can not afford to make appropriations for Dakota as it makes appropriations for other States for their harbors, for sea-walls and coast defenses; if it can not appropriate money for our State as it does for scientific investigations of the fish culture, it can lend its credit to build a system of water-works, and we will pay a reasonable rent to have it in our county, and other counties will do the same. In closing, it should be said that the Government of the United States owes Dakota a good deal of money in a moral point of view.

STATEMENT OF N. J. LOWTHIN, OF GRANT COUNTY

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I live in the eastern part of South Dakota, on the west side of the Coteaux, on what is termed the divide between the Whetstone and the James Valleys. The Sioux River has its rise in those Coteaux, and through all the valley are two general streams which are known as the Whetstone and Yellowbanks, with numerous branches, all of which are dry. There are lakes in that valley which in former years were high and had a surplus of water in them. To-day they are very low, and the rain fall since the lakes have commenced to dry up has grown less every year. In 1882, as has been stated, we had plenty of rain and abundant crops was the result. I think we could have some artesian wells sunk in those Coteaux.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you any streams of water that could be turned into the lakes?

Mr. LOWTHIN. No; nothing but the actual rain-fall. I do not know of any other supply.

The CHAIRMAN. You have not sunk any wells there?

Mr. LOWTHIN. No. They attempted it in Grant County, but I think they struck granite.

The CHAIRMAN. Sometimes there may be overlying granite that is drawn up by volcanic disturbances; but when you come to the regular granite there is no artesian well possible?

Mr. LOWTHIN. They do not attempt to drill through it. I do not think there is any other source for us except the supply from those lakes. The CHAIRMAN. The lakes are dry now?

Mr. LOWTHIN. They are not completely dry, but they are very low. The CHAIRMAN. Would there have been sufficient water had it all been drawn off this year?

Mr. LOWTHIN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. What difficulty is there in the way of drawing it off; what you want is a tunnel, a deep cut?

Mr. LOWTHIN. I do not think we would have to cut very deep.

The CHAIRMAN. Those waters in the lakes do not belong to any one? Mr. LOWTHIN. No.

The CHAIRMAN. The first means would be to get those waters out? Mr. LOWTHIN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Then if you do not have enough for your purposes you should try some artificial mode; but the probability is that you will have plenty of water every year. How much water have you there now; how deep and how wide is it?

Mr. LOWTHIN. Some lakes are 10 feet deep, some less.

The CHAIRMAN. What area does the water cover?

Mr. LOWTHIN. Some 40 to 50 acres. There is a chain of small lakes there.

The CHAIRMAN. Has the land a clay subsoil?

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Mr. LOWTHIN. Yes. The Pumice-stone Lake is quite a body of water, of a pretty good depth. In the southern part of the county the crop is poor, but in the northern part the crop is very good.

The CHAIRMAN. You want to survey to ascertain how much of the water in those lakes you can utilize.

Mr. LOWTHIN. Yes. That, I think, should be the first thing doneascertain what can be done, and then the Government can do whatever it may deem proper to assist us.

STATEMENT OF C. E. GRIMM, OF NEWARK, MARSHALL COUNTY.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I represent the district of Marshall and Broad Counties. That district forms part of the north line of South Dakota. The lakes border the eastern part of our county.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you examined those lakes?

Mr. GRIMM. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there a good deal of water in them now?

Mr. GRIMM. I saw them about two years ago, and a number of them which are now dry had water in them. There is a number of coulées in our county, and in the spring there is a little water running in them. The CHAIRMAN. Suppose you were to dam those lakes, could you not benefit a good deal of the land?

Mr. GRIMM. Those coulées or ravines are something like 2 to 5 miles in length, and there has once been a good deal of timber on them. Some of them are 2 miles in length, and some of the banks are 100 feet high. Those hills are higher than the surrounding country, and if the water in those coulées could be increased by a flow from wells, we could get enough water to irrigate a large country. Still lower down the valley there is a strip of what we might call heavy land, and there is where the suffering has been this year; there was no water to reach the subsoil, and the poor sample of wheat which was shown here this morning is good wheat compared with that produced in that country. Then to the westward of that is a strip of country where the crops are considerably better. There the water is nearer the top of the ground. We can reach well water from 10 to 12 feet deep. If you were to sink a well 15 feet deep, it would be almost impossible to pump the well dry. And then, on this flat ground, I understand they have struck water at 75 feet, so that they have made splendid wells in that country. Right up the lower end of this valley of which I am speaking, they have an artesian well a little less thau 1,000 feet deep, and the pressure from that well is 125 pounds to the square inch. Then they have a well at Andover, another well at Webster, and another at Columbia, in the James River Valley.

In the winter of 1880 there was much snow in Dakota, and there was water from the melting of that snow that staid from 1881 to 1882, and wheat went up as high as 50 bushels to the acre. That proved to me that with a favorable season we could have a large crop any year. But in the spring, as a general thing, we have not enough water to reach our subsoil, and what little we have is dried up by the hot winds which pass over the country in the summer. I think the bad effect of these winds could be obviated by surface water. But as we have no dews and no surface water, we can not raise our stock or farm products, and our country must be either a stock or farming country. Unless something be done the people must dispose of their stock and make a change. A large number will dispose of their farms under 138 A L

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the hammer. Three wells to a township would give sufficient surface water for that country, and we could raise good crops every season. We know that Congressmen generally live on the best in the land, and it is said that Dakota raises the best flour in this country; so that Congressmen, for their own interest, should look at this thing as we do. We do not wish to make more money than we can well take care of; but we do wish to make enough to pay our taxes and honest debts. We can raise stock cheaper than any other section of the country, and there is no land in the world that has better soil, soil better adapted to cultivation, and we do ask that Congress grant us such relief as our needs require.

STATEMENT OF G. S. PERRY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY.

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I think the ground has been pretty well covered by those who have preceded me, and I shall detain you only a few minutes in presenting the views we entertain in our part of the Territory.

I live in Douglas County, in the extreme southern part of South Dakota. When I went to that country in the winter of 1881 we had an abundance of water, and during the summer of 1882 we had as good crops as I have seen in any other country. In the early part of the season we had a good deal of water in our streams. There were four or five that we could not cross. As I have said, during that season we had as good crops as I have seen in any of the States, and I have lived in Iowa, New Hampshire, Maine, and Colorado. I do not think that the crops of any of those States could come up to the crops that we had in 1882. I do not think there was a night during that summer but what we had dews, and these streams of which mention has been made were running full of water; but this season our crops are poor.

In the early history of the county we had 16 bushels of wheat to the acre, and corn 45 bushels to the acre. That was our crop. But soon these streams were without water, and wagon-roads were made all through them. It is my opinion that unless something be done for our relief the country will soon be depopulated. Why, in Davidson there is not one piece of land in five that is inhabited to-day, the people being driven out because of want of water.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there any supply in that county except from artesian wells?

Mr. PERRY. No.

The CHAIRMAN. But you have artesian wells there?

Mr. PERRY. Yes; at Campbell they have artesian wells and at Plankington.

The CHAIRMAN. What pressure of water did you get there?

Mr. PERRY. At Plankington 140 pounds to the inch. Then you go south to Tyndall, and there is a well 600 feet deep. That has a pressure of 122 pounds to the inch. That flows on the surface, the water going into the Missouri River. Parties living adjacent to this well at Tyndall entered suit against the town because of this water running over their land, but before they got the suits into court and under headway they withdrew them, seeing the advantage the water was to them. This surface water from that well makes the land on which it flows worth $25 an acre, while the land this side is not worth more than $8 to $10

an acre.

The CHAIRMAN. Are the banks of the Missouri deep at that point

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Mr. PERRY. Yes; there are high banks there, and timber lands until you get to Yankton.

The CHAIRMAN. How high have you been?

Mr. PERRY. Only to Pierre I will say in regard to the wells at Yankton that the best well is 165 feet deep, and has a pressure of 140 pounds. They have eight or nine wells there, and one is on the Missouri River, where they are carrying on one of the largest brick manufactories, and all the water is derived from this well, driving the machinery and everything else. There is another matter to which I wish to call your attention, and to which there has been no allusion so far, and that is that from fifty to seventy-five parties having tree claims are compelled to ask an extension of time to carry out their contract with the Government. This is on account of the dry weather in those counties. If wells could be sunk at the heads of Choteau Creek and two other creeks in that neighborhood, it would make each one of them flowing streams. They are only 6 to 12 miles apart, and we might get moisture from them which would assist us materially. But we are poor and not able to get the money to get on and make the experiments.

STATEMENT OF G. E. PURLEY, OF MINNEHAHA COUNTY.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I live in the Sioux Valley, and I am the only representative from that section. Our county is economically managed, and it is out of debt. The Big Sioux has grass growing in its bottom, with but little water in it.

The CHAIRMAN. Where does it head?

Mr. PURLEY. In Codington County.

The CHAIRMAN. I see here (referring to a map), that there are a great many of these small lakes therein. Do they drain into the Sioux? Mr. PURLEY. They are not drained. Some of them are dried up. It appears, on the map, as if there were a little lake here [indicating], and one here [indicating], but those places are where we get our good grass. They were lakes and streams in earlier days, but there is no water in them now.

The CHAIRMAN. There is water in the Sioux that could be brought back upon the land?

Mr. PURLEY. But there is not enough in the dry seasons. Here is a statement of the rain-fall in our last growing season. I got it from the president of the Agricultural College. It is 4 inches. We got the 1300 idea that Brookings was getting more water than we were. We could see the clouds move around us, and we found that at the same time they had four inches of water and over, we had only two. Mention has been made about this snow-fall of 1881 and 1882. I have lived in Dakota since 1876 and I have noticed this feature in the change of wind currents: They come from the northwest. The start of oursnowfall was a blizzard from the northwest. The water from that snow went into the ground and filled it up so that we could not plow our fields that fall. Then, during the same winter, we had southeast winds that gave us more snow, and the water from that went into the land. But during the last three years the wind has come directly from the south and the north, and it has been without this moisture. We felt a little delicacy at first at being classed as an arid country; but we are not the first to say we want rain. But the rain grows less all the way from the Alleghany Mountains to the one-hundredth meridian. The average fall is less when you get to the one hundredth meridian, where

it is not enough for the crops. But there is no use in rebelling against nature or your country because there is not enough rain-fall, for irrigation is the beginning of civilization. When we get educated to it, we will find people leaving rain-fall countries and seeking irrigation lands, and we need not be ashamed of it.

When I went to South Dakota, in 1880, the country was new. There was not a post-office in our county, nor a railroad. I sought information from every available source as to the condition of the country. There were signs of drouth, and my friends back East said they could see between the lines of my letters that I was a little uncertain whether it was a place to live in or not. The lakes throughout South Dakota that summer were dried up. There is a lake in the northeast portion of my county-Lake Brant. It covers probably two sections of land. That was dried up, and teamsters used to go over it and cut their timber. East of the line of the railroad there was a lake called Preston, and that was dried up. The northwestern people built their railroad across there. The grass on the prairies burned off about the middle of last July, but on the 14th of August there was a heavy rain, and the grass all grew up again. The season of 1879 had been dry, but I think not so bad as that.

In the winter of 1880-'81 there was a heavy snow-fall. The winter was a very hard one, and it kept up until the 18th of April. That was the first thaw that we had, and then the snow went off just as fast as snow could go, and all the lakes were filled with water. Preston Lake was so full the railroad company had to lay its track around it. Lake Brant was filled with water. The seasons of 1881, 1882, and 1883 were very productive.

The CHAIRMAN. How large is Lake Brant?

Mr. PURLEY. It covers about two sections of land.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there water in it now?

Mr. PURLEY. Yes; the water in it now is about a foot deep. I learned from an old stageman that it was dry in 1870, and in 1872 or 1873 the subdivisions were made by the Government, and at that time it had water in it. This shows that these dry seasons are periodical. In the seasons when those streams were full of water we had rain. But whether that was the result of the water being in them or a coincident, I would not say. It may have been both.

The CHAIRMAN. It is time that you were having a change of season. Mr. PURLEY. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. When the good season comes will you give up or will you keep up the fight?

Mr. PURLEY. Solomon says there is no remembrance of past things. But I do not think there is much danger of this being forgotten. There have been no seasons but what we have had dry spells; but some of them are not so disastrous as others. There has not been one of those dry spells but what the farmers would be alarmed. But the rains would come before the crops were killed.

The CHAIRMAN. When you have a good winter and the rain fills the ground above down to the hard soil, and it is well saturated, will the dry spell hurt you?

Mr. PURLEY. No.

The CHAIRMAN. The moisture will carry you through the season? Mr. PURLEY. Yes. Last fall had the ground been well saturated, with what rain we had this summer we would have had a fair crop. There is no question about that.