Territory of Idaho, which we also regard as within our trade region, must be classed as a country suitable for irrigation, with a considerable portion also of Washington Territory.

Now, gentlemen, I shall detain you only to say that in the development of this country St. Paul has a great and growing interest, and we desire also, when we can, to second your labors and to assure you of our hearty interest in them. It was with pleasure we heard that the National Government had taken up this work of inquiry by the appointment of a committee so thoroughly competent to deal with the subject, and we trust that something more may come out of its labors than the preparation of a report. We have hope that the gentlemen of this committee will second the efforts of the people in these new States, and that the General Government will give to that people some model systems of irrigation; that they may show what it is possible to do on a large scale with some of the great rivers that now run waste to the sea.

STATEMENT OF A. W. BURT, OF HURON, BEADLE COUNTY, DAKOTA.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I appear before you as a representative of Beadle County, in central Dakota, having been sent here by the county commissioners of that county to present to you the question of sinking artesian wells for the purposes of irrigation. That question is one of great importance to the people of Dakota.

I first went to Dakota in the fall of 1881, and moved there to live in the spring of 1882. At that time there was little or no settlement in that country.

During the winter of 1880 and 1881 there was in that country what might be called abnormal snow-an extraordinary deposit of snow. That snow melted and filled all the lake beds and low places with water. During the summer of 1882 we had rains frequently-heavy rains. I know that, because I was out on my claim in a tent, and we got wet nearly every day.

Every summer, from May until along in July, we had copious rains, which replenished those low places on the face of the prairie. Then we had plenty of moisture. I was enchanted with the country, because I saw that everything grew luxuriantly. That season what little crops. were there, what little matured, were good, and the vegetables of every description grew to mammoth size. We are all well satisfied that the soil of that Territory is very fertile, and that the possibilities of its production has not been ascertained.

In 1883 it was a dryer season, still we had plenty of moisture on the surface and we had good crops. The summer of 1884 came, and it was dryer still; and since that time it has continued to grow dryer until the supply of water which we had obtained in 1881 and 1882 became exhausted.

Thousands of men went into that country in 1882 and 1883 and made their homes there. I had followed a professional life for a good many years, but I sought rest from its exhausting demands, and what wealth I have in all this world is now in farming interests in that country, and what I now tell you I have seen, experienced, and know.

The soil of Dakota is a black soil from 16 to 20 inches thick. Underneath it through that section of the Territory-central Dakota-lies what may be called red clay, hard and almost impervious to water. Therefore, when the water falls upon the surface of the earth it is kept on this subsoil; so that when the rains are over vegetation may draw

WATER AND WELLS IN SOUTH DAKOTA.

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from this supply. The only thing is to get the water into the ground. When I went to Dakota artesian wells were not thought of. I think the first discovery made in that direction was by the railroad companies, who dug wells to supply their trains with water.

Mr. Chairman, you say that you wish to know facts. We of Dakota dislike to have our country referred to as an arid country. We have always insisted that we had one of the grandest countries in the world, yet to-day, while still clinging to that belief, we must admit that the farming of that country is substantially reduced to a question of luck. It is this way: In the west or northwest you will see the clouds rise. You have 200 acres lying out. A shower seems to hover in the sky. After two or three seasons you will watch that threatening shower with as strong an interest as you would a little child that might come into danger, in the hope that it may come across your farm and give you water on your wheat. I mention that to show the feeling of every man in that country who has crops in the ground upon which he is relying for subsistence.

The crops that we raise in Dakota are wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, all kinds of vegetables, and oats. We have some snow in the winter time, but we have not had a heavy fall since 1882. The vegetables and grain start well in the spring, because there is sufficient moisture. If in the month of May, after the crops begin to draw on the soil, we could have some moisture to open the land we would not have any fear that we would have perfect crops. So that the application of water to the land at that time of the year would be beneficial to the crops. We often start our plows when the wheat is off the stubble. Last fall the ground was very dry and we plowed it and it lay there, and the wheat and the. oats never sprouted during all the fall; but I believe that if artesianwell water or reservoir water could have been put upon that land and allowed to lay on the subsoil during the winter, there would have been sufficient moisture to have perfected the crops of small grain without further assistance.

I am not here to advance theories; I am no civil engineer; I understand nothing about the systems of irrigating, but I will say to you that as you go from Sioux Falls, which I understand you are to visit, up through Huron and Jamestown, on your way westward out of the Sioux Valley on to the table-lands, which you will find lie in long wavy rolls like waves of the sea with high ridges running in various directions, sometimes the points of those ridges coming together, there you will find places for artesian wells from which miles and miles of land may be filled with water.

Senator REAGAN. Be good enough to state to us the extent to which artesian wells have been obtained in Dakota.

Mr. BURT. I was about to proceed to that. In 1885 the city of Huron, which at that time had the Holly water works system of supplying water, came to the conclusion that they would sink an artesian well. They had been induced to do this on account of the well at Miller, 40 miles away, and one at Hitchcock, and another at Groton. The well at Huron was completed in September, 1886. I have here a statement showing the different formations through which the drill passed when that was sunk. It is as follows:

Huron artesian well sunk during the month of September, 1886

Then went down 61 feet deeper through hard sand rock and gray lime but stopped, as appropriation gave out, and as sufficient water for all purposes was found it was considered wise not to go deeper. The flow of this well is 1,400 gallons per minute. When closed there is a pressure of 170 pounds to the square inch.

HURON, DAK., June 13, 1889.

ALEX. MCINTOSH, Water Commissioner, City of Huron.

When this well was completed and the water put in motion, confined in the pipe, it went straight out of the pipe into the air nearly 100 feet. The pressure was 170 pounds to the square inch. The water from that well is as clear and pure as the water which flows from the springs in the Vermont hills and mountains. It is wholesome water. I use it in my family, and others do. It takes kindly to vegetation also. I am now using it in town on trees of various kinds, upon white clover, upon red clover, upon timothy and other grass, upon crops and vegetables of various kinds, and even on house plants. Pot plants flourish under its application. The well at Miller, 40 miles west, has a double flow. I do not know the pressure of that well. They have not yet utilized the pressure. The well has been sunk, but they are not running it, because they have not the means to inaugurate a system of water-works.

There is a well 140 miles north of Huron, at Hitchcock, said to have a pressure of 200 pounds. That well runs a grist and feed mill. Besides that they have a lake a little west of the town which at one time was half a mile long and 80 rods wide. That lake afforded a large amount of evaporation and made things look cheerful. A gentleman complained of that lake because a portion of it came on three acres of his land. He commenced suit against the town, he being one of 300,000 in Dakota who objected to water. He enjoined the town from proceeding. I defended the town. Of course I did not suppose he could get more than nominal damages. The result of the suit was that this lake was lowered and the water was turned from this man's land and allowed to proceed in another direction. The farmers on the other side of the town had "caught on," if you will allow the expression, and had the water sent out over their farms. The water runs some 7 miles after having done duty in the grist mill and lands in a little place called Wall Lake, and 30 rods each way from the stream you can see the difference in the grass from that which is beyond that distance.

EFFECTS OF HOT WINDS AND EVAPORATIONS.

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I wish to mention one thing further in this connection. In the spring of 1882 I went out on my homestead and staid there until I could see growing 100 acres of wheat, which I had assisted with my own hands in putting in. In the spring of 1882 when we went out in the morning to see about our stock or after our oxen and horses we would have to wear rubber boots, because it would wet our leather boots through in a short time. But this summer I venture to say that there has been no morning since the first of July that I could not step out in that grass in my stocking feet and not be seriously inconvenienced.

Our belief in that country is that if we can fill up those ponds and low places with water so that we can have evaporation it will materially help humidity. We believe that if we could have a sufficient number of wells to supply the water we could raise trees without any trouble, because we find the trees grow finely under it. Hundreds of thousands of dollars go East every year for coal which comes to Dakota, goes into the grate, and out of the chimney in smoke with no compensating return from it. It is a dead investment because used for cooking purposes and heat. But send those streams out over those prairiesand down those runs, and we could raise trees for our fuel and thus save a heavy drain upon the country.

I am aware that there are a great many theories upon the subject of irrigation. They say that moist winds come from Japan and strike the Rocky Mountains and there become condensed because of the frigidity that is up in those mountains. While it is possible that those vapors and currents of moist air are arrested by that process, still we have some compensating circumstances to consider. The moisture may not come to us in the form of vapor, but may it not come down through the crevices of those rocks and subterranean passages in an inexhaustible supply of water? Whatever may be the theory of those who think that this water may become exhausted, if we can get what is there we would ask that you give us that. We have gone to that country to develop it, to add to the riches of this mighty nation, and we ask that we be properly assisted, that we may be able to raise our wheat and grain in such quantities and at such reasonable prices that no man may have a corner on his neighbor's daily bread.

The CHAIRMAN. To what extent have you explored this artesian belt? How wide apart are your wells at different points?

Mr. BURT. There is one at Miller, 40 miles west; one 20 miles north; two at Aberdeen; one at Groton, and then our well.

The CHAIRMAN. Do these wells of which you speak follow the line of the river, or are they anywhere across the plains?

Mr. BURT. Across the plains. There is one more point, Highmore, which stands upon the Missouri and James River valleys.

The CHAIRMAN. Have not wells been sunk that failed, that did not strike the belt?

Mr. BURT. Not that I know. Over the divide, still going toward the Missouri, there is a flowing well.

The CHAIRMAN. Then, at all points where they have sunk the wells sufficiently deep they have struck water?

Mr. BURT. Yes. So well satisfied are the business men of Huron about water that when they make a contract with any one to sink a well they do not ask about water.

Senator REAGAN. What is the depth of those wells?

Mr. BURT. The well at Highmore is 1,552 feet. That stands upon the summit of the divide between the James and the Missouri River valleys. The depth of our well I have stated. I am not able to give

the depth of the other wells. In order to show the power of this well at Huron, I desire to submit to the committee a photograph taken in July last of the streams of water from the hose used for fire purposes. Upon the back you will find some memoranda which may interest you. I have had hard work many times to convince eastern people that there was not some artificial power behind that water. But this photograph represents the stream as it comes from the bowels of the earth by natural forces. That block [indicating on a photograph] is about threequarters of a mile from the well. Water is forced through the main. We have never had any trouble about it. There never has been any cessation of that pressure. For one year we kept the fires banked at the Holly water-works for fear that the well might go back on us; but it has never failed, and now we do not watch it.

The CHAIRMAN. Has there been any decrease in the volume of the water from any of those wells?

Mr. BURT. Not that I know. At Aberdeen there are two wells 150 feet apart, and the sinking of one did not affect the other.

The CHAIRMAN. As I understood you in reading the list of the dif ferent layers through which the drill passed you gave sandstone as the rock carrying the water.

Mr. BURT. White sandstone.

The CHAIRMAN. Is it all cross-grain ?

Mr. BURT. They tell me it is porous like a sponge.

The CHAIRMAN. What was the thickness of that layer? I believe you gave it as some 60 feet, did you not?

Mr. BURT. I do not remember the figures-40 feet, I believe.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you know what was the thickness they met with in that water-bearing rock in the other wells?

Mr. BURT. I do not.

The CHAIRMAN. Whether it maintained a uniform thickness or not? Mr. BURT. I do not know.

Senator REAGAN. In boring these wells have you come across coal or illuminating gas?

Mr. BURT. As to the coal, we have not. When they drill through this rock it becomes powder, and as it is necessary to fill the hole with water they follow it down with a pipe and work the drill inside, and whatever comes up is ground so fine that unless you are specially looking for coal you would not notice, though you might pass through it. The men who sunk this well were not thinking of coal, only of water, and no observation was made. In this connection I would like to say that if the Government desires knowledge of the geology of that country it could find no better way of ascertaining the formation of that soil than by sinking wells. I believe that it will be discovered in time that coal is in certain portions of that section of the country.

Director POWELL. I believe you have mentioned seven artesian wells in your section of country, the deepest of which is 1,500 feet. Mr. BURT. That at Highmore is 1,552 feet.

Director POWELL. In what direction is the general drainage at the surface?

Mr. BURT. The general direction of the flow at the surface is on the east side of this divide of which I spoke. There it all flows toward the James River, and on the west towards the Missouri, and there is a general lay of the country sloping in that direction. There are little runs and low places, little hollows that run back into the country 40 or 50 miles and flow down across the praire, and after awhile they grow deeper and deeper when you come into the vicinity of the river where