THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1950, 25 May 1880, Page 4

THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT.

f" New York Times."] Many millions of acres of land in the far West are almost entirely without value unless they can be irrigated by water supplied by artificial means. The arid region of the United States embraces 900,000,000 acres, lying in the territories of Arizona, Dakota, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wvoming, the States of Colorado, Nevada, California, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon and Texas and the Indian territory. Notl per cent, of thiß vast nroa has been sold. It has b:jn ascertained that about 200,000,000 acres are land, upon which agriculture canr.ot be successfully carried on, even with an abundance of water. Of the reminder, '200,000,000 acres are lava lands, cevert-a with cindcro, &\, lands without soil or vegetbAion, and desert plains of drifting sand. On tho greator part of the 5C 0,000,000 acres not included above valuable crops em be raised by the aid of vrater. By spraifiiny the water of streams over tho lend while tho crops are growing s<?~eral thousands of acres of this area have already been reclaimed, but, these methods can be applied to not more than 15,000,000 a:re3. There remain 485,000,000 acres which arc now used only for pasturage, and on which the vegetation is so scanty that they its almost worthless. It has been shown that the introduction of water is oil that is needed tc make these lands fertile. The Government ir asked to provide for tho sinking of two artesian wells east of tho Rocky Mountains, ar.d three west of the Rocky Mountains, as an experiment towurda the solution of the great problem—the reclamation of what used t; ho described on mups as the Great American Desert.