity.

Careful investigation shows that the soil of Da- kota is a drift or alluvial loam from one to four feet deep, underlaid with a clay subsoil having the properties of holding moisture to a wonderful de- gree, which is given out as needed by the growing crops ; that it contains an inexhaustible supply of the most important soil constituents, as soluble silica, lime, potash, soda, phosphoric acid, nitrogen and vegetable humus, and will produce for a life- time abundant crops under favorable climatic con- ditions, and the soil varies but little in different localities. It would seem that it contains the proper percentage of plant constituents to give it the pecu- liar chemical composition requisite for producing cereals richest in albuminoids and in life-sustain- ing properties. By government analysis it has also been determined that Dakota wheat and corn take the first rank as regards the percentage of albumin- oids and nitrogen of any grown in the United States. In appearance the soil is dark to grayish- brown in color, being darkest in the lower plains and valleys, where it occasionally approaches to blackness. It is everywhere exceedingly friable and easily worked.

The chemist of the national agricultural depart- ment, in summing up the results of analysis of sam- ples of soil from all parts of the United States, including three from widely separated sections of Dakota, reaches the following conclusions :

First-The remarkable adaptability of Dakota soils to readily imbibe and retain moisture. Of all the samples analyzed by the chemist only one exceeded in the percentage of hygroscopic moisture the lowest amount obtained from either of the Da- kota soils.

Second-That as regards silica in its soluble state (and in this way only is it valuable as a source of plant food), the Dakota soil ranks third in the list of the thirty samples analyzed, and is, there- fore, particularly well adapted to the raising of cereal crops, which possess in a marked degree the capacity for feeding on 'silicates. And the same is true of the percentage shown of hydrated silica, which represents that which is gradually available for plant food.

Third-It contains the average of four per cent. of ferric oxide, valuable because to its presence is

chiefly due the retention of phosphoric acid, and because it tends to make clay lands easier of till- age.

Fourth-In the percentage of alumina or clay in the soil, the samples from Dakota, containing an average of over eight per cent., are again third on the list. Its presence is valuable as furnishing a supply of potash, and because it has the important property of absorbing and retaining phosporic acid, ammonia, potash, lime and other substances neces- sary for plant food. The chemist declares the light clay soil, containing from six to ten per cent. of alumina, the best for wheat.

Fifth -- It shows an abundant supply of phos- phoric acid, which, the chemist says, "in general, even in the most fertile soils, is found in very minute quantities." The percentage of phosphoric acid found in one Dakota sample is exceeded in but one of all the samples analyzed.

Sixth-The chemist lays down the rule that the percentage of lime in clay loams should not fall be- low .250, and in the heavy clay soils not below .500. The analysis of the samples from Dakota shows nearly double the last amount in all three instances, and in the case of one it ranks first on the entire list as regards the percentage of lime.

Seventh-The percentage of potash varies only slightly in the Dakota samples, and is ample for all time to come. The chemist remarks that a soil containing .125 per cent. should furnish potash for a century, and that high per cent of potash makes up for low percentage of lime. The Dakota sam- ples show a percentage of potash of .720, .725 and ·745 respectively.

Eighth-The analysis show that the amount of nitrogen in the Dakota soil is very large, and agrees closely in the three samples, and that it is rich enough in this necessary soil constituent for the continued raising of abundant crops. Two of the samples of prairie soil ranks, in this respect, third on the list analyzed.

Ninth-The prairie soils contains a percentage of humus, or organic matter, greater than twenty- five out of the thirty samples analyzed. The small- est percentage of humus obtained from an an- alysis of the three samples was 6.171, and the greatest 10.175, while the famous black soil of the Ural mountains in Russia contains but 5 to 12 per cent. In the most fertile soils of this country vegetable humus occurs only in small quantities. It is hygroscopic; that is, it greatly increases the water-holding power of soils and enables them to

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withstand prolonged drought, besides furnishing valuable food for the growing plants.

IRRIGATION.

It is well known that much of the country west of the one hundredth meridian requires irrigation to insure regular success in agriculture. Over this vast region, which includes half of the area of the republic, the air is so dry that there is little or no dew, and a rainfall too slight or too unseasonable to allow general cultivation of the soil. The an- nual rainfall over this great region ranges from twenty inches in western Dakota down to four in Arizona and southern California. The eastern limit of the arid belt approaches the Missouri river in western Dakota, and is classed by Major Powell as semi-humid, which in one season may be well watered, while in the next year everything not artificially watered will perish for the want of moisture. In the cycles of dry years, which alter- nate with wet years in recurring periods of from ten to twelve years, as maintained by scientific men, the whole of Dakota is liable to suffer from the lack of moisture, the area of danger extending eastward beyond the Great Lakes. This year has been remarkable for drought across the continent from the lake region to the Pacific coast.

In view of the success of irrigation in various parts of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and California, public attention has been gradually attracted to the possibilities of extending water service to a large share of the arid belt. Con- gress has finally taken hold of the matter, and the work has become a national one. This season a senate committee visited Dakota and all parts of the north, west and southwest, traveling fourteen thon- sand miles, examining witnesses, and looking over sites for proposed reservoirs and canals to be con- structed.

Congressional aid was asked in aid of irrigation early in President Grant's administration, twenty, years ago, and he recommended a comprehensive preliminary survey, but there was still plenty of land untaken in the humid belt, and so the matter rested until September, 1888, when an appropriation of $100,000 was given to pay for surveying and locating "storage reservoirs at the heads of streams for the purpose of irrigation." The matter was put into the hands of Major Powell, superintendent of the geological survey, and he has since devoted his time to the consideration of that work. He,

perhaps, knowing more about the subject than any other man in the country, says it is possible to re- claim no less than 100,000,000 acres, and year after year, one acre of perfectly watered land being worth three of land in a region of uncertain rainfall. To convert this enormous area, equal to more than two-thirds of the states east of the Mississippi, into a habitable and productive land, means an accretion of wealth to the republic of which all history con- tains no parallel.

To say that Major Powell's project is new or unprecedented is not the case. Systems of irriga- tion, perhaps not on such an extensive scale, were undertaken and carried to success in the long-gone ages. J. H. Beadle, in a recent article on this sub- ject, says: "The oldest written records refer to it as a thing of course, and among the oldest draw- ings are those representing the Egyptian raising water from his fields. It is scarcesly possible to imagine any system which has not been practiced in in one or more countries, from the use of the rudest vessel to simply dip up the water, up through all the grades of common hand labor to the Egyptian 'Shadonf,' or from the simple bamboo wheel of the East Indian to the elaborate system of dams, reser- voirs, flumes and canals which made Babylonia the very garden of the Lord for abundance, and which have lately been paralleled by the British in India and the Americans in Utah and Colorado. Equally difficult would it be to find any new features as to water supply and its value, for in the United States alone is found every grade, from the rocky little troughs of the Moquis Indians of Arizona, by whom the tiniest rill is husbanded as if water were golden, to the mammoth flume of Boulder county, Colo- rado, where a river is anchored to a mountain side and made to feed hundreds of artificial lakes, fish ponds and fountains."

Of the age which built the pyramids it is easy to believe that irrigation works of equally colossal scale were created. A region of Asia Minor, now a desert waste, an area of which our own great Dakota would only make a part, was once fruitful with gardens and orchards and dense with people. Irrigation is mentioned in the earliest Chinese his- tory. In Egypt, Syria and all of eastern Asia agriculture has always depended upon irrigation, and so still depends in countries where the people have survived the governmental changes all along the path of time. The irrigation of the fields, gar- dens and vineyards is often spoken of in the Bible. The earliest systems of California and other parts

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of the west are copied from ancient models. The actual history of irrigation in our country begins with the Pacific Railroad, and it has already assumed such proportions that all the interested states and territories have enacted laws governing the con- struction of the works and the use of water. The remains of irrigation works in India and Ceylon show that water was carried for hundreds of miles in wide canals along mountain sides and across val- leys, in such quantities that, despite the great loss by evaporation under a burning sun, there was enough left to fertilize many millions of acres.

Major Powell says the work we are going to · do in the American west men did successfully many thousand years ago, and we have the advantage over the ancient builders in having superior, even superhuman, machinery, and possessing far higher engineering skill. They had to work without a steam or hydraulic power, and without the compass, or barometer, accomplishing their prodigious tasks by the simple multiplication of mere muscle. The loss of life involved in the construction of irriga- tion works in Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Persia must have been enormous, but the will of the Asiatic despots hesitated at no obstacle; if the labor supply ran short, a war was undertaken and a host of captives took the places of the dead and helpless. No such gloomy incidents will mark the con- struction of the western American system. To store the waters in the mountains, to excavate the canals for their transport to the plains, to dig ditches for their distribution, to sink artesian wells and pump waters from the rivers to the reservoirs, will take much labor, time and money, but happily the work will not be dangerous ; there is plenty of labor, we can take the time, and there will be no lack of money. It is the claim of some enthusiasts that much of the water of the Missouri and tributaries will be absorbed by the dry lands through irriga- tion, and by thus reducing the volume of the lower Mississippi river allow the reclamation of the lands now unavailable along the course of that mighty stream, and thus prevent disastrous floods, now so common along the lower part of that river.

From government reports we learn that the different stages of progress in water utilization are six in number, to-wit :

First-The use of the rainfall in what are prop- erly known as rain belts, by the most effective methods of cultivation, and the selection of suitable plants, especially those with long tap roots.

Second-The exhaustion of the supply furnished

by rivers and creeks in their passage through the plains, by means of irrigation works, such as are already in extensive use. There are few streams which cannot be used to the full amount of their annual discharge.

Third-The enlargement of the existing supply by the storage of higher elevations of water which pass away in spring floods, a work now entered upon by congress. The building of numerous catch-basins throughout the plains to save the rain- fall which is wasted, so far as the lands nearby are concerned, will add greatly to the supply furnished . by running streams. There are natural depressions everywhere which can be utilized at very slight cost, and with entire immunity from risks of dangerous floods.

Fourth-The sinking of galleries or tunnels below the surface of streams, even when they are practically dry, and utilizing by canals the under- ground currents. This is becoming a popular re- source. Such a plan furnishes pure filtered water at Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the supply of the city, without pumping or much expense, from a small stream nearly dry in summer. The utilization of surface water does not exhaust the supply for irri- gation. The application involves waste. The fugitives waters sinking into the ground pass into the depressions which make the waterways, and gradually swell the scanty streams at lower levels, or course their way toward the sea through the sands below the river beds. Thus a part of the water of irrigation canals is gathered a second time to do the work of irrigation. This is the case notably in the South Platte, in Colorado, after its waters have been depleted by the canals above Denver and the Cache la Poudre supply has been similarly used between Fort Collins and Greeley. At the latter place the cellars require protection from overflow, water in wells has risen nearly to the surface, and the waters of irrigation are par- tially restored to the stream to find their way to the South Platte.

Fifth-By the use of stationary pumps of suffi- cient power, in lifting such underground currents to the surface from bed rock, for application to surrounding lands.

Sixth-By artesian wells, which have hitherto proved too expensive for use in irrigation. It is probable that their cost and the uncertainty of ob- taining water will prevent extensive employnient of this means of water supply, except in parts of Da- kota, Kansas and California. The artesian basin

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of central Dakota is the largest known to the world, and is the only large locality, probably, where water obtained in this way can come into general use.

The quantity of water necessary to irrigate an acre depends upon the slope of the land, porosity of the soil, the dryness of the atmosphere, and the nature of the crops cultivated. Throughout the west the common method of measuring water is by what is known as the "miner's inch," viz., the quantity which will flow throughout an opening one inch square, under a given pressure. Forty miner's inches is considered equal to the flowage of one cubic foot per second, and all authorities agree that this amount flowing constantly through the season will be sufficient for about two hundred acres under the most exacting conditions. By economy, not generally practiced, however, by Americans, it can be made to do duty on from three hundred to one thousand acres per second foot, but under the lavish custom of Colorado a miner's inch is given to an acre, or a second foot to each forty acres. The price of water to consumers varies in different localities, the companies owning the canals charging by the miner's inch, the second foot, or by an acre irrigated. In Colorado the cost ranges from $1.50 to $5.00 per inch, with higher rates in California. The water is applied to the land by flooding in thin or deep sheets, and allowing it to stand or run off through small ditches; the former method for grain sown broadcast, and the latter for crops planted in rows. The ditches vary in number according to circumstances, but when small and numerous, with the water running continually, very uneven and rolling surfaces can be well served. It has been found that land thoroughly watered for a term of years requires much less, and in some cases none at all. This is doubtless due to the sub- soil becoming thoroughly soaked and then yielding its moisture by capillary attraction to the roots of growing plants.

Land as productive as that of Dakota should not be allowed to remain idle. A great part of it can be irrigated, and irrigation means a large in- crease in the yield or crops. The wheat of Dakota is needed to feed the hungry of every land. The certainty of yearly crops commends the plan, not to speak of the increased yield. Let us move in the matter of lining the country with reservoirs and water ditches, and wait no longer for the coming of wet periods. Every farmer living near a stream, by means of a windmill, can get up a little system of irrigation of his own. The Jamestown hospital

for the insane irrigated and fertilized twenty acres of garden a few years ago with waste water and sewage, and produced several thousand dollars worth of products. The rainfall of Dakota is suffi- cient, but it does not always come at seasonable times, and much of it is of no use. A lack of rain for two or three weeks at seedtime, or during the growing season, is very injurious and some- times fatal to crops. In general terms it may be said that could the Dakota farmer water his fields when the soil needs moisture, thirty bushels of wheat would be a small rather than a large yield. A vital question, then, to the Dakota farmer is the subject of irrigation. If his fields could produce twice as much grain-to say nothing about three or four times as much, as claimed by those who. have studied the subject-it would certainly be a great gain if he could manage to secure irrigation. If the valleys of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and Montana are to be con- verted into irrigated grain fields, the vast products of these regions will compel the Dakota farmer likewise to secure irrigation, or quit farming. How can he get ahead with his fields averaging say fif- teen bushels of wheat, when the far western farmer, who can moisten his fields at will, is getting thirty, forty and fifty. The relief to Dakota is irrigation in the off years. Can it be accomplished? Cer- tainly. Had the farmers of Dakota been able to water their fields this year their crops would have been enormous instead of being merely fair. By tapping the artesian basins and utilizing the flow of rivers, by storing the rainfall and saving the melted snow, the fields of Dakota could be made to rival those of the Nile in productiveness. This artificial supply of water would not only produce wonderful crops of grain, but vegetables, grasses, forage, plants and small fruits ; while trees would spring forth in plenty and glory, covering the face of the country with orchards and groves, and giv- ing character and beauty to the landscape, not pos- sible now without great labor ; and then there would be no want of anything that is in the earth.

The proposition to begin a general system of irrigation in Dakota has some opposition, in the belief that settlements may be retarded when the idea goes abroad that artificial agencies are needed to properly moisten the soil for agriculture. That is certainly not the right view to take of it. To succeed, man must help himself to everything that nature provides. When the clouds fail us we must make different arrangements, and supply the needed

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moisture from other sources. The Missouri river alone carries a volume of water sufficient, and to spare, to nourish the crops of an empire-water which now wends its way to the sea through a fruit- ful region, but sometimes perishing of thirst. Na- ture has furnished us with underground rivers which only need tapping to give of their abundance. Had there been a plentiful supply of moisture to the fields of Dakota this year, the great territory would have had $50,000,000 worth more of crops.

The plan of securing flowing artesian wells, and pumping water from the rivers into the empty lake beds of Dakota, is practical. Rainfall and melted snow can also be diverted from the streams and stored in the lakes, of which there are hundreds -natural reservoirs in which the waters can remain until of right temperature for irrigation. Major Powell suggests what he calls the "tank system" for Dakota. By this he means a pond on every farm, where it is possible for the storage of rain and snow water until needed. He says that a twenty-acre tank filled with water to a depth of ten feet will irrigate three hundred acres of land, and increase the value of the land several hundred per cent. and give a wonderful increase in yield. In his opinion Dakota has a remarkable soil, and very little irrigation will be needed. It would not be necessary to flood the land, but only run the water over it in ditches.

From a statistical map of North Dakota, issued in 1899, by the department of agriculture and labor, Hon. H. U. Thomas, commissioner, the following facts are gleaned :

The state of North Dakota has an area of 72,312 square miles. It has an estimated population of .300,000, has 2,797 miles of railroad, 590 postoffices, over 150 newspapers, 2,333 schools, with 3,637 teachers. The assessed valuation of real and per- sonal property in the state in 1899 was $114.334,- 428. There was invested in banking in Nortlı Da- kota, the same year, $16,599,110. From the same eminent authority has been compiled the following table of the production of the state by counties, and thie assessed value of the property in each civil sub- division of the state. These figures are for the year. 1899:

Pembina county has an assessed value of real and personal property of $5,273,940. Has 305,225 acres of land under cultivation, and raised, in 1898, 3.965,344 bushels of wheat ; 105,473 bushels of flax ; 1,008,887 bushels of oats; 663,626 bushels of bar- ley; 12,939 bushels of rye; 62 bushels of corn;

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Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 26

Author: Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle Number of Pages: 1432

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432