Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

IRRIGATION WORK IN THE UNITED STATES. 85 In the prairie regions, however, where the cultivation of rice was introduced about twenty years ago, the methods of planting and harvest- ing are similar to those followed Rice in the , wjiea|. growers of the Prairies. North-West. The prairies ex- tend inland along the coast from the Gulf of Mexico for a distance of 50 to 100 miles, rising in the interior to an elevation of about 200 feet above sea-level. This is a flat, timber- less region, and was considered fit for graz- ing only until experi- ments proved the peculiar adaptability of the soil to rice cul- ture. Farmers from the Middle West moved to this section, introduced improved methods, and for the first time in the his- tory of rice growing in this country mod- ern machinery was brought into use. As a result the area de- voted to the industry has increased rapidly, until now several hun- dred thousand acres are planted annually with this grain. Expensive canal systems, hundreds of miles in length, have been con- structed, the water being pumped from wells. The first irrigation work in th© West by English-speaking people was done by the Mormons in Utah in 1847. When the Gentiles _ drove them from their head- The Mormons. ■ , t __ quarters at Nauvoo, Illinois, the outposts of western settlement extended unti] they were compelled, probably by ex- haustion, to call a halt. They unyoked their oxen and pitched their camp on the present TO SHOW THE CLOSE RESEMBLANCE OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY TO THE VALLEY OF THE JORDAN. site of Salt Lake City, at that time one of the most desolate spots in all the West. On the shores of America’s “ Dead Sea ” the first attack by Americans on the arid regions was undertaken. ’ These pioneers came from the Middle West, and were wholly unacquainted with irrigation. Their hardships were numerous and severe in the first years of their settlement. The “ Promised Land ” in which they located is strangely like that of Palestine. It occupies a part of the region once covered by an- cient Lake Bonneville. Salt Lake valley, through the centre of which flows the new Jordan River, is rimmed by moun- tains, as is the Jordan valley of Palestine. At its southern end is Utah Lake, a large body of fresh water, out of which the river flows north-westward into Great Salt Lake, as in the land of Canaan the waters of the Sea of Tiberias are drained by the Jordan into the Dead Sea. Other companies of Mormons joined the pioneers. The work of constructing ditches was extended to other streams. Methods were improved until one of the most efficient systems in the Prosperous . _ , , , Utah, country had been developed. The individual ownership of land and co-opera- tion in ditch construction were here the prin- cipal factors of success. The records show fewer failures in canal construction and opera- tion in Utah than in any other state.