From the collection of the z n m o Prelinger v JUibrary t P San Francisco, California 2006 ^i'S-^xui^C THE IRRIGATION AGE. VOL. VI. CHICAGO, JANUARY, 1894. No. i. THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. The new form in which THE IRRIGATION "The Age" ., . ,, in AGE greets its readers this month ex- 1894. plains its own advantages, the chief of which is convenience for handling, alike in the month- ly part and the bound volume; it also furnishes bet- ter opportunities for departmental division, and for that gradual but steady expansion of size which the constant growth of the magazine demands. The new form is not strictly original. That distinguished suc- cess, the .Review of Reviews, is the model to a consider- able degree. Reference is made in the publisher's announcements in the advertising pages to another feature of the plans of THE AGE for 1894. The idea is indicated in the title of this department, " The Prog- ress of Western America." Western America is plainly broader than the irrigation industry alone though that industry must forever lie at the base of its civilization. But there are correlative industries, so intermingled and interwoven with the cultivation of the soil that it is impossible to say that any community or any class is interested in the progress of one line of activity and in no other. Communities are not inde- pendent, but interdependent. The essence of com- merce is the exchange of products. The first concern of the farmer is to produce something to sell, but the second concern is for a market in which it may be sold. The producer is happiest when the consumer is nearest at hand. And the process by which the producer and the consumer shall be developed, side by side, must go on simultaneously and under a com- mon impulse. This is true of all countries, but it is more perfectly true of Western America than of any other large division of the surface of the earth. Diversified Industry is most prosperous where it is Ind ArT/ in most lar gely diversified. There are America, localities where diversification has come through the ingenuity of man. The arid region will owe the variety and symmetry of its industrial life to the extraordinary generosity of nature. The applica- tion of man's ener- gy and faith alone is necessary to pro- duce in the west- ern half of the con- tinent the most perfect civilization the world has ever seen. In Arid America the min- j ing camp is gener- j ally the near neigh- bor of the agricul tural valley. Water! for power is usual- 1 ly found in connec- tion with water for | irrigation. Hence Copyrighted 1893, by "Harper's Weekly." MAJOR J. W. POWELL. Director of United States Geological Survey. manufacturing and agriculture are the twin offspring of a common parent- age. It is worth while to refer to a single example. Take the city of Ogden, at the northern end of Utah. It stands at the head of a fertile valley, closely cultivated by means of hundreds of small irrigated farms. In the moun- [NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS. A volume of THE AGE usually consists of six numbers, but the November AGE was designated as No. 7, Vol. V, thus constituting an extra number. This plan was adopted in order to start the new volume with the first month of the new year. The December issue was omitted in order to enable the publishers to perfect arrangements for bringing out the paper in its new form without getting hopelessly behind the date of publication. This issue is " January, 1894. Vol. VI, No. 1." All subscriptions will be advanced on our books one month. For instance, if a subscription is paid up to March it will not expire until April, so that the omission of the December issue will work no injustice. The same statement applies to advertisers. PUBLISHERS.] THE IRRIGATION AGE. tains on one side of it is the prosperous mining canip of Park City, while the undeveloped possibilities of La Plata lie within easy reach in another direction. The water which comes from the canons to irrigate the valley is now about to be utilized for power to generate electricity, and this will turn the wheels of numerous industries, as well as supply the heat and light for stores, factories and dwellings. Ogden is not an unusual instance, except in the fact that it is further^developed than most localities. Nature has provided the foundation of .an industrial life which will be almost complete. The producer and the con- sumer have grown up side by side. They supplement each other at every step. Their interests are inex- tricably blended. They can no more be separated than the trunk, the leaf and the blossom of the tree. Is it possible to make a magazine, found- A Distinctive e( j U p 0n these conditions, which will be- come the distinctive journal of Western America? Three years of patient study convinces us that it is. Early readers will remember that the first few numbers of this periodical bore the title THE IRRIGATION AGE AND WESTERN EMPIRE. The first conception of its scope was along these lines, but it was quickly discovered that the idea was too compre- hensive for general appreciation at that time, and the sub-title was dropped, in order that nothing should in- terfere with the vigorous presentation of the irriga- tion idea. During the last few months public thought has rapidly shaped itself in conformity with the original conception of THE AGE. Projectors of irri- gation enterprises now generally present the water power feature to the investing public. Electricity has come to the fore with prodigious strides, bringing in its train a flock of new industrial and social possibil- ities. It is now plain to the dullest imagination that the movement which renders habitable the deserts of Arid America necessarily awakens the latent possibil- ities of the water falls, the mine, the factory and the ideal conditions of social life. Everybody is begin- ning to see that all these things are web of one woof. And if they are all to be represented in their broader outlines in one periodical no other is so fit for the undertaking as THE IRRIGATION AGE, which already goes to every postoffice in the arid region, and is read in the counting rooms of eastern and British investors, and by a select public in every civilized country on earth, as the exponent of western aspirations. This, then, is the plan of THE AGE for 1894. It will be developed by a gradual process, and it will be true to its program. 1994 The vear f 1894 will be the greatest year A Formative in the history of American irrigation. This may not be true in miles of ditches built, or number of acres reclaimed, but it will be true in a 8 ense that is far beyond the matter*bf ditches and acres, for irrigation is now a problem of institutions and a civilization. It involves the destinies of States, the future of National expansion, the outworking of the best possibilities of humanity itself. And it is in that aspect that 1894 will surpass all the years of the past all the years of the future, too, perhaps in what it will add to the history of American irrigation. For this will be known as the formative period. In the next few months, p - -- 1 under the plan organized at Los j Angeles, the men fo of seventeen States ' - and Territories will js| be mapping out | the irrigation poli- cies of the future. The machinery of the State Commis- sions will soon be in full operation, and will be supple- mented by a vig- orous campaign, conducted by the National Executive Committee. The result of the year's work, if reasonable expectations are realized, will be the cementing of western public opinion behind a comprehensive national measure and the union of the various States upon an enlightened system of local laws. In doing this the men of the West will be laying the broad foundation of a civili- zation. This is the noble task set for the friends of Arid America in the year 1894. Copyright 1893, by Harper's Weekly. FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS. Member of Congress from Nevada. The First ^ an ^ an ar ^ ^ an< ^ P^ c y P re ' Plan pared for presentation to a State Commis- Froposed. . , T sion comes from the fertile brain 01 L. M. Holt, and will be submitted to his colleagues of the California tody. Briefly, its points are as follows: 1. There shall be created by national law a Depart- ment of Irrigation, the head of which shall be a Cabi- net officer. 2. The States shall be given jurisdiction over all the arid public lands lying within their respective borders. 3. Every State shall create a permanent Irrigation Commission, of five members, one of whom shall be State Engineer. 4. Whenever it becomes desirable to reclaim a body of public lands, the State Commission shall devise plans for the work, which can only be put into operation after receiving the sanction of the national depart- ment. 5. This approval secured, the State shall issue its THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. VIEW ON SUNNYSIDE CANAL, YAKIMA COUNTY, WASHINGTON. bonds and proceed to construct the work, and then to open the lands for settlement, selling small farms with water rights for actual cost of reclamation, and the usual Government price per acre. 6. When half the land is occupied by actual set- tlers, the State shall form a district, under the Wright law, the bonds of which will redeem the State bonds, and thus in the end the control passes into the hands of the community. The Holt plan is only one of very many Me> r*(?n. the that will, no doubt, be presented to the State Commissions during the next few months. It is by the discussion of these various sug- gestions that a wise conclusion will be reached in the end. It is hardly likely that the plan will find general acceptance in its original form, because it departs so widely from the present method of reclaiming the arid lands. It is a long leap from private enterprise to this scheme of pure, unadulterated public control and operation, with no way station between. And yet this particular plan has some very strong features, the chief of which is the fact that it puts the responsi- bility for progress squarely upon the Western States, while still recognizing the right of the nation to exer- cise a controlling influence both in legislation and ad- ministration, and thus to protect its interests. There are two stern facts to contend with, i. e. (1) that the nation must guard the great heritage of its people represented in the public lands, and (2) that if public works are to be built it must be done by the States, because it will be many years before the nation will think of spending money for such a purpose. We shall be fortunate indeed if, in the policy finally adopted, we steer between these two difficulties as skillfully as Mr. Holt has done in his plan. If this proposition could be enacted into law to-morrow, and then command a cordial support by the people, we believe it would prove to be an entirely workable policy. But not every idea that is meritorious is available, and it is easy to foresee where criticism will attack this plan. The Cabinet officer will not come very soon, but a Department of Irrigation, in which all of this class of work might be segregated under the Secretary of Agriculture, can very likely be obtained if strongly demanded by the West. THE IRRIGATION AGE. The speech of Major John W. Powell, on tne water supplies of the arid region, at the International Irrigation Congress was the one element of discord in that remarkable gather- ing. The offence given was summed up in the two following sentences, which are taken from the official record : There Is not water enough and can never be; a quantity of water can never be conserved sufficient to irrigate more than one-third of the land already owned by private individuals. Not one more acre of land should be granted to individuals for irrigation purposes. If you irrigate the land yet remaining in the hands of the Government you have got to sacrifice some of the land remaining in the hands of individuals. This statement from the director of the Geological Survey, following the platform declaration, that homes HOWARD V. HINCKLEY. Consulting Engineer of the Kansas Irrigation Association. for millions can be made on the arid public domain, sounded very startling to the ears of men who ex- pect to achieve so much for civilization by means of the organized irrigation movement. It seemed to be in direct and hopeless antagonism to the theory on which the platform had been erected, and the "Ad- dress to the People of the United States" promul- gated. The speech was roundly denounced as a mis- statement of the facts and a premeditated blow at a great cause, and perhaps by no one more roundly than by the editor of THE AGE, both on the floor of the Congress and in the pages of this journal. But is it possible for one to hold the views in the main ex- pressed in the platform and still to welcome the Powell speech as the voice of conservatism, crying out in a waste of reckless enthusiasm? Is there, after all, something valuable for the cause to be gained from a calm review of Major Powell's speech, especially with reference to particular localities? We can say for the men of the Irrigation Congress that they do not fear such a review of the speech. They are honest in their views, which are based on personal knowledge of their various States and Territories. There was not a particle of the element of personal enmity in their denunciation of the speech. On the contrary, Major Powell's reputation and position are such as naturally lead men to cultivate rather than repel his association with them. These observations are prompted by let- MfaA'a ters received from several western men Opimon. who are in thorough touch and sympathy with the writer on most subjects. For instance, there is Elwood Mead, State Engineer of Wyoming. No man is more jealous of the future of his State. None is more conclusively on record as having declared that his portion of Arid America has abundant water sup- plies and vast areas of arid public lands on which to utilize them. And yet he sends us a letter entitled, "A Defense of Major Powell," of which the following is the full text: To the Editor of the Irrigation Age: If one who confesses to holding perverse views on many ques- tions may be permitted the privilege, I should like to off era few words of protest against the extreme severity of the criticisms of the address of Major Powell at Los Angeles. If the history of the irrigation movement has any lesson it is the need of liberality of judgment as to the views held on the proper disposition of the arid lands, and in any event, an honest expression of opinion should always be respected. The fact that a member of this convention had the temerity to suggest that the United States, considered as a land owner, has ceased to have any important interest in the arid land problem does not seem to me an adequate reason for an exception to this gen- eral rule. The attitude of the convention, was however, that the paper was prepared in a spirit of unfriendliness to the west. Those of us who have long regarded "The Lands of the Arid Region" as outlining a model land system for that region will be slow to accept this view. The whole career of the Director of the Geo- logical Survey is a continued refutation of that charge. Nor do I regard the influence of this paper as being injuri- ous to the west. The statement that the water supply is run- ning low will not dry up a single stream. If it is a conservative view it is only a fair offset to the exaggerated estimate in which the convention so freely indulged. As between the dangers of the two there is no question. Nothing is more needed than an adequate conception of the evils of over appropriation of streams. This applies to people living in the arid region, as well as to those who may become settlers or investors hereafter. The lack of proper preliminary investigation has already led to the absolute waste of thousands of dollars in the construction of ditches for which there was no water, and the unnecessary suffering and hardship of hundreds of settlers in the attempt to establish homes for which there is no support. As the head of an administrative department, which has to deal with water right controversies from one years end to an- other, I know how distressing are the losses and how bitter the controversies which grow out of the over appropriation of streams. Any one who calls attention to these things is worthy of commendation instead of censure. THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. The dangerous and insidious enemy of the settler, under irri- ga'ion, is the one who predicts an indefinite an unexplained in- crease in the present water supply and thus tempts settlers and investors to disregard or discount present conditions. ELWOOD MEAD. THE AGE has never been intolerant lte piain X ' of differing opinions. It has never Himself. f ea red to share its space with those wh ) wished to contend for convictions contrary to its own. The writer met Major Powell on the occa- sion of the Wichita convention, late in November, and had an opportunity to discuss the Los Angeles speech at length, and to explain to its author, in the serenity which pervades the smoking compartment of a Pullman sleeper after dinner, the grounds of the radical difference between the men of the Congress and himself. The circumstances of the latter meet- ing were plainly more favorable to calm discussion than was the floor of the convention on that turbulent afternoon, in the Grand Opera House at Los Angeles. The writer pointed out the offensive features of Major Powell's assertions, and received from him the explanation that his speech, when taken as a whole, would not bear the construction placed upon the sentences quoted; and furthermore, that when he had been assailed by stump speeches he replied in kind, rather than with the scientific statements which the convention was then in no mood to receive. The writer then invited the Major to prepare for THE AGE a scientific statement of the water supplies of the arid region, and to review, in connection with his article, papers on the same subject written by high authorities in the various States. This proposition was promptly accepted, and the results will be seen in a future issue. Several good results may be expected fiorxi Rexults to flow from this arrangement. In the first place if the views of Major Powell on the subject of water supplies and arid public lands are found to be practically in accord with those of the best authorities in the West and he predicts that such will be the case then we shall have an accepted standard from which to measure future possibilities. In the second place, we are sure to get the conserva- tive side of the matter, and that is of importance in winning the confidence of capital. In the third place, if Major Powell, and the thousands represented by their delegates at Los Angeles who have differed with him, can arrive at common conclusions, then this splen- didly equipped public servant will be brought into direct association with the majestic irrigation move- ment now sweeping through the West. The impor- tance of this latter result it would be difficult to over- estimate. For twenty-three years, with all the facili- ties which large public appropriations could command, Major Powell has been accumulating knowledge about the conditions of the arid West. During the first seven months of 1894, the people of seventeen States andTerritories,through the agency of the State Commis- sions, will be formulating the irrigation policies of the future. Now, if ever, is the time for them to avail themselves of the information gathered by the head of the Geological Survey. He has already appeared at the conventions in Kansas and Nebraska, and we have reason to believe he will accept an invitation from the National Executive Committee to appear at the series of meetings arranged for various States early in the year. If THE AGE can be instrumental in securing results so desirable as this, without sacrificing any of the principles which it holds to be vital, it will render a service of value to all concerned. .If Governor Waite has a place in history 'wild it will be as the John Brown of the silver Scheme. flght He - g of the game radical mo j d &g the hero of Harper's Ferry, but like that character his fame will be made or spoiled by events which fol- low his own rash acts. The exploit of John Brown was not more foolhardy than the course which the Governor of Colorado has followed in calling an extra session of his Legislature and seeking to provide for a mint and a currency independent of the Government at Washington. We do not doubt that Davis H. Waite is just as sincere as was John Brown, and that to his mind what he regards as the inevitable consequences of a single gold standard are just as revolting as was a system of human slavery to the soul of the mad Abo- litionist. Nevertheless, the radical course of the Governor fails to command public respect outside of Colorado, and, apparently, inside of it as well. At the present moment the sober prospect is that the Gover- nor will harm silver much more than he will help it by his pursuit of a course that is sure to bring ridicu- lous consequences, whether the Legislature accepts or refuses the proposition. If Governor Waite were determined to Colonists vs. have an extra session he might have Stiver. b a ged it upon an idea that would promise substantial results. While the people of Colorado are awaiting that improvement in the silver market which is sure to come, they might well be devoting their attention to another and greater industry agriculture and to a systematic and effective scheme of coloni- zation. Success in this direction would confer bene- fits upon their State quite equal to anything they would realize with the free coinage of silver. The more prosperous the mines of Colorado, the more prosperous will be the agricultural industry, but if that State had to choose between building 100 Greeleys or 100 Leadvilles during the next few years it would do well to build the Greeleys, because the latter would mean a far greater gain for civilization than the former. In saying this we do not depreciate the importance of the mines. The mining camp is the 6 THE IRRIGATION AGE. best home market, and Colorado's hope of future greatness rests upon her varied resources. But it seems very plain that this is the time for studious attention to her irrigation possibilities. In his speech at the World's Fair on Man- hattan Day, Chauncey M. Depew, speak- Deprw. j n g O f tne Dangers which confront New New York and Chicago, used these words: "The de- population of the country and the overcrowding of the city present to each municipality problems of em- "* HON. MARTIN MOHLER. Secretary of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture. ployment and support which unsolved are dangerous to peace and property, and whose solutioners are not yet in sight. The genius of the American people for government will meet and overcome these perils, but at present they confine the energies of municipalities within their own limits." Mr. Depew belongs to a class and to a section which does not know that in the States and Territories of the arid West there is peace and happiness for the surplus population which men- aces the prosperity of great eastern cities. He and his friends do not know the industrial history of Utah, of the Greeley colony in Colorado, of the irrigation belt of Southern California. Therefore they cannot realize how families can be more independent on small irri- gated farms than is he in his home on Madison ave- nue. The development of a civilization which will teach men to produce from their own acres, under scientific cultivation by means of irrigation, every- thing they consume, is the solution of the problem which alarms Mr. Depew. The freest men who ever walked the earth will live under the most charming social conditions that the human mind can conceive, where deserts now turn their blank faces to rainless skies. Nobody knows this better than the people of Colorado. Why are they not telling it to Mr. Depew and all the rest of their countrymen? The present year ought to be extremely Calamity . . . , . . . . .. in successful in bringing colonization to the Opportunity. West It is an historical fact that busi- ness depressions lend an impulse to the settlement of agricultural lands. An army of wholly or partially idle men, variously estimated at from 1,000,000 to 4,000,000, exists in this country to-day. Some of them have savings, but all of them must live somewhere and earn their bread by the sweat of their brows. Colo- rado has water and lands enough to support every one of them in reasonable luxury. She has the brains to map out an industrial scheme by which each pne of them, on a farm no larger than forty acres at the max- imum, could produce almost everything they consume, as well as a surplus for market. While we do not doubt the sincerity of Governor Waite in his present extraordinary course, it seems plain to us that he would accomplish more for his State and more for hu- manity if he had asked the Legislature, at its extra session, to provide means for opening to settlement homes for 1,000,000 people, and for putting into opera- tion the agencies which would attract this new popu- lation, and show them the means of prosperity when they had arrived. His reply to this suggestion would doubtless be that it is useless to ask men to raise more products from the soil to be sold at the depreciated prices which the gold standard imposes, but the reply is that human appetite for food has not depreciated with silver, and that the man who is in a position to feed and clothe his family from the results of his own industry is as in 'ependent as any who lives by clip- ping coupons from Government bonds. Popular sentiment is clearly setting in A Coming , ., ,. , ., Idaho the direction of the ownership by the Policy, people o f a ii public plants and franchises in Western America. The difficulties surrounding the adoption of this policy, where every avenue of business is already occupied by private enterprise, with large vested interests, are by no means as formi- dable in the virgin field presented, in the main, by Arid America. While the boundless and varied resources of the new and greater West will always offer extraordi- nary opportunities for individual enterprise, it is also a fact that nowhere else in the world is there so favor- able a ground for the out-working of what may be termed the Nationalist Idea. And it is bound to be tried. If it succeeds, it will thrive and grow; if it fails, it will disappear. At this moment Idaho, seems likely to play a leading part in this development. The movement there gains prominence from the fact that THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. it is advocated by Governor McConnell. THE] AGE has not been favored with a full report of his recent speeches, but apparently he favors the application of the District law of California in Idaho. He wants future canals built by the State and administered by the people of the several localities they serve. Whether he favors the condemnation of existing works is not quite clear. The Caldwell Tribune has been vigorously fighting the system of water rentals as something which imposes a form of tenantry upon settlers. The movement is developing formidable proportions and will be watched with interest. Idaho is a State with a grand future, and the men who are molding her institutions should fully realize their responsibility to posterity. The most interesting single movement The New now on f 00 t j n t^e West is the revival of Hope ^n the Semi-Arid irrigation hopes in the semi-arid region. Region. TMg ^^ be]t of fertile countr y extends from the northern limit of the Dakotas to the south- ern border of Texas, and lies between the ninety- seventh meridian and the foot-hills of the Rockies. It differs historically and physically from the arid re- gion proper. It was settled by men who did not believe in irrigation and did not dream that it was necessary to practice it in order to prosper on these "agricultural lands," as the Government called them. They have fought through years of hardship; in- dulged the delusive hope that the climate was about to change; bombarded the sky with explosives and wooed the clouds through the agency of mysterious chemicals and awe-inspiring machines with funnels. And now they come to the consideration of scientific irrigation, based on the utilization of such water sup- plies as nature has provided. This is the real hope of prosperity for the men of the semi-arid region, but it yet remains to be seen whether this is to be a serious, enduring movement, which will persist until actual results are achieved, or whether it will be merely a passing spasm like the irrigation enthusiasm which marked the history of Kansas and Nebraska in 1890. Although the water problem presents peculiar and perplexing phases, there is no question whatever about the future of the semi-arid region if it can have even a moderate degree of irrigation. There is ample ground for this hopeful note, so eloquently sounded by Secretary Martin Mohler, of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, in his address before the Agri- cultural Congress at the World's Fair: J Think of it! Here in the middle of the United States is a dis- trict of country 300 miles wide and 1,200 miles long, embracing an area from which may be carved six States, such as the great State of Illinois, and a district of country which, in fertility of soil in smoothness, and ease of cultivation, and in the invigo- rating aud health-restoring character of its climate, has no supe- rior in America or in the world. This great empire ought to be, and, in my judgment, will be, reclaimed and in time made into homes embellished with all the arts of civilized life. All that FRED L ALLE8. Secretary National Executive Committee. is necessary for this great achievement is to assist nature by the artificial application of water to the soil. It requires the proper manipulation of the water below the surface and the water on the surface, together with the water floating in the air, to per- form this work, and in this way the water from all available sources being brought into requisition, the thing will be done. Who dare say that the skill, genius and enterprise of the Amer- ican people is not equal to the task? Under the inspiration of such teachings TIVO Notable as this, the men of Kansas have gone to ConvenUons. and they have had recourse to that nursery of ideas the popular convention. The meeting of the State Irrigation Association, held at Wichita, November 23d and 24th, was a gathering notable for its serious and earnest character. Elsewhere in THE AGE there is an account of the ideas presented, but in this place it is proper to note the relation of the event to the general movement that is rapidly taking shape in the West. Irrigation in Kansas and in Wyoming for in- stance, present entirely different aspects. In the latter it is the hope of obtaining a population; in the former it is the hope of supporting a population already obtained. That is the economic difference. On the physical side, the one locality has quite abun- dant water supplies flowing upon the surface, while on the other hand Kansas, Nebraska and Texas require much patient investigation to determine the nature and extent of their supplies. These differences are quite vital, and yet the Kansas men keenly realize that they have much in common with the great arid empire to the west of them. They see that their hope 8 THE IRRIGATION AGE. of relief from national legislation lies in fche great organization set on foot at Los Angeles, and they are heartily co-operating with it. So also will the men of Nebraska, who assembled in a splendid convention at North Platte, December 19, and perfected plans for a systematic campaign. Most of the western railroads have been Railroads . . and the generous and persistent friends of Irrigation. } rr ig a ti n development. Of course their motive is selfish, for railroads exist for business rather than philanthropy. They realize that their future earnings will be measured by the number of new families who make homes along their lines, and that this in turn depends upon the number of acres re- claimed in their territory. The Union Pacific has been a very constant friend of those who are helping on the irrigation idea, and so also has the Sante Fe. The lines of both these railroads traverse arid wastes of tremendous proportions, the settlement of which would have a very pleasing effect upon their balance sheets. The Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska has been another ally of the cause. Some of its officials, in their private capacity, have gone be- yond simple moral support and invested largely in irrigation works in Kansas and Nebraska. The only exception observed among western roads is the Rock Island, one of whose representatives, at its head- quarters, in Chicago, is still fighting " irrigation non- sense " and insisting that any part of Kansas is suitable for farming without the artificial application of water. Whether this man is sincere or not will make little difference to the unfortunate settlers who may be deluded into the hopelessly arid portion of Kansas lying west of the 97th meridian. Years of heroism and hardship have demonstrated that without water that is a starvation belt. And it is little short of crim- inality to impose upon innocent purchasers a sort of land that must be paid for in children's hunger and women's tears. One of the most important developments Interest in. Small of the new year will be the renewed inter- ment*. egt j n gma ii individual irrigation plants throughout the arid region. This interest is now most prominently manifested in Kansas and Nebraska, where the chief dependence for water is upon under- ground supplies, but it is certain to extend through- out the West, as manufacturers of pumping machinery extend their knowledge of the requirements of the public. The trouble has been that these manufactur- ers have had only the most meagre appreciation of the field open to them in this direction and have expended neither money nor thought in preparing to meet the widespread demand. There was a good display of pumping machinery at the World's Fair, but a woful ignorance on the part of manufactu: ers of everything essential to the intelligent use of their appliances in A New the work of irrigation. They could not calculate either the cost or capacity of their plants as applied to specified situations. They had no notion of the amount of water required for the irrigation of differ- ent crops, or of the nature of the water resources to which their machinery must be applied. Elsewhere in this number of THE AGE Mr. B. A. McAllester, land commissioner of the Union Pacific Railroad, groups more interesting facts about windmill irriga- tion than we have ever seen before in one article. It answers a multitude of questions. Howard V. Hinckley, who was elected J ' consulting engineer of the Kansas Irri- g at j on Association at the Wichita con- vention November 23, is a native of Massachusetts. He graduated from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1876 and was admitted to membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1883. He entered the service of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1877 as draftsman, and after numerous promotions has for twelve years been in charge of the chief engineer's office of the en- tire system, at Topeka. In connection therewith he has been assigned such specialties as bridging, inter- locking, terminals and water supply. His experience in irrigation dates back to the Ws, when he helped build the first irrigating canal in Massachusetts, and thirty barrels of irrigated cranberries per acre (some of which sold as high as $44 a barrel) were raised, which resulted in the cranberry "boom," which has hardly yet died out in New England. In connection with his railroad service Mr. Hinckley has studied ir- rigation and water supply throughout the Western States and in Mexico and has been an extensive col- lector and reader of irrigation literature. He has ar- gued in favor of more extended irrigation before the American Society of Civil Engineers and elsewhere. Many compliments have been passed upon his success in enthusing the Great Bend (Kan.) convention last August. In September he addressed the Salina (Kan.) Inter-State Convention. At the Los Angeles Inter- national Congress he prepared and delivered the reports on permanent organization and the " Wright Law " inspection trip, both of which were unanimously adopted. At the Wichita (Kan.) State Convention (for which he did a large share of the preliminary work) his topic was: "In Arid Kansas and the Way Out." At every one of these conventions Mr. Hiuck- ley has called the attention of the States to the fact that the Government in its investigations has helped those States that had helped themselves, and that their first step should be to provide for their own irrigation departments. The following extract, from the Los Angeles address, is in Mr. Hinckley's own words: We advise eacli State which embraces any part of the arid domain, and which lias not already provided for irrigation su- pervision and engineering, to do so at its next legislative session and to vigorously prosecute the work of investigating the extent THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. to which further irrigation can be carried on with success and profit. A year ago he had a bill ready to put through the Kansas Legislature, but the three-party political mud- dle got so thick that he gave it up. Now, with inter- national, national, inter-State and State interests all awake, there is hardly any doubt that the Kansas Legislature will act next winter, and the friends of ir- rigation in Kansas propose that Mr. Hinckley shall then accept the State engineership. Texas alive to irriaa- There is a pronounced awakening in , . . . Texas on the subject of irrigation. tton. rj^g interesting article in this number of THE AGE by Robert J. Brown throws much light on some unique phases of the subject. More letters of inquiry are just now received at the office of this publication from Texas than from any other State. This is an unerring indication of the widespread and growing public interest in the subject. It is asserted that land lying near creeks and rivers has been reclaimed at a cost of $5 per acre, and is now worth an average of $40 per acre. It is also claimed that several hundred thousand acres are capable of reclam- ation by means of pumps, and that plants costing from $500 to $2,000 easily pay for themselves in a short time. The difference between a Texas drouth and a Texas season with abundant water is so great that it is believed even $20 an acre for reclamation is a very profitable investment. If the new year shall bring statehood to fhil e year. the Territories it will be a happy new year for them. And statehood should be given in precisely the same spirit that an enterpris- ing merchant displays his latest and choicest wares in his best show window. It is high time that Uncle Sam went to his storehouse, unloosed the territorial wrappings from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, and put their marvelous attractions on exhibition where the millions of people and millions of dollars looking for homes and investments could see them. A mis- taken notion exists in the eastern brain on the subject of what constitutes fitness for statehood. The popu- lar idea is that a certain number of people is the single requirement. On that theory Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont and some other insignificant eastern States should be reduced to Territories, while New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois should be par- titioned off into several new States. Did anybody ever inquire how many people there were in Massa- chusetts when statehood was conferred upon her? The matter of population is considered only with rela- tion to western Territories. In any true estimate of fit- ness for sovereignty actual population would be the last consideration, and capacity for development the first. The Territories each present a wonderful field for enterprise. They are capable of supporting vast WILLIAM H. ROWE. Fresident Bear Kiver (Utah) System. numbers of people and adding enormously to the na- tional wealth. The territorial form of government is the effective bar to the attainment of the very condi- tion which the eastern man prescribes as the one es- sential to statehood. Is it fair to tie a man's legs and then tell him he must beat the record as a sprinter? Is it fair to impose upon Arizona, New Mexico and Utah the political conditions which prohibit the rapid expansion of population and then tell them they must have a certain number of inhabitants before asking for statehood? It is alike a matter of business and of justice to admit the Territories to the circle of sov- ereign States without delay. South Within five years there will be an urgent J California demand for the making of another new Hopes. gtate in the We8t This call wiu be for the State of South California. The differences be- tween Northern and Central California, on one hand, and Southern California on the other, are fundamental. They never can be reconciled. One part of the State was born of the mining camp and the other of the irrigation canal. San Francisco and Los Angeles have each their individual charms and advantages, but they are the capitals of two civilizations. The great baro- nial estate is the type of one civilization, and the small irrigated farm of the other. One end of the State is full of the monuments and traditions of a race of greatly rich, and its counterpart, the miserably poor. The other end of the State has built an industrial sys- tem based on something like human equality, and 10 THE IRRIGATION AGE. its life-current flows through the irrigating canal. Southern California is already fit for statehood. Its seven counties are larger than Illinois or Iowa, and as large as Michigan. They are as large as the com- bined areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Delaware, Khode Island, New Jersey and Vermont, and of The Netherlands and Belgium in addition. These States and countries support 18,000,000 people. Southern California has to-day but 300,000. But its population, like its commercial importance, is rapidly growing. The best presentation of the claims of Southern Cali- fornia that we have seen was written by W. C. Fitz- sommons, the accomplished editor of the California Fruit Grower. One branch of western resources which Outlook . .. , , i in the has never been exploited, much less Oil Field. developed, as it deserves, is natural oil. Everybody admits the existence of large oil fields in Wyoming. Companies have been organized and have obtained control of large areas, yet develop- ment proceeds but slowly. Why? One of the lead- ers in the enterprise explains it by saying that there is one railroad alone which taps the fields, and that railroad is controlled by the Standard Oil Company. As a consequence, freight on Wyoming oil is placed at a prohibitory figure. We do not know if this is true, but it is a most reasonable explanation of the fact that these great resources lie unworked, while the State that nature endowed so richly is suffering for the capital and population that this development would bring. It is rather hard that a State should be held down in a growth that would add to the wealth of the whole people, in order that a little group of men, already multi-millionaires, should grow richer and continue to fix the price of a natural product of the earth. There appear to be hopeful oil prospects in Archuleta County, N. M., but they will encounter the same fatal obstacle if found valuable. Ripe oranges from the Salt River Val- lev of Arizona were received in Chicago previous to Thanksgiving. They were large, perfectly matured and of a rich, red color. They created a good deal of surprise, as the public has not yet learned to expect oranges from this source. The Phoenix papers state that the Arizona Improve- ment Company has 125 acres of trees now in good bearing and that the season has been entirely success- ful. The writer saw several new groves on both sides of the Salt River a year ago and is informed that in most instances the trees have done well. Phoenix people count heavily upon the successful culture of oranges as a factor in the rapid development of the surrounding country. They argue that if the fruit can be grown there land now selling for $50 an acre ought to rise at once to something like the Riverside and Redlands valuation which is frequently $250 to $500 per acre for raw land and $1,000 to $1,500 an acre sometimes even higher for groves in full bear- ing. In view of what has been accomplished by the Improvement Company these hopes do not seem ex- travagant. They should be qualified to the extent of saying that the limitations of the orange belt are not yet defined. It is hardly expected that citrus fruits can be grown successfully in every part of the valley, but it has apparently been proven that a citrus belt does exist and that land will be very valuable within its limits. The Arizona oranges will compete with the Florida rather than the California crop, being sev- eral weeks earlier in the market. Phoenix enjoyed a marked growth last winter and seems likely to gain another impulse this winter, in spite of the prevail- ing hard times. There is an element in the West that is The Boom , , . . . in Gold bound to be engaged in mining, no mat- Properties. ter wliat con( }itions prevail. Now that silver is no longer profitable these men turn to the pursuit of gold, and if gold should become unprofit- able they would turn to rubies and sapphires. The result of the depression in the silver industry is a new impulse to the chase for gold. As a consequence squads of prospectors are searching the mountains of Arid America for indications of the only metal that now measures the world's commodities in the view of bankers and statesmen. All the old camps show signs of revival, while in Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Arizona and New Mexico numerous new mines and districts are coming into prominence. Even the old, wornout placer grounds of the California Forty Niners are again patiently inspected. The result is certain to be a considerable addition to the total gold output. In Colorado, according to the Denver press, this new phase of the industry has already be- gun to excite high hopes of better times. New Mexico is also getting surprising results, if current accounts are reliable. Western Without doubt the hard times will lay Railroad a heavy hand on railroad construction in nustit?. the West. Economy to the utmost far- thing is the order of the day with railroads, whether in the hands of receivers or out of them. There are three new lines practically determined upon, the building of which would be a very great blessing to the arid region. They are (1) the road from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, (2) the road from Prescott to Phoenix, and (3) the road from San Diego to Phoenix. Some construction is now underway on the latter line. If all three could be built this year the result would be a most marvelous development of agricultural, mineral and commercial possibilities. The people of California are congratulating themselves on the suc- cessful efforts of the Traffic Association to secure cheaper transportation to the Atlantic seaboard for THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 11 their dried fruits. The reduction reported is sufficient to prove a material factor in the prosperity of the producers. Of all the railroads that might be built t 0t Raiiroad em P lo 7 tne idle laDOr of tne countrv to- day the most beneficent would be the line suggested between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Better than almost any existing line this would illustrate the high function of the railroad as an avenue for the exchange of products letween lo- calities of radically different capabilities. This road would open to the citrus fruits of Southern California the splendid markets of Utah, Idaho and Montana. It would furnish an outlet for agricultural and horticult- ural products, which the high altitudes raise with more success and profit than the expensive lands of the South, and it would encourage the budding manu- facturing industries of the inter-mountain States. Not only this, but it would open up to the miner the won- derful Deep Creek country of western Utah and east- ern Nevada, and awaken the slumbering agricultural possibilities in the central and southern portions of the latter State. And if San Diego rather than Los Angeles be made the western terminus, it would give the localities connected with it by this road the benefit of the grandest seaport on the Pacific coast. Further than this, the existence of such a direct line between the growing cities of the mountain regions and the growing cities of the far southwest would develop a surprising passenger traffic. Utah would then winter in California and California would summer in Utah the fairest land beneath the western sky! It is exas- perating to realize that this inevitable railroad of the future, with all its potentialities for good, must remain unbuilt for an indefinite period to the tremendous dis- advantage of the men of to-day. Nevada would be benefited more than aiuT again. anv other State bv 8uch a railroad, but Nevada is not basing its hopes of a re- vival of activities upon contingencies so remote aa that. From the time when Hon. Francis G. New- lands began to assume the place of leadership in that State the possibilities of reclamation and settlement have been steadily kept before the public. When he published his "Address to the People of Nevada," re- lating to storage and reservoir sites and irrigation systems, he started public thought in earnest in anew direction. The result is seen by the present activity of the Nevada State Commission, appointed by Gen. John E. Jones under the Los Angeles platform, and in the general discussion of the subject in the press. The renewed interest amounts to a genuine revival. What is needed now is a systematic scheme of colonization to attract people to Nevada. This will come. Gen. Jones and his colleagues have the daring ambition to locate the next irrigation congress at Carson or Reno and the claims of Nevada on this point will be fully presented in THE AGE at the proper time. Fair. The Midwinter fair at San Francisco will prove to be an event of very much more interest than the public at first ex- pected. While it will not duplicate the Chicago fair in any respect, it will still be worth a trip across the continent to see. And^the fact that it is unlike the great show of last summer will make it all the more worth seeing. The first reward of the trip will be that charming spectacle which too few Americans have seen California in winter. Any undertaking which induces our insular easterner to explore his country is praiseworthy. The site of the Midwinter fair is typical of the glories of the Pacific coast. Golden Gate Park is superior to Central and Fair- mount parks, in New York and Philadelphia, respect- ively, as mere landscape. The fair buildings are quite as beautiful in their way as those at Chicago, and within its limitations the exhibition will be com- plete. The Midway Plaisance will be there, but Chinatown is a more vivid and equally picturesque affair. Credit for the success of the San Francisco enterprise is due first to Director-General M. H. De Young and his newspaper, The Chronicle, and next to the Examiner, which has devoted money and energy to exploiting it with lavish generosity. "The A.(ie's" The new character of the IRRIGATION AGE as a comprehensive "journal of Features. Western America" is not fully repre- sented in this number, but the ideal will be approached by gradual steps. New departments soon to be added will be "Irrigation Engineering," by a practical man of reputation, "Irrigation Law" and "The Mining In- dustry." The latter will aim to present a better general review of the month's developments among the mines of the West than can be found elsewhere, although it will be in the form of a compact, well-digested state- ment of a few pages. The department on colonization will sketch the best efforts yet made in this field, with suggestions for new ones and information of progress. "Water Power and Electricity" will point out the op- portunities existing for this development and deal with the methods of utilization. And, let it be under- stood, the broadening process will in no way impair the value of THE AGE as the great exponent of irri- gation, but will serve rather to draw together all the elements that are working to develop a symmetrical industrial and social life in Arid America. A CREATION OF THE CALIFORNIA DISTRICT LAW. EDITORIAL STUDY OF THE TURLOCK-MODESTO WORKS. ON a certain morning late in October the author of the District law of California and the editor of the IRRIGATION AGE drove through the quiet streets of Modesto, the capital of Stanislaus county, Gal., just in time to see the sun rise over the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was a typical autumn morn- ing for that portion of the San Joaquin valley. The air was clear and crisp and the undulating plains, that stretched for indefinite distances to the north and south, suggested a sea of brown, dotted only at far intervals by green islands. These latter marked the homes of farmers who eke out a poor existence on a section each of as rich soil as the sun ever looked upon. The lawyer and the journalist had just come from the five days session of the International Irrigation Con- gress, where they had been studying the famous Cali- fornia statute, from an intellectual standpoint. They had now set out to study it as a practical thing in the precise locality whose necessities gave it birth. It was from this district that C. C. Wright went to the Legislature to fashion an idea into a law. It was here that those twin revolutions the small farm vs.the great farm, and public ownership of water vs. private control first raised the voice of protest against con- ditions which appeared to stand in the way of the progress of civilization in the heart of this wonderful valley. Coming, with senses sharpened from the recent de- bates at Los Angeles to the birthplace of the District system, these men entered with an enthusiasm that seems not unnatural upon their journey up the banks of the Tuolumne river to the works of the Turlock and Modesto districts. They felt that here, if anywhere, the operation of the law could be studied with fairness both to those who have hoped so much of it, and to the smaller but not less aggressive class who have predicted its failure and final destruction. II. TWO TYPICAL D1STBICTS. These two districts furnish a perfect illustration of the application of the law as originally conceived. It will be remembered that the Los Angeles platform distinctly disclaimed the theory of some enthusi- asts that the District law furnished the solution of all the problems involved in irrigation development. Mr. Wright made it equally plain in his speech, at the re- cent congress, that the system can deal successfully only with such lands as are held in private ownership. It must be perfectly understood that this law is aeapted to localities where irrigation is an after- thought rather than a condition of original settlement. In the great virgin deserts of the arid region recourse must be had to other systems, but in the numerous localities which lie along the borders of humid regions, near the Pacific Ocean, on the one side, and the Misssissippi valley, on the other, the District system is the most expedient. Those who believe the day is coming when irrigation will be rapidly ex- tended through the central and, possibly, the eastern States will see in this California experiment some- thing with far-reaching possibilities, for those older States will encounter, when their time comes, the same set of difficulties which faced the settlers of the San Joaquin valley a few years ago. AN UNFORTUNATE RAINFALL. The locality of the Turlock and Modesto districts has the misfortune to possess a fair rainfall. This circumstance is responsible for the fact that men have deluded themselves for years with the notion that ag- riculture could be prosperous without irrigation. Year after year they have learned ihe lesson that the richest soil and the warmest sunshine can produce nothing, except mortgages and poverty, without a sufficient amount of moisture. In their struggle for a liveli- hood they have reached out for more and more land, hoping to make up in quantity what they lacked in quality. As a result we see here a country where the average farm consists of 640 acres, and where practi- cally nothing is raised except wheat. When men cannot get a comfortable living from a section of land planted to one of the great staples, it is high time for reform. The evils of the one-crop country have reached the acute stage here. The farmer who receives, from the sale of a single crop, money enough to purchase the other necessities of life, can get along, although it is a wretched and unphilosophic plan at best. But the farmer who works under such conditions that he has no wheat when the price is high, and can get no price when he has plenty of wheat, is on the high road to ruin. That is the situation in the wheat-belt of the San Joaquin Valley, and it is much the same in the grain belt of the middle West and the cotton-belt of the South. AN INSTRUCTIVE COMPARISON. After years of disappointment the farmers living on both banks of the Tuolumne river learned this hard lesson. They compared their unhappy situation with the prosperous condition of farmers living in localities blessed with so little rain that nobody pretended to A CREATION OF THE CALIFORNIA DISTRICT LAW. 13 THE LA GRANGE DAM NEARLY COMPLETED, TUOLUMNE RIVER, CAL. deny the necessity of irrigation. They were annoyed to learn that ten acres of land scientifically cultivated by means of irrigation were actually worth more, for all the purposes of agriculture and horticulture, than a section of their land under dry farming. And when they remembered that nature had provided a noble river in their immediate neighborhood they instantly decided upon the nature of the reform they needed. OBSTACLES IN THE WAY. It was only when this point had been reached that the people realized that a new law must be devised to meet the necessities of their situation. They were confronted by the fact that a small minority of large land-holders would not patronize an irrigation canal because they preferred that the country should remain in its present state. Without the patronage of these large tracts of land no private enterprise would pay. They were also confronted by the fact that under the recognized principle of riparian rights they would be forbidden to divert the waters of the Tuolomne river o the outlying lands which it might be made to water. From this situation was born the "Wright law, which enabled a community, through the votes of a majority of its citizens, to condemn private rights and bond all the real estate within the limits of an organized dis- trict to raise means for the construction of irrigation works. Such was the problem and such its solution. PUBLIC GOOD ABOVE PRIVATE INTEREST. Those who have assailed the Wright law have generally done so without knowledge of the circum- stances from which it took its being, but some who were familiar with the facts have opposed it as an un- warranted invasion of private rights. On this latter point it is hopeless to expect general agreement. There are those who hold private interest above the public good. Men who hold that view will still con- tend, after the District system has wrought out its very highest results, that it was a crime to tax the property of any man for benefits which he did not de- sire and that it was nothing short of communism to take private property for public uses, even if justly paid for. It is the opinion of such men that the 14 THE IRRIGATION AGE. minority of large land owners should have been per- mitted to keep the majority of their fellow citizens in poverty, for all time, if they chose to block the pathway of progress. With this view the friends of the Wright law have no argument. They merely vote it down by force of superior numbers, and in so doing they repre- sent the spirit of our popular institutions, as they were understood by the fathers, when they framed the con- stitution. The underlying theory of the Wright law is that men, not acres, shall count in the making of laws and institutions. ITL THE IBRIGATION WORKS. The picturesque little town of La Grange, in the foothills of the mountains, is reached after a thirty-five mile drive over the rolling valley lands. La Grange has two distinctions. It is the scene of Bret Harte's tale, " The Luck of Roaring Camp," and it is the place where Hon. C. C. Wright first pitched his tent when he came out West to "grow up with the country." The school-house where he presided still stands upon the hill, and some of the leading citizens testify, that the author of the District law believed in corporal punishment in their school days. The murmur of the river pleasantly disturbs the silence of the sleeping hamlet, which is the western counterpart of that for- gotten village on the Merrimac which Whittier painted as "a cobwebbed nook of dreams." The canals skirt either bank of the river, at a higher level than La Grange, but the little town is the nearest settlement to the head works of the system. WITH THE MEN AT THE CAMP. The La Grange dam is reached by a climb of a mile and a half up the foothills. It occupies an advanta- geous point at the place where the large river emerges through a long and narrow canon and begins its de- scent into the valley. The camp at the dam was reached just as the large force of workmen were sitting down to dinner, and the writer desires to testify to the fact that these men live at as good a table as even a lawyer and newspaper man expect to find when they attend an Irrigation Congress. It was a pleasant sight to watch these scores of hearty men, sweeping like a cyclone through the substantial bill of fare. The only disheartening thought was that the thousands of unem- ployed in this country to-day are not being similarly fed while engaged in the construction of other irriga- tion works of this beneficent character. THE GREAT DAM. The La Grange dam, which serves as a work of diversion for the Turlock and Modesto districts in common, is one of the most solid and substantial pieces of construction in the West. The visitors are given every facility to examine the work and the methods employed upon it in company with the constructing engineer, William McKay. First, a word about the dimensions of the structure. Its extreme height is- 127}^ feet, its width at the base 84 feet, and its width eleven feet from the top, where the curve begins, 25 feet. The dam is built on a curve with a radius of 300 feet and an extreme length of 320 feet. The lower face has a slope of 4.67 feet in every ten feet, while the upper face is perpendicular. The dam was nearly completed when the writer was there and the remain- ing work was being pushed with all the speed con- sistent with safe construction. THE METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION. The visitors were shown the method of construction from beginning to end while it was in the actual process of operation. The face walls are built of ruble masonry, the large irregular blocks being laid in cement mortar of two parts sand to one of cement. The center of the dam is built of irregular blocks laid in beds of concrete, consisting of two parts of sand, one of cement and six of broken rock. It was interesting to watch the process. The blue trap rock is taken from the walls of the canon near at hand and crushed by machinery into pieces of about two inches in diameter, when it is thoroughly washed. It is then run through a revolving mixer and carried on the dam by elevated tramways. It is carefully tamped down, the large blocks laid in with crowbars, and the space then filled with concrete and broken rock. Taking a pick and striking portions of the concrete surface with their utmost strength, the visitors found that it was actually stronger than the rock itself. THE CANAL SYSTEM. The canals of the two districts receive their water by simple works at either side of the dam, the Modesto on the north and the Turlock on the south. The former has a capacity of 750 cubic feet per second and the latter of 1,500 feet. The modesto system will serve 80,564 acres of agricultural land and the Turlock 176,- 000 acres. In both cases the water will be carried by wooden flumes around the sharp sides of the canon to the point where the earthwork canals begin, but in the case of the Turlock system there is a pretty piece of tunnel work through the solid rock. The main canals are now completed over the larger portion of the two districts. There is yet considerable to do in putting the network of ditches in order for actual operation, however, but it could all be done in a very short time if money were promptly provided. The finished system will be one of the grandest works of irrigation on this continent. AN INSPIRING SCENE. It is impossible for a man of heart to stand upon the towering banks of the Tuolumne Canon and be- hold the sight before him without emotion. Deep in the bottom of the canon the river is roaring down the steep grade on its way to the valley and the sea. A little further up stands the massive stone dam, A CREATION OF THE CALIFORNIA DISTRICT LAW. 15 rising 110 feet and mortised into the solid rock. Leading out on either side of the picturesque gorge are the noble canals through which will soon flow the silver streams that will awake the valley lands to new industrial and economic possibilities. This is inspiring, but it is only when the beholder has real- ized another fact that the whole force of the scene sweeps in upon his imagination. This other fact is that these massive works, these graceful canals, were built by the people and for the people. They mort- gaged their homesteads that they might build and own forever the irrigation system which they had learned at last was essential to their prosperity. And so this creation of man's genius, industry and faith stands as a monument to the people. The original plans were made by Col. Mendall, but they have been altered in some respects. William McKay has been the efficient constructing engineer from the beginning. Harry Crowe has represented the Modesto district. R. W. Gorrell, of San Francisco, is the contractor on the dam. IV.-THE COMING TRANSFORMATION. The first result of the introduction of irrigation on the lands of the Turlock and Modesto districts will be the division of large farms into small ones. It has already been stated that the present average is 640 acres. There are many farms, however, comprising as large an area as two or three sections. The average farmer cannot operate a large farm profitably under irrigation. What the new unit will be at first it is difficult to say. Perhaps it will be as large as 160 acres, as the average farmer feels equal to the cultiva- tion of a quarter section. But with the gradual ad- vance of scientific cultivation, and the growing press- ure of population, the farm unit will gradually lessen until it gets down to an average of forty or twenty acres, an area on which a man can be perfectly inde- pendent of the outside world in the genial climate of the San Joaquin valley. TRANSFORMING AN INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM. After the division of farms the most interesting feature of the coming transformation will be the change in the industrial system on these lands. This is now almost exclusively a wheat country. With irri- gation it will become a country of diversified crops. All the vegetables, all small fruits, all the deciduous fruits and perhaps the citrus fruits, in certain localities, will be produced by scientific cultivation and irrigation. There is no question whatever but what intelligent farming will produce upon twenty acres the variety of products which a family will consume, and a sufficient surplus for exchange at the grocery store for such things as the climate forbids, together with something for the savings bank. It is a very pleasant prospect to which farmers of the Turlock and the Modesto dis- tricts are looking forward in these tranquil winter days. THE VERY LANDSCAPE WILL CHANGE. Instead of the indefinite stretches of grain fields, on which the word "poverty" is written in too legible letters, we shall soon see on both sides of the pictur- esque Tuolumne closely settled neighborhoods of pros- perous small farms. Each one will have its garden patch and its orchards, and, in front of every home, roses and pansies will nod to the passing stranger. All the way up the valley, from the railroad to the foot- hills, the landscape will speak eloquently of the ad- vantages of irrigation. The day of the great land- holder will be a thing of the past, and the day when men live on terms of equality will have come. If hard times should continue for half a century there would be no suffering among the proprietors of these small, diversified farms. The soil is good, the sunshine per- ennial. With water in the ditch no condition of pros- perity is lacking, provided the farmer shall make it his first business to produce from his acres the necessi- ties of existence. The picture that will be presented to the eye of the casual stranger will be very differ- ent from that which lay under the moonlight on the October night when Mr. Wright and his companion drove down from the foothills on the occasion here described. It will be a scene of even and unvarying prosperity, that condition which holds the promise of the only true happiness for men. THE VALUE OF THE BONDS. But one thing remains to be said. This is a refer- ence to the value of the bonds issued by those two districts. The Turlock district has issued bonds to the amount of $1,200,000, and the Modesto to the amount of $800,000. In the case of the former these cover 176,000 acres, and of the latter 80,564 acres, These represent a mortgage upon the water supply, the great diversion dam, all the canals and other agencies of distribution; upon every acre of farming lands ($10 per acre), every town lot, every business block, every dwelling in all the communities com- prised within the boundaries of these districts. They take precedence of all other debts, mortgage or other- wise. Could any security be stronger? Not only the real values, but all the productive energies of these communities is sacredly pledged for the fulfillment of these obligations. The law \ipon which these bonds are founded has passed successfully through the lower courts, as well as the supreme tribunal of California. It remains only to be tested in the Supreme Court of the United States, and there its triumph seems certain. This verdict secured, and the massive works of the Turlock and Modesto districts will stand as enduring monuments to C. C. Wright and the men of California who sent him to the Legis- lature, and then carried out the provisions of the law which his genius and courage wrote upon the statute books. THE ART OF IRRIGATION. STUDIED WITH REFERENCE TO VARIOUS SOILS, CROPS AND CLIMATES. BY T. 8. VAN DYKE. [The strongest single feature of THE IRRIGATION AGE for 1894 will be the exhaustive study of irrigation methods by Mr. Van Dyke, begun in the following pages. It is now nearly a year since the author entered into an agreement to produce these papers for serial presentation, to be followed by publication in book form and to appear as the initial volume of " The Irrigation Library," a group of volumes projected by the pub- lishers of THE AGE. Mr. Van Dyke, in "The Art of Irrigation," will deal with the subject in its relation to various soils, crops and climates and will fully present the good and the bad points of all known irrigation methods. The demand for a standard work of this character has never been adequately met until now. The work is copyrighted and can only be obtained by regular readers of this journal. It will be attractively illustrated when opportunity offers. EDITOR.] [Copyright 1893. All Eights Keserved.] CHAPTER I. IRRIGATION AN ART THAT MUST BE LEARNED DIFFICULTIES THAT BESET ONE TRYING TO WORK OUT His OWN EXPERIENCE Too MUCH OR Too LITTLE WATER. THAT perversity of human nature that leads us to take hold of so many new subjects by the wrong end seems to rejoice especially in misleading the be- ginner in irrigation. And there are many ways in which it works. It may so discourage him at the out- set that he thinks his land is not adapted for irriga- tion, or that it injures the quality of produce, or that it does not pay the labor and annoyance, or that irri- gation is at best but a wretched substitute for rain, and any country where it is necessary is a good coun- try to vacate. On the other hand this perversity may mislead him into thinking he is accomplishing won- ders when he is really losing money by the day. He may point to his trees with pride and honestly think Providence never- permitted elsewhere such vines as his. And yet, though they look well and are appar- ently yielding well, they may be doing only half or even one-third of what they should be. They may also be suffering from wrong treatment in a way that shows no immediate results yet in a few years may make them worthless. One may also be injuring the laud in various ways without suspecting it, and about the time he has lost considerable money may conclude that irrigation is a heartless hoax. As a rule any irri- gation beats no irrigation. But there is no man who can afford to do bad work where he can as well do good; and nowhere does this apply with such force as in artificial watering of the soil on any extended scale. Nothing is more silly than trying to work out your own experience when some one else has done it for you. Especially is this true of a subject that is so certain to lay snares in the path of the beginner and keep him entangled in them so long as irrigation. The first way to avoid the wrong track is to consider the reasons why vegetation needs water. This seems easy. It is easy when you think about it. But it is one of those things that few think about. Vegetation requires water: First. To enable it to feed. Unless the soil is suffi- ciently moist the fine roots cannot extract those chem- icals which are essential to the growth of the plant. Second. To furnish the sap and the water in the fruit, whatever it may be. Third. To evaporate, or, rather, perspire. The two first are included in the last, for if the ground is moist enough to give the plant all the water it needs to evaporate there is enough for the other two purposes. The amount of water required for the two first is a mere trifle compared with what the plant evaporates. A plant, when working heavily, especially in hot weather and a dry air, like a man working hard, is throwing off a vast amount of water from its pores. You may get an idea of the amount of this by bringing the branch of a growing tree or vine into a window. Run it into a perfectly dry glass jar and seal it up. Then chill the outside of the jar with cold wet cloths. If the tree is growing well the inside of the glass will cloud over with moisture in a very few minutes. A man may accustom himself to working heavily with very little water, though in hot weather he would be the better for plenty of good water to per- spire, but a plant cannot dispense with it, and unless fully supplied will fail in its work. This failure is generally partial, and may show itself in many ways. The only one I shall mention here, because it is enough, is the uniformity of the product. Let us take as an example an eastern apple orchard when it has what is there called a "good crop." The tree looks well, is well laden, the apples seem fair to the eye and are of good size. That is, every- THE ART OF IRRIGATION. 17 thing seems all right to one who has never seen anything better. But a man used to buying fruit on the trees, like most of the buyers in California, would not make an offer on it. You might think his notions were high, yet, when we come to pick the crop about one-third only, is fit for market, of which third not over one-half is of first grade. Of the remaining two-thirds the greater part is fit only for the cider press, while the rest goes to the pig pen. Of course a good many of the low grade apples are sent to market along with the rest, but as they go only toward helping pay the expenses, and often fail to do that, they can be counted only as fit for cider. Nearly all the profit is in the first grade, and the percentage of this is very light. The failure of this tree to do full duty has prob- ably several causes, but one of the main ones was a lack of sufficient water to evaporate at the right time. The orchard had not been plowed for an age, and the hard ground shed too much of the short dash- ing rains of summer, and did not absorb enough. Of the amount that did enter the ground the thick sod and weeds perspired away much that the tree should have had. Just at the time, too, when the weather was the hottest, the air the driest, and the days the longest, the rain held off several days or weeks too long, and this trick it may have played several times. Consequently, though the ground may have been moist enough to enable the roots to extract the chem- icals from the soil, and enough to keep up the sap and the water in the fruit, it could not give the tree enough to perspire. Transpire is the scientific term, but perspire is more correct. The tree may have needed fertilizing, and undoubtedly the ground needed aerating, but no amount of these would have taken the place of plenty of water to keep all the pores of the leaves going at the right times. If you figure the leaf surface of a large tree you will find it very great, and though it might do pretty well and look all right the running out of the crop into a large per- centage of low grade is inevitable unless the demands of these pores are complied with. Nowhere is this so well shown as in the contrast between a young tree and an old one. A young tree perspires apparently as much in proportion to its size as an old one. Its roots should also cover as much proportionate space. Yet it is cer- tain that a young tree may have nearly all of its fruit large and perfect, while an old tree of the same sort in full bearing, standing near it and having exactly the same treatment and conditions, may be loaded with fruit of which not a specimen is eatable. Many a self-made sage has by the work of a young tree been fooled into the belief that his land did not need irrigation. The county of San Diego, Cal., has been set back ten years by a lot of antiques who could not heed the warning that others had been deceived in the same way. Though the proof lay within a hundred miles of their noses, they were too wise to go to see if any one else had ever been fooled by the same discovery. The failure to keep up this supply of water for perspiration at exactly the right times may mean so many dollars an hour out, of one's pocket without his suspecting it. It is the principal reason why the best orchards of the Atlantic coast yield so little high-grade fruit in comparison with the well-irrigated orchards of the far West and is the reason why the East must irrigate as well as the West and will do so in thousands of places before this book is forgotten. The rain is everywhere too treacherous to furnish at the proper time the water the trees must have. It may average up all right, but that is not enough. The control of the water is what is needed and in this lies the great advantage of irrigation over rain. Two weeks too long of dry weather may shrink your purse enough to pay for your entire irrigating plant if you have high- grade crops. And this same principle applies with more or less force to all crops. Some are of such low value that it may not pay to water them, but in the long run will do as well to let them take their chances on the rainfall. No rules can be given for determin- ing that, for it will depend on the cost of water and its application in the particular case. Having fully realized the amount of water vegeta- tion needs and why it needs it, and that it is one of those things that, when needed at all, is needed very much, the next step is to understand fully the evils of too much water, or even a proper amount of water at the wrong times. Farther on we shall see these more in detail, but here we will glance at only two of them. First, for good results the ground needs aerating. Any work on agricultural chemistry will tell you why but you need not go to books for the proof of it. You see it plainly in subsoil which is often just as rich as top soil but will yield little until it has been turned up for a year or two to the air and sun. The farmers used to call it " sour." It contains all the elements of fertility, but the air must penetrate it to get them into available form for the plant to assimilate. The same is true of the top soil though the contrast be less striking. The formation or nitrates and the change of phosphates into forms that can be readily assimilated by the roots, with other processes of pre- paring plant food, are going on all the time, and the presence of air in the soil is essential to them. And this air must be constantly fresh or as nearly so as possible. This is proven by the difference between orchards in California irrigated in the old style with- out cultivation and those where the watering is fol- lowed by constant stirring of the soil. The difference is far too great to be explained by the retention of moisture by the mulch thus formed. The soil can be kept wet enough in other ways but the more you do 18 THE IRRIGATION AGE. so without letting in the air, the farther you come from the best results. Mulches of various other kinds that retain moisture perfectly have been tried but they fall far short of the effects of stirring the soil. The second evil, of too much water, that I shall no- tice here is reducing too much the temperature of the ground. Every product has its own special tempera- ture, at which it will do best. Peas and turnips will do best in a soil too cool for good corn or melons. But most everything needs the soil somewhat warmer than the average temperature of rain and warmer than the water of many ditches generally is. Water from either source generally lowers the temperature at first, and it is not until the sun has raised it again that things begin to grow well. If. therefore, too much water is used, it tends to prevent aeration of the ground and thus keeps it " sour," and it may hold down the temperature too much and check the work of the warm sun. There are other bad effects, to be noticed hereafter, but these two are enough to satisfy you that good irriga- tion means neither too much nor too little water, but just the right quantity, applied at just the right time. When one has done this you will never hear him talk- ing about irrigated fruit being deficient in flavor. Such talk is now a badge of ignorance. Too much water is bad, and it matters not whether it comes from the clouds, direct, or through the medium of a ditch, but the right quantity at the right times will give the best results with anything that is grown in the soil. Into one or the other of these errors you are quite sure to fall if you have a chance. If you have a small supply of water you are quite certain to flatter your- self that things are doing finely when in fact they are merely marking time instead of marching. Especially is this the case where you buy it by the thousand gallons, another grand discovery made by the sages of San Diego to hold back a country. It is like buy- ing hay for your horse at so much a straw; as surely as you do it so surely shall you flatter yourself every day that that horse is keeping remarkably fat and can just as well get along with another straw or two less. Reverse, now, the conditions and give you all the water you can run and, marvellous the change. You can now beat any Indian in wasting water. You will go far to the other extreme. The more loudly you boasted before of how little water things needed the more you will now pour on when it is not needed. You will be especially delighted to find how simple it is when the ground begins to bake from one overdose to pour on another instead of perspiring behind an odious cultivator. The fact that this discovery is as old as the hills and has held back for years every country where it has been done you will probably be as slow in learning as were the people of San Diego in learning that any one else had ever been fooled by the work of young trees into believing that their land needed no water. (To be continued.) IRRIGATION BY THE USE OF WINDMILLS. BY B. A. MCALLESTER, LAND COMMISSIONER OP THE UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY. AT the Interstate Irrigation convention held at Salina, Kan., on September 28, 1893, my at- tention was particularly drawn to the subject of pumping water for irrigation by means of windmill pumps. Several gentlemen were present from Garden City, Kan., who detailed, in a very interesting way the results obtained in their locality by this means. Shortly afterward, in conversation with a gentleman from Julesburg, Colo., I learned that one or two farms were being irrigated in the same manner in the vi- cinity of Julesburg. A RAILROAD GATHERS PACTS. It then became a matter of curiosity to ascertain the extent to which this irrigation, by pumping, has been practiced throughout the country, and I prepared and sent to each of our station agents and land agents in Nebraska, west of North Platte; Kansas, west of Wa- Keeney; Wyoming, east and south of Cheyenne, and all of our agents in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, a circular letter asking the names and addresses of any individuals whom they might know were pumping water for irrigation purposes. In response to these letters I secured in the neighborhood of two hundred names of parties located in western Nebraska, southeastern Wyoming, northeastern and east-central Colorado, and western Kansas. To each one of those parties I sent a letter asking the locality of their lands, number of acres irrigated, power used, whether wind or steam, cost of plant and cost per year of operation; depth and diameter of well, depth of water, whether or not the well could be pumped dry; diameter of stream coming from the pump, capacity of pump in gallons per hour, average length of time per year of running the pump, and area and depth of reservoir. A large number of these letters have been returned with full and complete answers to the questions asked and in many instances accompanied by enthusiastic letters advocating this method of irrigation. QUIZZING THE WIND-MILL MAKERS. While awaiting replies to these letters to the indi- vidual farmers, I submitted to one of the prominent wind-engine pump companies a series of questions as IRRIGATION BY THE USE OF WINDMILLS. 19 to the capacity, cost, etc., of wind-mills and pumps. From the pump company I learned that one horse power will raise a 5-inch column of water 100 feet; a 6-inch column seventy feet, and an 8-inch column forty feet; additional horse power will elevate the water in direct proportion. A 10-foot mill will de- velop one-half of one horse power; a 12-foot mill three-fourths horse power; a 14-foot mill two horse power, and each additional two feet in diameter of mill develops practically an additional horse power up to a 30-foot mill which develops eight horse power. The cost of the mills range from $40 for the smallest size up to $400 for the largest. In response to an inquiry as to the estimated num- ber of days a wind-mill will run during the year, the company replies as follows: "It depends on locality. Here in Illinois total output one-third or eight hours per day. Kansas and Nebraska will average^double this amount." I think the estimated average for Kansas and Nebraska, as compared with Illinois, will be accepted without question. I further ascertained from the pump company that a 5-inch pump geared to run forty-eight 8-inch strokes per second will discharge 1860 gallons of water per hour; a 6-inch pump geared in the same way will dis- charge 2,760 gallons per hour, and an 8-inch pump will discharge 4,860 gallons per hour. THE DTJTY OP WATER. From the printed report of the Colorado State Agricultural College at Fort Collins, Colo., I learned that the duty of water, as determined by actual measurement is one cubic foot per second running continuously for sixty to sixty-five acres of ground. This during the month of June when the greatest amount of water is needed for irrigation. During the entire irrigation season one cubic foot per second, if reservoired, is sufficient for 175 to 300 acres. The same report shows that by actual measurement the amount of water required for various crops ranges from 1.67 feet to 2.53 feet in depth. That is, if the en- tire amount of water necessary for the perfect irri- gation of the land was applied to the land at one time, it would be necessary to cover the ground to the depth named, according to the crop to be irrigated. The report shows also that this measured depth _in- cludes the measured rainfall during the same season. For the purpose of estimates given in this paper, I will assume that the average depth required for crops is two feet. WHAT A WINDMILL WILL DO. From the statements made by the pump company as to the capacity of a pump, I learn that a 5-inch pump will discharge 1,860 gallons of water per hour. This is thirty-one gallons per minute or five-tenths gallons per second, and is equal to .06% cubic feet per second. On the Colorado basis as before given, a stream running .06% cubic feet per second would irri- gate about six acres of land; but the pump is only estimated to run about one third of the time, conse- quently one-third of the water would be secured and about two acres could be irrigated direct fram the pump. I have a large number of reports from farmers who apparently put in their wind-mills originally for the sole purpose of securing water for stock, but have since been successfully irrigating orchards, garden patches, etc., from the surplus water without making any attempt to reservoir it. These reports show that such surplus water is sufficient to irrigate from one to three acres of land. RESERVOIR POSSIBILITIES. Now suppose a farmer expends a few dollars in constructing a reservoir 100 feet square by four feet deep, what would be the result? Such a reservoir will contain 40,000 cubic feet, or about 300,000 gallons of water, a 5-inch pump discharging 1,860 gallons of water per hour, will in one-third of a day, or eight hours, discharge 14,880 gallons. In twenty days of eight hours each (this is assuming that the wind-mill runs one-third of the time) 297,600 gallons of water will be secured, practically filling our 300,000 gallon reservoir. During the six months from April to Sep- tember inclusive, there are nine periods of twenty days each, therefore the reservoir can be emptied and filled nine times during the six months, result- ing in an aggregate of 2,700,000 gallons of water for irrigation purposes, equal to 360,000 cubic feet. IRRIGATION AND RAINFALL. The report of the Kansas State Board of Agricult- ure, for last year, shows that at Wallace, Kan., during the six months from April to September, the rainfall aggregated over fifteen inches. We have before found that an average of two feet in depth, including the rainfall, is required for practical irrigation; or in other words, two cubic feet of water per square foot of land. An acre of land contains 43,560 square feet, therefore, to irrigate one acre of land requires 87,120 cubic feet of water; of this | or % may be estimated as being the rainfall, leaving % to be supplied from the reservoir. Therefore to irrigate one acre of land, during the season, requires 32,670 cubic feet of water; but our pump and reservoir will supply, during the season, 360,000 cubic feet or water enough to irrigate about eleven acres. THINGS ACTUALLY DONE. Now, we have seen what in theory ought to be' accomplished with a pump and reservoir of the ca- pacity named, let us see what our farmer's reports show as actually being accomplished. John Simon, of Garden City, Kan., reports a wind-mill pumping a 5 inch stream of water into a reservoir 100 feet square 20 THE IRRIGATION AGE. by four feet deep, raising the water twelve to fifteen feet and irrigating ten to fifteen acres; the entire cost of his plant was $140, with practically no outlay for operating expenses. J. F. Monson, of Julesburg, Colo., reports that he is irrigating eight to ten acres with two wind-mills raising a 8-inch stream of water twenty feet into a reservoir eighty feet in diameter and four and one-half feet deep. The cost of his plant was $225. J. L. Diesem, of Garden City, Kan., is irrigating fifteen acres from a well thirteen feet deep, by means of a pump throwing 6,000 gallons per hour into a reservoir 140 feet by 153 feet and four and one-half feet deep. His plant cost $350. Examples of these results might be multiplied indefinitely; but enough have been given to show that theory and prac- tice bear one another out, and that, at a comparatively moderate cost, it is eminently practicable to irrigate ten to fifteen acres of land by means of a wind-mill pump. DEPTH OF WELLS. Another important question to be considered in this connection is the depth from which water can be suc- cessfully pumped by wind-mills for irrigation. Theo- retically a five-inch column of water can be raised 100 feet for each horse power developed by the wind-mill. The Pump Company states that the practical limit of raising water is about 200 or 250 feet. Among the reports which I have received from the farmers I have a number of instances where the water is being pumped from considerable depths. Among them J. C. Houser, of Grainfield, Kan., is pumping from a well 56 feet deep. S. K. Wine, of Menlo, Kan., is pumping from a well 130 feet deep. S. T. Percell, of Grainfield, Kan., is pumping from a well 140 feet deep. Four wells at Weskan, Kan., are respectively 135 feet, 153 feet, 160 feet and 140 feet in depth. This shows that it is practicable to raise the water from a considerable depth below the surface of the ground. INDEPENDENCE ON FEW ACRES. It is my opinion that the future irrigation of the plains country is to be largely carried on by means of wind-mill pumps. Each farmer can, independent of his neighbors, or of any irrigation company, and at a cost not exceeding $250, irrigate from ten to fifteen acres of his quarter section, and ten to fifteen acres properly irrigated and carefully cultivated is as much as any man ought to undertake to cultivate under irri- gation. On this irrigated ground he can rai.-e those crops which will brin.: in the best financial returns, and can thereby insure himself and his family suf- ficient income to more than support them independ- ent of the fluctuations of the natural raiui'all. On the remaining portion of his 160 acres he cau raise, by dry farming, the same crops in character and amount as he is now getting, and two years out of three he is bound to get magnificent crops from the non-irrigated land. EFFECT UPON CLIMATE. I am further convinced that if ten acres out of each quarter section of the plains country were irrigated the resultant evaporation from the necessary reser- voirs, and from the irrigated land, would so disturb the existing climatic conditions that the long droughts which are now liable to be experienced would be per- manently broken up, and that the average annual rainfall instead of coming at infrequent periods and in heavy driving storms, always causing more or less damage, would be obtained at frequent intervals and in the shape of gentle rains which would do the great- est amount of good. The result would be that from the non-irrigated land would be obtained each and every year fully as good crops as were obtained in western Kansas and Nebraska in 1891 and 1892. OREGON'S PLEA FOR POPULATION. What rapid immigration could do for Oregon was illustrated by Mr. F. J. Atwoo !, of Omaha, who was interviewed by a Portland Telegram reporter re- cently: "If you could only start such an influx of people to Oregon as came to Nebraska between 1883 and 1888 you would soon have 1,400,000 people here instead of 400,000. I well remember when Nebraska did not have over 250,000 inhabitants, and we thought we were doing very well. Suddenly a wave of immigra- tion seemed to roll in upon us, and our barren prairies became subdivided into farms, villages were started at every crossroad, small towns became cities, and railroads were built in all directions. This kept up until we reached and passed the million limit, and had not drouths and hard times come on in another wave we would now boast over 2,000,000 population. "My point is this: Oregon is way ahead of Nebraska in resources, variety of products and diversity of cli- mate. Where Nebraska supports one man in credita- ble shape, Oregon can support two. The valley of your big river, watered by abundant rains, and East- ern Oregon, made to blossom by irrigation, have a capacity of holding, without crowding, 5,000,010 peo- ple. All you require is to get myriads of farmers in the central West and East to appreciate the opportu nity here, and they will come. But one thing more: There should be ready an abundance of reliable infor- mation, regulated by State statutes, telling them where they can get good homes and make an honest living. I speak frankly when I say that more injury has been done by men coming back to Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa, who were sadly disappointed, and inhospitably received, than by any other influence." THE UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY OF TEXAS. BY ROBERT J. BROWN. r I ^EXAS is a country peculiar to itself in the char- I acter of its climate, and particularly is it pecul- iar in regard to the natural irrigation of its soil. It is doubtful if there is another country in the world with less humidity in the atmosphere, with less frequent rains and yet with a soil so fertile and so well watered by nature. Hundreds of rivers flow through the State, and many rise from the ground, sparkle down the valleys for a few, or for many miles, and dis- appear without finding an outlet either into any neighboring stream or into the sea. Rivers which spring full grown from the bosom of the earth are not uncommon here, and to have them sink from sight as suddenly and as completely "as if swallowed up by the earth" would seem a natural exit after so impetu- ous an entry upon the scene. PECULIAR TEXAS STREAMS. A glance at any good map of Texas will show a number of these strange rivers, which rise as other rivers do, but never find an outlet. It takes but a moment's thought to show that where these streams thus sink into the earth, they must continue their course under the surface, and in many instances seem- ingly detached streams are but continuations of others which have sunk from sight in higher ground, perhaps scores of miles away. Such in truth is the case, and scientific investigation has developed the fact that many portions of the State have at vary- ing depths, vast systems of underground rivers, inter- lacing into a network which forms a natural water supply unequaled and practically inexhaustible. There are immense tracts of country in Texas which are veritable deserts because of lack of water, but millions of acres of this same desert land will be re- claimed through the means of these underground rivers. The soil of Texas stands drouth better than that of any other State in the Union, a fact which some explain on the theory that a continuous system of almost insensible sub-irrigation exists on account of the large underlying streams of water. WIIAT THESE RIVERS WILL DO. A magazine of the nature of THE IRRIGATION.AGE, so thoroughly covering this interesting field, cannot fail to find much of importance to its readers in the peculiarities of the Texas water supply. They have already been informed of the possibilities of reclaim- ing the millions of acres now burning beneath the semi-tropic sun of Trans- Pecos, Tex., and the project now under discussion, looking to the construction of storage reservoirs in that locality by the State. In re- gard to the utilization of the underground waters of the State, however, and the progress which has been already made in that direction there yet remains a rich field for their information. It is a well known fact that the fountain-head must be higher than the mouth of the well, or no artesian well can be expected to flow. At first glance it would seem that Texas is indeed a most unfortunate State. Large tracts of land, bewildering in their extent, are found so utterly devoid of all apparent water supply, that even the known richness of the parched soil and the undoubted presence of valuable mineral deposits seem but a mockery, by the impossibility of utilizing them under existing conditions, but investigation has shown that nature has not by any means been so un- kind as would seem. The State geologist, in his dis- cussion of the water conditions of Texas, divides the State into three divisions called " The Gulf Slope," "The Central Basin" and the "Western Mountain Sys- tem." THE GULF SLOPE. In many respects the first named division is similar in character to that of neighboring States on the east, but with that resemblance, it retains the Texas pecul- iarity of dry climate and underground water supply. It was at one time, for the most part, all embraced within the bed of that vast pre-historic ocean, which time has seen so diminished in dimensions, and which we now call the Gulf of Mexico. The deposits re- ceived from that ocean gave to the section not only a rich soil, but a series of geologic formations most favorable for the natural underground storage of water and the easy utilization of the supply. These facts are already demonstrated by the existence of success- ful wells in hundreds of places in the district. The conditions for successful artesian wells are excellent. Large surfaces naturally disposed for catching the heavy periodical rainfalls, and the nec- essary formations for carrying them to lower lying land and delivering them at the surface in response to the demand of intelligence and science. The wells of Austin, San Antonio, Waco, Dallas and Ft. Worth are included in this district. THE CENTRAL BASIN. The "Central Basin" region shows a gradual slope toward the west and is bordered on the north by the Wichita mountains in the Indian Territory and on the west by the Guadaloupe Mountains, in El Paso County, while in its western embrace is found a section of the "Staked Plain," a portion of that old time horror of the west, "The Great American Desert." There is 22 THE IRRIGATION AGE. every reason to believe that the artesian supply of this locality will be all that could be asked, for though not yet demonstrated by practical experiment, as is the Fig 1. DIAGRAMS SHOWING THREE PROPOSED DAMS. case in older sections, the conditions are reported, by State Geologist Dumble, to be not unfavorable. THE WESTERN MOUNTAIN SYSTEM. The Western Mountain System embraces the dry plains of the west and the "Trans-Pecos" country already brought to the attention of our readers. This for the most part consists of numerous mountains and detached peaks surrounded by slightly undulating plains. That underneath many portions of this section lie water supplies filtered down from the mountains further west is a fact be- yond dispute. The natural conditions are favorable, and in fact, the Texas Pacific Railroad and the Southern Pacific have both sunk wells there which are in every way satisfactory. Even if this were not so, the facilities for the construction of storage reservoirs have already been shown to be very encourag- ing and such is also the case in other sections. Where it is true that artesian condi- tions are unfavorable, or that the supply will be weak or inadequate, the topography of the country is such, in almost every instance, that dams and reservoirs can be cheaply and easily con- structed. At this point the attention may properly be turned to the Colorado coal field dis- trict, where the most recent investigations have been made by the State geologi- cal survey, for Jhere it seems to be an established fact that irrigation by means of art- esian wells cannot to any ex- tent be depended upon and at the same time there is every necessary advantage in favor of the successful construction of reservoirs and the storage of water. THE PROPOSED DAMS. In treating of this subject the geologist recommends dams according to the ac- companying easily under- stood plans, the materials for which are easily access- ible either in stone, clay or timber, the clays of this section being especially abundant. The first plan is for a stone dam and is easily understood as is also the second, which is of clay and is a popular design, and already largely used. The third is of wood and is evi- THE UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY OF TEXAS. 23 dently of a temporary character. The chief care in the construction of these and in fact all dams is to have not only the dams themselves made water tight, but the banks on all sides protected so that all leaks and seepage may be prevented. The city of Austin, which has just invested $1,500,000, in a dam across the Colorado river, has had a most expensive lesson in this respect. The great dam had been completed, the gates were closed and the waters fell over the crest of the dam with a roar like Niagara, while back among the hills bounding the upper course of the river, a lake thirty-five miles in length was formed. The name and fame of the dam and lake were her- alded to the four corners of the earth, but hardly had the news gone forth, when close on its heels came intelligence of the washing of the bank at the end of the dam, whereby the success of the entire structure was threatened. The damage has been repaired, but after the expenditure of months of time and thousands of dollars. With careful attention to details all such accidents can be easily prevented, especially in the case of small structures, such as for the most part will be those by which the water supply of the greater portion of the irrigation demanding sections will be. HIGHLY FAVORABLE CONDITIONS. From what has been shown it will be seen that Texas is most fortunately situated in regard to water when she shall be able to intelligently and systemat- ically take advantage of the conditions under which that water is supplied. The soil is adapted to drouths and when they become too long the water can be easily supplied artificially, for in the absence of artesian con- ditions the conformation of the country is always favor- able for the storage of surface water, and the proper material is always at hand. THE OLIVE IN AMERICA. npHAT the olive tree is destined to be widely planted -- in various parts of the United States is reasonably certain. The tree is hardy, and will thrive under ad- verse conditions, though, of course, the best results follow the best care as in case of all other kinds of fruit trees. Whenever the American people shall have learned the great value of pure olive oil (which few of them have ever seen), its consumption will un- doubtedly become very great. As a food and as a medicine there can be no question of the value of olive oil, and whenever such legislation can be se- cured from Congress as will lead to the honest brand- ing of imported salad oil the industry will begin to take high rank in this country. It has been found by repeated analysis that not five per cent, of the so-called olive oil, imported into the United States, is pure, while a large percentage of it contains no olive oil whatever. The olive is at present produced on a large scale only in California, although trees were planted in Florida perhaps twenty years ago, and in some other of the Southern States even before that. While most of the olive orchards in California are still young, the acreage reported last year from that State was 7,997 acres. The tree will undoubtedly thrive through- out the southern parts of the arid West, and in the re- gion of its possible growth the olive is found to be quite cosmopolitan, and will flourish in a great variety of places, cold being the main obstacle to its growth. In California the berries ripen from November to January, according to location, and may be harvested when other work is not especially pressing. Aside from the oil the olive is the most delicious pickle made, when it is properly treated. Most Amer- icans are accustomed only to the use of the green im- ported olive pickles. To such, the rich, ripe, black or dark purple pickled olives of California would be a pleasing surprise. Those accustomed to compare the two classes of pickles, assert that there is as great a difference in favor of the ripe fruit as between the green and ripe stages of any other fruit even the peach. The progress made during the past three years in preserving the ripe olive in the form of a pickle, has been remarkable in California, though the practice is not common in Europe. The ripe olive thus prepared has all the piquant character needed in a pickle added to a rich oleaginous food of the highest quality. When- ever, therefore, the American people become suffi- ciently educated to appreciate pure olive oil and ripe olive pickles at their true value as food substances, the demand for them will be practically unlimited. Readers of THE AGE in New Mexico, Arizona, parts of Utah, Nevada and Texas, should find the olive a profitable tree to plant in proper locations. One great advantage of the olive, is, that the oil in the berry is manufactured in nature's great alembic from materials wholly drawn from the atmosphere, without making any draft at all upon the ingredients of the soil. If, therefore, the pomace from the oil mill be restored to the land, the olive orchard will need no further fertilization. Should the fruit be pickled, however, the trees would ultimately require fertilization in the same way as other fruit trees. Some planters have made the mistake of trying to establish profitable olive orchards upon land too dry, or upon rocky hillsides where the soil is thin and infertile. It may be here said that the olive tree re- sembles the cow. It will always do its best, but can- not be expected to give good results without food and shelter. THE YAKIMA RIVER IN WASHINGTON. BY F. H. NEWELL. r T!HE Yakima river is one of the principal tributa- JL ries of the Columbia, in the State of Washington. Its drainage basin is a trifle south of the center of the State, and inclines southeasterly, the waters discharg- ing into the Columbia about ten miles above the mouth of Snake river. The extreme length of the basin is approximately 135 miles, the greatest width 65 miles, the average width less than 40 miles, and the total area 5,200 square miles, or 7.78 per cent, of the total land area of the State. The upper edge of the basin lies along the eastern crest of the Cascade mount- ains, which rise to heights of from 10,000 to 14,000 feet, the most prominent peak, Mount Tacoma or Rainier, having an altitude of 14,450. The passes over the range are at an altitude of 4,000 feet and upward. This side of the basin is seventy-five miles long, thus including nearly one-third of the eastern slope of this mountain range, or at least of that portion of it in Wash- ington. THE WATER RESOURCES. Among the mountains, which are densely covered with timber, the precipitation, in the form of rain and snow is heavy, and the streams, relative to the area drained, carry a large amount of water. Many of the higher valleys contain lakes, some of them of notable size, as, for example, Keechelus, Kachass, and Tloea- lum, near the northern end of the basin. These lakes serve as natural reservoirs, regulating, to a certain ex- tent, the discharge of the streams, reducing the height of the floods, and increasing the summer flow. Their usefulness in this regard could be greatly increased at moderate expense by erecting suitable dams and gates at their outlets. From the lakes and tributary torrents, a number of creeks flow in a general easterly direction, finally uniting in Yakima river, which flows near the eastern side of the drainage basin. Few, if any, per- ennial streams come in from this side below the head- waters, the hills, which traverse the plain or plateau of the Columbia, not having sufficient altitude to receive much rain. THE TOPOGRAPHY. The topography of this region has been quite fully described by I. C. Russell in Bulletin No. 108 of the United States Geological Survey, entitled, " A Geo- logical Reconnaissance in Central Washington," wherein is shown the peculiar structure of valleys and plains along the Yakima. This river passes with rapid fall in succession through a number of trans- verse ranges of hills, flowing with more gentle current through the intervening valleys. The total length of A PORTION OF WASHINGTON, SHOWING YAKIMA RIVER AND TRIBUTARIES. the river is about 170 miles, not taking into account the smaller bends. In the upper part of its course it falls at the rate of from eighteen to twenty feet per mile, or more. Lower down between Ellensburg and Yakima it averages about fourteen feet per mile, de- creasing toward Prosser to about twelve feet per^mile, and then to six feet per mile or even less. Through- out its course, however, it is a remarkably swift stream, and one which, flowing through a dry country, is unusually well adapted for employment in irriga- tion. WATER MEASUREMENTS. A few measurements of water have been made in in this basin, and several gauges established for the purpose of obtaining the heights of water, and from this the probable daily discharge at these points. The uppermost of these gauge rods is near the outlet of Lake Kachass and about two miles northerly from the railroad station of Easton. The altitude of this latter place is, according to railroad levels, 2,180 feet, and it is probable that the waters of the lake are at an elevation of over 2,200 feet. The lake, or at least the THE YAKIMA RIVER IN WASHINGTON. 25 main body of water, is about nine miles long and from one and one-half to two miles wide. On August 16, 1893, the outflow of the lake, as measured at a point less than one-fourth of a mile below the outlet, was 211 second feet. About two miles below, and a half mile above Easton, this water joins that from Lake Keechelus, the two streams being approximately of the same size. The area drained by each of these headwater streams above their junction, and includ- ing the lake surfaces, is about 100 square miles. COURSE OP THE YAKIMA. The Yakima river, after receiving the waters of this lake region, flows in a general southeasterly and southerly course through the broad Kittitas valley, and then cutting across a series of ridges enters Selah valley, from which it escapes through a gap to Moxee valley. Throughout this upper course its flow is greatly increased by the creeks entering from the north and west. On leaving the gap in Selah ridge, and at a point seventy-five miles below Lake Kachass and a mile above North Yakima, the Naches river, one of the largest tributaries, comes in from the west. This stream was measured on August 14, 1893, at a point an eighth of a mile above its mouth. At that time the height of water on the gauge rod at the railroad ridge over the Naches was 100 feet, and the discharge was 1,193 second feet. The area drained, as measured from the Land Office map of Washington is 1,000 square miles, of which 300 square miles is within the catchmont area of Tiaton'river, the princi- pal fork of the Naches river. The gauge rod at this point is fastened to the crib on tne south side of the river sixty feet west of the railroad bridge, the 12- foot mark of the gauge being 9.97 feet below the top of the rails. After passing along the west side of Moxee val- ley, Yakima river cuts through Yakima ridge, form- ing Union Gap, this point being seven miles below Naches river and six miles from North Yakima. Here the stream has been measured and gauge rods established to obtain the fluctuations of water. The principal rod is under the west end of the county bridge which crosses at this point. The zero of this gauge is 19.02 feet below the top of the rails on the railroad, which lie about 40 feet away. The high- water marks, presumably those of the spring flood of 1893, were on a level with the readings 9.90 of this gauge. On August 14, 1893, when the water stood at 0.90, the discharge was 2,963, and on Sep- tember 26, 1893, as measured by Engineers J. B. Rogers and Samuel Storrow, the water standing -0.25, the discharge was 1,186 second feet. By assuming intermediate values for discharges between the heights given, it has been computed that the average discharge for October, 1893, was 2,662 second feet, or for the whole month, a total of 163,713 acre-feet. The total drainage area above this point, as measured from the Land Office map, is 3,300 square miles. Comparing this with the discharge for October, the average depth of run-off over the whole was 0.93 inches, or 0.81 second feet per square mile drained. . IRRIGATION ON THE YAKIMA. There are a number of irrigating ditches taking water from Yakima river and its tributaries above this gauging station, most of these being in the Kitti- tas valley or in the vicinity of North Yakima. The principal irrigating works of the country are, how- ever, below this point, taking water out upon the large valley in the vicinity and to the east of Tope- nish, or farther down the river near Prosser and Kiona. The largest canal in operation is that of the Northern Pacific, Yakima & Kittitas Company, head- ing a few miles below the gauging station at the county bridge. Other canals under construction heading near Prosser or at points below, cover strips of land along the river, and when completed will irrigate lands on the west side of the Columbia. The question of water supply for all these systems is, therefore, one of great importance. Comparing the estimated October discharge of the Yakima with that of other rivers, the remarkably large volume from a relatively small water-shed is apparent. This is best shown by the following table, which gives the discharge of various streams for October, 1893, and also in several cases for the same month in preceding years. Opposite this, for comparison, is placed the area drained, and in the third column the amount drained by square mile of catchment. These last figures bring out most strongly the large flow of the stream. All quantities of water are given in second feet (cubic feet per second of time), equaling about fifty miner's inches, as commonly measured. COMPARISON OP RIVER DISCHARGES FOR OCTOBER. RIVERS. 6 cs-a a a o o 01 O 5$ " %S & 03 5c3 rtS if <= MOO n-SS Ss fB p-3 si (3 33(51 Yakima, 1893 2,662 3 300 81 West Gallatin, 1893 576 850 68 Yellowstone, 1893 1,630 2,700 60 Missouri, 1891 3 511 17,615 20 Arkansas, 1890 505 3,060 17 Arkansas, 1891 624 3 060 20 Arkansas, 1892 511 3 060 17 Eio Grande, 1892 259 1,400 ig Rio Grande, 1893. . 263 1 400 19 Bear, 1891 980 4,500 22 Bear, 1892 780 4,500 17 Bear, 1893 737 4,500 16 From the inspection of this table, which might be extended to far greater length, it is apparent that the canal owners taking water from this stream have far less to fear as regards their water supply than have irrigators in other parts of the arid region. THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION. NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ELECTED BY THE IRRIGATION CONGRESS AT LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, OCTOBER 14, 1893. CHAIRMAN, Wm. K. Smyt he, Member-at-Large. Postoffice Box 1019, Chicago. V I < ' K- ' II A I It >I A V K.I ward M. Boggs, Arizona. Tuscon, A. T. SECRETARY, Fred I-. Alles, Member-at-Large. Los Angeles, California. TREASURER, CALIFORNIA, COLORADO, IDAHO. ILLINOIS, KANSAS, . MONTANA, NEBRASKA, NEW MEXICO, Eli H. Murray, San Diego. J. F. Rocho, Hardin. T. D. Babbitt, Nampa, Willard E. Allen, Chicago. J. U . Gregory. Garden City. Z. T. Bnrton, Chontean. Chaw. P. Ross, North Platte. M. A. Downing, Las Crnces. NO. DAKOTA, OKLAHOMA, SO. DAKOTA. TENNESSEE, TEXAS. UTAH, WASHINGTON, WYOMING, John E. Jones, Nevada. Carson City, Nev. Dr. Merchant, Ellendale. John H. Cotteral, Guthrie. J. T. Me Williams, Aberdeen. P. H. Porter, Nashville. J. J. Walker, Barstow. Arthur L. Thomas, SaltLake Ci'y. G. > . Blalock, Walla Walla. 9 1 wood Mead, Cheyenne. COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL LEGISLATION. W. A. Clark, Bntte, Montana. Eli H. Murray, San Diego, California. Richard J. Hinton, New York City. NATIONAL LECTURER. J. S. Emery, Lawrence, Kansas. THE IRRIGATION PROPAGANDA. THE dawn of 1894 finds irrigation in the hands of an organized propaganda, the aims and methods of which are as sharply defined as are those of any contemporaneous movement in this or foreign coun- tries. The plans made and making for this work will be rapidly developed to the public eye, as the year un- folds, but the great end to which they tend already stands clear and luminous before the men of the West, who see in it the fairest promise of human progress in the coming century. To utilize all the water and ultimately reclaim the utmost acre of des- ert soil, and then to develop, on irrigated lands, the highest degree of industrial freedom and the most satisfying conditions of social life in short, to found a new civilization wherein human equality shall be a fact and not a theory is the sublime task in hand. LAYING THE FOUNDATION. The people of the arid States and Territories will be expected, during the next few months, to formulate the irrigation policies under which these hopes of the future may be realized. There can be no enduring and stately structure unless there is first provided a broad, substantial foundation. This foundation must include, (1) an honest and workable national law for handling the arid public lauds and interstate and in- ternational streams, and (2) a code of State laws recog- nizing certain common principles relating to water appropriation and to supervision of ditch construction and management, as well as to systems of public ad- ministration. We are now approaching the vital stage of our formative period. We are just where the fathers were when they went into a five months' session to build the Constitution. They had declared independence and won the objects of the Revolution, but it still remained to formulate into enduring law the fundamental ideas upon which their new political and industrial systems should rest. Western men have declared their faith in the new industrial phi- losophy, they have established irrigation plants and developed communities after a more than seven years' war with prejudice, skepticism and numerous phys- ical obstacles. And now the time has come to erect a system of permanent laws upon the broad princi- ples of justice and equity officially uttered by the International Congress at Los Angeles. HOW IT WILL BE DONE. All this is no irridescent dream of impracticable enthusiasts. It will be done. The work is in the hands 4 of the National Executive Commktee, which is re- sponsible to the Irrigation Congress, and of the State Commissions, which are responsible to the committee- The men at the head of the movement are bent on get- ting results. They will not fail in the performance of their full duty, nor will the people fail to support them. Events have so shaped themselves that the critical moment in this work has come at the time when the depression in mining leads the public to study, with earnest interest, the possibilities that lie in reclamation THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 27 and colonization. They will therefore lend willing ears to the appeal which bids them assist their State Commissions in finding the best features for final policies, national and State. The Commissions will consider these problems not only with reference to peculiar local conditions, but with due regard also to the general requirements of the subject. There have been three Irrigation Conventions since the meeting at Los Angeles. The first was held at Deming, N. M., under the auspices of the Southwestern Irrigation Asso- ciation; the second at Wichita, under that of the Kansas Association; the third (December 19), at North Platte, under that of the society of that name. None of these were called by the national organization, though its officials were represented at each. THE COMING CAMPAIGN. The National Executive Committee is now planning a vigorous campaign that will extend through the early months of the year, beginning late in January, probably with the southwestern circuit and followed a month later with a tour of the northwest, from Denver to Tacoma. The plan will be made by the National Committee, but details in the various localities will be left to the State Commission. Chairman Smythe, National Lecturer Emery, and very likely, Major John W. Powell, and other well-known men, will be of the party. The object of these meetings is to arouse and unite the masses of the West; to expound the Los Angeles declaration; to discuss the various suggestions for national and State laws; to consider the local water and land problems, which must be taken account of in perfecting future plans. Opportunity will be given for general discussion from the floor, and it is believed that the State Commission will benefit greatly from the mass of suggestions thus offered. WHERE MEETINGS WILL BE HELD. The first branch of the campaign will probably be opened at Santa Fe", the ancient capital of New Mex- ico, and be followed by meetings at Las Vegas and Albuquerque, if desired. The next group, covered in the same trip, will be Tucson, Yuma and Phoenix. There should be a very notable meeting at the latter, the capital of the coming State of Arizona. One of the greatest events of the campaign, if properly or- ganized and advertised, will be the mass meeting at Denver. No State has more to gain from the success of the present movement, and a rousing irrigation re- vival would be a splendid exhibition of Colorado's recuperative power. The Denver meeting will proba- bly be the last of the first trip, or the first of the second. Other Colorado points will be covered, among them certainly Grand Junction, on the western slope. The northwestern tour will include Cheyenne, proba- bly Salt Lake City, and at least one more point in Utah. In Idaho, Boise, Idaho Falls, Caldwell, and, perhaps, Payette or Weiser; in Oregon, Pendleton; in Washington, Walla Walla, North Yakima and perhaps another point; in Montana, Helena, Great Falls, Boze- man and Missoula will be reached. These are the plans as they appear unperfected. They are yet sub- ject to rearrangement and enlargement. Suggestions concerning the plan of campaign will be gladly re- ceived by the chairman, at Chicago. LEADING UP TO THE NEXT CONGRESS. All these plans are merely preliminary to the next session of the National Irrigation Congress to be held sometime between July 1 and October 15, at a point not yet determined upon. The results of these meet- ings and conventions will be to crystalize public opinion, but they will settle nothing. Beyond them lie the reports of the State Commissions, which it is proposed to publish by July 1, and beyond these reports lies the next congress, with its days of debate and hours of committee work. The congress, it is expected, will arrive, through study, discussion and compromise, at the definite declaration of the men of the West, and for that declaration they are expected to fight shoulder to shoulder until its triumph is com- plete. It seems likely that the decision will include a bill for presentation to the Congress of the United States, accompanied by a ringing address to the peo- ple, and also an address to the governors and legisla- tures of the several States and Territories, urging them to put local laws upon a common basis, the main features of which will be outlined. These are the great results which the irrigation propaganda purposes to accomplish in the next ten months, but when these are achieved we shall but have entered at the vestibule of the great enterprise comprehended in the making of Arid America. WHAT IS TO FOLLOW. The next Irrigation Congress, like its two predeces- sors, will leave its cause in the hands of an Executive Committee. And, as the present organization turns its energies to the West to accomplish the objects set out above, so the next one must turn its attention to the East, to arouse public sentiment to the support of these measures, and to secure the co-operation of set- tlers and capital for the requirements of the new civ- ilization. This year the accents of the orators of the sublime cause will sound under the southern palms of Arizona, and in the capitol at Boise; next year they must ring under the roof of Faneuil Hall in Boston, and Cooper Union in New York. The one movement will be the indespensable counterpart of the other. But this year the duty is to the West. It must be thoroughly and courageously performed. THE STATE COMMISSIONS. BY another issue of THE AGE, it is hoped the make up of State Commissions will be complete. Committee- men have properly taken sufficient time to give very careful consideration to the selection of members of 28 THE IRRIGATION AGE. these important bodies. Several are nearly, but not quite, ready to make their final announcements. NEVADA. As noted in the November number, Nevada was the first State to appoint its commission. It consists of Gen. John E. Jones, of Carson City, chairman; James Newlands, Jr., Carson City; L. H.Taylor, Reno; W. C. Pitt, Lovelock; R. M. Clark, Carson City. The first meeting of the commission was held at Carson City, November 13th. Mr. Taylor was chosen secre- tary and W. C. Pitt, treasurer. Chairman Jones was authorized to appoint agents in different parts of the State to solicit subscriptions to a fund to defray ex- penses of the commission, and to provide for Nevada's contribution to the Executive Committee of the National Irrigation Congress. The chairman and R- M. Clark were appointed a committee to draft a pre- amble to the address to the people to be issued, and also a petition to be circulated by the agents appointed to solicit funds. A committee of one was appointed for each county to collect data and compile statistics for the use of the committee : Churchill, Walter Fer- guson; Douglas, H. F. Dangberg; Elco, E. C. McClel- lan; Esmeralda, James A. Yerington; Eureka, W. S. Long; Humboldt, C. A. La Grave; Lander, W. D. Jones; Lincoln, D. Bonelli; Lyon, J. E. Gigneaux; Nye, George Nicholl; Ormsby, J. D. Kersey; Storey, F. Hellman; White Pine, H. A. Comins; Washoe, C. C. Powning. A committee of three, including the chair, were appointed to formulate instructions to committees onTdata and statistics. A committee was also appointed to work for Nevada, as the place for holding the next National Irrigation Congress. CALIFORNIA. The California Commission has been named as follows: Eli H. Murray, San Diego; C. C. Wright, Modesto; W. S. Green, Colosa; L. M. Holt, Los Angeles; J. A. Pirtle, Los Angeles. Mr. Pirtle was chosen secretary. This is a very strong commission. Ex-Gov. Murray is a gentleman of wide and varied experience in public life, and is deeply interested in the progress of irrigation. Mr. Wright is thoroughly versed in irrigation law. Mr. Holt is the statistician of irrigation in California. Mr. Green is the most prominent champion of the idea in northern Califor- nia, and Mr. Pirtle has a thorough mastery of the subject from the standpoint of investors. SOUTH DAKOTA. The South Dakota Commission is the following: J. T. McWllliams, Aberdeen, chairman; S. W. Narre- gang, Aberdeen; S. H. Riggs, Frankfort; A. B. Has- sett, Redfield; Robert Evans, Spearfish. Of these gentlemen the well-known names outside of their State are Messrs. McWilliams and Narregang. They have been the consistent friends of irrigation in a locality where few have really understood its full significance. This looks like a good working commission. Their opportunity to put the State to the front is a notable one, and it is to be expected that they will take the fullest advantage of it. NEW MEXICO. In New Mexico Mr. Heintzelman has retired from membership on the National Executive Committee in favor of Mortimer A. Downing of Santa Fe. The new member ought to be one of the most valuable factors in the organization. As private secretary of Col. R. J. Hinton, when at the head of the Bureau of Irrigation Inquiry, Mr. Downing had the best facilities to study irrigation problems as a whole. He traveled through- out the arid region and had the benefit of the knowl- edge of his chief. On retiring from that position he showed his faith in the future of Arid America by going immediately to New Mexico to make his home. He was designated by the convention at Deming as the choice of this Territory for this posi- tion, and his presence at the head of New Mexico's commission is a guarantee of vigorous and thorough work. The full commission will be named shortly. WYOMING, The Wyoming Commission has become involved in an embarassing situation. William Penn Rogers, of Messina, Cal., temporarily represented the State on the executive committee at its first meeting in Los Angeles. He there made an announcement which the committee construed as notice of his resignation, based on the recognition of the fact that no State should be permanently represented by a non-resident. Three States were temporarily represented in the same way, and in all cases it was understood that the temporary members should retire after the organiza- tion had been effected, and allowjtheir successors to be chosen by the committee, under the rule adopted by the congress. In pursuance of this understanding bona fide residents of Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota were chosen at the second meeting of the committee, held at San Diego. State Engineer Elwood Mead, who has been a member for two years past, was re-elected for Wyoming and promptly named a commission, consisting of prominent citizens of his State. Before this commission had been con- firmed, Mr. Rogers notified the committee and the Governor of Wyoming that he had not resigned, and then proceeded to name a commission himself. Prof. Mead then tendered his resignation to the committee, but it has not yet been accepted, and will not be. He is the legal member and his commission the regular body. Both will act unless they positively decline. In that case the committee would elect Mr. Mead's successor. OTHER STATES. Committeeman Burton is hard at work in organiz- ing his forces in Montana. Great interest is felt in Judge Gregory's Kansas THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION. 29 Commission. There is no lack of good material in that State. Prof. Boggs is expected to furnish a very brainy commission for the irrepressible and inextinguish- able " State of Arizona." The Idaho Commission is as follows: T. D. Babbitt, Nampa, chairman; Charles H. Irwin, Nampa; F. J. Mills, Pocatello; J. E. Ostrander, Moscow; A. D. Morrison, Idaho Falls. The Nebraska Commission is as follows: Charles H. Ross, North Platte, chairman; J. M. Lee, Oxford; John R. King, Benkleman; B. E. Bre water, Harrison; George E. French, North Platte. Committeeman Rocho announces that he has se- cured Ex-Mayor Platt Rogers, of Denver, and Prof. L. J. Carpenter, of Fort Collins, for two of the mem- bers of the Colorado Commission. That is a splendid start the orator and the student. If Mr. Rocho holds to this standard his State will occupy a very conspicu- ous front seat at the next congress. THE FIRST POLICY PROPOSED. To the Editor of THE IRRIGATION AGE: I desire to lay before the State Irrigation Commis- sions the outline of a plan for irrigating the arid lands of the United States, which I propose to submit for its consideration, and if considered of value, to be modi- fied, amended and adopted. Of course I do not go into details these can be arranged after the general plan has been adopted. First, the Government is to establish a Department of Irrigation, and the head of that Department is to be a Cabinet officer. This Department is to examine all interstate streams and arrange for the distribution of the waters of such streams between the States through which they flow. It is also to supervise and approve all plans for irrigation systems by the States and Terri- tories, under certain restrictions. Congress is to pass a law giving the States and Ter- ritories jurisdiction over all Government arid lands within their respective borders for the purposes of rec- lamation. Each State is to establish an Irrigation Commission, consisting of four Commissioners and a State Engi- neer, who are to be appointed by the Governor, and approved by the Senate. This State Commission shall have power to establish Irigation Systems whenever it is ascertained that there is a tract of Government arid land which can be reclaimed at an expense sufficiently low to warrant the undertaking, with an assurance that settlers can afford and will take up the lands re- claimed. When the plans for the reclamation of a cer- tain tract of land have been prepared, and estimates of cost have been obtained, the plans and estimates shall be submitted to the National Irrigation Department for approval, and if approved, the State Irrigation Commission shall at once proceed to construct the works. The State shall sell its bonds to raise money to car- ry forward the work in hand and the outstanding bonds of any state Shall be limited as hereinafter provided. When an irrigation System shall have been com- pleted the lands under such systems shall be opened to homestead entry under the laws of the United States, in tracts not to exceed forty acres for each family or head of family, and no other way. After one-half the lands under such system shall have been thus taken up, the State Commisssion shall proceed to form an Irrigation District, which shall include all the lands, that, in their judgment, can be irrigated under such System and no more. The district shall then issue to the State its bonds, which are to run for a period of forty years. Such bonds shall bear interest at a rate that shall be one per cent, higher than the interest paid by the State on its bonds to raise money for the irrigation fund. After a dis- trict has been thus organized and the bonds issued, the management of the affairs of the district shall be turned over to the people residing in such district, and all water rights, canals and other property, connected with the water supply of such district, shall become the property of the district, except, in the option of the State Irrigation Commission, approved by the National Irrigation Department, any reservoir which shall sup- ply water to more than one district may be retained as the property of the State, and each district shall make an annual payment to the State of such sum as shall be necessary to keep up such reservoir, and supply such districts with water. If at the end of five years from the date of opening up to settlement any irrigated tract, there is not one- half of the land within such tract taken up under the Homestead Laws of the United States, then, and in that event the remaining land shall be offered for sale in tracts of 160 acres or less, to each purchaser at such figures as may be fixed, not less than $1.25 per acre, and all moneys received from the sale of such lands shall go into the district treasury to be used in reim- bursing the State by paying off the bonds held by the State against such district. Each State shall reclaim arid lands only as fast as there shall be a demand for the reclaimed lands for actual settlement, and the outstanding bonds of any State for irrigation fund purposes shall not at any time exceed the amount of bonds held by the State against districts by more than $ . This is but a brief outline of the proposed plan for your consideration. Yours Truly, L. M. HOLT. PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. jyjyjyjyjyy^p-y-y^j^jvLjyjyjyjgiJ^^ THE COLORADO STATE CANAL. building of the State canal by convict labor in Colorado is several kinds of an experiment. It is an experiment in the use of convicts, in the disposal of public lands, in the policy of public management of irrigation works. The work was authorized by an act of the Legislature of 1889, but only $1,450 was realized from the appropriation of that year. The act, how- ever, enabled the board to receive subscriptions in cash from persons interested, and to issue seven per cent, scrip, 'payable, both interest and principal, in water from the canal. In this manner enough money was raised to carry on the work with a moderate force until the Eighth General Assembly appropriated $50,- 000 to continue the work. ENGINEERS AND THEIR PLANS. The location of the headgate was decided upon by Hon. James P. Maxwell, then State engineer, in June> 1889, and is on the south side of the Arkansas river, in the Grand Canyon, about 2,000 feet below the swinging bridge, or about three and one-half miles above the mouth of the canyon. This was immedi- ately followed by the preliminary surveys under the personal supervision of Mr. John S. Titcomb, then deputyJState engineer, and occupied a considerable portion of the season of 1889. Work was then com- menced on a tunnel 750 feet in length through the "PrieonJHogback," that being the first portion defi- nitely located because of convenience for working the convicts. From the beginning of the work, the engineering on the canal was under the general direction of Mr. Titcomb, but as it progressed and assumed larger proportions, it became necessary to have an engineer constantly on the work, and in April, 1891, E. A. Smithl'was appointed resident engineer, and still holds that position, having been reappointed in May, 1893. CANALS AND LAND RECLAIMED. The canal, as located, will irrigate about 2,000 acres of the open park immediately northeast of Canon City, will cross Eight Mile and Brush creeks, each at about four miles, Beaver creek at about four and one- half miles, and Turkey creek at about six miles from the Arkansas, and will strike the Fountanie Qui Bouille about two miles above Wigwam station on the Denver and Eio Grande river, or about 20 miles north of Pueblo. The final total length will be about 85 miles. The dimensions of the canal will be: From the head to about the mouth of the Grand Canon, the width 12 feet, depth 7 feet, with a grade of 5.28' per mile. Outside the canon the width is 15 feet, depth 9 feet and grade 1.76 feet per mile. This will again be changed to a width of 25 feet, depth 6 feet with same grade. The carrying capacity is estimated at 605 cubic feet per second and is calculated to irrigate over 70,000 acres of land. The Ninth General Assem- bly made by Senate bill No. 67 an appropriation of $40,000 to further continue the work, and it is now being pushed as rapidly as possible. COST OP THE WORK. The amount of work done since the commencement up to and including May 31, 1893, can be seen by a glance at the following table: Acres. Cu. Yards. Clearing and grubbing 56.92 Boulders removed from surface 3,124.4 Excavation earth work of all classes 176,799.0 Excavation rock work 17,116.6 Total 197,039.0 This, at fair contract prices ranging frem 18 cents to $5.00 per yard for excavation, and $25.00 per acre for clearing, would have cost $175.730.39, but has actually cost by using convict labor only $76,843.02. The work so far accomplished on the canal has been of a very difficult character,there being a great many heavy cuts some being as deep 62 feet, and the soil being of such a nature that % of it had to be blasted to move. This, of course, increases the cost, and at the same time makes the work necessarily very slow. In all there has been about three and one-half miles of ditch and flume bed built and 1,160 feet of tunnels, one 750 feet long through a limestone and shale formation, and one 410 feet long through solid red granite. It is impossible to fix the date for the completion of the work, but it is far better to have delay now than after crops have been planted. To avoid injury to prior appropriators a reservoir will be built at Twin Lakes, and water supplied from this source to ditches further down stream, when necessary. The lands reclaimed by State sites No. 1 are capable of large and varied production, not only of ordinary farm crops but of fruit, as well. THE BEAR VALLEY IRRIGATION COMPANY. The embarrassment of the Bear Valley Irrigation Company culminated in the appointment of F. P. Morrison, president of the First National Bank of Redlands, as receiver, December 9. The plant of this company is one of the most splendid irrigation systems on the continent, delivering more valuable water to more valuable land than any other similar works, ex- cept those of Riverside. It was originally developed to furnish water for Redlands, Cal., which it trans- PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. 31 formed in six years from a sheep pasture to a modern town of unusual beauty ,set amid prolific orange groves. This is the company which contracted to supply the Allessando and Ferris districts, and its failure to fulfill all its obligations in this direction appears to be the immediate cause of the receivership. THE AGE has studiously refrained from any discus- sion of the affairs of the company, because aware that its president, Mr. Charles W. Greene, was en- gaged in an earnest effort to avert disaster and pro- vide means by which the creditors might be paid and the agreements with the two districts faithfully ful- filled. Now that the embarrassment has reached a point where the naming of a receiver could no longer be avoided, it seems necessary to allude briefly to the personal friction between the present and the former manager between Mr. Greene and Mr. Frank E. Brown. Mr. Greene charges that Mr. Brown, the originator of the enterprise, is responsible for the troubles of the company. In a circular of October 2d he dis- claims personal responsibility for the financial policy of the company, asserting that he merely sold stock upon the representation of Mr. Brown and his associ- ates, and that when, about one year ago, he assumed the management, he did so only because the step seemed necessary to all concerned. He^charges that Mr. Brown has pursued a dishonest and selfish course, the object of which was to wreck the enterprise and then absorb it into a gigantic corporation of his own. To this remarkable indictment Mr. Brown made no reply. He said he had done what he could to avert the disaster, and that he should patiently await the result, whether it be the restoration of the com- pany's credit, or its collapse into the hands of a receivership. He said the people of Redlands and the American stockholders knew him very thorough- ly; that he would invite a reputable Englishman to examine the charges for the benefit of stockholders in Great Britain. Mr. Brown has now broken silence by giving the following letters to the press: CHICAGO, December 11, 1893. To the Public: I learn that the troubles of the Bear Valley Irriga- tion Company culminated on the 9th inst. in the ap- pointment of a receiver. To those who are familiar with the part I had in the conception and upbuilding of the great enterprise which gave birth to Redlands and its surrounding development, it is unnecessary for me to express the deep regret I feel at this event, but to those who know of me only through the gross misrepresentations which have been circulated by various means during the past few months, it may be necessary for me to speak briefly put plainly. I have refrained from speaking until now from a desire not to enter into a controversy which might be injurious to the interests of the company. I devoted ten of the best years of my life to the de- velopment of the Bear Valley works. I have always regarded this plant as the most valuable and substan- tial irrigation property in the United States, in pro- portion to the amount of land it covers. Although the project was regarded as very bold at the beginning, and although it encountered very many difficulties, physical as well as financial, my associates and I succeeded in our original object, and the city of Red- lands is the monument to that success. When, at a later day, the company undertook to supplythe Ales- sandro and Ferris Irrigation Districts, we approved of the undertaking as feasible, and our good faith waa pledged to its accomplishment. That the agreement in this regard was not fulfilled is no fault of ours. While I regret very keenly the disaster which has overtaken the company I have no occasion to be sur- prised. More than a year ago I clearly saw the result to which the policy of the management would surely lead. My remonstrance was unavailing, and an ag- gressive effort made by me to induce foreign stock- holders to agree upon the only possible course to pre- vent the ruin of the company was defeated by Mr. Greene, who, to further his own selfish purposes, has arraigned me as the enemy of that great enterprise which my faith and my industry largely created, and of that community which has been my home, and is- to-day the seat of my property interests. I have been assailed because I foresaw and had the courage to point out what must be the inevitable con- sequences of the policy pursued by a short-sighted and wrong-headed management. I take this occasion to say again that the Bear Val- ley enterprise, if developed as originally conceived, is one of th most splendid irrigation properties in thia country. Under proper management it will fulfill the expectations not only of its shareholders, but also of all who hold its water rights, including the two organ- ized districts. If by any means in my power I can as- sist in solving its difficulties, thereby serving the com- munities in which my own interests are located, I shall do so with whatever energy or ability I may possess. F. E. BROWN. NEW HAVEN, CONN., September 15, 1893. HON. JAMES GRAHAM: DEAR SIR: As you were for so long president of the B. V. & A. D. Co., and the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, and are conversant with the circumstances under which I came to this country, I am writing to you, at Mr. Brown's request, to state very generally the result of my inquiries here, so far as he is per- sonally concerned. This request seems to me a very reasonable one, in view of any possible accident which may happen to me on my way home. Time does not admit of my saying more than that (allowing for the mistakes of judgment which Mr. Brown may have made with oth- ers, in their joint conduct of the Company's affairs), I am satisfied after careful inquiry that Mr. Greene'a charges against his personal honor are without foun- dation. I may add that I am intending to enter into busi- ness connection with Mr. Brown, and that I look for- ward to that connection as one likely not only to be advantageous, but also an agreeable one in every re- spect. I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, THOMAS CAVE, 4 Fenchurch Street, London, E. C., England. THE AGE does not care to add any comments of its own to these statements, because it does not appear that any good purpose would be served by going into 32 THE IRRIGATION AGE. the long and tortuous history of the affair. The Bear Valley Irrigation Company, whose great divi- dends dazzled the financial world, has failed as the result of very bad management. The thing to be de- sired now is to see the creditors paid, the water con- tracts fulfilled, and the stockholders protected as far as possible. If the time comes when THE AGE can lend any assistance in the realization of these desir- able results it will gladly do so. MR. ROWE AND THE BEAR RIVER SYSTEM. The responsible management of the great Bear River canal system in Utah has recently passed into the hands of Mr. William H. Rowe, of Salt Lake City. This is an event of much importance to Northern Utah and of interest to the irrigation world at large. The Bear River works are among the most costly and sub- stantial in the "West. They represent a feat of consid- erable daring, both from a financial and an engineer- ing standpoint. But it has been illustrated in this case, as in many another, that it is one thing to con- struct splendid works and another thing to develop the property and turn the assets, consisting of land and water, into gold. The selection of Mr. Rowe as president and man- ager of the enterprise means that an effort is now to be made in a practical way. The choice is perhaps the very best that could have been made from among all the captains of the irrigation industry. The con- fidence of the local public and an intimate acquaint- ance with the history and character of the country, were in this instance just as important as eminent ability in the art of irrigation and the business of pro- moting colonization. Mr. Rowe knows Utah thor- oughly, and, in a greater degree than any other man, he possesses the confidence of both the Mormon and Gentile elements in its population. He knows irriga- tion as a practical thing at home, and he knows it equally well as a student of literature and history. For years he has been an assiduous collector of books, pamphlets, and other printed matter, and he has about the best irrigation library in the country. The study of this literature has been his passion. It would seem that he had been unconsciously fitting himself for the work he has now assumed. THE AGE predicts his en- tire success in the work of colonizing the lands and developing, to the highest degree, the possibilities of the small, diversified farm. Mr. Rowe has for several years been the assistant superintendent of Zion's Co-operative Mercantile In- stitution, which does an annual business of over $4,000,000. The lands of the Bear River Irrigation Company are among the best in the inter-mountain region, and produce everything in the line of farm, garden and deciduous fruit crops. They are in the neighborhood of Brigham City, Honeyville, Deweyville and Willard City on the east, and the Malad valley on the west. Brigham City alone averaged eight hundred cases of fruit per day during the season of 1893. Thirty acres sown to alfalfa produced eight tons to the acre the second season, and the wheat record is forty-seven bushels to the acre. With such material to work upon as this and with his splendid equipment of knowledge and experience, Mr. Rowe may be expected to make of this enterprise one of the most striking successes in the field of irri- gation. THE AGE may present fuller particulars of the project at a later day. IN SANTA CRUZ VALLEY, ARIZONA. The Canoa Land and Water Company is the title of a new corporation with principal office at Tucson. The incoporators are C. W. Wright, J. H. Martin and C. H. R. Fitzgerald, the last named gentleman repre- senting an English syndicate. It is learned that the new Canoa Canal has been bonded to them in the sum of $100,000. The actual transfer of the property hinges on the confirmation of the Canoa land grant by the land court. STORY OF THE GRANT. The Canoa grant is generally conceded to be among the best, as to title, of the many now pending before the court. It dates away back from a Spanish king to one Ortiz and from him was inherited by his son. This son died recently at the good old age of about one hundred and ten years. Several years ago his in- terest was acquired by Messrs. Maish and Driscoll who have large cattle interests in this section. The grant is three miles wide by twelve miles long, located along the Santa Cruz river about thirty miles south of Tucson. Messrs. Maish and Driscoll originally intended taking out a small ditch in order to raise alfalfa, with which to fatten cattle for market, but as work progressed they saw the possibilities of their venture and enlarged operations, so that their main canal is now 100 feet wide on top, twelve feet wide on the bottom and fifteen feet deep. It is between four and five miles long. Work is still being pushed and will continue indefinitely. It is estimated that water will be developed sufficient to irrigate 25,000 acres. The land is level, except for the natural fall of the river, which is about seventeen feet to the mile. The soil is a black loam, twelve to fifteen feet in depth, underlaid by sand, gravel and boulders, through which there is an immense flow of water. This is only one of a number of promising locations along the line of the Santa Cruz river, which is mostly an underground stream. The valley only needs the attention of capital to develop its water supply, and convert to growing grain and fruit the soil which now furnishes sustenance to grass and mesquite. PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY, 33 The land that is now under cultivation in the vicin- ity of Tucson furnishes but a fraction of the hay, grain and fruit that is consumed by it alone, conse- quently the farmer who locates in this valley will get more for his product than in any other portion of the territory. A land, in altitude from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level, having twelve months of spring, summer and fall, where winter is never known, with 368 bright sunny days in the year such is the Santa Cruz Valley of Arizona. ARIZONA PROTECTS CAPITAL. The Peoria Canal Company at Gila Bend, Ariz., has been put into a receiver's hands. Judge Baker an- nounced an important policy when he named as re- ceiver a person favorable to the defendant's interests, giving the following explanation: " I have concluded to appoint Mr. McMillan as the receiver while the other gentleman whose names have been suggested here as representing their company are entitled to all respect; and while I have all confi- dence in them, yet, as it was aptly said by one of the counsel here, inasmuch as the money of the Peoria Canal Company and the Arizona Construction Com- pany has built this magnificent piece of work and erected it out of a desert, and built it up, and the money is still in these works, and is still to go on building up the country by this irrigating canal, that fact should constitute a most potent reason that they should be permitted to name the receiver to be ap- pointed. They built the dam and the canal by putting their money into the work of its construction, and they have not yet got it out, and their money is in jeopardy; their dam is broken. I think in the appointment of the receiver if I lean one way or the other I should lean toward that policy which will not only cause them to feel that they are protected, but will enable the court to feel satisfied they will be thoroughly pro- tected for their money. The fact that Mr. McMillan has been for a short time in the employ of the Peoria Canal Company is no impediment to his appoint- ment." ARTESIAN WELLS IN YAKIMA VALLEY. A very hopeful development of artesian waters is under way in the Yakima Valley of Washing- ton. The Yakima Land & Artesian Company has lo- cated a fifth well, and its manager is quoted as follows: " The wells all flow freely and the quantity of water is only governed by the dimensions of the hole drilled. The uplands of the Moxee Valley, upon which these wells have been struck, are generally characterized as the artesian belt; but there is no reason why artesian water should not be as plentiful elsewhere in this section. We have every reason to believe that the whole of Yakima Valley is underlaid with the same strata; and this is taking 'Yakima' in its broad sense, covering all tributary and contiguous valleys. There is no doubt in my mind that in due course of time artesian wells will supplant, in a meas- ure at least, surface water for irrigation purposes in this valley. And there are numerous advantages to recommend it. First, the water is of a very much warmer temperature than that flowing through the mountain streams, and this advantage will be obvious to experienced irrigators; second, the flow is continu- ous, thereby keeping the land moist and in condition for successful cultivation during the entire year; third, the expenses necessary in the long lines of ditches, for ditch-tenders, etc., are in a great measure obviated, and therefore the expenses are necessarily reduced." 4 A LARGE WASHINGTON ENTERPRISE. About one year ago the contract for a canal about 100 miles in length through the richest portion of the Yakima country in Washington was let to Everest & Co., of Portland, and work has since been vigorously prosecuted under charge of W. L. Rockwell. This canal taps the Yakima river at Prosser, running thence parrallel with the river until Kiona is reached. About two miles from this point two branches of the canal separate, one running north and the other south- east, thus irrigating over 130,000 acres of rich, heavy sag-brush land, about half of which is railroad land. The land gently slopes toward the Columbia River and is easily irrigated. Hops, fruits and vegetables can be raised as in no other portion of the State. The laud now sells at an average of $25 per acre and will be placed on the market as soon as the canal is com- pleted, which will be in about six months. Two hundred men with teams will be put to work in a few weeks. Yakima County is heavy sagebrush land, somewhat similar to that in Nevada, where three and four crops of alfalfa are raised in a season with the benefits of irrigation. Hops especially will grow here, and experiments have been made which were more than satisfactory. Under this canal the present season the first crop in a number of instances yielded over 1,000 pounds to the acre. A despatch from the City of Mexico states that Engineer Scougal has signed a contract with Senors Vivanco, Sequin, and others of this city and the City of Nuevo Laredo to lay out large irrigation works to consist of a masonry dam above the junction of the San Juan and Rio Grande rivers and about 100 miles of canal and laterals, which will irrigate 25,000 acres of cotton land in Mexico. qp qjp up W- If J V LJ V L 'V r1 V r -V 1 "V- -"Hyray $ $ * TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. ^^^^^^rT^W^^ THE WISE USE OF WATER. BY CHARLES W. GREENE. EXCEPT for grass and grain crops water should not be used by flooding, and it certainly should not be in the preparation of the ground for the planting of either of them. There are certain crops upon which the water may be used with impunity, so far as touching the plant is concerned. Some of the stronger of the garden veg- etables will not be injured by any use of water, while others will certainly be, if the water is allowed to touch the stem of the plant. I am making it an in- variable rule, as a matter of safety, that the water shall not be allowed to touch any plant or the bark of any tree or shrub. Under the best circumstances, it does no good, and is certainly liable to do injury. WATER ON THE SURFACE. It should be remembered, too, that running water upon the surface of hard-baked land, or of rain-washed land, under a hot sun, will be attended with almost as rapid evaporation as it would be if poured upon the top of a hot stove, nor is its effect advantageous to the surface of the soil when so applied. If, on the other hand, the surface be broken so as to apply the water to the cool under-soil, the absorption is much more rapid and more thorough, and then, with the pulver- ized surface soil, no matter how dry, thrown back upon it, will serve to retain it there many times longer than it will if applied broadcast. WATERING ALFALFA. In watering alfalfa, if the water is applied about a week before cutting while the ground is shaded, and consequently cool, and especially if it is applied at night, the grass will be in very much better condition for cutting and will start more promptly after cutting by far, than to wait until after it is cut before water- ing. Then, if as soon as the hay can be cleared from the ground, a harrow be run over the surface to break the surface while it is soft, and there be another ap- plication of water, say two or three weeks after the previous one, it will certainly make a very great dif- ference in the yield of the crop. One watering inter- mediate between this and the watering at cutting, will, I believe, invariably insure a good crop of hay. MAKING THE FURROWS. I have found one of the most useful tools that we have yet used to be the disc cultivator. With these land, in reasonably fair condition, can be thrown into ridges about four feet apart, either rounding ridges or sharp ones. In preparing our land we have found the best results to come from throwing the ridges as high as possible, or at least leaving the dead furrows be- tween as deep as possible and applying the water in these furrows. We run our furrows all the way across a forty -acre block, where the slope of the ground per- mits, running the furrow as full as possible until it has nearly reached the lower end, and there shorten- ing the supply so as to run just as much as the ground will absorb by the time it reaches the lower end of the furrow. A little stream left in this way for five or six hours will soften almost any of this ground so that it will mire a horse, and will use, in doing so, little more than half the water that would be required, if applied on the surface; and a good irrigator can run ten or twelve of these furrows at a time, and can irrigate more land with less labor, and more uniformly, than he can by flooding. With the same cultivator, with the discs straddling the dead furrow, the ridges of dry earth are thrown down over the water furrow as soon as it is dry enough for the teams to travel over it. Then, by harrowing the ground smoothly, the surface is left thoroughly pulverized and to a depth of six or eight is as mellow as ground need be for any crop. Ground watered in this way need not be watered oftener than once in six weeks, and no matter how hot the weather, moisture will be found within half an inch of the sur- face at any time, and plants will thrive in it. Of course, such ridges can be made by the ordinary plow, but not so cheaply. PREPARING THE LAND. We plant on the leveled ground with planters after this preparation, and there is moisture enough to bring any plant up and give it a rapid growth until it is from six to twelve inches high, As soon as the plant is large enough, we put the cultivators in for simple cultivation, throwing up as little ridge as possible. Two or three weeks later we run the cultivators through again, and then water in the dead furrows between, following watering by another cultivation with the discs set with a view to leveling down the ridges as much as possible. There should, in my opinion, be at least one cultiva- tion between the waterings, and two will be preferable. The finer the surface soil is kept the longer will the ground retain moisture, and the more mellow and pliable will it be to a depth of from twelve to eighteen inches. My general rule would be, keep the water off the surface, get it underground from the outset; keep it entirely away from the plants, trees or vines, and use as little as practicable to keep the soil in good growing condition. TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IRRIGATORS. 35 A NEW USE FOR CORN STALKS. The American people are accustomed to surprises. Perhaps it would be more nearly correct to say that the American people can scarcely be surprised. New and wonderful achievements succeed each other so rapidly, and the improbable of yesterday so readily becomes the common-place of to-day, that we are pre- pared for almost anything. Experiments lately made by Mr. F. L. Stewart, seem to point to a revolution in sugar-making, although it may be that obstacles not yet encountered will finally intervene to dwarf or pos- sibly destroy the apparent importance of his discover- ies. It is nothing less than a method of making a merchantable article of sugar from common corn- stalks. The corn is grown as usual until the grain has arrived at the "milk" stage, then the ears are stripped oflE and the stalks allowed to stand a certain length of time when it is found that the amount of sucrose in them is doubled. It is confidently asserted by Mr. Stewart that corn thus treated will bear as high a percentage of sucrose as the sugar beet and, as is well known to all farmers, may be produced at a small cost probably one-half or one-third that of the sugar beet. It will be seen that the ears are to be plucked at the time when they are most palatable as well as nutritious, and that there need be no waste in that respect if the corn be utilized to fatten stock. It is believed too, that the bagasse or crushed stalks may also be used as stock feed to a con- siderable extent, so that there will be but little waste of any sort, while the sugar extracted would prove a large gain to the farmer. While the IRRIGATION AGE cannot assure its readers at this time that these dis- coveries of Mr. Stewart will necessarily lead to the wonderful results predicted by the enthusiastic exper- imenter, yet a short review of the situation, showing the enormous opportunity for a possible industry of this kind, may not be out of place. While the people of the United States do not con- sume as much sugar, per capita, as do those of one or two other countries, yet they consume, in the aggre- gate, about one-half of all the sugar produced on the earth. For the calendar year 1892, our imports of sugar and molasses amounted to $108,053,167; and for the fiscal year ending with June, 1893, the value of sugar imports reached the stupendous sum of $116,- 947,430, of which $12,846,509 represents value of the beet sugar brought in from other countries. While the area of land capable of producing the sugar beet with a profit is very large in the arid zone, and with the present stimulus of government bounty might soon be made to meet a large part of our sugar demand, yet should the bounty be discontinued aa proposed, the industry might not be able to expand. With this contingency in view it is timely that exper- iments be made with other crops, as above indicated. A crop that is of the greatest advantage as forage, which yields sugar in commercial quantities besides, must be regarded as of the utmost value. Sugar beets in Nebraska and California yielding about 12 per cent, sucrose bring, at the factory, from $4 to $4.50 per ton with a certain bonus for each one per cent, of sucrose above 12. The average being somewhat above the standard, the beets grown the present year have averaged somewhere near $4.50 per ton, though at the Watsonville factory in California the price has been uniformly $5 per ton for select beets. In suitable locations the cultivation of beet roots at these prices has been found to be a profitable business, and lately several hundred acres of land were sold to tenant beet farmers, at Chino, Cal., at prices averaging $150 per acre. It is presumable that the men who bought the land knew its worth, having raised one or two crops of beets on it before purchasing. If then, good beet land is worth $150 per acre, good corn land should be valuable if any sugar-making enterprise in connection with corn culture shall be perfected. That the United States should depend upon foreign countries for seven-eighths of the sugar consumed ia scarcely creditable to our industry and ingenuity, and the stimulation of home production of that necessary of life should be urged by every proper means. Cannot we in some measure account for the present hard times when we reflect that the American coffee cup, to say nothing of the cream used, cost us for the year ending with June last, the sum of $257,240,167. A NEW WEIR SYSTEM. Southern California has been the field of many im- provements in irrigation appliances. A fruitful source of trouble has been the lack of an equitable plan for dividing the water among the parties entitled thereto. In nearly every irrigation canal the conditions are identical, to-wit: A certain amount of water to be divided in varying proportions among a certain num- ber of irrigators. In nearly every instance consumers are expected to bear their proportion of loss by seep- age and evaporation between the head of the main canal and their respective gates. This loss is a vary- ing one, being so great on a hot day that if each gate is set to take its quota without shrinkage, the man at end of the system seldom has enough to drink. The West Highlands Water Company in San Ber- nardino county, Cal., is putting in a system of weirs which will completely avoid this difficulty. Their main ditch is one mile in length with six lateral branches each the same length. At the head of the first lateral the ditch expands into a large cemented basin having two outlets, one opening into the main, the other into the lateral. In each opening is set an iron gate of ample width and height and having a 36 THE IRRIGATION AGE. sliding door, which may be opened sidewise to any given width and fastened at that point. Both gates are exactly on a level. The weir at the head of each succeeding lateral is an exact duplicate. Five weirs suffice for the six branches, the fifth one serving for two, being at the last point of division. The distribu- tion of the water is so arranged that but one consumer has water in and certain lateral at a time. Under this arrangement the zanjero, starting at the head of the main line with say 600 inches of water to be dividee equally between the six laterals, goes to the first weir and sets the gates in the ratio of five for the main to one for the lateral, and so on, the gates in the last weir being set equally open. Measurements to ascertain the amount of water are made on the open weir basis. Under this arrangement it will be seen that any decrease, and likewise any increase, in the fiow is automatically and equitably divided be- tween all parties on the system. The gates, which are not patented, are the in- vention of W. M. Bristol of East Highlands, under whose supervision the weirs are being built. DEVELOP THE SPRINGS. BY J. M. GOODWIN. Sometimes a word or thought expressed to the in- quiring mind may lead to good results. Riding in a train a few days ago a gentleman, who has spent a long life as civil engineer began talking of the possi- bilities of the arid lands we are traveling over in southwestern Idaho. "Water," said he, "is the great thing. It may be developed sometimes where you would hardly expect at least such abundance." One of our party said he had found a very small spring on his land, and he wished it would open out big enough to be of use. "Why don't you help nature to do that? " said our engineer. "Let me give you an example. I was sur- veying some years ago in Texgs. A small spring and its basin into which the water flowed supplied the cattle with water. The animals stood in the basin and tramped around the spring until they crushed out the flow, and the cattle had to go without drink. I urged the cowboys to dig until the water was started again, They did so and secured a larger flow than ever be- fore. The number of cattle greatly increased, and, more water being needed, the excavations were ex- tended, and within a year or two the spring increased its flow so much that the owner put in a small race and had water enough to run a small saw-mill. Springs are mostly artesian in character and can be, as a general thing, increased in quantity by giving them more freedom in discharge." Now is a good time to trace and open springs. Dur- ing the heated term, when the air of the arid regions take up moisture so rapidly as to exhaust small springs before the water passes many feet on the surface, and numerous others before coming to the surface. Small springs cannot be easily found and traced. There are very many such which in July and August did not show even signs of moisture, which now, that cool days have come, are sending out strong streams of water and, mingling their flow together, have filled the brooks with the clear, sparkling fluid. The writer could mention many incidents where a few feet of an open cut or tunnelling into the hill has developed large flows of water. A tiny spring in the northern portion of Salt Lake City a few years ago sent out a little hot water to be taken up like a spring by the dry air before it had gone many feet. The owner tried the experiment of tunneling in some twenty or thirty feet through limestone. A portion of the water thus developed is now pumped up into a tank eighty feet above and it then flows about two miles through an eight-inch wooden pipe to a sani- tarium in the heart of the city and delivers it there with a temperature of 108 degrees. Were it not for the tunnel that spring would not have been known except to a few and its great value would have re- mained unheard and its praises unsung. The drill that pierces the earth to a depth of a thousand feet and taps a generous flow of water is only performing the same service that a tunnel run into the hill may do, and often the tunnel is the cheap- est, most simple and effective. AN OLIVE OILPLANT. Howland Bros, have just received their new and expensive oil machinery and have it in place in their new building in their olive orchard near North Pomo- na. They have a gasoline engine for power. The olive press weighs 13 tons and is operated by hydraul- ic power. Two hundred pounds pressure is provided for. The crusher weighs 2,200 pounds. The build- ing and machinery are constructed specially for mak- ing olive oil. Pomona Times. NEEDLESS IMPORTATION. Peas, barley and alfalfa are so easily and luxuri- ently grown in all the valleys of Central and Western Montana that it is a matter of surprise that so few ranchers engage in hog raising. As much pork is probably consumed in mining camps, per capita, as in any other region; yet Montana depends for its sup- ply upon Chicago. Home hog-raising for the North- west is as important as "home rule" for Ireland. The residents of Wild Flower, Cal., are reported as planning to irrigate 40,000 acres. J. J. Schlitz and J. R. Smith are interested. TALKS WITH PRACTICAL IERIGATORS. 37 THE MIDWINTER FAIR. The Pacific coast region is fully aroused to the great advantages to accrue from a grand exhibition of its resources at the Midwinter Fair, to be opened at San Francisco in January, and to continue until July. The magnitude of the enterpi'ise long since assumed proportions beyond the original conception of its pro- moters, and it continues to expand in a manner quite surprising even to those who have the fullest faith in the ability of that sunset realm to achieve wonders when fully awake to the importance of the event. While making no pretense to equal, or even nearly approach, in magnificence, the great exposition just closed at Chicago, yet it will certainly rank high as an exposition, either national or international. The first spadeful of earth was turned on August 24th, and by the time these lines appear in print there will be ready for occupancy, by the manifold exhibits, some of the largest and finest buildings ever erected for such purposes in this country outside of Chicago. Over thirty different nationalities will have exten- sive and characteristic exhibits, and the number of buildings will exceed seventy. The principal struct- ures are those of agriculture and horticulture, manu- factures and mechanic arts and the fine arts, each of great size and of pleasing architectural design. The site of the Fair, as many readers of THE AGE are aware, is in Golden Gate Park, a short distance from the heart of San Francisco, and within view of the broad Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate. To those of the farther West who missed the great occa- sion of the century the Chicago World's Fair the California exposition will afford the next best oppor- tunity to witness a great aggregation of the world's wonders on this continent. A vast number of the most attractive exhibits at the Chicago Fair have been transferred to the Pacific shore and are now being installed, flanked by the best that can be produced in the wonderful region which to-day stands as a partial fulfillment at least of the ultimate dream of irrigation. It may be truthfully said that the achievements which have made the California Fair a possibility would not, and could not, have been wrought in that compara- tively new and undeveloped region of our country, save through the successes reached by the develop- ment and practical application of irrigation as a prime factor in the cultivation of the soil. While the State of California yields some. $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 in gold, annually, from her mountains and river beds, yet the golden shower which falls most copiously upon her people, comes as the leaping cata- ract from the mountain heights, which, when directed upon the broad mesas and smiling valleys below, by its magic touch transmutes all the gold. Let the prod- ucts of their mines be what they may, it is to their soil, legitimately and happily wedded to the mountain waters, that a great part of the coast and mountain States must look for that wondrous development which future years are certain to witness throughout the arid belt, from Texas to North Dakota, and from Kansas to the Golden Gate. The great enterprise which is now so auspiciously culminating at San Francisco will be found to be, after all, but a pioneer, pointing the way to still greater achievements in the near future and beckoning the arid mountain States to follow her in the grand march of progress toward the setting sun. What California has achieved is possible in other States and Territories, and the first half of the next century will usher in a revolution, if not, indeed, com- plete it, in the arid belt, more far-reaching and benefi- cent in its consequences than any event which has blessed the world since the discovery of America. For the inspiration and added courage it will give, every resident of Arid America who can possibly do so, should visit the Midwinter Fair. On the route will be seen the difficulties to be overcome and also the results flowing from persistent and well-directed effort along the proper channels. Object lessons line the route and the Fair will prove the happy culmina- tion of imagined possibilities. It will impress every mind with a keener sense of the true greatness of our vast country and inspire the visitor to higher resolves and to better appreciation of the responsibilities and privileges of American citizenship. FARM NOTES. IT has been established by chemical analysis and otherwise that about ninety-seven per cent, of the con- stituents of all trees and plants is made up from water and from the various plant foods found in the atmos- phere, while only three per cent, is derived from the soil. MUCH interest is manifested in irrigation enter- prises in eastern Oregon and Washington. It is re- ported that a large amount of eastern and foreign capital is flowing that way, and that the developments in that section of the arid northwest during the next few years will be phenomenal. The favorable trans- portation facilities to eastern markets, enjoyed by the two States named, should materially aid in their devel- opment on irrigation lines. As an all-round fruit-producing region it may be safely said that an arid country with good irrigating facilities stands immeasurably above a region of hap- hazard rainfall. The curing and transportation of fruits, and the cultivation of them as well, are greatly facilitated by a dry atmosphere. Water used in proper quantity and at proper times is found to add greatly to the quality of fruit as well as to the quan- tity, and to insure this the orchardist cannot safely depend upon the natural rainfall. I i A jw A ^- A- A Ar A Ac A A A A A A HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. A A AAA j FRUIT-GROWING IN UTAH. BY JOEL SHOMAKER. FRUIT-GROWING under proper climatic con- ditions, and with skillful management, is al- ways a paying industry. The fertile valleys of Utah offer superior inducements to the energetic horticult- urist who will plant them to fruitful trees and vines. Water, soil and climate are correctly proportioned and await the co-operation of capital and energy to trans- form the deserts into wealth producing orchards and vineyards. The mountains tower on either side of these valleys, as vigilant sentries, guarding the water- sheds and warding off the attacks of destructive bliz- zards, tornadoes and cyclones. WHAT HAS BEEN DONK. A few men of foresight and judgment have inter- preted the fingermarks of nature and grasped this op- portunity to obtain wealth and independence. In Grand county some of the most wonderful fruit pro- ductions are recorded. At Moab one man has a vine- yard of three acres from which he harvests over $3,000 worth of grapes annually. Another owns a small peach orchard, of perhaps one acre, from which lie has sold over $1,500 worth in one season. I have plucked peaches from this orchard that averaged nearly fifteen ounces each, by the basketful. Many of the finest specimens weighed over one pound each. Apples grown in this valley weigh as much as twenty- three ounces each. The quality is excellent, and wherever exhibited, this fruit sells at a premium above all imported varieties. Other fruits grow with equal prolificness. Moab is not an isolated instance of the superior ad- vantages offered fruit growers in Utah soil and climate. In Little Castle valley, another beautiful garden of the Grand river valleys, equal results have been ob- tained. Even figs and other semi-tropical fruits flour- ish and produce abundantly. Emery county produces apples, peaches, pears, grapes and small fruits that are beyond comparison with imported fruits of similar varieties. Utah county, with her luscious strawberries, delicious peaches and beautiful apples, has long since demonstrated that the State can produce an abundance of choice fruits. Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Box Elder counties are dotted with fruitful orchards, and plats of strawberries, blackberries and raspberries that never fail to yield enormous returns to their owners. The famous "Dixie Land" comprising the counties of Millard, Washington and Beaver, is known as the land of the grape. THE INDUSTRY NEGLECTED. But fruit-growing in Utah is a much neglected in- dustry. While a few men devote proper attention to the business, and reap beautiful harvests, the general application is yet in the future. Small fruit farms, of ten to twenty acres, conducted upon the proper basis, are needed to develop the country. There is no good reason why several thousand acres should not be planted to small orchards and vineyards, and made t yield $1,000 per acre,with absolute certainty,everyyear. This would insure employment to a large army of men, women and children, and add immense wealth to the territory. The field is open. The natural advantages are everywhere present. Young men, middle aged men and even old men are wasting their days at unre- munerative work while nature calls them to labor in her most prolific vineyard. POSSIBILITIES OP CHEAP LAND. Land that now produces nothing but native brush, can be purchased very cheap. Water rights in canals already constructed, cost but little in comparison with the benefits to be derived. New reservoirs and canals can be built and water secured to subdue the entire desert area. The Rio Grande Western Railway passes through what should be a perfect fruitvale, from Grand Junction to Ogden. A large majority of this area is comparatively unoccupied. The waters of the Grand, Green, Price, San Rafael and even the Jorda* rivers pass by unutilized, what should be the habita- tions of thousands of contented and wealthy fruit growers. The projectors of this road no doubt foresaw the day when the natural reservoirs of the mountains would be utilized in impounding waters, the canals and laterals would be constructed in every valley and, by the never failing powers of irrigation, the deserts would become the homes of thousands, who would be shipping choice native fruits to the east and the north, every month in the years. Such are the possibilities of every valley through which this "Little Giant" daily carries its burdens. TRY CALIFORNIA METHODS. How can this be accomplished? In the same man- ner that the great fruit growing districts of southern California have been planted. By organizing colonies of fruit growers, by planting small tracts of ten to twenty acres, as much as one man can manage, by co- operation in securing water rights, planting the treefc and vines, and marketing the products. The famous colony of Anahiem was settled by clerks, school- teachers, mechanics and others who worked at their trades or professions, and employed experienced men to plant and cultivate the vines till they were in bear- ing. When the ten-acre tracts were producing sufti cient to give a family a comfortable living the owners, who were out but a small proportion of their savings, removed to their own tracts, and have since become 18 HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 39 inde pendent of managers, directors and money sharks, who made their lives miserable while they were merely employes of others. Men and women of Salt Lake City, Ogden and cities of the East and the West, can do the same and be assured of attaining similar re- sults. Where is the land?. Within the shades of the smoke of Salt Lake City, Ogden and Prove; in sight of the railway between the Weber and the Grand rivers, and within the hearing of the fast express trains, ready to carry the products to market. Where is the water? In the snow crowned mountains, with their perpetual reservoirs, overshadowing every val- ley; in the numerous rivers rushing by, and whisper- ing gently to the enterprising fruit grower. Here am I use me; and in the vast underflow whose hidden fountains are an unknown but evident unlimited quantity. The water resources cannot be exhausted even though the entire desert area comprising hun- dreds of thousands of acres, be reclaimed and brought under cultivation. MATERIALS OP THE INDUSTRY. Native trees and vines can be purchased at the home nurseries of Salt Lake City and Ogden at reasonable rates. Implements for preparing the soil for planting are sold in the same cities. Materials for fences, farm buildings and dwelling houses are within the limits of the Territory. The railways have been con- structed for the purpose of transporting such articles. The work of clearing the land, plowing, leveling and making ready for planting can be performed every day in the year, with practically no inconvenience from heat or cold. Canals, mains and laterals for conduct- ing the water to the land and properly distributing it, can be constructed by machinery manufactured and sold in Salt Lake City. Planting of trees and vines can be done in the fall or spring with an assurance of success. RAPID GROWTH. Within three years after planting the grape v\nes will be in bearing, and the fruit will pay good divi- dends upon the investment. Two to four years later the trees will yield fruits, and where then is there a savings bank, bond investment, endowment life policy or mercantile institution that will return the interest and dividends that can be obtained from these vines and trees? In the meantime while the fruit is com- ing into bearing the cultivation of the land between the rows of trees will yield ample corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, melons and vegetables to enable the owners to live independent of wage earning. A Kan- sas farmer recently sold the fruit of a forty-acre apple orchard for $4,500 equal to ten per cent, on a value of $450 per acre and never so much as entered the orchard while the purchaser was picking the fruit. This can be dona in Utah. The market for green and dried fruit, raisins and wine is without limit. When a few hundred acres of orange trees were planted only a few years ago in what is now Riverside County, Cal., croakers began to cry overproduction, and some were anxious to sell their farms at any price to leave the country, where every person wanted to grow oranges. The total acreage in that small county now approaches 13,000, and more trees are being planted. The shipments from River- side alone in 1880 were fifteen carloads, and some peo- ple thought that the market would be overloaded. The shipments of oranges from that place in 1893 are estimated at 2,000 carloads, or 572,000 boxes, and still the market cannot be supplied. Utah soil, Utah climate, Utah water resources and Utah shipping facilities cannot be surpassed in the en- tire inter-mountain region. The fruits already pro- duced are superior to anything of similar varieties placed upon the market. Are there any reasons why Utah should not become one of the most famous fruit growing States of the West? None, exceptthe lack of enterprise, industry, co-operation and capital. FRUIT GROWERS SHOULD STAND TOGETHER. The effort now making to unite the producers of California fruit, both of the citrus and deciduous varieties, in an effective organization for the sale and distribution of their products, deserves the co-operation of every grower. The success of the organization is the indispensable condition of prosperity. The facts in the case are very simple. Fruit growing has been, and should continue to be, a profitable industry under irrigation. During the past year there has been a shrinkage in prices paid the producer entirely unwarranted by the situation. The cry of overproduction has been analyzed and fails to account for the reduction in prices. THE IRRIGA- TION AGE has been at some pains and expense to inves- tigate the matter, and finds that consumers are paying very high prices for all deciduous fruits in the East. Inquiry made by a representative of THE AGE in Cin- cinnati, Washington and Baltimore, in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and other important points, demonstrates the fact that all the dried fruits are sell- ing at from 25 to 30 cents per pound three times the average price paid the grower during the last sea- son. The cost of transportation from the point of production to the place of consumption is less than 2 cents per pound. Thus the shrinkage in prices is due neither to over- production nor to railroad extortion. It is due to a system of organized robbery devised and carried out by middlemen. They rob the producer at one end and the consumer at the other. The result is that the mar- ket demand for these products is curtailed, and that the purchasing public is compelled to get along with much less of this palatable and nutritious food than it would naturally require. In a future number THE 40 THE IRRIGATION AGE. AGE will discuss the matter in all its bearings, but it desires to say now with the strongest emphasis that fruit growers should cooperate heartily in building an organization whose agents will distribute their products, and secure to them their fair share of the price paid by the public. IRRIGATION OF SMALL FRUITS. At a recent meeting of the State Horticultural So- ciety of Indiana, the subject of irrigation was the most absorbing topic of discussion. It is only the lo- cation and not merely the fact that makes this an in- teresting circumstance. That the question should, for a momen,t engage the attention of a horticultural society in Indiana is of itself a matter of great signifi- cance. The question was not only discussed exhaust- ively in a general way but certain members recounted their late experience in the practical operations of irrigation as applied to crops of berries. One mem- ber states that a patch of blackberries near Muncie had been properly irrigated and produced an astonish- ingly heavy crop, while other patches taking their chances with the natural rainfall had dried up on the stalks and proved a conspicuous failure. In view of the experience of certain advanced growers in various parts of the State it was the sentiment of those best informed that irrigation is a practical necessity in successful berry culture in most parts of Indiana. What is true of Indiana will apply equally well to Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and several of the Mississippi Valley States. Water was applied, in the case men- tioned, by means of a pump, and the grower found, that the berries produced, by virtue of the water, this year, more than three times paid for the cost of irri- gating appliances. It is well known that in most of the States of the middle west a drouth of greater or less severity is al- most sure to occur at some time during the crop sea- son, and to provide against its blighting effects should be the care of every farmer who has land and water which may be united at the proper times without too great cost. Celery growers in Michigan have found that an irrigating plant is a necessary part of the outlay in establishing a celery farm. Even in these localities where water is only three or four feet below the sur- face, irrigating pumps moved by horse or steam power are used with great advantage. A crop of berries or vegetables which has been supplied with moisture in proper quantity and at the proper seasons is certain to develop greater uniformity of excellence than would be possible under the spasmodic weather conditions mostly obtaining during the growing season in all the older States. While cultivation may to a great extent obviate the use of much irrigating water, yet on many of the soils in the Mississippi valley no amount of cultivation will wholly avail in the absence of water. It then becomes a question of more moisture or a loss of crop. It may, therefore, upon the whole be re- garded a hopeful sign when horticulturists admit the necessity of irrigation, even if they do not regard it feasible in a given ca-,0. It is probably not too much to hope that irrigatiuu of small fruits will soon be deemed a necessity in the region under consideration, and that irrigating plants of some sort will soon be- come a permanent feature of the best-tilled farms of the Mississippi valley. THE AGE will discuss this subject in future issues and will be able to give vahi- able advice to irrigators in any part of the country. NEW CONSTRUCTION OF DESERT LAW. The register and receiver of the Santa Fe land of- fice are in receipt of special instructions from the general land office of no little moment to those who have made entries under the desert lands. Under the old act of March 3, 1887, entrymen are allowed three years to perfect their claims, but as it was amended by the law of March 3, 1891, settlers are allowed to apply to their local land office for one year's extension of time. The party making such application will be re- quired to file a sworn statement of his intention to proceed under the amendment act, showing what has been done by him toward improving the land, and set- ting out that since he has determined to proceed under this amended act he has complied with all of its pro- visions. He must also file a map showing the contem- plated plan of irrigation of the land. But when final proof is made the claimant will be required to show the expenditure of at least $3 per acre and the cultivation of one-eighth of the laud, as well as the permanent reclamation of the entire tract* A VAST POWER. An artesian well opened up at Chamberlain in South Dakota some time ago, is credited with a flow of water thrown fourteen feet above the surface, of 8,000 gallons per minute. That would constitute a pretty fair sort of small river. It is the largest in this country, and, it is believed, in the world. The one at Huron delivers 3,000 a minute, and was regarded as a big thing. Most of the artesian wells in that State are in the James valley, but Chamberlain is on the Missouri, as is Pierre, which has several fine wells. These subterranean waters seem to underlie the whole State, waiting for opening to serve its people. What that service may be in the coining century even a dreamer could not now picture. Among the earliest suggestions would be a vast power for manufacturing and mechanical purposes, then a system of irrigatioa that will render the farmers good crops every year. Northwestern Farmer. WATER POWER AND ELECTRICITY. THREE GREAT FORCES. THERE is a great work to be done in the depart- ment of water power and electricity during the next few years, and the scene of its most active devel- opment will be in the far West. Study the topog- raphy of the western half of the continent, with its mountains, valleys and streams, and it will be instantly observed that, in comparison with all other sections? this must be pre-eminently the field for expansion of cheap power harnessed to electricity and applied to the manifold uses of industrial and domestic life. Irrigation, water-power, electricity a trinity of forces with potentialities of growth whose further boundaries the wisest cannot locate, but whose tre- mendous possibilities are vaguely apprehended by all who appreciate the variety and extent of western resources. It is believed that 1894 will see substantial progress toward results in this field. THE AGE can do much to point out the location, character and ex- tent of water-power in the West, to indicate how they can be utilized with the aid of modern appliances, and to show the relation which exists between the three great industrial factors, which nature and in- rentive genius have placed in juxtaposition. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. A very vivid illustration of the possibilities of this development is furnished in the following description, from a reliable source, of what has been done at Great Falls, Mont. : "At Black Eagle falls, three miles above the town, an immense dam has been thrown across the Missouri, and hydraulic works and power houses erected. Not only are the street cars propelled and lighted by electricity from the power-houses, but they are heated as well by electric radiators placed in each car. Elevators, printing-presses, cranes, and all kinds of machinery are operated by the ubiquitous force. There are automatic excavators, electric pumps, and electric rock-crushers. A not uncommon sight on the streets is a mortar-mixer attached to an electric wire leading down from a pole. The restaurants cook by electricity, the butcher employs it to chop his sausages and hamburgher, and the grocer to grind his coffee, and so likewise does the tailor to heat his goose. The subtle fluid is a welcome blessing in every home; the housewives run their sewing machines and heat their flat-irons by electricity; they bake their cakes in wooden electric cake-ovens that can be set away on shelf like pasteboard boxes. They have electric boilers and broilers and tea-kettles. What a singular anomaly, when one pauses to think of it that of broil- ing steaks and heating flat-irons through the instru- mentality of a waterfall!" COOKING BY ELECTRICITY. The feature of this, possessing the first interest to the average household, is that which relates to the furnishing of heat for domestic purposes. Everybody is familiar now with electricity as applied to light and power, but there is still reserved the sensation of eat- ing a breakfast cooked by electricity in a room heated by electricity. A recent demonstration in New Eng- land is described as follows: "Think of an oven for this purpose so constructed that, without fire or flame, by the turning of a regu- lating switch, any desired degree of heat can be ob- tained! Through a glass window in the door of the electric oven, which is illuminated by an incandescent lamp, the contents of the baking chamber can be clearly seen. An attached thermometer gives the exact de- gree of heat in the oven. Meantime the heat which is generated close to the inner walls of the baking cham- bers, is so insulated that the nickel-plated exterior of the oven is not raised to a temperature sufficient to burn the hand. With interest and profit can the en- tire process of baking be watched and studied. Such apparatus as this bids fair to make the study of cook- ery a fascination and a delight. "The epicures who have delighted in the expiations of Mr. Edward Atkinson over the merits of his "Alad- din oven," and who have enjoyed even more, the prod- ucts of the oven itself, will take a double measure of joy when they know that the lamp used therein to maintain a prolonged, mild heat, can have substituted for it the economical, odorless electric generator, oper- ated as easily and reliably as the familiar incandescent lamp." UTAH IS ALIVE TO IT. Utah is abundantly blessed with water-power facili- ties and the recent formation at Ogden of the Pioneer Electric Power Company has created a widespread interest. The company has a capital of $1,000,000. Its objects, as set forth, are, the acquiring, storage and utilization of the waters of Ogden river for the pur- pose of deriving power therefrom, and the acquire- ment of land and the use of water for irrigation; the use of the power for manufacturing for railways, heating, lighting, and other uses, either by electric transmission or otherwise, the acquirement of fran- chises in cities and towns to operate railway lines, water and power plants, heating, lighting, etc.; the business of operating said plants and the sale of power to other corporations or individuals and the use of the water for irrigation, domestic and other uses. 41 THE MAKING OF COLONIES. THE INDISPENSABLE COLONIST. one branch of irrigation promotion with which the managers of enterprises have not suc- cessfully grappled is that of finding colonists to settle their lands. And this is the indispensable require- ment, too. The stream may be diverted, the canal built, the water brought to the corner of the farm, but unless there is then a settler to apply that water to the land and develop the possibilities of the soil with his brains and brawn, the enterprise cannot realize the hopes of its projectors. There are many irrigation projects scattered all over the West that illustrate the importance of this missing link in the chain of devel- opment. WHERE THE TROUBLE LIES. There are numerous reasons for the difficulty thus far experienced in the colonization of irrigated lands. The first and foremost is that the great public, at home and abroad, from which settlers must be drawn has not yet been brought to understand the strong attrac- tions of the irrigated farm. Not one man in ten per- haps not one in a hundred of the millions in the East has the slightest comprehension of the deep eco- nomic significance of irrigation. The subject is new to all except the people of the "West, themselves. There must be a widespread and general appreciation of the subject before colonists will move readily to the new West. The second great reason lies in the fact that pro- moters of irrigation projects have not themselves grasped the real meaning of irrigation as it affects in- dustrial and social life. With few exceptions, they have not planned model colonies, or sought to show their settlers how to achieve the best results of the small farm. There are those who rail at the " men of song and story," who insist on the necessity of making the very best use of all the opportunities and lifting the irrigated farm and the town which serves as its center to the very highest available standard. And yet the matter is really not open to dispute. Brigham Young planned, with his capacious brain, a scheme of industrial prosperity for his followers. They suc- ceeded. The founders of Greeley insisted on the best standards for everything; the colony-builders of Southern California did likewise, and distinguished success came to them all. Now, there are in Utah, Colorado and California, to-day, large irrigation plants whose managers ignored these examples and simply threw their lands upon the market and left the settlers to plan for themselves. They have the same soil, cli- mate and other conditions as the examples referred to, but thus far they have not succeeded in transmuting their water and land into that hard cash that measures the finalj[result.'f Argue as long as you please, and these[facts will still stand out as plain as the sun at noonday. PROMOTE THE IDEA. Those who are interested in having irrigated lands speedily colonized with a good class of people have two duties. The first is to give hearty support to whatever will bring home the irrigation idea to the country and the world. Let them study the article published elsewhere on the irrigation propaganda and resolve to stand by the organization that has it in hand. Let them have no foolish fears about the effects of the Los Angeles declaration concerning water owner- ship and the desert land law. Those principles are eternally right and the men of the West God bless 'em! are going to see that they prevail, but they will not affect the present owners of irrigated lands in any way whatever, except favorably. Money has never been made out of the sale of water in the long run. Nowhere has it been possible to "sell water" for more than it has cost to deliver it. Money is made from the sale of land, and if the present movement makes less easy the acquirement of arid public lands in large tracts it will have a favorable influence upon the sale of lands already reclaimed. Owners of irrigated lands have everything to gain from this organized movement to arouse the country to the possibilities of anew civilization. They should back that movement with their money and their brains. If they do they will find it easier to sell their land one year hence than they do to-day, and very much easier in two, three and five years than in one. WORK OUT MODEL PLAN8. The second great duty of land owners is to assist in making 1894 a notable year in the development of attractive colonies. The leaders of irrigation thought will do the preaching with pen and tongue, but the proprietors of land and water enterprises must furnish the practical illustration of what can be done on small farms under irrigation. They should vie with each other in making plans that will attract men and women from the wornout farms of the East and the semi-starvation belt of the middle West, from the fac- tory, the counting-room and the Government depart- ments. THE AGE will gladly give space for the description of these plans. Irrigation philosophy is certain to occupy large attention during the coming year, but irrigation practice can be made to keep step with it if progressive companies realize the responsi- bility that rests upon them and the benefits they may realize from the performance of it. MtjtfkjCkjriBkjtkj I .:ak Jtk j^k-nttic Jfc. Jk J**K. jAt JSbulik^rfk .uttnr Jfc jflK.jHr.jBk PUBLISHER'S DEPARTMENT. I LOOKING FOR A HOME IN KERN DELTA COLONIES. A N eastern man recently wrote to a friend * *- traveling in California concerning the chances for settlers in the Kern Delta Colonies, and received the following instructive reply: SAN FRANCISCO, December 15, 1893. LORIN JOHNSON, EUREKA, ILL. : MY DEAR SIR: I just returned from Bakers- field, Kern county, and other places in the San Joaquin Valley, where I have been investigat- ing the prospects for establishing a colony in accordance with our plans made before I left Illinois. I have met a great many people who are familiar with the prices of irrigated lands and the profits derived therefrom in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and all parts of California. BAKERSFIELD. Bakersfield, the seat of Kern county, is about 300 miles south of San Francisco on the South- ern Pacific Railroad, and nearly 200 miles morth of Los Angeles. It is near the head of the great San Joaquin Valley, and this valley, as I wrote you before, is nearly one-fourth as large as the entire State of Illinois. There is no doubt but there will be another railroad built to this place soon and a canal will ere long extend from Stockton toward Bakersfield, thus giving good shipping facilities for the product raised in this county. The climate since my arrival here has been such a contrast to the climate of Illinois during this season of the year that I much prefer remaining here until next spring. Bakersfield is a new town about five years old, but they have much better build- ing than any county seat I have seen in Illinois It is the most important one now be- tween Fresno and Los Angeles, and many think that it will in ten years be the largest town in the great San Joaquin. Valley. KERN DELTA LANDS. I took a ride over the lands of the Kern County Laud Company and was surprised to find such a large body of fertile soil located in such a genial climate still unimproved, while there are thousands of families in Illinois who work hard through six months of the year in order to produce enough to keep them during the winter. Here the farmers can work almost every day in the year. They have no dread of severe winters, nor does the soil require so much cultivation in order to produce a good crop, as a large amount of the Illinois land does that has been cultivated for twenty years or longer. Then the farmer or fruit grower in Kern county has no fear that he will not have a sufficient amount of rain during the spring months to give his crops a good start. Neither does he worry about the excessive rain during the summer months to destroy the crop when he is harvesting it. He simply controls the water question by turning the necessary amount from the ditches when the growing crops need water and turning it off when they have a sufficient amount. If our friends who were first opposed to locating on irrigated land could spend one day here in harvest time and see the farmers cutting their grain in one field while in the adjoining vineyards and orchards the water was running down the furrows to irrigate the vines and trees, they would soon learn the advantages of irrigation and what a poor substitute rain is when compared with the artificial application of water to all crops produced by the farmers. FROM THE SETTLER'S STANDPOINT. Now in regard to locating in Kern county, I find that we can purchase land here at from $60 to $100 per acre, depending on the location and surroundings. If any of our friends prefer leasing lands until they dispose of land in Illi- nois, or until they are thoroughly satisfied with the prospects in Kern county, they can obtain them by paying seven per cent, on this valua- tion. When ready to purchase they can obtain the land by paying one-fourth cash and the re- mainder in three, four and five years at the rate 43 LOOKING FOR A HOME IN THE KERN DELTA COLONIES. mentioned. Now, you know that in Illinois the man who rents hay land obtains one-third of the crop for harvesting it. In Kern county they get five crops of hay each year from their irri- gated lands, which is worth from $5 to $10 per ton, and the land produces about two tons per acre at each cutting. ' So you will see by leasing hay land here and paying therefor from $4 to $7 per acre that the first crop will bring enough money to pay the lease and the other four crops will be for profit after deducting expenses. This land will produce from forty to sixty bushels of wheat per acre though it was difficult for me to believe at first that this statement was true, but after such inquiry I failed to find a farmer who doubted this statement. Peaches, prunes, apri- cots, pears, etc. , do well here. All these will pay expenses of cultivation the third year from setting, and in this genial climate, where they are never injured by frosts or severe winters, they will bear from fifteen to twenty good crops worth from $200 to $300 per acre. You are aware that in the eastern and north- ern States a peach orchard does not commence bearing before it is five years old and seldom bears more than two full crops during its life. This will explain to our friends why lands in California sell for higher prices than land in Illinois. The usual price for peach trees for setting is 15 cents each, though in large quan- tities they can be purchased for less money. Many successful fruit growers in this State pro- vide for drying their own fruit, as by so doing they keep whatever profit there is in preparing the fruit for market and can also hold it until the price is satisfactory. This is an important matter to understand when planting an orchard, so that one can purchase the best varieties of trees. For instance, if a man is going to plant a peach orchard and intends to dry the fruit himself, he should purchase from four to six varieties of peach trees which ripen at different times, say a week or ten days apart. The first saving in this will be found in the fact that he will need to invest only about one-fourth of the money in trays or boxes as he would if the fruit should all ripen at one time. Then he will not need to employ more than one-fourth as maay hands to help care for the fruit as if he only raised one variety, and can therefore hire hands at a more reasonable rate than as if he needed a large number of them for only a week or so WHAT LAND WILL EARN. I find that dried peaches vary in price from 5 to 15 cents a pound at the railroad stations, depending on the amount of fruit raised in the eastern States. You know that two good crops in succession there is not a common occurrence, so that when the crops in the East are light, or almost a total failure, as this year, the profits from growing fruit in California is enormous. Dried peaches at 10 cents per pound here will yield a profit to the grower varying from $150 to $200 per acre when the trees are five or six years old. From interviews with fruit growers who have farmed in Illinois I learn that they would sooner raise peaches here and sell them dried at 5 cents a pound than to raise corn in Illinois and feed to hogs at 5 cents a pound. The profits realized from growing prunes, apri- cots and many other products in the San Joa- quin valley is about the same, so far as I have been able to learn, as those realized from peaches. Now I have endeavored to investigate quite thoroughly the value of lands in the various parts of California, and the profits derived there- from, and I am now thoroughly convinced that Kern county offers the best inducements for our people that can be found in California, and I am pleased with almost the entire State. I shall remain here until the middle of January as I desire to attend the Mid Winter Fair be- fore returning home, so if there is any further information you desire please address me at San Francisco, and I will endeavor to furnish the desired information. With kindest regards to all, and hoping that we may spend next winter on our Kern coumty farms, I remain, very truly, AL. J. MILLER. MISCELLANEOUS. Trust of CAPITAL PAID UP $700,000. OFFICES: Bank Block, Deliver. I Gibraltar Building, Kansas City. Crawford Building, Topeka. | Provident Building, Philadelphia. John R. Mulvane. T. B. Sweet, voab Mulvane. DIRECTORS : Geo. M. tfoble. Henry Taylor. H. C. Flower. Frank J. Baird. N. R. Ferguson. H. J. Page. REAL ESTATE LOANS NEGOTIATED. FtRST-CLASS IRRIGATION BONDS A SPECIALTY. A GREAT BARGAIN. A rare change to obtain one of the Best Stock and Grain Ranches in the famous San Luis Valley. I offer iny entire ranch, containing 1120 acres In one body, well stocked with high grade horses and cattle, including a fine Percheron Stallion, together with all necessary farm imple- ments and tools, at a very low price and on easy terms. Ranch diTided into ten fields, with good wire fences. Over 1800 rods f permanent irrigating dltafaes. Four hundred acres under plow, remainder in native grass. Three dwelling houses on the place, and stabling for 26 head of horses. Granary capacity 000 bushels. Creek runs through the entire tract. Artesian water in abundance. Stone, timber and saw mills near by. Nine miles from the flourishing temperance town of Monte- vista, school and church privileges accessible. Correspondence solicited. This notice will not appear again. Montevista, Colorado, Oct. 17, 1893. C. A. POUND. TREES! TREES! 5OO,OOO Of tbe finest trees on earth at bed rock prices. 5OO for $5O.OO, including Big Red Apples, Plums, Prunes, Pears, Peaches, Cherries, Apricots, Nectar- ines, etc., etc. Clean, thrifty and beautiful trees on whole roots, guaranteed to arrive in prime condition and to give perfect satisfaction. Catalogue free. Write for special prices on carload lots. Address: NORTH-WESTERN NURSERY, Walla Walla, Wash. Telephone 33. C. L. WHITNEY, Prop. THE DTBBO COUNTY EXDHflNBE OF ROCKY FORD, COLO. The largest institution of the kind in the West. Have con- stantly on hand hi large amounts, all kinds and ages of Cattle, Horses, Mules. Hogs, Poultry, Sheep, Fine and Graded Bucks and Bulls of all classes. Nursery goods (Colorado grown), alfalfa seed, hay, gram and all kinds of seeds and farm products. Can put up 5000 good *ade steers, different ages, spring delivery. Also 5000 acres best improved and unimproved lands in the State of Colorado, located in Otero County, under the best canals in the State; for sale cheap or trade for cattle, in lots to suit purchasers. The Otero County Exchange * not a commission house, but buys everything in large quan- tities and sells at small profits. W. E. ANDERSON, Prop. j[ZUSA TiLLEL CALIFORNIA. The home of the orange and lemon. Lies in the foot hills of the Sierra Madre Mountains, 2t miles from Los Angeles. Orange and lemon groves in full bearing. $800 per acre. Abundance of water. Unimproved lands, $200 per acre. For full particulars call on or address HENRY C. ROBERTS, AZUSA, CALIFORNIA. THE BEST LINE TO LINCOLN, OMAHA, CHICAGO, KANSAS CITY, ST. JOSEPH, ST. LOUIS AND DEADWOOD IS J3urlirvgton Route. Through Trains composed of Magnificent Pullman Sleepers, Free Reclining Chair Cars and World-Famous Dining Cars leave Denver every day in the year for Eastern Cities. J.FRANCIS, G. P. &T.A., OMAHA, NEB. E. E. WALKER, General Agent, 30 W. Second South St. SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. |6"LONG RANGE TELESCOPE. NO.1 $25.00 No. 2 20.00 No. 3 10.00 Target and Rod Free with Each. FOR Farmers, Ditchers, litigators. Do you Grade, or Drain, or Irrigate ? If so, you need this Level. Most Simple, Durable, Accurate, the Best. Recommended by hundreds who have used it, and some of whom you doubtless know. Their names and addresses, with full descriptive price list and illustrated catalogue sent free oa application to parties who mention this paper. Address CO., Tsxelcaon., l^lola.. Mention The Age. MISCELLANEOUS. D ENYER AND RIO GRANDE R,R, ...SCENIC LINE OF THE WORLD... The ONLY Line running Two Through Fast Trains DAILY to DENVER. PUEBLO & COLORADO SPRINGS. Through Pullman and Tourist Sleepers. Close connections make for all points east with the " FAST FiiYBBS" via the "Burlington," "Kock Island" and "Mis- souri Pacific" Railways. The equipment is elegant, new and comfortable, surpassing that of all others. The scenery on the Denver & Rio Grande is the grandest* and most beautiful in the world. A. 8. HUGHES, W. J. SHOTWELL, Traffic Manager. General Agent, Denver, Colo. Salt Lake City, Utah. 8. K. HOOPER, G. P. df T. A., Denver, Colo. "THE BEST IS THE CHEAPEST." Vitrified Pipe. THE ONLY PERMANENT WATER PIPE. Our Sales in South Oalif ruia in Two Years 200 Miles. L. A, SEWEE PIPZ ASSOCIATION, 248 South Broadway, LOS ANGELES. 10 DAYS FREE TRIAL HIGH in your own home. First-class ewing Machines shipped any- here to anyone in any quan- tity at wholesale prices. a NO HONEY REQUIRED loADVANCI ' We PAY the Freight. i 6O "Kenwood" 934.50 1 55 '-Kenwood" 822.50 ;I5O "Arlington" 2O.50 45 "Arlington" 818.50 27 other styles including * Standard Singers at 9.5O, = 5*15.5O, 817.5O. Fullsel nickel plated attachment* *,. Latest Improvements. Self-setting needle Self-threading shuttle and automatic bobbin winder. Adapted for light and heavy work. Buy of the manufacturers and save agents and dealers large profits. Send at once for catalogue and testimonials free. Address (in full) CASH BUYERS' UNION, 168-164 W. Van Buren St.. Dept. 31, Chicago, III AVER'S SARSAPARILLA HAS CURED OTHlRT Will CURE YOU - A Bright Lad, Ten years of age, but who declines to give hi* name to the public, makes this authorized, confidential statement to us : "When I was one year old, my mamma died of consumption. The doctor said that I, too, would soon die, and all our neighbors thought that even if I did not die, I would never be able to walk, because I was SO' weak and puny. A gathering formed and broke under my arm. I hurt my finger and it gathered and threw out pieces of bone. If I hurt myself so as to break the skin, it was sure to become a running sore. I had to take lots of medicine, but nothing has done me so much good as Ayer'a Sarsapa- rilla. It has made me well and strong/' T. D. M., Norcatur, Kans. AVER'S Sarsaparilla Prepared by Dr. J. C. Ayer & Co., Lowell, Man. Oures others, will cure you Scientific American Agency for CAVEATS, TRADE MARKS, DESIGN PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, etc. For information and free Handbook write to MUNN & CO., 361 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. Oldest bureau for securing patents In America. Every patent taken out by us is brought before the public by a notice given free of charge in the Largest circulation of any scientific paper In the world- Splendidly illustrated. No intelligent man should be without it. Weekly, 83.OO a year; fl.SOsix months. Address MUNN & CO, 301 Broadway, New York City. Mention The Age. MISCELLANEOUS, THE "BOSS" TREE PROTECTOR PROTECT YOUR CROWING TREES FROM RABBITS, SQUIRRELS, GOPHERS, FROST, SUNBURN, GRASSHOPPERS, HIGH WINDS. Made of Yuc a Palm; Strong, Durable, Cheap and Guaranteed to give Per- fect Satisfaction. We Make All Sizes. Send for Sample, Free. 18 inch long, $12.50 per thousand. 30 inch long, 17.50 per thousand. 24 inch long, $15.00 per thousand. 36 inch long, 2O.OO per thousand. Agents Wanted Everywhere. NOVELTY MANUFACTURING CO., Third Street, Near Santa Fe R. R., Los Angeles, Cal. MORE THINGS GROW IN THE PECOS VALLEY The Fruit Belt of New Mexico, than are dreamed of in our philosophy. We mention only a few. NAME OP GROWER. ADDRESS. SAMPLE. WEIGHT. REMARKS. J T Stone Roswell, N. M Watermelon 74 Ibs. Length, 24 in. Circumference, 41 in. Ficsher Bros Eddy, N. M Watermelon 45 Ibs. Grown on new ground. Julian Smith Eddy, N. M Watermelon 48^ Ibs. Alfred Necker Eddy, N. M Silver Squash .... 70K Ibs. Grown on new ground. Julian Smith Eddy, N. M Calico Squash .... 60 Ibs. C. F. Bassett Eddy, N. M Sweet Potato 5 Ibs. 10 oz. Grown on new ground. I. T. Franks . ... Eddy, N. M Sugar Beet 9J^ Ibs. E. S Motter Eddy, N. M Sugar Beet 17)4 Ibs. Grown on new ground. , All these things and hundreds of others equally large now on exhibition in Eddy. ...COME . AND . SEE . THEM... The Procession is Filing in Daily. You should be in it. Send for Handsomely Illus- trated Book. PEDOS IRRIGRTIDN HND imPBOVEDlBNT CO., -_ EDDY, NEW MEXICO. HAT, GRAIN AND SEEDS. Alfalfa a Specialty. T. C. ARMSTRONG, 472 W. Second South, EAGLE BRAND THE BEST O F m I 3XT Gr . Is unequaled for Houses, Barn, Factory or Out-Buildings and costs half the price of shingles, tin or iron. It is ready for use, and easily applied by any one. Send stamp for samples, and state size of roof. Please mention this Journal. SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Mention The Age. EXCELSIOR PAINT AND PROOFING CO., 155 Duane Street, New York City, New York. RAILROADS OF ARID AMERICA. EAST WEST NORTH SOUTH Via the SOLID VESTIBULE TRAINS Pullman's Latest DRAWING-ROOM SLEEPERS to St. Louis, New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Sam Fra- cisco. DINING CARS. FREE CHAIR CARS. The Union Pacific System has been selected by the Government to cary its Overland Mails on Fast Trains, thus insuring to Passengers Safety, Speed and Comfort. Winter Tours to California and the Sunny South. GEORGE ADY, General Agent, 1703 Larimer Street, Denver, Colorado. S. H. H. CLARK, President. E. DICKINSON, General Manager. E. L. LOMAX, General Passenger Agent. The only Standard Gauge Route penetrating the heart of the Rocky Mountains. RIO GRAND WESTERN RAIIWAY The only Line passing directly through Salt Lake City to and from the Pacific Coast. Situated on this line, awaiting settlement, are Homes for Millions of People in a Land Fair and Rich. Offering passengers the choice of three routes through the Rocky Mourn tains, the scenery of either being the marvel of two continents. Running solid trains between Denver, Pueblo and Colorado Springs, au