T - fu &fa(&^ THE IRRIGATION AGE VOL. XIII. L\ oo CHICAGO, OCTOBER, 1898. NO. 1. PROGRESS OF WESTERN flMERlCfi. The National There is nothing that has Irrigation done more to further the Congress. cause of irrigation than the National Irrigation Congress: no more potent factor can be found for bringing the benefits of the system before the pub- lic and arousing congress to the need of legislative measures in its behalf than the annual meetings of this body. A few short years ago irrigation was a word sel- dom heard outside of a few states- and the m was considered to belong as exclu- sively to the state of Utah as did Mormon- ism. But surely, though slowly, (thanks to the Congress) the knowledge of the benefits of the system is now being spread throughout the country. Recognizing the benefits of the Congx-ess it is with sincere pleasure that the AGE, as an exponent and upholder of the irrigation movement, chronicles the meeting of the seventh an- nual session of the National Irrigation Congress. Cheyenne succeeded in cap- turing the Congress this year, and on September 1. 2, and 3 those interested in the reclamation and settlement of the arid lands, the preserva- tion of our forests, and the many kindred topics which hinge upon the great princi- ple of irrigation, met a hearty welcome from Cheyenne citizens. The meeting was a success. A very encouraging sign was that every officer of the association was present and that thirty states were repre- sented by delegates, also fraternal dele- gates were present from the governments of Canada and Mexico. A serious wash- Cheyenne the City. out on the railroad prevented many from reaching Cheyenne until Saturday — the last day of the convention, too late to par- ticipate in any of the discussions. The Objects The objects of the Irrigation of the Congress— to formulate plans Congress. for reclaiming and settling the arid lands of the West, to arouse the interest of the public in the irrigation movment and to present to Congress the need of government aid in carrying out the plans proposed— is furthered by these annual meetings. The most skillful engi- neers, the men interested in the economic problems of the country, the farmers, leg- islators, writers, are all brought together to discuss questions of vital interest to the public. The papers read are an education to those so fortunate as to hear them, and we hope at some future time to present some of them at least to our readers. An important feature of the Col. Maxon's recent session was the report Report. oj £0j g B Maxon, mem- ber of the committee appointed by the Lincoln congress to go to Washington. This report, which was given the second day of the convention,— read that the com- mittee had succeeded in framing a bill which secured the support of the House Committee on Arid Lands. This bill pro- vides that states taking advantage of the Carey law shall have ten years from the date " of final segregation to reclaim. The state may file through a local land office for temporary segregation for a. period of four months. Failure to file maps and plans within this period works a THE IRRIGATION AGE. A Firm Friend. forfeiture of the effort. Upon final segre- gation, the desert character of the land will be held to be finally settled. Both Congressman Shaforth and Jenkins waived the right to push their individual bills in support of the committee bill, but since the war with Spain the whole matter has lain in abeyance. The report received the enthusiastic ap- plause of the Congress arid the committe received hearty thanks for the manner in which its duties had been performed. The Congress has one firm friend in the "high places" in Secretary Bliss of the Inter- ior Department. Recognizing the fact that preservation of our forests is depend- ant in a great measure upon irrigation, he is a staunch upholder of the latter cause and President Carey, as well as the mem- bers of Congress realize how much they are indebted to him for the good work he has done in their behalf. The resolutions proposed by Resolutions Geo H Maxwell, of Califor- Adopted. . , . , , , . nia, which were embraced in his article "Annex Arid America," ap- pearing in the September number of the AGE, were adopted by the Congress. These comprise the resolutions of the Phoenix Irrigation Congress — "Arid Land . Reclamation" and "Conditional State - Cession;" resolution of the Lincoln Con- gress, "United Ownership of Land and Water;" the endorsement of the Chitten- den report on Federal storage reservoirs and the endorsement of recommendation of Elwood Mead as to the leasing of the grazing lands. The Congress showed its ap- preciation of President Car- ey's work in the past by re- electing him president of the body for the coming year. The other officers elected were: Dr. S. B. Young, first vice-presi- dent; S. A. Cochran, South Dakota, sec- ond vice-president; S. M. Knox, Illinois, third vice-president; O. E. Cutcheon, Michigan, national lecturer; G. H. Max- well, California, assistant national lec- turer; Frank Bond, Wyoming, press clerk. The Next R> M' Tansill> of Eddy> New Annual Mexico, made a strong and Session. witty plea for Eddy, as the place for the next session of the Irrigation Officers Elected. ( 'ongress, claiming that an irrigation con vention should meet where its members might see irrigation in practical operation, and that Eddy, in the Pecos Valley, New Mexico, would afford such an opportunity. As New Mexico had entertained the con- vention but a few years ago, Mr. Tansill's plea was disregarded and Montana selected' as the state in which to hold the eighth annual session, the city to be decided upon by the executive committee. This com- mittee will consist of the following men for the ensuing year: H. L. Kellogg, Col- orado; S. M. Knox, Illinois: J. H. Church- hill, Kansas: R. W. Silvester, Maryland: Thomas Knight, Missouri: J. D. O'Don- nell, Montana; M. M. McCutcheon, Mich- igan; T. G. Frost, Minnesota; M. Dough- erty. Nebraska: H. B. Maxson, Nevada: S. N. Smith, South Dakota; H. McClin- tock, Arizona; Judge Shurtliff, Utah. Who has The war with Spain is over, Broad Shoul- but there is still quite a little ders? "fight" going on between the commanders and the department heads, and an effort is being made to place the blame for the gross mismanagement of the recent campaign where it justly be- longs. That there was mismanagement and mistakes that amount to almost crim- inal carelessness, is generally conceded, but it is not definitely known whether one man or many will have to shoulder the bur- den of public disfavor. That there were too many "tin soldiers" put in as officers on account of political pulls and that in- competency, which cost many a poor pri- vate his life, was the result, none can dis- pute, and the essayist who tied his article on the "Late War" with red tape instead of blue ribbon, knew what was appropri- ate to the occasion. There are thousands of people who sym- pathize most heartily with the sentiments of Rev. N. Couden, of Michigan, the blind chaplain of the House of Representatives, "In my judgment," said he, "this whole trouble in our camps and army has arisen out of the 'incompetency of many of the officers: not that they did not want to help their men, but because they did not know how to do it. One great trouble I think has come from taking too many officers out of the various militia organizations and putting them on the same footing as THE IRRIGATION AGE. regulars. They are theoretical officers and when they come to put their theories into practice they failed abominably." Farther on he makes the statement to which every loyal American will respond "Amen": "It is simply criminal for an officer to allow his men to go hungry when he is within reach of rations. Red tape or no red tape, the American soldier should not go without food. If I were a com- manding officer I would break open cars if necessary to obtain the provisions with which to feed my men.'' Secretary Alger has been severely cen- sured by the press, whether altogether de- servedly or not we leave for the investiga- ting committee to determine, but his friends in Ohio are loyal and will not hear him blamed. An amusing incident oc- curred during the G. A. R. convention at Cincinnati, which recalls the old story of Patrick Henry, who in speaking of tyrants mentioned the name of George III, when a voice interrupted with the cry of ''Trea- son;" "And Geo. Ill may profit by their example. If that be treason make the most of it!" concluded the witty Irishman. Gov., Pingree, of Michigan, in a speech at the G. A. R. camp fire. Sept 7, was quite vehement in his criticism of the manage- ment of the Spanish- American war. and after citing several instances of bad man- agement said: "If Secretary Alger " he could go no further. The friends of Alger. thinking some disparaging allusion was about vto be made concerning him. hissed and hooted Gov. Pingree until he was compelled to withdraw. After quiet had been restored the chairman finished the sentence, which the audience would not suffer the Governor to finish, reading as follows:— "If Secretary Alger had been given full power, such things would never have happened." And with the audience who hissed it was a case of being "sorry that they spoke." ., In the November issue the Departure. IRRIGATION AGE will give the first instalment of a series of articles on the banking methods of our own and foreign countries. , This does not come strictly within the sphere of this journal, but it is a matter of such vital importance to every person — no matter in what section of the countrv he resides or what his occupation may be— that we feel justified in devoting space to the subject) upon which too many are grossly ignor- ant. Besides being instructive, these arti- cles will be very interesting, tracing the banking system from its inception, years before the Christian era, to the pres- ent time, with the attendant evils. The author, Mr. Geo. J. E. Mayer, has given a great deal of time and study to this subject and as a result of his labor is prepared to give the names of the 400 na- tional banks that have failed within the past few years, together with the reasons of their failures and the amount of money depositors lost thereby. The figures may all be relied upon as Mr. Mayer has taken them from reliable statistics. The author's aim in writing on this sub- ject, is to bring before the public the nec- essity of legislation to remedy the evils of the banking system. This has already been considerably agitated, but not as re- gards the security to depositors, and on Feb. 16th, 1898, the House passed a bill regulating the manner in which loans should be made, or in other words, a bill "to better control and to promote the safety of national banks," but mentions naught about securing depositors against loss in case a bank does fail. The re- port of the comptroller showed that 90 per cent of the national bank failures were due to the appropriation of the bank's funds by its officers. With such a large percentage to the credit of depositors compared to the stock capital in a bank, there is no wonder that legislators began to realize that something must be done to secure them against loss when banks fail. The bill above mentioned proTides that "no national bank shall make a loan to the president or any other officer or employe of the bank until such officer or employe has submitted the proposition for the loan in writing to the directors and it has been approved by a majority of them, and in no case shall the loan exceed the amount permitted by law." A bill, simi- lar to this, has twice passed the House and once passed the Senate with an amendment, but was there "pigeon-holed to die." Judge Walter Q. Gresham. Gen'l. Jno. C. Black and ex-Congressman Coffeen, of THE IRRIGATION AGE. Wyoming, et al, have expressed themselves as in favor of protecting depositors in case of bank failures, and have so declared themselves to Mr. Mayer. We are confident that all oui readers will appreciate and approve this new de- parture and we give this notice so that all may secure the first article of the series. On the tenth of this month Rio Grande , Irrigation. tne case °* tne United States Government against the Rio Grande Dam and Irrigation Co. will come up for trial before the Federal Supreme Court. It is about two years since the first injunction was filed against this com- pany, and in June, 1887. the case was tried before Judge Bantz, of the Territorial District Court, who dismissed with costs the injunction against the Company. The Government appealed the case to the Territorial Supreme Court and the ruling was again in favor of the company. The third trial will now come up before the Federal Supreme Court. This case has attracted so much atten- tion on both -sides of the Atlantic (for English capital is the basis of the Rio Grande Company) and the decision will be of such vital importance to dwellers in the Rio Grande district, that a paper on the subject is pertinent and we therefore call the attention of our readers to the article in this issue entitled "Rio Grande Irriga- tion," by Nathan E. Boyd, M. D.. which gives a concise history of the Company from its formation to the present time. The headline in a Honolulu One of Us paper which reads "Santiago Must Be Ours," has furnished material for many newspaper witticisms. The eagerness Hawaii showed to "put his feet under the table and become one of us" as evinced by the pronoun "ours" causes one exchange to remark jocularly: "That's right, sonny; wipe your feet and come right in and take a seat at the table. Uncle Sam is not fond of diffident chil- dren." But in spite of the jokes there is probably not one who does not like that assumption of joint authority, that readi- ness to regard himself as one of Uncle Sam's family which is displayed in the headline, and it argues well for the fu- ture of the newly adopted child. Santi- ago is ours, Hawaii, not yours or mine but ours, and may the interest and enthus- iasm manifested by you at this early date in your adopted country never grow less We have recently heard a The Dreyfus great deal about Spanish "honor" and now the Dreyfus case is sheddidg light upon French "honor.'' The ideas of the two countries are somewhat similar on this subject. Col. Henry confessed that he committed the forgery that convicted Dreyfus, but claimed that he did it because the proof against Dreyfus was absolutely necessary to maintain the honor and glory of the French army. These views of "honor" are a bit startling to us Americans; as we do not consider forgery and suicide neces- sary to preserve our honor. The Dreyfus case would do credit to the injustice of the middle ages, and that such a proceed- ing could occur in this day and age is shocking. Newspaper report has it that France is on the brink of a revolution, due to these recent disclosures. Well, as the Syracuse Standard aptly remarks "Tragedy and Justice go hand in hand in France." The St. Louis Republican is of the opinion that "It would never do for France to dis- band her armies so long as the Dreyfus case is unsettled and Zola uncaptured." Facts Little islands that we hardly About Porto knew were on the map, have R'co- acquired great interest for us since the war. Possession often en- hances the value of an article and so in thi? case the fact that Porto Rico is ours, causes us to have a respectful interest for the little blotch of yellow on the map, that represents now a part of Uncle Sam's do- main. In view of this suddenly acquired interest in the little island, we read with attention the report of A. P. Austin, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Treasury De- partment, in regard to Porto Rico. "As a delightful winter resort, a valuable tropical garden and an important strategic point, Porto Rico is a valuable acquisition to the people and government of the United States," is the view expressed by Mr. Austin after a brief visit to the island. "It must not be expected," he continues, "that so small an island can become a large factor in supplying the $250,000,000 worth of tropical productions which th THE IRRIGATION AGE. people of the United States annually con- sume, or that it can absorb a very large percentage of the $1,200,000,000 worth of our annual productions — smaller in area than the state of Connecticut and with a population less than that of the city of Brooklyn, it may not be able to meet the somewhat extravagant expectations which enthusiastic people have formed with ref- erence to it." The island is mountain- ous from center to circumference and as the 1,000,000 people who occupy its 3.760 square miles of territory have most of the available soil under cultivation, it will not offer many inducements to the homeseeker. Coffee, sugar, and tobacco are the principal exports, and agriculture is carried on in a very primitive manner. Of the natives it may truthfully be said "Man wants but little here below.'' for they have no idea of luxury. Mr. Austin says that !>A little rice, a very little flour, a few beans and plenty of bananas, plan- tain, breadfruit and vegetables satisfy their physical necessities, a few yards of cotton cloth for the adults and nothing for the chidren meet their principal re- quirements for clothing, while a few rough boards and a plentiful supply of plantain and palm leaves supply the material for the humble dwellings throughout the in- terior and in many of the villages.'' Ed- ucation is. naturally, not of a very high order. Spanish is the principal language spoken, though the French settlers retain their own language and there are a few English-speaking people in the towns. As a compliment to the "change of owner- ship" one of the two daily newspapers published in Ponce prints one page 'in English. It is mostly extracts from our constitution and biographical sketches of our great men. Porto Rico will offer attractions to Am- ericans who are seeking a health resort or who desire a pleasurable winter resort, and with Cuba and Hawaii will help fur- nish a great share of our tropical imports and enable us to expend our money among our own possessions. Another Sept. 2 marked the passing Pioneer away of another Mormon pio- Gone. neer— Wilford Woodruff, pres- ident of the Mormon church. He was 91 years of age and had been a Mormon for sixty-five years, being one of the orig- inal 147 pioneers who reached Salt Lake Valley in 1847. He was beloved by all his people and the many thousands who at- tended his funeral services proved the es- teem in which he was held. It is thought that Lorenzo Snow will succeed him as president of the church. It is a curious fact that New England, the home of Puri- tanism, furnised to Mormonism three of its four leaders, Joseph Smith and Brig- ham Young were from Connecticut, while Woodruff was born in Vermont. The Czar's peace manifesto The Czar's ^as occasioned much comment. Manifesto. „., ., ., , , . While the press as a whole is inclined to regard it as something that should be hailed by all humane persons as •'one of those flashings of light out of darkness which renew faith in God and man and the beneficient increasing pur- pose which runs through the ages,'' there is here and there a cynical editor who thinks that the czar's desire for peace is something after this fashion: Russia — I will build a great battleship. England — I will build two. Russia— I will build four great battle- ships. England — I will build eight. Russia. — Let us have peace. The fact that British imports Our Foreign into the United states have fallen off greatly in the past year while American exports to Great Britain have greatly increased has been announced from time to time during the year, but the full year's figures, just pre- sented by the Treasury Bureau of Statis- tics, brings to the surface some interesting details not heretofore published. These show that while the exports from the United States to the United Kingdom have incr eased 1 12 percent, the imports from the United Kingdom have fallen off 35 per cent. The exports from the United States to the United Kingdom during the past year were in round numbers five times as much as the imports from the United Kingdom, the figures of the Bureau of Satistics being: Imports from the United Kingdom, $109,138,365; Exports to the United Kingdom $540,860.152. The most decided decrease of imports from the United Kingdom to this country THE IRRIGATION AGE. has been in woolen tissues, worsted tissues, tin plates and sheets, jute manufactures, and linen manufactures, the import of the first in 1898 being only one-sixth of what it was in 1896; the second, one-fourth of what it was. and the imports of tin plates and sheets one-half of what it was in 1896. In our exports to the United Kingdom the most decided gain has been in oats, of which almost five times as much is exported now as in 1896; wheat, which has almost doubled, and unwrought copper which is almost twice as large. Our export of horses and wood and timber also show a decided gain. There has recently come into Misdirected exis(;ence a ciub or society Benevolence. , . . , , „. ,, , * whose aim is to benfit the far- mers' wives, and a vigorous protest is go- ing up from these same farmers' wives, through the various farm papers, against being benefitted — that is ben- fitted in this way. This society is called the ''League of Farmhouse Industries and Domestic Manufactures" and as its circu- lar states, "was started by a few intelli- gent and sympathetic women for the ben- efit of a large and widely scattered com- munity and has proven to be a signal success." Its purpose is to foster and direct domestic industries among the far- mers families and provide a market for the handiwork of individuals. Or to put it plainly, its aim is to encourage women who live on farms to spend their spare moments in work such as is done by the peasant women of Italy, Sweden, and Rus- sia, homespun and embroidered linens, lace-making, the knitting of golf-stock- ings, etc., especial stress being laid on the golf stockings. The promoters of this benevolent scheme are society women, most of whom probably have no conception of what duties are comprised in the daily toil of the farmer's wife. The acquaint- ance we have had with the latter class leads to the belief that her day is crowded quite full enough without having any ad- ditional work placed before her. If she has a few spare moments after her work is finished it will be more profitable for her to lie in a hammock or read a good book than to amuse herself by knitting golf stockings or doing crewel embroideries in imitation of those of colonial times. The rest will do more for her than will the few dollars she might earn. What the aver- age woman needs is not more work but more rest. You who envy the farmer's wife her outdoor life should do her work for a day and find how very little time there is to spend outdoors aiter doing the thousand and one things needful to be done within the house. The members of this League undoubt- edly mean well: they desire to help their fellows, but their efforts seem to savor too much of patronage to make them palat- able to the average woman. IRRIGATION IN COLORADO. BY JOEL SHOMAKER. Colorado is among the largest and most important irrigated divis- ions of Arid America. The state occupies a central position, amidst the grand Rocky Mountain sentinels, and stands without a peer in the vast resources of gold, silver and useful metals and minerals. Agriculture, through the medium of irrigation, has been developed until about 2.000,000 acres are under cultivation and over 1,200 miles of irrigating ditches carry water from the perpetual snow fountains to the fertile fields, orchards and vineyards. The present farm products reach an aggregate annual valuation of 125,000,000, yet not half of the tillable area has been reclaimed from its desert condition, by the modern science of irrigation. The present state was made a territory Feb. 28, 1861, and admitted into the Union Aug. 1, 1876, hence bears the very appropriate title, "The Centennial State." It contains 103,645 square miles, or 66,332,- 800 acres, of which about 4,000,000 acres can be irrigated and culti- vated. There are seventy -two noted mountain peaks within the state borders, reaching an elevation of between 13,500 and 14,300 feet, being everlasting glaciers for filling the irrigation reservoirs and streams with an abundance of soil moisture for every acre that can be culti- vated. The Rocky Mountains trending north and south, create an eastern and western slope, and supply the sources of the Arkansas, Platte and Colorado rivers and numerous smaller streams and creeks rushing from every canyon in the great chain. The natural rainfall for the state does not average fifteen inches annually, ranging from seven inches on the deserts to thirty inches in the mountains, there- fore irrigation is essential to successful soil cultivation. The last official census report shows that, in 1890, there were 16,389 farms in Colorado valued"at$85,000,000;the first cost of a water right averaged 87.15 an acre and the annual cost of distribution was 79 cents per acre. Since that date the number of small farms has in- creased very rapidly and the acreage planted to fruits, melons, vege- tables and alfalfa has been more than in all the previous years of the state history. In 1882 less than 200 acres had been planted to fruit trees and the general belief was entertained that Colorado could not produce fruits, but today over 50,000 acres are covered with the most productive orchards, vineyards and small fruit tracts growing in the Rocky Mountain dominions. The fruit and horticultural products of the "Centennial State," for 1898 will reach an estimated valuation of *4. 000, 000, while other agricultural productions are worth probably five stime that amount. 8 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. Colorado has increased in population so fast during the past eight years that the present estimates give about one half million inhabi- tants. The increase is due largely to mining and climatic conditions drawing those in search of fortunes and health, but many hundred sturdy farmers have yearly sought the irrigated valleys for creating homes of peace and plenty. The gold and silver output will reach at least $40,000,000 every twelve months, and the men and families en- gaged in and around mining camps create an enormous demand for all kinds of farm products at remunerative prices. With these local markets, abundant water and excellent soil that produces wonderful crops of everything suited to a temperate zone, the inducements for home building are numerous and many have abandoned their rain farms of the east, for the certainty of harvests in the irrigated realm of never failing reservoirs. Irrigation began in Colorado in 1870, with the settlement of the Union Colony, bearing the name of the famous journalist, Horace Greeley. This colony was practically the beginning of American irrigation on an extensive scale, being a few years later than the set- tlement of Utah and California, where no great colonial plans had been attempted. The canals were built upon a plan of co-operation, labor being reckoned as a basis of wealth, but the company held the money sufficient to meet anticipated expenses, and each farmer was to own his land in fee simple, but the irrigation canal was to be the property of the community. The cost, however, was far beyond ex- pectations, but time has overcome all difficulties and land is worth $100 to $200 an acre in this colony, while the annual maintenance fee for keeping ditches in repair is almost nothing. The colony has been a complete success and Greeley is known throughout the commercial world as the home of the potato and the land of contented people. The Arkansas Valley is a most prolific land suited to the growing of fruits and vegetables and new homes are being made in different sections every year. The melon output of Otero County for 1898 will be more than 600 carloads, being marketed principally in St. Louis and Kansas City. A few years ago this district was a wild, desert land, unknown except to roaming Indians, nomadic hunters and trap- pers and primitive gold seekers, but today it is the land of paradise to many happy, rural families. Every important place large or small in this valley and elsewhere throughout the state, is reached by some of the twenty-four railroads ramifying the mining and agricultural divis- ions. These highways of commerce have a combined trackage of about 5,000 miles and include sucTa important lines as the Denver and Rio Grande; Union Pacific; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Pe; Colorado Midland; Union Pacific; Denver and Gulf; Rio Grande Western and other prominent roads. The Western Slope includes all that country lying west of the Rockies, and is a most prolific land, especially in the valleys of the 1 HE IRRIGA TIOX A GE. 9 Grand river, which forms the chief branch of the Colorado. Grand Junction and vicinity a few years ago appeared to be a desolate dreary waste, parched and killed by the hot sunshine of centuries, but now, what a change, when one beholds the rich vineyards laden with luscious grapes, big orchards bearing juicy peaches and choice red apples, and countless berry fields where the queen of fruits matures to perfection. Ditches have been taken from Grand river and smaller streams, pumping plants are in successful operation and reservoirs hold the floods of spring against the drouth of summer, thus equaliz- ing the forces and supplying water for irrigation at the time it is most required. All systems of irrigation are practiced in Colorado and many of the most successful fruit growers insist upon giving their trees a thorough soaking in October or November and delaying spring irrigation till June. In 1897 Colorado produced 3,353,975 bushels of corn, of which 201,238 bushels were sold or shipped out of the county where grown, as a surplus. The wheat crop for the same year was 5,117, 544 bushels, the surplus shipments aggregating 2,814,649 bushels. The oat crop of 1897 was 2,968,540 bushels, and 860,877 bushels were marketed out- side the county wherein the grain was grown. During the same year the estimated hay crop was 2,000,000 tons and the potato yield 4,000,- 000 bushels. The state had 151,721 horses, 8,755 mules: 85,669 milch cows: 935.826 range cattle; 1,623,089 sheep and 22.035 swine. The average prices for the principal agricultural products on the farm in 1897 were: — hay, $5.50 per ton; corn, 38 cents per bushel; wheat, 70 cents per bushel; oats, 32 cents per bushel and barley. 51 cents per bushel. Local conditions raised or lowered these prices, according to demand and distance from market. Colorado has fifty-five county divisions, each having distinctive peculiarities in soil, climate and water supply, depending much on altitude and location of mountains. Dry farming is carried on very successfully in some counties, such as Lincoln, Elbert. Sedgwick. Yuma, Washington and points eust of Denver, but frequent dry sea- sons and consequent crop failures cause much hardship and distress. People have settled upon lands and grown excellent crops without water the same as in Western Kansas, and in some seasons the yields have even exceeded the irrigated fields, but the inevitable drouths have come, crops failed and hard times chased the settlers from their homes. While the drouths have affected the eastern counties some inexperienced farmers have lost much money and become discouraged in trying to make water run up hill or have destroyed their crops because of too much downhill ditching. But irrigation is generally understood by the present farmers of the "Centennial State" and we seldom hear anything but praise for the irrigation canals and ditches Many eastern readers of THE AGE write me scores of questions about the prices of land, water rights, farm supplies, and whether 10 THE IRRIGA Tl ON A GE. small colonies could locate on government land and construct their own ditches. In reply to those who contemplate asking about Colo- rado I would say that the prices of land range all the way from $5 to probably $500 an acre, according to location and improvements. There are hundreds of valleys in the western states where colonies can be located on government land and build their own ditches. Water runs to waste during the spring season in almost every stream, even though old settled colonies have appropriated the summer flow, and in the rivers there is an almost unmeasurable output at all seasons. Such rivers as the Grand in Colorado, the Snake in Idaho, the Colum- bia in Washington and Oregon, the Yellowstone in Montana and their many tributaries carry millions of cubic feet down to the oceans that should be utilized in irrigating vast areas now practically worthless- Small colonies can control the small streams and in some instances tap the large rivers, but the states and the nation will soon combine capital and labor and construct canals in the several arid sections that will reclaim millions of acres. Colorado has some state ditches, Montana is building some and others are falling into line to fulfill the terms and condition of the Carey act, by which at least 1,000,000 acres may be redeemed through state control and become the property of individual farmers. No one need fear to locate in the west because irrigation companies have failed and district laws have been declared unconstitutional. There is an unlimited and almost boundless scope of country yet to be made the home of presperous irrigation farmers, and the water supply is inexhaustible. Many combinations of peculiar conditions have contributed to the downfall of irrigation enterprises, against which farmers and capitalists could not successfully combat, but conditions are changing, have changed, and better days are coming. UNPROFITABLE IRRIGATION WORKS. NO. V. BY T. S. VAN DYKE The most wild-eyed declaimer against capital will admit that under our present social system it is entitled to reasonable interest on any investment to serve the public. In California the constitution, sup- posed to have been framed to suit the "sandlot" mob, provides that this shall not be less than seven per cent and allows it to run as high as eighteen. California has as choice a collection of high kickers on the privileges of capital as the world can show, yet in twenty years there has been no fault found with this clause of the constitution, no offer to change it and in every case where rates have been fixed under it there has been a general demand that they be fair to the company. It is therefore fair to assume that nowhere would five per cent inter- est be considered high for the risks involved in irrigation works but that much more would generally be allowed. A new irrigation system costs one million dollars. Five per cent on this is fifty thousand a year. The running expenses would be at least ten more, under the most rigid economy; and the maintenance fund, if the plant is one that can easily depreciate, will be much more. These are always allowed for in fixing the rates and it is common, and often just, to add in a sinking fund. But let us leave out the latter and the maintenance fund and say the amount to be raised the first year from tolls on the water is sixty thousand dollars. How much land is going to take water the first year under such prospects? Are you, dear reader, going to irrigate until you have some idea of how many others are to join in to reduce the burden? How many acres have you ever seen irrigated under a new ditch the first year under the most rapid rate of settlement the most rapid part of our rapid country has ever yet seen? Did you ever know five thou- sand acres to use water the first year? Did you ever know three thou- sand? Is not two thousand above the average even where the rates are fixed at less than three dollars an acre and generally at less than two by a special contract that is perpetual? Under such circumstances who is going to improve the second year or the third? Call up your boy who has just finished his primary arithmetic and he can soon give you the answer. It is plain that any such principle as making annual rates pay a reasonable interest on the works kills instanter the prospects of both parties and is as bad for the irrigator as for the company. The rates must be set low or there will be no settlers. It is for the interest of both parties to have them fixed forever. It is as plainly for the interest of both that most 12 1HE IRRIGA T10N A GE. of the interest on the investment must be met in some other way. Over ninety-nine per cent of the irrigators of the United States have recognized this and submitted cheerfully in one of three ways. By paying a wet price for dry land, in some cases as high as live hundred dollars an acre for land that without the water would produce next to nothing. By paying the same wet margin for stock in a company that rep- resented the right to irrigate. By paying for what is called a "water right," which is a contract or deed of water. But don't these amount to the same thing if you calculate interest on»them? Of course they do. But human nature says no, always has said no and always will say no. That settles it. All of these are sub- ject to an annual payment which is just about enough to maintain the works in good shape and cannot be the basis of any profit worth talking about without danger of making the annual payment so high as to act as a damper upon settlement. The second case makes a land owner's company where the annual rates are immaterial, because if there is any profit paid by the rates it would come back in dividends. Hence they are set at only a maintenance figure. The first case gen- erally results in a land-owner's company, the stock being turned over with the land. But this is not always the effect. It generally should be, as there is little chance to make any profit out of annual rentals that can be safely charged upon the land. Unless the water is valua- ble also for power or something similar, or some of it available for city use, the stock had better be sold out with the water and the whole turned over to the irrigators. In California these are the most suc- cessful of all the companies and there is hardly ever any trouble in them. These principles have stood the test of many years. Almost all the irrigation of the United States has practically been done under them. It is therefore safe to assume that they will continue to rule for many a year to come. If principles of law founded on cases in no respect parallel — such as city supply — step in and conflict with them farewell all farther development of water for irrigation by private en- terprise. Nothing remains but state or government aid and the day of judgment will overhaul most of us before that machinery starts running. The sooner this is regulated by statue or constitution the sooner the building of irrigation works will again begin. There are now many cases where the law need not stand in the way, but capital once scared is scared all around. There are many more objections to the principle that, irrigation, works must be run as city works are and that a contract for water at a fixed rate is invalid. But I can stop to mention only one of them. And this is so bad that it is not necessary to mention the others. If the landowner cannot bind himself and the agreement of the THE IRRIGATION AGE. 13 company is equally void it is plain that the right to water depends upon the tender of the rates fixed by law. According to this how much water am I to have? The law will say so much as is reasonably sufficient. This answer might do for a greenhorn but not for one who- knows anything about irrigation. Before I plant a tree or an alfalfa, seed or a vine I must know how much water I am to have during the year, and not this year only but the next and the next ten and the next twenty. Not only does my orchard need such certainty, but if I want to sell, it governs the price of the land. I also want to order water several days ahead, sometimes a week or more so that lean have plenty of time to get my ground all ready for it. Am I, with an old orchard in full bearing, to be at the mercy of any Chinaman with a temporary vegetable patch, or some new alfalfa rustler who happens to be ahead of me with a tender of the rates and a demand for water? And if the company can make no contract how can it even save me a head of water for a full run a week from now if in the meantime some- body putting himself in the legal position to demand it comes for it? In a spell of hot weather for instance, when there is a rush for water, what a beautiful state of affairs this will make. Is the company under any obligation to say to any one. "No sir you cannot have more than so much water or have it more than so long, for this hot spell dimin- ishes the supply and greatly increases the demand and there are others beside you to be considered. " Granting that it could legally refuse what was claimed as neces- sary for his crops by one tendering the full rate — a dangerous thing to do with the evidence of damage all in the hands of the other party — what inducemeut is there for the company to refuse? In contempla- tion of law it gets so much money for so much water and it is none of its business how much water any one wants as long as it has the water and he is ready to pay for it. A few irrigators in a pinch could thus leave the others high and dry and the respective values of the crops would be quite immaterial when there was an abstract question of law involved Now the company under contracts sees that every one is treated alike. The man with a contract is put on the list of consum- ers and so much saved for him unless he chooses to let it run away. When there is a shortage or a big rush in a hot spell, and often both together, the company regulates everything so that every one is taken care of. And one may put in his order for so much water, so many hours or so many days run, even weeks ahead with the certainty that no one else can get it and that exactly on the minute the full quantity will be turned out to him for the required time. Any at- tempt to irrigate in any other way will lessen a saint's prospects of heaven. And still we are not through with this one point. Under contracts the company sells so much water and no more. To the credit of com- panies it must be said that over- selling the supply is exceedingly rare 14 THE IRRIGATION AGE. and more the result of bad calculation by the engineers than the result of intention. Companies that intend to stay in the business are care- ful not to oversell for it means too much trouble. The liability would be too great and the whole community would be against them in case •of suits for damage which would be certain to follow whenever any shortage not due to an unusual season might occur. But if a company is not under contract to furnish any given amount of water under what obligation, moral or legal, is it to say it will not supply any new land with water, because all that can be safely furnished is already using it? If the only obligation is to furnish to 1,he first one that makes a tender of the rates and demands what he says his crop needs then it is of no interest to the company if one en- -tirely new man takes it all at a time of pressure from hot weather when a hundred old consumers are needing it badly. If furnishing •under contract all consumers will be put on an equal footing and the number limited. But if there are no contracts why should the com- pany limit the number? And can it safely refuse one man who ten- ders the rates all the water he wants, on the ground that some of his neighbors, who have not yet made their demand, may want some? The chances are that under a strict construction of the law the com- pany would be liable for damages, and could not set up the possible -needs of others as a defence. So far we have considered the water as coming from a flowing stream in which the company gets a right to so much water, decides that it can sell only so much and makes that much serve all its custo- mers equally. The principle that the foremost in the scramble with a •demand for water and a tender of the rates is foremost in right, is bad enough in such a case. But what shall we do when the water is in a reservoir which is to be the great resource of the future, in fact almost the only resource for many large sections? Now a company can say "The capacity of this reservoir is indeed so much but we don't believe it will fill every year and propose to .carry so much ahead to make our patrons safe. We sell on that basis. Every man who buys of us will have so much held for him against all contingencies except one of those extraordinary drouths against which no one can figure and which he would have to stand if he had a reservoir of his own." Under the other system how much water would they have in that reservoir? Under what obligation, legal or moral, would the company be to hold back any of it? Would not their present interest rather lie in running it all out as fast as any one would pay for it? If somebody .should sue for non-delivery and prove that there was so much water in the reservoir at the time of his tender how could the company prove it did not have the water? And what right would it have to set up the possible claims of some possible irrigators? For under the no- con- tract system all irrigators are merely possible irrigators, because the amount of water they will want and the times and heads and runs THE IRRIGA TIOX A GE. 15 ney will want are unknown until they make their demand. I mean legally unknown because the company would have no right to recog- nize them as it now does. I have dwelt so much on this because it scares capital, scares it now and is going to scare it more. It is of little use to say that c api- tal should not be scared. Capital will indulge its privilege all the same and be scared in spite of us. Hence this question should be set right as fast as possible by law or constitutional amendment and peo- ple allowed to make such contracts as they choose. As a matter of fact there is very little reason for getting scared. I believe the de- cision of Judge Ross in the case referred to will be sustained on ap- peal. It is based on the peculiar wording of the constitution of Cali- fornia and is backed by numerous cases in which the principle is clear. The case was one of a naked contract to furnish appropriated water at a certain price each year. Had the contract been by deed of a defi- nite quantity reserving a contribution for maintenance or interest on deferred payment it would probably have been quite different. Es- pecially so if the payment had been made a lien on the land. Deeds of appropriated water, either of the whole appropriation or of a part, have never been questioned that I know of. They have been made for years in every state where irrigation is practiced and sustained as- deeds of real estate everywhere. A deed assented to by acceptance and charging the annual payment on the land as a lien was sustained by the Supreme Court of California some eight years ago under a sec- tion of the code which allows liens on land to be created by the owner of the land. A deed of water as of real estate, reserving a render's lien for part payment would probably be good anywhere. I drew up a deed some years ago to "cover all points, which has been pronounced impregnable by several of the best lawyers in the state, and no buyer of water has ever yet objected to its terms though many have taken it. The decision referred to has no application to land owner's com- panies. It has been decided that they are not subject to the legal rates and are not bound to furnish water to outsiders. They are exactly like a social club furnishing themselves. A hundred or a thousand men have the same right to own and distribute water jointly and fix the contribution of each toward the expense of operation and maintenance of the ditch that a single man has to take out and own the small brook that irrigates his single ranch. It matters not wheth- er his title is by appropriation or as riparian owner. Appropriation for such purpose has never been questioned any more than it has for mining or power. A body of land owners do not appropriate for sale but for their own use. But this does not prevent a man from maki ng a private deed of the water if he does not want it himself and the chances are that he can attach what strings to it he chooses, the same as if it were land, deeds for water being the same in all other respects as deeds of land. In the same way they can sell some of the stock 16 THE IRRIGATION AGE. which represents the same right and is really a deed of a part interest, the title being in the company but in trust for the holders of the stock. The stock may be made subject to conditions as well as a deed for no one is obliged to take it. And there is no more reasonable condition than contributing equally toward the expense. As the land owner's company is now the only form of company that capital can wisely consider and as money enough can still be made through that form of company where properly handled there is no occasion for being alarmed at the condition of the law. But as it is I should not be at all afraid to buy and improve under a common company everything else being equal. Whatever the effect of the law may be in theory the company will take good care of the man who has paid what the water is honestly worth and will not postpone him to one who wants something for nothing when he knows that it would ruin the company if all did the same. The ditch tender and the sec- retary can easily make such an irrigator wish he had never been born and he could never prove where he was hit. I would want no better fun than to supply the water to a few such customers for a season and I would not get the company into any lawsuits either. The last one of them would buy a contract in a year or two. For the fact that ir- rigation works cannot be tapped at will by any one, as in the city works, but the water must be taken in blocks, the size and continuance and times of taking of which must be under the control of the com- pany, makes the company master of the situation and it has the sym- pathy and support of every man who is irrigating under a contract. With such backing and such, control of the facts in the hands of the company the man who wants water for less than it cost will, find a mere legal right a mighty poor support for trees or alfalfa, especially in a severe hot spell. RIO GRANDE IRRIGATION. THE HISTORY OF AX OFFICIAL CRIME.— WHY AMERICAN INVESTMENTS ARE BOYCOTTED IN EUROPE. ••We have also touched upon one sad feature and it is one which we found little pleasure in handling. That is the shameful corruption which lately crept into our politics. But I have a great, strong faith'in a noble future for my country. A vast majority of the people are straightforward and honest, and this state of things is stirring them to action. If it would only keep on stirring until it became the habit of their lives to attend to the politics of the country personally, and ,put only their very best men into positions of trust and authority! That day will come.'? — Mark Twain'? Preface to the "Gilded1 Age." American industrial securities were for many years so exception- ally popular with European investors, British investors particularly, that the present uncompromising, widespread prejudice against Amer- ican undertakings seeking capital abroad, demands some attempt at explanation. Possibh* the following particulars of departmental juggling with America's reputation for probity and good faith may serve to throw some light on the question, and, if taken as an example of American official methods largely explains why it is that the United States as a field for the investment of cheap European capital has been so completely abandoned in favor of Canada, Mexico, Argentina and other South American countries, South Africa and Australasia. It has long been recognised that the two things needful to insure the prosperous advancement of the Rio Grande Valley in southern New Mexico and western Texas, admittedly the finest fruit and vine growing section of the North American continent, are 1. A comprehensive and scientific system of irrigation, including suitable and adequate means for conserving the vast volume of flood waters hitherto allowed to flow unused down the Rio Grande to the Gulf of Mexico and 2. A legitimate means of interesting capital in the development of the valley's exceptional agricultural possibilities — so long dormant. Many other sections of the arid belt in the United States, notably in southern California, Colorado, Arizona and Utah, less favored by nature than the Rio Grande Valley, have, within a few years, been transformed from comparatively unproductive wildernesses, support- ing but sparse populations, into prosperous rapidly growing commun- ities, while the Rio Grande Valley, deservedly described as the Nile Valley of America, with all its vast potentialities for the production 18 THE IRRIGATION AGE. of wealth, with its ideal climate, fertile -soil, and great fertilizing source of irrigation, has slumbered on year after year in profitless lethargy, hopelessly awaiting the advent of state aid, or some other form of extraneous assistance. From time to time, during the past fifteen years, various public spirited local residents, realising the vital importance of providing an irrigation system upon a sufficiently large scale to provide water for the service of the Rincon, Mesilla and El Paso sub-divisions of the valley have endeavored to awaken the leading citizens and land owners from their Rip Van Winkle like repose. Scheme after scheme has been proposed, government after government at Washington impor- tuned, and the co-operation of the Mexican farmers on the Mexican side of the river solicited, but local jealousies, imperfect plans and conflicting interests invariably barred the way. For a time the accivity in railway construction in Western Texas and Southern New Mexico seemed to promise permanent and progress- ive prosperity for the Rio Grande Valley, but the water question re- maining unsettled, affairs soon drifted back to the old dead level of passivity. A few determined advocates of enterprise and progress continued seeking the aid of capital, and finally, after years of effort and repeated failures, at home and abroad, to secure the large amount of capital re- quired to carry out an irrigation scheme that would properly control and utilize the waters of the Rio Grande, and after Congress had again and again declined to seriously entertain the problem or Rio Grande irrigation, the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Company was incorpor- ated, under the laws of New Mexico, with the declared intention of impounding and utilizing the waters of the Rio Grande. Shortly after the incorporation of the company steps were taken to secure the ap- proval of the Secretary of the Interior, of the company's filings for a dam and reservoir site at Elephant Butte, in Sierra County, New Mexico, the only feasible storage reservoir site on the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico. Complete surveys were made, elaborate plans were prepared, and all the requirements of the territorial and federal laws having been fully complied with, the company's rights and titles as granted by its charter of incorporation under the laws of New Mexico, were in due course confirmed by the federal authorities. The Secretary of the Interior, having formally approved of the company's plans, vigorous efforts were made to raise capital on the bonds and shares of the company. Unfortunately the financial depres- sion throughout the West, consequent iipon much ill-advised official tinkering with the tariff and currency questions, rendered it impossi- ble to raise in America at even the most usurious rates, the large amount of capital necessary to carry out the proposed irrigation works. In Europe the discreditable histories of the bond issues of certain California and Kansas Irrigation Companies were too fresh in the THE IRRIGA TIO X A GE. 1 9 \ public mind to admit of the placing of an American Company's se- curities. Large sums were expended in properly presenting the enterprise, and every conceivable channel was tried in vain; the great financial houses in England protesting that British investors had already suf- fered too largely through investing in the bonds of American compa- nies; that the finances of the United Stated were too unsettled; the laws protecting foreign bond holders much too lax; that directors of American companies were not, under American laws, sufficiently re- sponsible for good management; that the United States might declare for silver and repudiate all obligation to pay gold bonds in gold, and that in the event of the bond holders having to foreclose, the Alien Land Law would entail realization at a sacrifice. Financial house after house raised the same series of objections, one and all pointing out that the history of foreign investments in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, etc., etc., tended to show that ignorant and hostile legislation may, in the future as in the past, depreciate or possibly even invalidate tjhe foreign bond holders' security. While all admitted the obvious merit of the company's undertaking, none would risk investment. To such a deplorable state has the asinine follies of American officials and American legislative bodies brought American credit. All new countries must, in the nature of things, depend upon monetary assistance from without for the development of their re- sources. Much of America's wonderful progress would have been re- tarded half a century or more had it not been for the powerful aid of foreign gold. Individuals, communities and nations borrow, all justly claiming the right to borrow in the cheapest market; but notwith- standing recognized economic laws — laws as clearly defined and unal- terable as any other forces in nature — governing the relations of labor, capital and national resources, American legislatures have repeatedly enacced laws openly an tagnostic to foreign capital. The result, dear money and widespread disaster, obvious conditions of cause and effect, have in every instance become immediately manifest. Foreign inves- tors have largely withdrawn their capital, often enforcing abrupt realization and reluctantly ruining thousands, leaving American bank- ers, mortgage companies and other money lending institutions practi- cally the only source of monetary supply. By paying high rates of interest, the soundest of American financial companies have continued to raise capital abroad, which they in turn advance to our western farmers and merchants at more or less exorbitant rates. Ignorant legislative opposition to foreign capital, by retarding development and lowering the price of labor, has thus been one of the chief sources of ruin for the farmers of the western states. It is a lamentable fact, perhaps not known to the majority of the American people, that with certain isolated exceptions, every Ameri- can enterprise, let its prospects and advantages be never so well 20 THE IRR1 GA TION A GE. proved, is looked upon in Europe with suspicion; our venal vote catching politicians having so thoroughly destroyed the confidence of foreign investors to our individual and natural integrity. The term American was at one time synonymous with honesty; few Americans doing business abroad find it so at the present time, quite the reverse. In view of the wide-spread suspicion of American investments, it was not surprising that the Rio Grand Dam & Irrigation Company signally failed to place its bonds. But the directors continued to per- severe in their efforts to carry out the objects of the company, being assured of the unanimous support of the land owners in the valley, and realizing that unless early steps are taken to impound the flood waters of the Grande, the farming interests would for the most part speedily fall into desuetude, Finding that in the state of the money market it would be impossible to place the shares and bonds of the American company, and being advised that investors abroad would be more likely to entrust their money to an English company, managed by a Board of Directors of high rank and standing, responsible to the shareholders under English law, it was decided to raise the capital necessary for the proposed irrigation works by leasing to an English company, to be incorporated under the laws of England, the American company's franchise rights, privileges and undertakings. The best legal advice obtainable was taken as to the legality of the American company's rights, and upon being satisfied that a lease giving control only of the American com- pany's property could not be construed by the most violent jingo of the anti-English party as constituting the holding of real estate, or as being in any way a violation of the Alien Act, the English company was incorporated. A Board of Directors consisting of gentlemen of exceptionally high standing was, with great difficulty, formed, capital was under- written, and shares and debentures of the English company were issued to the public. Capital was underwritten and subscribed largely upon the strength, high rank and representative character of the Board of Directors, and in the course of a few weeks after the issue of the prospectus, the chairman visited the Rio Grande Valley on be- half of the company. Upon being satisfied by the company's legal advisers that the American company's titles were unassailable, and English company's lease legal, arrangements were made for the con- struction of the proposed irrigation works. It was never for a mo- ment considered possible that American state officials could be capable of secretly plotting to invalidate the valuable rights legally conceded . by a previous administration. Encouraged by this new Anglo-American enterprise, English in- vestors evidenced an inclination to become somewhat less distrustful of American honesty. The market for American irrigation securities generally improved, and the long prophecied era of prosperity for the THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 21 Rio Grande Valley was at hand, when, without a word of warning, and notwithstanding that the American company's rights had been officially confirmed by a member of Mr. Cleveland's cabinet, and that over a year had elapsed since the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Interior had received direct communication from the officers of the English company with regard to the intention of that company, com- munications which were officially acknowledged, the authorities of Washington, in direct violation to every canon of good faith and public decency, suddenly instituted an injunction action with the avowed intention of confiscating the valuable irrigation works that were being carried out with friendly English capital. In the absence of any legitimate grounds for attacking the company, the action was based upon a preposterous allegation that the company's works would interfere with the navigability of the Rio Grande. The navigability of the Rio Grande forsooth! Could anything be more absurd? The Rio Grande in New Mexico is not, and never has been navigable, and in view of the officially published opinion of the late Attorney -General Harmon, and the fact that the authorities at Washington have for years maintained, in opposition to Mexico's claim for joint control of the river, that the Rio Grande is not a navigable stream, that a special committee of the senate conclusively proved it to be non -navigable, it is not in the circumstances surprising that the shareholders in the English company, and the public generally, look upon such a flagrant outrage of justice as but another instance of American sharp practice, this time in the highest quarter. Needless to say Americans resident in England, and interested in the enterprise, cognizant of the true fact of the case, jealous of their country's honor and anxious to exonerate American officialdom from the charge of acting in bad faith, endeavored to reassure the share- holders in the English company by offering the only possible explan- ation, namely, that the authorities authorized the action, knowing that it must result in a decision in favor of the company, in order to satisfy Mexico and the advocates of an international storage dam at El Paso, that neither by treaty nor otherwise may the United States Federal Government invalidate existing rights or prevent citizens of Colorado and New Mexico from impounding the waters of the Rio Grande for irrigation. It should be stated that with the exception of General Anson Mills, U. S. A., the leading spirits of the so called international dam scheme are not American citizens, nor residents in the United States. The principle supporters of the International Dam scheme consist of a small coterie, holding options over, or owning the greater part of the Mexican lands that would be benefited by an international dam at El Paso. These gentlemen have vigorously backed Mexico's demand that the Rio Grande should be under the joint control of the two re- publics, and they have for some time been exceedingly active in urging 22 THE IRRIGATION AGE. the authorities at Washington to build, wholly at the expense of the United States, an international dam at El Paso for storing the waters of the river. For reasons that will probably be made public at an early date, it would also appear, judging by certain departmental correspondence only recently brought to light, that this so called International Dam scheme is not altogether lacking in official support at Washington, and that a most iniquitous "job" has been attempted, Although the Elephant Butte Storage reservoir of the irrigation company may be made to serve every purpose, namely supply the whole valley of the Rio Grande above as well as below El Paso, on both the American and Mexican sides of the river, at far less cost than would have to be incurred by the United States in carrying out the proposed International Dam scheme, the promoters of the international project and their official backers, anxious to profit by the millions Uncle Sam would have to expend in compensating for the valuable properties that would come within the proposed international reser- voir, have not hesitated to maliciously misrepresent the objects of the English company, and have endeavored by every possible means to have the waters of the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Company's rights set aside on the ground that in leasing its franchise and under- taking to an English company, it had violated the Alien Act. Having failed in this, the authorities were beguiled into an action against the company with an object of invalidating the company's titles and con- fiscating its works on the absurd ground that the Rio Grande is navi- gable, and that in damming the Rio Grande in New Mexico, above El Paso, section 7, Ch. 907, Act of Congress 1890 had been violated by the company. The act in question reads as follows: "That it shall not be lawful to build any warf, pier, dolphin, boom, dam, wier, breakwater, bulk head, jetty or structure of any kind out- side the established harbor lines or in any navigable waters of the United States where no harbor lines are or may be established with- out permission of the Secretary of War in any port, roadstead, haven, harbor, navigable river or other waters of the United States in such manner as shall obstruct or impair navigation, commerce or anchorage of said waters." To those familiar with the characteristics of the Rio Grande, the contention of the authorities that this river is navigable in New Mexico is more suggestive of dishonesty than possible ignorance. So far the attempts to invalidate the company's rights and confis- cate its works have been in vain. On the 3rd of June, 1897. Judge Bantz, of the Territorial District Court, dismissed with costs the in- junction against the company, and upon the Government appealing to the Territorial Supreme Court, that court also dismissed the appeal with costs in favor of the company. Much evidence was taken, and it was ruled that 1. "Under the treaties with Mexico each republic reserves all THE IRRIGATION AGE. 23 right within its own territorial limits. This would have been so upon principles of international law without such reservation. States ly- ing wholly within the United States belong exclusively to it, and the soil within the United States is not burdened with a servitude in fav- or of Mexico, in respect to any duty to so discharge the water as to promote or preserve the navigability of the Rio Grande. 2. "It is not the capacity of a stream to float a log or row a boat which renders it a navigable river within the Acts of Congress (1890 and 1892) but whether, at regular periods of sufficient duration and in its regular condition, its capacity is such as to be susceptible of bene- ficial use as a public highway for commerce. The Rio Grande in New Mexico is not a navigable river. 3. "The power to control and regulate the use of waters not navigable, exercised by States and Territories in the arid West, was confirmed by Congress by the Act of 1866, and that power now re- sides wholly in such States and Territories under the Act of 1877 and subsequently, therefore the diversion of such local waters is not a vi- olation of any Act of Congress even though the navigable capacity at a distance below may become thereby impaired." (Vide Transcript of Record No. 753 the Supreme Court of New Mexico, July term, 1897). The two decisions having been so decisively against the Govern- ment the directors of the English Company naturally inferred that the authorities would promptly desist from further needless persecu- tion, and have the grace to at once indemnify the company for costs incurred, etc., but they were sadly mistaken. The Attorney General allowed the matter to drag on until the last moment permissable by law, and then filed an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court. Urgent rep- resentations, explaining the injustice of the delay were made at Washington; petitions were sent in by the inhabitants of the valley and every possible effort was made to induce the department to ac- cept the decision of the Territorial Supreme Court as final. The company's representatives were at first given to understand that probably the decision of the Territorial Supreme Court would be so accepted, but after further vexatious loss of valuable time they were told that this could not be done, though an early hearing before the Supreme Court was promised. This was last autumn; subsequent- ly the company's attorneys were definitely informed that the hearing of the appeal would come on early in January. 1898. January passed, and they were at last advised that the date of hearing had been fixed for the 10th of October. Two years wasted, costly half finished works destroyed by floods, ruinous litigation forced upon a friendly English company, the future of a great public enterprise jeopardized. English investors disgusted, and the farmers in the valley deprived of water for the irrigation of their lands, all in the interest of General Anson Mills of the U. S. Boundary Commission and the German and Mexican speculators back- ing the international dam scheme. Is it at all surprising that English investors have no confidence in American undertakings? That General Mills enjoys influential support at Washington is 24 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. evident, and doubtlessly his untiring devotion to the cause of the Mexican farmers — on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, and his energetic opposition to the just demands of his countrymen in New Mexico dependent upon their farms for a livelihood, meets with gratifying recognition — in Mexico. The bulk of the lands of the Rio Grande valley are at present without water. The irrigation, such as exists, is inadequate, and the farmers in the valley to a man support the company. Petition after petition, signed by ninety per cent, of the land owners in the valley, supporting the company's undertaking has been presented to con- gress in vain; General Mills' discreditable attempts to commit the United States to an expenditure of between 15,000,000 and $6,000,000 in carrying out the needless impracticable International Dam scheme being apparently of paramount importance in the estimation of the department compared with so common-place a thing as justice to the English investors or decent regard for America's reputation for fair play and good faith. The company's undertaking to create the largest artificial lake in the world; to impound for the use and benefit of American citizens the flood waters of the Rio Grande, now allowed to run to waste; to make lands now worthless equal in value to the best fruit lands in southern California; to expend vast sums in colonizing the Rio Grande valley and in developing its splendid natural resources; to create a revenue producing, tax paying property capable of providing pros- perous homes for thousands of families, has, it would seem, been con- sidered of no value to the nation in comparison with the laudable am- bition of the International Damischemers, plotting to rob the United States treasury. Could anything be better calculated to bring Amer- can institutions into contempt than this deplorable exhibition of offi- cial unwisdom and glaring disregard of public interest? The Government's seemingly unscrupulous support of the Inter- national Dam schemers' plot for plundering the treasury would per- haps be less culpable and offensive to public morals if it did not tend to convince the world at large that the current suspicions of things American are justified by facts. The company's financial supporters in Great Britain are naturally indignant at the brazen attempt to wreck the company, and they look upon the injunction proceedings as wholly unjustifiable and as a shameful example of official persecution. Needless to say the govern- ment's attitude towards the company is a great blow to American in- dustries seeking capital abroad. The apparent official disposition to support Genera] Mills in his efforts to invalidate the company's titles in the interest of the International Dam scheme has excited among British investors much bitter criticism of things American; the at- tack upon the company being most unfavorably contrasted with Great Britain's friendly support in the recent Cuban difficulties. THEJRRIGATIOX AGE. 25 There is no question but what Prance, Germany, Austria and Russia had decided to intervene with the object of making Cuba an- other Crete. Spanish sovereignty in the Antilles was to be main- tained, and an autonomous government established in Cuba under the protection of the European concert. Having regard to the Venezuela dispute. England's adherence "in the interest of peace" was consid- ered certain, but the continental diplomatists found to their astonish- ment that England not only refused to be a party to any attempt jo impose conditions upon the United States in the interest of Spanish and French holders of Cuban bonds, but Her Majesty's government even declined to agree to remain neutral. The result was both lu- dicrous and instructive, the violent change of front on the part of the Russian, French and German press being so obviously inspired. In Great Britain the desire for Anglo-American rapprochement is not a superficial sentiment of the moment. It is deep rooied and gen- uine, and British shareholders in English companies doing business in America find it difficult to reconcile the attitude of the American Government towards the Rio Grande company with the recent whole- sale shouting in the United States of "God Save the Queen/' Even the speedy settlement of the Bahring sea award failed to arouse more than a knowing smile. The Britons are essentially a commercial people, and like all commercial races lay great stress upon public and individual probity. Notwithstanding the high esteem in which the better class Amer- cans are held abroad it is difficult to induce the average Englishman to believe that the authorities at Washington brought the Rio Grande injunction action in good faith', or fail to realize the injustice of the attempt to ruin the Rio Grande, or that the department is ignorant of the way General Mills has prostituted his official position in the in- terest of the group of speculators backing the International Dam scheme, with which he is identified. Not content with circularizing damaging and false reports as to the objects of the English company, its solvency and the legality of the company's titles, General Mills and his official supporters have done their best to have the rights of the English company invalidated by Act of Congress. Quite recently they succeeded in getting a pro- viso tacked on to an innocent little bill, which was entitled "An Act to permit the use of the right of way through public lands for tram roads, canals, and reservoirs and for other purposes.'' By persistent lobbying, and aided by certain departmental officials. Mills had a proviso in- serted, which in substance provided that none of the existing laws should be so construed as to "Authorize she appropriation or storage of the waters of any stream or river, State, interstate or International, to which others below have right by prior appropriation, or the ob- struction or interference with the navigable capacity of such streams or rivers, and such appropriation or storage, obstruction or interference, 26 THE IRRIGATION AGE. is hereby prohibited." Fortunately the company's attorney discovered this proviso, and secured the recall of the bill from the House. Mills and his associates subsequently had the following proviso inserted.; "That the Secretary of War is hereby authorized to secure from the State of Texas the necessary land on which to build a dam on the Rio Grande at or near El Paso in that State. No reservoirs for the storage of water shall be built on said river within the boundaries of the Territory of N ew Mexico without an Act of Congress authorizing the same." This was nothing more or less than a disgraceful legislative at- tempt to destroy the right to impound and appropriate the waters of the Rio Grande for irrigation in New Mexico previously conceded to the Rio Grande Irrigation Company. The bill with the pending motion having been sent back to the committee, the company's attorneys ulti- mately succeeded in having the amendment knocked out; though so long as General Mills is backed up by the authorities, it cannot be hoped that he and his friends will desist from their attempts to de- fraud the English shareholders. The official support afforded to General Mills is still further evi- denced by the fact that in February last he managed to get a resolu- tion through the House calling upon the President to report upon the proceedings of the International Boundary Commission, including cor- respondence etc., relating to the Rio Grande, also to include the draft of a proposed treaty between the United States and Mexico, a treaty wherein the United State Government would convenant to build the proposed International Dam at El Paso. The President responded to the resolution, and presented a report of over 210 printed pages, the very character of which makes it ap- parent that Mills or some one with an axe to grind manipuluated the report in the State Department. Numerous important documents up- holding the company's rights were ntirely suppresed or merely men- tioned, every particle of record militating against the Mills Interna- tional scheme having been omitted, All of General Mills misleading letters and reports were set forth in large type. It goes without saying that President McKinley could not have been aware of the offence committed by Mills and his confederates, but the State Department having been advised of the manner in which the confidence of the President has been abused there can now be no excuse for delay in bringing the actual offenders to book. General Anson Mills' conduct demands immediate investigation. The recent heroic achievements of the American army and navy excites the admiration of the world, but the charge of dishonesty lev- elled by commercial nations against American public officials becomes by contrast all the more damaging to American credit. Public opinion throughout the west is exemplified by the follow- excerpts from a recent editorial in the "Denver News." TEE IRRIGATION AGE. 27 ••The big Rio Grande Dam Company in New Mexico, whose con- struction was stopped by an injunction last year, brought by the Fed- eral Government is said to be preparing a suit against the United States for damages. There is no question but that the suit brought against the company was an unjust one and was instigated by rival in- terests. The 'News' freely discussed the issues at the time, and the decision rendered by Judge Bantz in favor of the company and subse- quently confirmed by the Supreme Court of New Mexico was approved in these columns. Undoubtedly the Irrigation Company suffered great loss, but against the United States it has practically no redress.. It might bring a suit in the Court of Claims, but if a judgment were; rendered in its favor it would then have to obtain a special appropria- ation from Congress. The reluctance with which Congress passes ap- propriations of this nature is well known. The great grandchildren of a man with a claim against the Government may realize some bene- fit out of it. but he never will." It is alleged, and to a large extent credited by the English share- holders that the government is determined to one way or another leg- islate the company's rights out of existence. This, of course, cannot be legally done, the Supreme Court having again and again ruled that no Act of Congress may be made retrospective to the extent of inval- idating existing rights. Possibly the authorities count upon exhaust- ing the patience of the English shareholders to such an extent that they will abandon the enterprise. If this is their object, they have- certainly gone about it in a masterly way. A number of the wealthiest men in England are interested in the undertaking. They believe in the enterprise, appreciate its merits and command ample capital, but, unhappily, they no longer have confi- dence in the good faith of the* authorities at Washington, though none the less determined to fight for the company's rights. A large percentage of the failures of American irrigation com- panies has been due to the high rate of interest they have had to pay for capital for construction works. The success of the Rio Grande Company would have inspired confidence among European investors,, and other American irrigation undertakings would have benefited proportionate!}-. As matters now stand American irrigation securi. ities are absolutely unsalable abroad. So much for the patriotic efforts of General Anson Mills. NATHAN G. BOYD. M. D. THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 21 In diversified farming- by irrigation lies the salvation of agriculture. d THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pic- tures of fields, orchards and farm homes; prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs, Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns, hen houses, earn cribs, etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help us improve the appearance of THE AGE? SOME WESTERN GRASSES. The native grasses of the west are val- uable forage plants, sustaining great herds of horses, cattle and sheep, throughout the dry summers and cold winters, and mak- ing good growth upon the most arid lands. Many short tuft grasses appear with the eai'ly spring rains, or immediately after the snow disappears from the mountain forests, and bv July are perfectly dry. Other more hardy varieties start with the spring rains and continue grooving, as the summer showers supply the necessary mois- ture, until fall, when they seem to take a new lease on life and get their full growth :and mature seeds. The Buffalo grass, prairie June grass, sheep fescue, blue grass and the regular, never-failing bunch grass are among the list of several hun- dred distinct species especially useful on mountain ranges and upland mesas. These grasses supply summer range on .the mountain slopes and summits, and winter feed in the lower valleys, for herds that are annually shipped direct to the eastern markets without any additional feeding. In some sections of the Northwest the -warm Chinook winds carry away the snow a few hours after it falls, thereby enabling the horses, cattle and sheep to feed upon the succulent grasses, without other food •or shelter, and come out in the spring fat and sleek. When the Mormons settled some of the coldest valleys of Utah, they had no feed for their animals, and were compelled to shovel away the snow, some- times three feet in depth, to give the cattle and horses the necessary native food. In some instances the horns of cattle were sharpened by filing in order to help them in cutting through the crust of frozen snow to the brown grass. Indians under- stand the nutritive value of the several grasses and native plants and are continu- ally moving about to find the particular feed adapted to each season. They es- teem the white sage, greaswood, Montana pea and other similar arid bushes and plants as most valuable forage, even bet- ter than grasses for sheep ranges. The wild hay, of which many thousand tons are harvested every season through- out the western states, possesses feeding virtues not found in the cultivated clovers, alfalfa or timothy. Farmers frequently plow their wild meadows to increase the yield and make new sod or a better plan for irrigation. The grasses usually found in these meadows, or bottoms, are wheat grass, blue stem, rushes, red top, foxtail, brome grass and many others suitable to excessive irrigation. After irrigating the cultivated area in the uplands or higher fields, the surplus water of spring and summer goes upon the meadow and soaks into the marshy peat, forming great bogs and making luxurious growth of the mix- ture, which is cut for hay. The more water applied during the spring and early summer the greater yield of hay in July and August. In most valleys the under- flow or surplus of surface irrigation in the uplands, will flood the meadows about September, hence hay must be made while the sun shines on dry land. THL IRRIGATION AGE. 29 Some readers ask, "Can this meadow grass be killed and the land cultivated ?'' That depends upon the surrounding con- ditions. As a general rule water will not destroy any of the grasses ; though their natures may be desert, they flourish under water. The best and in fact only plan to get rid of the wild grasses, rushes and willows of these native meadows is to thoroughly drain the land, and when in proper condition plow and cultivate. An- nual inroads are made upon the natural swamps and hay fields of the west, where land is valuable, by systematic and thor- ough drainage, followed by clear cultiva- tion. The land is suited to growing oats, potatoes, onions and similar crops, vary- ing with altitude and local conditions. Drains may be mere deep channels, cut at proper angles through the meadows, with sufficient fall to carry the water to some stream, or regular tiling may be put in upon proper levels, leading to a reser- voir or stream. During the past season several experi- ments have been made with the Russian brome grass, and in every instance so far as I have heard, the plant has given per- fect satisfaction. This is an arid grass which thrives well under irrigation and cultivation and will no doubt take a very prominent place among the forage plants of the western states. The old Idaho coffee pea, advertised so extensively as a novelty is certainly an excellent forage plant, of which I shall say more in a fu- ture issue of the AGE. I tried it this sea- son and found it more than ever the most enthusiastic advertiser claimed for it as a feeding plant for farm animals and poul- try. This is nothing .more than the wild pea found in Idaho and Montana, so much relished by stock, but it is one of the valuable additions to western grasses and plants that cannot be overlooked when speaking of the ranges of the arid region. JOEL SHOMAKER. The future is what we hoped the past would be but wasn't. HINTS TO CATTLE RAISERS. The Chicago Inter Ocean recently con- tained^ an interview with R. W. Tansill, of Eddy, N. M., in which there are some valuable hints for cattle raisers. Mr. Tansill says he received his information on the subject from James A. Lockhart, vice-president and general manager of the Alfalfa Land and Cattle Company, of Colorado Springs, and that he wishes ev- ery cattle raiser on irrigated land to have the benefit of it. ;'This, then, is Mr. Lockhart's plan." said Mr. Tansill : "He takes calves at, say 6 months old and puts them in fenced lots and feeds them on alfalfa, supple- mented by one pound of fine-ground corn- meal per day, fed dry from troughs in- creasing the cornmeal as winter ap- proaches to two pounds per head per day. As soon as the calves become used to the feed he dehorns them. Five men can dehorn from 600 to 800 head in a day. In the spring he turns them on native grass pasture or range. In the fall he takes them up and puts them in feed lots again, giving them now a full feed of corn, for. say, six months, with other solid food. At from 18 months to 2 years they are ready for the market, will weigh about 1,100 pounds and command top prices. The secret of the great advantage in this plan is that by taking the calves from the cows and feeding them as described the stomach is rapidly distended instead of being allowed to become contracted and rigid, which must of necessity result if the young animals are allowed to run on the range after weaning. For when the stomach is permanently contracted by eating dry food and range grass directly after the calf has been weaned it is im- possible to obtain satisfactory results from full feeding later on. These facts will ac- count for the poor results obtained from the full feeding of stock which has been allowed to run on range until 3 or 4 years of age. Another advantage should be noted. By taking calves early from the cows the. 30 IffE IRRIGATION AGE. latter are enabled to recuperate flesh so as to be in better condition to go through the winter. Another advantage is the saving the cost of branding. " Mr. Tansill was in Chicago on business connected with the building of the Pecos Valley railroad, the construction of which will open a direct route from Pecos Valley, which Mr. Tansil claims is the finest stock-breeding section in the United States, to Chicago and the east. THE DESPISED SALT GRASS. A sheep raiser, who is located near Grand Falls, Texas, speaks very favorably of the despised salt grass as food for sheep. The gentleman, Mr. W. N. Fowler by name, has about 20,000 head of sheep and during the past summer he did not lose a single sheep on account of short pasturage, while sheep-men living some fifty miles away, where the salt grass was not abund- ant, lost half their flocks. The salt grass is about the first green thing to appear in the spring and grows very luxuriantly without the aid of rain- fall or irrigation, so that even in a pro- longed drouth those who live in the salt grass region are sure of having pasture for their sheep. Salt grass is only one of many grasses that are of inestimable value to cattle and sheep raisers, for there is no other country that has so large a number of useful grasses and native forage plants as our own. According to the "Year-Book of the Department of Agriculture", there are 60 native species of clover, 70 blue grasses, 25 gramas and curly mesquite grasses, valuable for sheep and cattle pas- turage, 90 lupines, 20 wild beans, 40 vetches, 20 kinds of wild rye, 30 kinks of brome grasses, and meadow, pasture, woodland and swamp grasses without number. in the corn and sorghum planted on the Killito by J. D. Andrew. Before the late rains came it was about ten inches high and was kept alive by cultivation, but is now higher than a man's head. When the rains came it took a new start in life and grew from six to ten inches in each twenty-four hours. The fear now is that it will run largely to stalk. The sorghum grew almost as rapidly as the corn, and is now in blossom, with the promise of a large and profitable crop. Of the two he has about forty-five acres wholly depend- ent on the summer rains for making a crop. — Arizona Daily Gazette. IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENTS. P. N. Myers, general manager of the Hemet, (Cal. ) water system, reports that the following improvements are to be made in the Hemet system before the next irrigation system opens; The flume and ditch will be covered to keep out all impurities, for the purpose of improving the general quantity of the water, also an independent pipe line, will be run from the crosscut southeast of Florida to the southwest side of Park Hill, Avhere a re- ceiving reservoir will be built and large covered filters put in at an elevation of 150 feet above Hemet, said filter to have a capacity of 200,000 gallons per day. This filtered water will be run through an in- dependent pipe line to the patrons of the Lake Hemet Water company for domestic purposes. The company will also replace their twenty-seven sections of flume, the flume to be 36x54 and have a capacity of 4000 miners' inches. The diversion dam will also be repaired and improved. The above repairs will take about fifty car- loads of lumber, and will cost $20,000. When completed, the Lake Hernet Water company will have the most perfect water system in California. LIKE THE FAMOUS BEANSTALK. An instance of the rapid growth of veg- etation in southern Arizona is to be found There is more exertion used in running 200 yards than in riding a bicycle four miles. PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. THE SEVENTH ANNUAL CONGRESS. The seventh annual session was held at Cheyenne, Wyo. . Sept. 1, 2, and 3. Gov. Eichards, who delivered the address of welcome, reviewed the agricultural his- tory of Wyoming in a manner that proved his thorough knowledge cf the subject. He then gave an outline of what the Con- gress might do for the state. Ex-Senator Carey, of Wyoming, presi- dent of the Congress, gave an opening ad- dress which has been widely quoted by western publications, and was a masterly review of the work of the Congress in the past. Said he : "The sessions of the National Irrigation Congress have left behind them lasting impressions and far-reaching benefits. The questions discussed and the resolu- tions adopted from time to time have brought prominently before the people of the United States the arid and sub-arid portions of the country, their present con- dition, and what is required to transform sections now wholly or partly sterile and unsightly into those of productiveness and beauty. The sessions held and the commissioners heretofore appointed kave not accomplished all that could be de- sired ; yet a great deal has been done. If we examine the statues of the United States and of several states interested, we will find that much useful legislation has been secured. The files of the two houses of Congress best tell of the interest now manifested in the question which directly concerns the arid states and territories. Various bills have been introduced and considered which directly apply to the trans-Missouri country, many of which possessed significant merit. The news- papers and magazines now give the sub- ject discussed in the irrigation convention space and criticism. These sessions bring together scientists, skilled engi- neers, law-makers, practical business men. capitalists, and the every day farmer and irrigator. The delegates each take a sig- nificant part in the deliberations, and each is so necessary to the other that it is diffi- cult to determine which of the different professions and trades becomes the most important factor. Each gives the other the benefit of his experience and explains his theories, thereby helping to build up a sound public sentiment. While there has been much to discourage, yet that which has been realized in the way of leg- islation should be a sufficient incentive for us to continue our efforts. " Irrigation, as the speaker further pointed out, was not a doubtful possibil- ity, but a certainty. Experiments have demonstrated repeatedly what may be ac- complished by its use, and therefore ask- ing the aid of the government in con- structing reservoirs to hold water for irri- gating the arid lands is not asking it to embark in any theoretical scheme unproved by practice. "Irrigation for the most part," said President Carey, "is still primitive. In many of the states, only from the small streams have the waters been diverted; the great streams have only been touched." In conclusion he said: "We hear of failures ; many will say that in their en- deavors they have lost their capital and labor. This could not be otherwise, for all that has been attempted in the way of irrigation work has not been completed, nor has all been don* satisfactorily and successfully. In great undertakings there have always been some bitter dissap- pointment and failures. This will occur in the future as it has in the past. All railroad building has not brought large returns. The great canals of half a cen- tury ago for transportation purposes have been largely abandoned. Why should we expect all irrigation enterprises from their very inception to be successful? We, however, say that irrigation works prop- erly located and well constructed are al- ways a success, for do they not, when op- erated, turn a desert into a garden and supplant barrenness with fertility, and, aa if by magic, change the parched and thirsty plains into harvest fields produc- ing profitable crops? These changes 32 THE IRRIGATION AGE. showing here the desert and there a fer- tile field are ever a delight to the human eye." Col. Nettleton, of Colorado, one of the prominent men in the irrigation move- ment, read a statistical paper on "The Success and Failures of Canal Building and the Causes Thereof." He divided irrigation enterprises into three heads, corporation, co-operation and colony, de- scribing the motives and methods of each and gave figures to prove that irrigation enterprises in Colorado were not failures. State Engineer Mead, of Wyoming, discussed "The Obstacles to Settlement in the Arid Eegion and the Best Means of Overcoming Them." In the debate upon this topic Mr. Mead graphically portrayed obstacles to settlement as experience had shown them. Capital was needed to' make settlement by the poor man possible and he believed that an easy way to get it was to cede the grazing lands to the state, and let them lease them, thus securing four million dollars capital to promote irrigation. This recommendation of Mr. Mead's received the endorsement of the Congress. Mr. Mead is preparing a bill which he hopes will pass the National Congress, which will provide that for ev- ery acre of land taken up under a canal sixteen acres of arid land adjoining thereto will be leased at a nominal rental, say 1 cent per acre. He estimates that if this can be accomplished, even at this rental, it will produce a revenue of about $4,000,000 per year. This in turn he proposes shall be expended in building storage reservoirs and further reclaiming our vast arid region. This projected bill is one of the most important steps that has yet been taken for the reclamation of the arid land of America, and if it can be carried out it will be a practical solution of this important question. Another recommendation that received the endorsement of the Congress was that of Col. Chittenden in regard to storage reservoirs. Col. Chittenden was on duty at Camp Wheeler, Huntsville, Ala., but a very interesting paper from him was read, entitled "The Construction of Storage Eeservoirs Under National Supervision." The conclusions he arrived at were that one-fourth to three-fourths of the water of streams must be held back in storage res- ervoirs, and that the cost will compel the general Government to undertake the en- terprise. An estimate of the cost of sys- tems examined in Wyoming and Colorado show the necessary annual expenditures to be moderate. His work included plans to enable Congress to make intelligent appropriations. In his address on what Congress is doing in aid of irrigation, Senator F. E. Warren confessed at the start that a dis- cussion of what Congress had not done in this line, would offer a larger field of dis- cussion. The first evidence of interest given by Congress in the arid land prob- lem was the desert land law ; repressive legislation followed, but during the past five years a marked change for the better has occurred. The Carey act, with its subsequent modifications, was a step in the right direction, and the interest shown by Congress in investigation of reservoir sites, etc., proves that progress is being made. A great number of other valuable pa- pers were read and discussed, but space forbids even a mention of them. The committee appointed by the Lin- coln Congress reported that it was suc- cessful in framing a bill that met with the approval of the House Committee. Officers were elected and executive committee named, the state of Montana was selected as the next meeting place, and other business transacted. President Carey was re-elected to office. The entertainment committee did its work well in providing amusement for the delegates . The opera house in which the meeting was held was very prettily decorated with the products of irrigation and a reception and ball was tendered the delegates the first night of the session. IRRIGATION AGE. THE GRAZING LAND PROBLEM. It is a fact generally conceded that the grazing lands of the Northwest have been overstocked and that there is a marked decrease in their stock-raising capacity. The lack of water has been a potent fac- tor in the destruction of the grasses, as the cattle have gone back and forth in search of water until the forage growth has been trampled out. F. Lawson-Scrib- ner. agrostologist, suggests that this could be remedied, at least in some sections, by building reservoirs to hold the water of melting snows and rainfall, instead of allowing it to run to waste as at present. Statistics show that, while the number of large ranches are decreasing, small farms and stock ranches along streams and water courses are increasing in number. By irrigation the forage-producing capa- city is increased many times, and in sec- tions of Wyoming, where formerly only sage brush was produced, there are now, thanks to irrigation, excellent yields of oats, wheat, rye, timothy, red top, alfalfa and clover. An article treating upon this subject ap- peared in the September Forum, under the title of "Our Public Grazing Lands," and was ably handled by the author. Frederick Y. Coville. As an introduction he quotes from a Colorado paper an ac- count of a stampede of sheep by cowboys, in which 3.800 sheep were killed and the sheep herder seriously injured. " 'Inci- dents' such as the one above described," he then says, ' 'happen on the public lands, and are the outcome of the present public- land laws, which Congress has made and which congress alone can unmake. The writer traces the course of the graz- ing industry from the time of the passing of the Homestead act in 1862, by which the settlement of pnblic lands was ex- tended westward and the thousands of acres of hitherto valueless land made profitable as grazing lands for cattle,to the present decadence of the cattle industry, due to the lack of forage growth. The lands have been used again and again un- til the grasses have been eaten out or killed by other vegetation which cattle will not eat, until in some sections "large areas which were once fine grazing-land»- today will not support one steer." The net loss to the state of Wyoming from 1896-1898 in capital invested in beef, cat- tle and sheep is about $11,000,000. Mr. Coville asserts it is his belief that "if the laws governing our arid lands remain unchanged, lawlessness will continue, the- destruction of private property and human life will go on, the prosperity of commun- ities will be lessened, and one of the rich resources of the nation will be wasted."" To transfer the public grazing land from governmental to private ownership is a remedy advanced by many for this evil,, but it has serious drawbacks, — first and greatest is that the land is apt to be monopo- lized by a few men, while the second and economic objection to the immediate dis- posal of this land is that we do not know the real value of it. "The present classi- fication recognizes only three kinds of public lands —mineral, timber, and agri- cultural. Before the government can dis- pose of grazing-lands, it must determine- which portions of the land now lumped as- agricultural are really such, and which? portions are fit for grazing. Especially- must such areas of arid land as are cap- able of irrigation, and which, therefore,, are really agricultural, be segregated from the areas not capable of irrigation, and be> classed as grazing. It is only by the act- ual application of engineering and hydro- graphic methods that the exact location and extent of the irrigable portions of the- arid lands can be ascertained ; and. in the- natural course of events, this would re- quire many years. Clearly it would not be to the interest of the government to- grant patents, as grazing-lands, to large areas really irrigable, and worth, there- fore, five, or perhaps, twenty times as- much. Furthermore, the economic condi- tions and the trade relations of the W est in general have not yet become sufficiently- well established to indicate the true value •34 THE IRRIGATION AGE. of land. Land values have been too high at one time or place, and too low at an- other. It will require at least one or two more decades of successes and failures to show the real money value of our grazing- lands. We do not know whether their present estimated values are too high or too low. It has more than once been proposed that the government should cede its land to the states in which the lands are situ- ated. The principal reason advanced in support of this proposition is, that the public lands pay no taxes and cannot, therefore, be made to bear their propor- tion of the cost of state administration And improvement; the whole cost thus falling on the private property within the state. Especially is this burden felt in those states in which the area of govern- ment land is still large. During the last •decade this proposition of state ownership has been before Congress in various forms. In general, it is favored by the newspapers of the grazing-states, as represented by Wyoming, for example, and is opposed by the newspapers of the agricultural states, particularly the irrigation states, repre- sented by California. In view of the wide- spread distrust among the people of the west of state, as opposed to Federal, man- agement of the public land, — a view strongly evidenced by the antagonism which the proposition of state ownership has met in Congress, — it seems to be ex- tremely doubtful whether any effective action in this direction will ever be taken. " Since it is thought that the government must for the present retain control of these grazing lands, the remedy for existing evils must be by limiting the amount of stock to the forage capacity of the area, and after briefly touching upon the plan of a per capita license, and showing the objections to such a course, Mr. Coville recommends the leasing system as a solu- tion of the problem. Each lessee would thus have a direct interest in the proper management of his tract of land. This system, the author states, is used success- fully by the Australian government in solving the grazing-land problem, by the state of Texas and by the Northern Pacific Railroad. Thus it has been proved that the leasing system is practicable and profitable. The sum obtained should go — not to the general treasury but, to the state in which the lands are located, as many western states have expended all the money allowed therein for improvements and are yet in need of funds to carry on schools, improve roads and "particularly for popular agricultural education, and of state moneys for great irrigation enter- prises— a matter of paramount importance in some states." . Mr. Coville favors a joint administration by the state and the government, in order to do away with the objections that are held by many sections against state man- agement of the public-land system. A rancher in Oregon suggested a principle to the author, which a San Francisco law- yer, experienced in water-right contests, and the state irrigation engineer of Wyom- ing, modified, and the proposition finally is as follows: '"Let the government re- tain its title to the grazing-lands, but adopt a grazing-lease system. Let the administration for each state be in the hands of a Federal officer, who shall have his headquarters within the state, attend to all leases and other business for that state, and decide all contests. The resi- dent officers to be responsible to a central officei' in Washington, who shall have the general supervision and direction of the system, be responsible for its proper man- agement, and have the right to veto, or reverse, the decisions of the resident officers; his office to be retained during good behavior. In each state the income in excess of the cost of administration to be returned to it, to be used for specified purposes of state improvement." BIG PIPE LINE. There are 115 settlers in West Riverside whose water for irrigation and domestic use is conveyed to them through the Ju- THE IRRIGATION AGE. 35 rupa and West Riverside canal. The set- tlers do not own this canal, but each has the right to convey a certain amount of water through it. For a number of years there has been expensive litigation between the settlers and the Steams Rancho com- pany, owner of the canal, and it has been extremely difficult to adjudicate the inter- ests of the several parties. As a solution to the many difficulties they have experienced, one of which was the frequent breaking of the canal, the settlers are planning to abandon their rights in the canal, and build a pipe line for the conveyance of the water appurte- nant to their lands. It will be necessaay to lay for this purpose eight miles of steel pipe, the greater part of which will be twelve inches is diameter. The proposed improvement will cost in the neighbor- hood of $50.000— a sum thnt it will be difficult to raise at this time. The settlers are hopeful of carrying out their project, however, and it is to be hoped that success will attend an their endeavors. — Press and Horticulturist. STATE NEWS. WASHINGTON. » About 2o per cent, more fruit is being transported through Spokane over the Northern Pacific than ever before. Rail- way officials think this increase is due to the fact that t he young orchaads are begin- ning to bear, and hence it is a permanent ARIZONA. Among the growing towns of Arizona may be mentioned Winslow. about fifty miles east of Flagstaff. The Santa Fe Pacific railway has made many improve ments that has been essential to the growth of the town and it is now in a t-hriv" ing condition, it being the eastern end o* the mountain division. Water, as in other apparently barren sections of Arizona, is the great problem with the settlers in this vicinity and important irrigation enter- prises are being promoted. The soil is rich and productive of every kind of fruit and vegetable, where nature has been kind and artificial means of producing moisture can be employed. There are several thriving ranches near Winslow, and the cattlemen furnish their quota of sup- port to a thriving community. In addition to three churches and a pub- lic school. Wislow has an anti-bachelor organization, and the man who has neither a wife nor a "girl back east" for whom he intends sending as soon as he gets a house built, is a social outlaw. Mr. Shelby M. Cullom, deputy collector of internal revenue, returned recently from an official visit to Nogales, Ariz. He says that property owners along the inter- national boundary are engaged in moving their buildings from the sixty-foot strip which the government decided to throw open for four miles, two on each side of the town, for the purpose of removing some of the facilities for smuggling and for the further reason that a purely mathematical line, one having length, but neither breath nor thickness, is too imaginary. Persons occupying this condemned territory have lately received notice to vacate, and all but two are acting upon the notice. One of these two is Captain John T. Brickwood, whose saloon abutts on the republic of Mexico. Some travelers in describing Brickwood's saloon have stated that it is built across the line and that there is a mark on the bar indicating the interna- tional boundary: that on the south side are kept Mexican cigars and French and other foreign drinks, which if imported into this country would cost a great deal more than they do in this so-called free zone. It has been stated that whenever Captain Brick- wood's customers want any of these things they are served for them on the south side of the international line running across the bar. As a matter of fact the saloon lies wholly within the United States, but the south- ern end of it is built against the Mexican line. A porch on that side is wholly in Mexico. Only three states now surpass Missou ri in the production of distilled liquors. Illinois is first, New York, second, and Kentucky third. THE SAFETY OF RAILWAY TRAVEL. Last year on American railways one passenger was killed in accidents out of every 2,827,474 passengers carried. That is to say, that you can take a train 2,827,- 474 times before, on the law of averages, your turn comes to be killed. You will have to travel 72,093,963 miles on the cars before that turn comes, and 4,541,945 miles before you are injured. If you travel 20 miles every day for 300 days in the year, you can keep on at it for 758 years before your turn comes to be hurt. If there had been railways when our Savior was born and you had begun to travel on the first day of the year A. D. 1, and had traveled 100 miles in every day of every month of every year since then, you would still have (in this year 1898) nearly three million miles yet to travel before your turn came to be killed. The Hon. Frank A. Vanderlip, Assist- ant Secretary of the Treasury, will have in McClure's Magazine for October an ar- ticle on the "Cost of the War." There has been a great deal of speculation and talk on this subject by people who were in no position to come at the facts; but Mr. Vanderlip must have them all right under his hand, and his article, therefore, cannot fail to be read with eager interest. Mark Twain is the next famous person to be "anecdotalized" by The Ladies' Home Journal, and the Humorist's closest friends have sent to the magazine for its next number some twenty odd stories about him, none of which have ever been printed. They are, of course, of the droll sort, but not more funny than the "snap- shot" pictures of Mark which his friends have also loaned the magazine. These, too, have never been printed. Mr. Davis handles the Satiago campaign without gloves in his article on "The Bat- tle of San Juan," in the October Scribner's. He says, regarding the part played by Gen- eral Shafter: "The unthinking answer which is invariably made to every criti- cism on General Shafter is that, after all. he was justified in the end, for he did suc- ceed; he was sent to Cuba to take Santi- ago, and he took Santiago. He did not take Santiago. His troops, without the aid they should have received from him of proper reconaissance and sufficient artill- ery, devotedly sacrificed themselves and took the hills above Santiago with their bare hands, and it was Admiral Cervera who, in withdrawing his guns which cov- ered the city, made a present of it to the American army." The plan to make the Columbia and Snake rivers navigable to the sea has been proposed and is enthusiastically endorsed by many western people. Mr. Noltner, an Oregon editor says: "It is a matter of the utmost importance, and no man should be elected to either branch of congress who is not openly and enthusiastically in favor of this improvement. It is the regulating- power of inland transportation, and is de- manded in the interest of all classes of producers." One of the newspapers, in commenting upon the assassination of the Empress of Austria, remarked that "only a crazy anarchist could see how the stabbing of a woman could benefit the common people. Reports from Elk City, Io., near the Bear Ridge mining town, state that a miner has made a valuable acquisition. It is a free milling proposition and runs from $50 to $500 to the ton. Work on the claim will be pushed during the fall and winter. Elk City is coming to the front as a mining section. We wish to call attention to the ad. of B. F. Shuart, which 'appears on another page of this issue. Mr. Shuart deals in the Shuart Earth Grader, a machine that is invaluable to orchardists, alfalfa grow- ers and irrigators in general. See ad. on another page. We wish to state, to prevent any misun- derstanding, that the work on "Mystery and Mastery of Irrigation," advertised on another page, is in galley proof form . THE IRRIGATION AGE. VOL. XIII. CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1898. NO. 2. THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN HMERICS. Those who oppose territorial Trouble at . ... Home. expansion for this country bring forward to support their arguments the late Indian outbreak in Minnesota and more especially the war of the mining operatives in Illinois, as proof that the United States ought not to ex- tend her territory so long as complete harmony cannot be sustained within her present boundaries. The Indian outbreak which occurred last month, in which Maj. Melville C. Wilkinson. U. S. A., was killed, was the outcome of a long-continued injus- tice to the Indians in regard to the selling of their timber. After the expenses of Ceiling the timber was deducted the pro- ceed* were to be distributed among the Indians owing the timber land, but the men who had charge of the sales took good care that there should be no surplus after the "expenses" were paid. The out- break was due to the dishonesty of some of the political agents, and for a short time it was feared that a general uprising of the 7.000 or 8.000 Indians in that section would occur. The war at Virden, 111.. Oct. 12. between the colored and white miners was still more serious, eleven lives being lost and twenty-three persons being injured. This was not so much a protest against negro labor, as some claim, but a protest against any labor being brought from other states to take the places of the strikers. Gov. Tanner did not improve affaire by refusing to send troops, though probably the sym- pathy of the majority of the people is with the strikers, as the history of the treat- ment of the coal miners of Illinois is not a subject of which the state can be proud. Because these disturbances have occurred does not prove that we cannot contend with problems of Cuba or the Philippines. Tfce In- In speaking of the inquiry now vestigating pending of the investigating Board. board the jfafoy, Of ^e^rg says: "The methods of an investigating committee ought not to be those of a judi- cial tribunal. In the administration of justice it is assumed that things are right until they are proved to be wrong. In the investigation of charges and complaints. on the other hand, it is the usual plan to assume that there is a good deal of founda- tion for the charges, and to give real en- couragement to those who have grievances so that they may not be frightened or dis- couraged in telling what they know. * * Meanwhile we have liberty of the press in this country, and the public will conduct its own investigation. Mistakes of the past cannot be undone, but the country has a night to expect that such mistakes wi,ll not be repeated in the future.'' We wish to emphasize one A Division point in Mr Maxwell-s article of Irrigation, f in this issue, and that is the proposition to have a "Division of Irriga- tion in the Department of Agriculture." This meets our hearty approval and en- dorsement. The two are so closely allied that irrigation is as much a part of the agricultural department as is forestry, etc. There is a crying need for a division of this kind to aid the dweller in the arid west to solve the many problems which present themselves to him: which wonld supply him with bulletins and literature 38 THE IRRIGATION AGE. on irrigation experiments. Farmers are beginning to realize the benefits of irriga- tion and have a desire to try the system but do not know just how to go about it. There should be some way provided by which the small farmer may obtain infor- mation on this subject as easily as he now can regarding fruit pests, fertilizers, etc. "I Will" Chicago is a constant surprise a Fitting to other cities. The United Motto. states regards her with the astonishment the old hen felt when her duckling took to the water. The first sur- prise was that sane men should attempt to build a city upon the swamps of the Chica- go river. But despite the prophecies of disastrous failure the city was built and prospered. After the fire of 1871, when pessimistic people said "the city will never be rebuilt," Chicago rose from her ashes with a rapidity that was surprising. She captured the World's Fair and again "as- tonished the natives." So well known is her propensity for1 "getting there" that it occasioned but little wonder when she was the first city to hold a peace jubilee. Such a dismal period of rain and slush as the jubilee week proved to be might well daunt the projectors. Like a naughty child, who when company is present abso- lutely refuses to "show off" but sits in sulky silence, Chicago put on her blackest frown and showed strangers what she could do in the way of weather, causing them to wonder how anyone who was able to get away could live in such a dirty, rainy, foggy, muddy place. But despite the unfavorable circum- stances Chicago conquered fate and held her jubilee. The crowd that gathered on Wednesday, Oct. 19, to witness the parade, was in itself worth seeing. Looking down from high buildings you seemed to see in the streets below a moving mass — people packed like sardines in a box. Everything orderly, every one good.natured; each one accepting the inevitable jostling and crowding as merely a part of the day's celebration. Even the man who fell in the street too drunk to regain his feet, had a con tented look on his face as if he did not mind the inconvenience of lying on his back in the mud, but was only thankful for space in which to fall. To say that President McKinley made a good impression and won many friends fails to express it. And though perhaps, in view of the recent failure of the peace commissioners to come to any definite agreement, the celebration was a little premature, the good that it has done in in- troducing the President personally to the people and the desire evinced by all — re- gardless of party — to support the policy of the administration, is worth all the ex- pense the jubilee celebration entailed. At no time when thinking of a Bismarck's Diary. great man deceased are we so prone to agree with Shakes- peare that "The evil men do lives after them; the good is often interred with their bones," than when we hear that his diary is to be published — his inmost thoughts, his hidden weaknesses, his secret loves and hates, given to the public. Bismarck made many enemies during his long life, and the recent publication of his diary will not tend to decrease the hard feeling held by many, especially by the English nation, as the entries prove he had no love for that country. A London newspaper, in its criticism of the work, says it proves Bismarck to have been as arrogant and brutal as his worst enemies declared him to be. The man who published the diary is Dr. Moritz Busch, sometimes described as Bismarck's Boswell, and though it is claimed that he had Bismarck's sanction, it would seem that the best and kindest thing Dr. Busch could have done would have been to allow the diary to remain only a diary. The efforts the ex-chancel- lor's family are making to justify his treat- ment of his enemies and to avenge his in- sults, will be much hampered by this book, which most Germans condemn as showing want of tact on the part of Busch and which is a mere jumble of unimportant remarks, which teach us nothing new, yet cause a great deal of bad feeling." A Glasgow paper says of the book. "* * * Dr. Busch has so fully drawn the screen from before this great German idol that we have no difficulty in seeing that the feet are clay. And such clay!" When a man is dead — beyond the reach of reproach, when he can no longer defend himself against the criticisms made by his enemies, is it not better to let the "dead past bury its dead?" THE IRRIGATION AGE. 39 We present in this issue a This Month portrait of Geo. H. Maxwell, of San Francisco, Cal. , Editor of the National Advocate and. the California Adrocate, and an earnest and energetic worker in the irrigation movement. We hope, later on. to present a sketch of Mr. Maxwell, whose able contributions to the AGE have made him known to its readers. Next month we will give a portrait and biographical sketch of Joel Shomaker. so long a valued contributor to this journal, and also one (we hope) of T. S. Van Dyke, who may be termed the "irriga tor's favo- rite." as his writings on irrigation sub- jects, his dry humor and thorough knowl- edge of the art of irrigation, have made his name well known throughout the west. We have much pleasure in di- recting the attention of our A New Contributor. readers to an interesting and instructive article in this issue of the AGE under the "Diversified Farm" department entitled "Land and Product* — An Ex- haustive Analysis." The article is the more interesting and the information the more valuable because the writer. Wallace Harrington, is a man who is not only master of the subject treated, but is also a man thoroughly reli- able for truth and integrity of purpose. Mr. Harrington presents an array of facts and figures that shows the cattle business in America to be of enormous proportions, and yet conditions prove that large as it now is. it will continue to in- crease from year to year as new markets are opened. The daily service of dressed beef to Great Britain mentioned by him will absorbe hundreds of tons every day. and when this daily service is extended to all Euroge the demand will increase. But raising and marketing cattle, like any other lucrative business, must be under- stood in order to be successful. A mere novice in the trade will not do. A man must understand and be a good judge of the different breeds of cattle, how to man- age them and put them on the market. This article is Mr. Harrington's intro- duction to AGE readers and we hope to enable them to continue his acquaintance by presenting other articles from him in future issues, feeling assured that they will prove as interesting as this one. The On October 21 the Nicaraguan Nicaragua Commission decided that the Canal. concessions granted to the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua expires October 20, 1899. The Nicaragua canal has been talked of for years. Inves- tigations have been repeatedly made for the purpose of determining whether its construction were possible at a reasonable expense, and though many disbelieved and still disbelieve in the feasibility of the plan, its possibility is now quite generally conceded. Many things apparently im- possible have been accomplished and why not this? The present Canal Commission consists of three men, and though their official re- port has not yet been presented to Con- gress, all of them have stated, since their return from Nicaragua, that the under- taking is entirely feasible. Their opinions regarding the expense varies from $140.- 000,000, Gen. Hains' estimate,to $90,000,000, Prof .Haupt's estimate. Admiral Walker, the other member of the Commission, thinks the construction would not exceed $125,000,000. The engineers of the com- pany claim that a canal, with thirty feet of water, and locks large enough to pass the largest battleships, can be constructed for a sum not to exceed $100,000,000. This may seem like a large amount but since the "Oregon"' made its famous voyage around Cape Horn, there are few who can- not see the desirability and value of such a canal. Many ask why this canal is not con- structed by private individuals: why make a government project of it. The answer to this is that since the Panama episode, where so many millions were squandered and stolen, capital has fought shy of simi- lar enterprises backed by private compa- nies. Warner Miller, in the November Forum, answers the other question that probably arises, as to why. if this canal be possible, the government has not constructed it. He says that it is a hard matter to con- vince the majority of the people that such a canal is either feasible of construction or that it would be of any great benefit if built, and the government is loath to em- bark in such a stupendous enterprise with- out the pressure of public demands. A 40 THE IRRIGATION AGE. demand will probably now be made, as the recent war has shown the disadvantage of our disconnected coast line, while the friendly relations now existing with Eng- land will do away with the idea that there would be any objection from outsiders to the construction of the canal. England would be more nearly concerned than any other country and satisfactory arrange- ments could undoubtedly be made with her. Ex-Senator Miller claims that the one great drawback to government action being taken in this matter in the past has been the influence of the great railway corporations. The trans-continental rail way capitalists have had the idea that a canal would injure their trade to a large extent, and so have opposed it and by a system of lobbying, peculiarly their own, have, for the past ten years, prevented any bill favorable to the construction of the Nicaragua Canal from being acted upon at a joint session of House and Senate. Farmers' Beginning Dec. 6, 1898, the National Farmers' National Congress Congress. wm hold its eighteenth annu" al session at Fort Worth, Texas, lasting until Dec. 14. The program is made up of so many interesting features that it is hard to decide which will prove of the most value. On the tirst day, in addition to the usual addresses of welcome, the responses, and the annual address of the president of the Congress, Hon. W. D. Hoard, those attending will have the pleasure of listening to Hon. James Wil- son, Secretary Agriculture, U. S., on the subject of "Extension of Foreign Markets for Farm Products." Booker T. Washing, ton, President Industrial Institute. Tus- keegee, Ala., will address the meeting on "Industrial Education for the Negro.'' Among the numerous other topics taken up by men well qaalified to speak on them will be "The Beet Sugar Industry," by Hon. W. G. Whitmore, Nebraska; "Agriculture in the Schools," by Prof. C. C. James, Assistant Secretary Agriculture Ontario, Canada; "Railway Discrimina- tion," "The Cotton Interests, ""Trusts and Monopolies," etc, etc. Fort Worth is making every effort to have a successful and enjoyable meeting: railway fares will be reduced, hotel rates will be moderate, and the delegates will be given a splendid opportunity to see the state of Texas, as the business men of Fort Worth have arranged to give a free ex- cursion to all delegates from other states, the excursion to last about four days and cover 1,000 miles. Hotel rates will be low, and the fare to delegates will be free. Low transportation rates will be made to those not delegates. At the last meeting of the Congress a resolution was passed by which the voting membership of the Congress was to be as follows: "A member from each congres- sional district and two at large, to be ap- pointed by the governor of each state (and such governors are requested to appoint practical farmers as such delegates). That each agricultural college and experimental station be entitled to a delegate, and that each national and state society or organ- ization, created and maintained for the fostering of any agricultural interests in the Western Continent, shall be entitled to a delegate: further, that these organ- izations, societies, etc., shall supply a cer- tified statement of the existence of said organization." The executive committee of the Con- gress has decided that where it is not pos- sible or advisable to have a meeting of any national or state society or organization, named in the resolution, to select a dele- gate to the Congress; that the president of the society or organization name the delegate. There is practically no limit to the number of delegates that may be ap- pointed to cast the votes to which organ- izations are entitled in Farmers' National Congi-ess and it is hoped, therefore, that delegations will be large. The Index to this number will be found in the back part of the journal instead of the front, as formerly. IRRIGATION IN WYOMING. JOEL SHOMAKER. Wyoming is the fourth largest state in the Union. It comprises a vast mountainous water-gathering area extending 420 miles east and west and 300 miles north and south. Within the borders of this divis- ion are nearly 63,000,000 acres of agricultural, grazing and timber lands. The mean altitude of the state is about 6,500 feet, but many mountain peaks reach 11,000 feet and hold perpetual snowbanks for the immense water supply. Numerous large rivers and tributary streams flow out from the watershed, estimated at 22,000,000 acres, and contribute to the high waters of the Missouri on the north, Platte on the east. Colorado on the south and Snake on the west. The irri- gated area is less than 500,000 acres, hence the volume of water origi- nating in the fountains of Wyoming, if properly impounded would be sufficient to reclaim one hundred times the present cultivated fields. A territoritorial organization was formed July 25, 1868, and the present state admitted July 10, 1890. The census returns for 1890 gave a population of 60,705, of whom 922 were Chinese and Indians. The same enumeration gave 3,125 actual farm owners in the state, and an average of 120 acres to the farm. The average first cost of water right is $3.62 an acre, annual maintenance fee 50 cents an acre and clearing and preparing for cultivation $8.23 an acre. Appropriations of water have been made from over 600 streams and most of the farm- ing is confined to the higher mountain valleys, where canals are easily and cheaply built and the flow of streams can be conveniently tapped. Wheat, oats, potatoes and hay are the chief products and the yield is equal to any similar altitude throughout the irrigated west. An estimate given by one of the leading farmers places the yield per acre at the following figures: Oats, 60; wheat, 50; potatoes, 600 bushels, alfalfa, two good crops and wild hay four tons per acre. Wyoming contains twelve county divisions, each being more or less irrigated by small farm ditches taken from the mountain creeks or plains streams. There are a few flowing wells along the lines of railway, but the principal source of irrigation is the individual or farmer's ditch. The water is under state control through the provi- sions of a district system authorized by an act of the first state legis- lature. This law I think is the most perfect of any ever framed in tne irrigated west, and it certainly prevents much waste, litigation and damage so frequent in some sections. A state engineer and board of control regulates all appropriations without resorting to courts, and no appropriator is allowed more than he can put to a beneficial use. The maximum being set to a limitation of one second foot for 70 acres 4.2 THE IRRIGATION AGE. no man can object to the volume allowed for irrigating an acre. All water is properly measured and evenly distributed by the use of weirs and headgates, and the prior appropriations hold all right and tille to the natural flow until it has been increased by reservoirs or other means. In 1897 Wyoming produced 477,075 bushels of wheat, of which 76,332 bushels were shipped out of the county where grown. The oat crop for the same year was 479,255 bushels, there being a surplus of 14,378 bushels. The hay crop reaches 275,000 tons annually and the potato yield is about 200,000 bushels each year. Local demands usu- ally hold up the prices of farm products above the general market quotations. In 1897 the average price for oats was 35 cents a bushel, for wheat 70 cents, corn 50 cents per bushel and hay $6.00 per ton. Much of the agricultural production finds a purely local market be- cause of the railroads being so far from the farming valleys. The State has about 1,200 miles of railroad, or one mile to every 175 in population, but the chief line — the Union Pacific — crosses the plains and does not touch the best farming districts. The other lines reach a portion of the agricultural lands and assist in marketing the surplus farm products. Grazing of sheep and cattle is the chief industry of Wyoming and gradually the farmers are beginning to realize the importance of con- trolling this source of revenue by making it a part of the legitimate farm productions. The time has been when rangers and farmers were enemies and the two occupations were distinct, but with the era of small farms, and the necessity for winter feeding of range stock, the farmer has come out victorious, and every man ownin g sheep or cattle will soon become a farmer, and take an interest in developing the agricultural resources, of which stockraising is only one of the le- gitimate branches. There are probably two million sheep owned in the state, and the wool clip averages 8i pounds, which with an in- crease of at least one-third of the original bands every year contri- butes an immense sum to the farming communities. The range cattle owned in Wyoming number probably three quarters of a million and constitute the most valuable of all farm products shipped out of the state. Albany county in southeastern Wyoming is chiefly a stockraising district, fully 95 percent of the total farm area being devoted to grow- ing forage plants. The Laramie plains are well watered on the west and good crops of alfalfa, wheat, oats, potatoes and wild hay are grown. The chief difficulty experienced in irrigating and farming this section has been the disregard of cattlemen for the rights and privileges of settlers and consequent destruction of crops by bands of stock not properly guarded. This is true of many other sections of the West, and colonists have much trouble in establishing homes where sheep and cattle ranging, as a transient industry, is practiced, THE IRRIGATION AGE 43 and the business is separate from farming. Carbon county in the southern part of the state contains many good farms and nice homes. The farm products are all sold on the home market. Ditches are small and of the individual character. The tillable land is at an alti- tude of about 7,000 feet and the cereals, grasses and hardy vegetables constitute the crops. Converse county lies in the center of the eastern tier of counties, at an altitude of about 5000 feet and is a stock raising section, Water wheels are used for raising from the Platte, and with the aid of small creeks several ranches are irrigated chiefly for hay. Crook county is in the northeast and contains a few farms at an elevation of 4000 to 5,000 feet, where cereals and grasses grow profusely. Some good crops are reported to have been grown without irrigation but ditches insure harvests and the farmers have small individual canals for each ranch. Fremont county comprises a large area in the western part of the state and is pretty well watered. The same objection to general farming applies here as in nearly all other counties, in the lack of anything but a local market on account of distance from the railroad. Johnson county in the northern portion of the state has several irri- gated farms and agriculture has been developed much in the past few years. Some successful attempts at individual reservoirs are reported from this county. Laramie county lies in the southeast and is well watered by several streams. The valleys range about 6,000 feet in altitude and are best adapted to stockraising and general ranching in which the people are successful, Natrona county lies east of the center of the state and is crossed by the Platte river. The elevation is over 6,000 feet and hay is the principal crop. Sheridan county is situated in the north-center of the state and has some well developed farms. Sweetwater county in the southern part is practically a plain section containing few farms and not many irrigating ditches. Uinta county on the west rises up to an elevation of about 7,000 feet, and contains many hay ranches. Weston county in the eastern part is a plains division containing few farms. The dozen county divisions are practically the same as to altitude, water supply and general aridity. The rainfall is not sufficient to produce crops and the canals are nearly all of the individual ditch character. Wyoming presents an inviting field to the general farmer who will utilize his hay and grain in raising sheep, cattle, horses and hogs. There are but little inducements for the truck farmer and fruit grower, but both occupations can be made profitable in protected val- leys along the lines of railroad. The chief cities and towns of Wyoming are Cheyenne, Laramie, Evanston, Rawlins, and Green River along the Union Pacific railroad, lead mines are operated at Evanston, Rock Springs and other points and some general mining is carried on in different sections. Good public schools are maintained everywhere that the population justifies 44 THE IRRIGATION AGE. and the leading religious denominations are well represented by ele- gant church buildings and active congregations. The country being at a great elevation there are no impurities in the atmosphere and miasmatic diseases are unknown. Numerous reservoir sites may be located and many large canals could be constructed to tap the rivers. Good sites for colonies can be found in nearly every section and, by united efforts excellent homes can be erected. The opportunities for dairying, stockraising, sheep and wool growing, horse ranching and growing of general cereals and grasses are excellent and colonists seeking such locations would do well to investigate the land of Wyoming. UNPROFITABLE IRRIGATION WORKS. No. VI. T. S. VAN DYKE. Before enquiring farther into the causes of failure in so many ir- rigation works let us ask what is a failure? It is generally assumed that the purpose of an incorporation and the issuance of stock is the operating of some enterprise to make a profit to be paid in dividends to the stock holders. A very good joke, this. Such is the style in some of the old fogy sections of the world and even in some of the more archaic regions of our own country. Even in our only great and glorious west a few benighted individuals, fresh from the fossiliforous formations of the east, have had the same idea and operated some companies upon it. For a gas company or city water company, and sometimes for a street railroad this is not altogether bad. But for some other companies such as those for min- ing and often for irrigation it is frightfully out of line with western progress. The principal object in these are more often, To pay fat salaries to those "on the inside." To look after the brothers-in-law, sons-in-law, nephews, etc., of those on the inside. To form inside companies composed of the controlling interest, to buy from or make contracts with the parent company that will utilize any surplus that if paid in salaries would look too large. To utilize, by absorption or otherwise, anything lying around loose that might be used for the purpose of paying dividends but which cannot well be disposed of in salaries, etc.. without danger of a protest from some mischief maker who happened to belong to the minority of the stockholders. For these and various other purposes to keep control of the stock and to freeze out anybody that is unduly curious about the doings of the majority or the application of the funds. All this is not at all inconsistent with good service to the public and many companies have been run on these lines, built up good set- tlements and will continue to do so. Many of these have paid a good profit to those who knew how to put in their money in the right way and watch it after it was in. Some have been honestly managed on that basis. For instance the Bear Valley Irrigation Company of San Bernardino County, California, when the dam was built and water was ready for delivery issued a dividend of water certificates entitling the holder to so much water on payment of a small sum per inch per year. 46 THE IRR1 GA TION A GE. These were the class of certificate lately held good by the Federal Court and are the ones upon which the water right of Redlands has always rested. The dam was built when evolving hard cash from the inner pocket was different thing from what it now is and a few men almost beggared themselves to raise the sixty thousand the dam cost. But the stockholders did it and built the dam without bonding the work. The water was as good for cash as wheat the moment the gate was opened. The certificates were issued in amount sufficient to reimburse each stockholder for what he had paid out and a profit in addition that was satisfactory all around. The certificates were sold for cash and parties got back what they had put in and good interest upon it. This transaction is not heard of. The subsequent manipu- lation of the stock and wrecking of the company years afterward is now charged up against irrigation works. The fact is the proposition paid and paid well. And it always would have paid, even with bal- looning, if the balloonists had not had a little too much confidence in the bouying power of their gas. All calculations as to the value of the water, its selling price for spot cash, the rate of settlement under the .works, the value and productive power of the land and the amount of money it would bring in every year have all surpassed the expec- tations af the projectors. It was one of the most successful irrigation projects ever started, and solid as the pyramid of Cheops. But it was turned bottom upward to build upon its base another pyramid to reach the stars. In the above case every thing was not only honestly done in dis- tributing the assets as dividends but every one had his full share and everybody was satisfied. This is not always the case and the re-im- bursement bears heavily on a few who are not on the inside. There are companies paying the president ten thousand dollars a year salary to do almost nothing but look wise at a perfunctory directors' meeting. As this is five per cent on nearly a quarter of a million he must have put in considerable money in order to lose anything. In most cases it is thirty to fifty percent on what he did put in and has been paid long enough to more than pay him a good profit. In the same way a superintendent in one company I know is paid two hundred and forty a month while the secretary and ditch tender at small wages do about all the work. In other cases the water or land of the company has been distrib- uted to some of the parties who put in the most money and have been wise enough to keep control of the stock, but not to all equally, the distribution being in the form of a sale or an option to some relative in such a way that the minority cannot easily object. Some enter- prises have paid very well in this way to those who put in the most money, the others not being considered. But if a company is not op- erated for dividends how can it be said to be a failure because it does not pay them? The right or wrong of the matter does not affect that THE IRRIGA Tl ON A GE. 47 question. In other cases parties have concluded that the project was better to skin than to keep and have left the bondholders in the lurch by doing it. When they take possession of the works they find the shell tolerably empty. In some cases this has been honestly done, the water being sold out too cheap or other bad contracts made in the distress in which projectors often find themselves and when it looks as if any sort of a bargain would help them out. It is said that capital does not enquire into the causes of failure but looks only at general results. This is so far true that it is for the interest of us all that there be no failures and nothing to explain away. But it is quite as true that there is some capital that will always listen to such explanation and enquire into it. And there is a difference be- tween an actual failure and only an apparent one. And the chances are that investigation would show the majority of failures apparent only as explained above or as in the next class of cases. One of the best land owner's companies of Southern California owes something like six hundred thousand dollars. It pays its inter- est yet it is called a financial failure because it ought to be out of debt or at least diminishing its debt instead of increasing it. This company has for years paid luxurious salaries not to reimburse anybody but as a matter of pride or style, fought everything in sight on the river and paid lawyers tens of thousands. But this is far from all. It owns about four thousand acres of fine orange land and has water enough to supply it. This is land that was left over from the block out of the sale of which the water works were built and cost only some ten or fifteen dollars an acre. It was turned over to the company when the projectors made a land owner's company of it and they had made enough out of what was before sold to pay a handsome profit on their investment and time, besidethe land and water they retained to culti- vate in their own company, which land is now a valuable property. These four thousand acres could have been sold during the great boom of 1886-7 for three hundred dollars an acre. It was not enough. It was "giving it away." The year after the boom broke they could have been sold for three hundred an acre. But that was "throwing it away." Five years after that they could have been sold for two hundred an acre. But that was "madness." Even last year after all the hard times they could have been sold for probably one hundred and fifty, certainly for a hundred. But that would be worse yet. Is this company a financial failure because it still owes six hun- dred thousand dollars, when its purpose is to furnish several thousand acres with water, which it is doing and bringing in a profit of a million or more a year and supporting a settlement of some seven thousand people in the best of style? Yet that is what the world would say, looking only at the bonded debt. It would say there is something 48 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. wrong with irrigation when such a prosperous community shows an ever increasing debt. And yet it is in every way a success. The San Diego Land & Town Company, the owner of the Sweet- water 'dam, comes into the Federal Court of California and makes statements from which it would be inferred that its waterworks were a failure. I have so far avoided giving- the names of companies un- less their troubles were public property. But when a company airs its linen in court it makes it public property and I mention the name in this case because the irrigation system of this company is supposed to be a failure whereas I have direct personal knowledge that it is not. This company alleges that its works cost something like a million dollars. But this includes the distribution system for a city of tower- ing hopes and bewildering acreage that needs only six or eight feet of dog fennel in the streets to finish it off in good shape. The company had here a choice list of fine lots on which it proposed to realize irom prospective tenderfeet and spread out a vast distribution system to help catch them. Granting that it was wise it was not irrigation. At Chulta Vista, which was a fine piece of property for cultivation, the plainest horse sense would have dictated confining settlement to a central line along a main aqueduct and pushing out distributaries from that as settlement called for them. But this would not suit the re- quirements of a boom. So expensive iron pipe strong enough to carry water to a thousand five acre tracts under a head of some eighty feet, were laid all over five thousand acres before there were any settlers, rusting out and drawing interest at the same time with no one to use them. There was some expensive litigation that increased the cost, but all that can be rightfully charged against the irrigation works is less than six hundred thousand dollars for the dam and about seven miles of 30 inch pipe, the dam costing about two hundred and forty thou- sand, and the litigation something like half that. The company sold nearly twenty-five hundred acres for three hundred and fifty dollars an acre of land that without the water would not bring fifty on any market, boom or otherwise, was not worth ten for any purpose, and cost the company considerably less than five. It could have sold the whole five thousand that it piped had it not required the purchaser to build a house costing at least twenty-five hundred dollars on each five acre lot. Even with this proviso it could probably have sold the whole for two hundred and fifty an acre, and had it discovered that the boom was really over it could have sold it all for an average of two hundred an acre. On this sale was reserved an annual payment of three dollars and a half an acre for the use of the water, with which every purchaser was content. They paid this for some eight years without objection when suddenly the company goes into the hands of a receiver who is one of the inside gentry and gets ten thousand a year or something THE IRRIGATION AGE. 49 like it for one trip a year across the continent in a palace car to spend a few days in the vicinity of the property. Then the company comes into court and coolly ignoring the money it received for the sale of so many acres of five dollar land for three hundred and fifty an acre be- cause it was supplied with water, also coolly ignoring the tens of thousands it received from the sale of town lots at ridiculous figures because of the water, asks the court to have the rate annual rates raised from the three and a half an acre which was the implied con- tract with the purchaser. It asks to have the rates raised to seven dollars an acre a year, on the ground that the three and a half does not give the seven per cent interest on the cost of the plant required by the constitution of California. The difference in the value of the land dry and wet more than paid the entire cost of the works. Fat dividends were paid out of it that helped send the stock to something like double its par value. Those who took it for the land in the res- voir, and those who paid in construction money not paid by sales of land, could have sold out at any time during some two years for sev- eral times what the stock cost them. Long after the boom one of the projectors refused ninety thousand dollars for his stock, which was about ninety times the value for any other purpose of the land he ex- changed for it for reservoir purposes. This company also has several thousand acres of the same kind of land left, so valuable with the water that it planted a thousand of it in lemons for itself which it is now working Yet all this is ignored and the proposition treated by the company itself as if its sole source of reimbursement for the expense was the collection of annual rentals. To say that such a thing is a failure of irrigation works even when the company itself so alleges is nonsense. In the San Joaquin Valley, in Arizona, and other parts of the west are companies that have in one way or another taken in large areas of land under the arid land act. Sometimes this has been done by the party making the entry deeding a portion of it to the company for the water that is to make it possible to make his proof, and sometimes by the land being entered by numerous relatives and friends of the mem- bers of the company and then transferred to a sub-company, called an Improvement Company or something of the sort, but consisting sub- stantially of the same parties as the main company, or at any rate of the controlling interest. These lands thus acquired are often very extensive and without them the works would never have been built. Most of these companies have large areas of this still left which they could have sold for two, three and often five or six times what it cost to put the water on. But it was not enough. They thought the boom was only a natural healthy growth and wanted more. Why should they charge this against irrigation? They still have the land. They have the water to put on it, good farmers under the works on exactly similar land are making good profit on it, the company itself could do 50 THE IRRIGATION AGE. the same, some are doing it and one in the San Joaquin is making it pay well. Yet such works are called failures because they are not paying dividends to the stockholders of the parent company, or be- cause there is a freeze out game and a receiver to work it with, or some one of the infinite entanglements that .western ingenuity can in- vent to dispose of the assets without paying dividends and without paying interest on the bonds. And the bonds may be all taken by one or more of the stockholders instead of paying in the money in assess- ments. This is right enough, but it tends to develop a discovery, a discovery that any parties not badly wanted in the corporation may be unloaded by allowing the corporation to default on its bonds and then foreclosing. No matter how much of a success the company may be so far as being paid for its water is concerned, it stands before the world as a failure. The disrepute into which irrigation projects as paying properties have fallen is largely due to the causes above given and when examined on the lines laid down it will be found that the real failures are far less numerous than they appear. They are cer- tainly no more than there are of railroads, street railroads, and many other things in new countries. And most of the real failures have been due to mismanagement so stupid or careless that it would have made a failure of anything. But one need not know much of the west to know that a failure to pay dividends or'even pay interest on bonds may be a long way,.from a financial failure of the proposition. ANNEX ARID AMERICA. STEADFASTNESS OF PURPOSE AND CONCENTRA- TION OF EFFORT BY THE IRRIGATION CONGRESS WILL ACCOMPLISH IT. GEORGE H. MAXWELL. Steadfastness of purpose is in itself a power, and this the Nation- al Irrigation Congress has attained. All that is now necessary to work out the grand destiny which may be achieved for Arid America through the reclamation by irrigation of the waste places that are now a desolate desert is that the Irrigation Congress and all its mem- bers and all those who are laboring to accomplish this great purpose shall concentrate their efforts and not diverge upon minor matters and thereby dissipate and lose the strength and influence which their limited labors would achieve . The resolutions which were published in the August number of the IRRIGATION AGE, were adopted in full by the Cheyenne Irrigation Congress, thus reaffirming the principles to which the congress anchored itself at the Phosnix session. The only additional matter added to any of these resolutions was a clause appended to the proposed resplutions endorsing the Chittenden re- port in favor of federal storage reservoirs, which made the endorse- ment of that policy broader and stronger. These resolutions may well be republished, because they are the broad ground upon which all should unite who are working for the common cause, which is the reclamation of the arid west and the up- building of rural homes to conquer and occupy the deserts. The re- solutions as adopted by the Cheyenne Congress are as follows: We favor the preservation and development of our national re - sources by the construction of storage reservoirs by the federal gov- ernment, for flood protection and to save for use in aid of navigation and irrigation, the flood waters which now run to waste and cause overflow and destruction, as recommended in the report of Col. Hiram M. Chittenden, and we urge the adoption of the recommendation of this report as to the construction of storage reservoirs in the arid re- gions, as a part of the national policy of internal improvements. We favor the leasing of the public grazing lands at a nominal rental in limited areas to settlers tilling adjacent lands, the revenue from rentals to go to the states for irrigation development, leases to be subject to right of reclamation by irrigation and of settlement on lands actually cultivated, title of land to remain in federal government until actual settlement. r GEO H. MAXWELL. THE IRRIGA T10N A GE. 53 RESOLUTIONS OF FORMER SESSIONS. Resolved, That the National Irrigation Congress endorses the fol- lowing resolutions, as expressing the principles heretofore enuciated at its former sessions: i j We urge upon the American people. the profound importance of the social, political and philanthropic features of the great irrigation movement, its ultimate aim being that we may become a nation of rural homes, rather than a nation of great cities. We favor the construction by the federal government of storage reservoirs and irrigation works wherever necessary to furnish water for the reclamation and actual settlement of the arid public lands. The value of the irrigated farm and the- security of the homes thereby created are alike dependent upon sufficient public control of the water supply, and the prevention of water becoming a speculative commodity. We believe that the waters of all streams should forever remain public property, and that the right to its use should inhere, not in the individual or the ditch, but in the land reclaimed. We favor the cession of the public lands of the nation to the re- spective states and territories only upon conditions so strict that they will insure the settlement of such lands by actual settlers in small tracts, and absolutely prevent their monopoly in large bodies under private ownership. The rock upon which the Irrigation Congress split for so many sessions in its earlier history was that of State Cession, some favoring unconditional cession af all the arid lands to the states while others bitterly opposed this policy, believing that it would defeat its ostensi- ble purpose, and result not in the actual reclamation and settlement of the lands, but in their being made the basis of speculation and eventu- ally falling into the hands of single owners in large tracts for grazing or other purposes to the exclusion of actual settlers. The resolution of the Phoenix Congress, favoring state session only upon conditions so strict as to insure the settlement of the lands by actual settlers in small tracts is one to which no one who desires the prosperity of the West can object. Even those who have most strongly urged state cession have argued for it on the ground that the federal government never would reclaim its own arid lands. This is a false premise. The federal government will do it and the day is coming near by when the great work will be begun. The strongest argument, therefore, in favor of absolute cession fails. No one, how- ever,objects to the doing by the states of all that each state can do to accomplish the reclaimation by irrigation of the arid lands within its borders, provided it is done in such a way as to insure the reclamation and settlement of the land. There should, therefore, be a complete uniting of all forces upon this policy, and each proposed enactment whether of state or national legislation should be subjected to this test and if all possibilities of the evils which would inevitably follow un- conditional state cession are removed, in framing laws, the objections of those who have opposed that policy will likewise be removed. There can be no question that in some of the grazing states of the 54 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. west enormous benefits would accrue to the states and to the people of those states and eventually to the whole people of the country if the grazing lands could be leased and the revenue derived therefrom de- voted directly by the states to the construction of irrigation works. The true theory for the development of the irrigation resources of the West must be, first: Federal storage reservoirs to conserve the flood waters that are now wasted; second: Federal irrigation works to reclaim the arid public lands, each system to be made ap- purtenant to and sold with the lands irrigated thereby, so that when all the lands under it have been sold the irrigation works will belong to the land; third: Wherever main distributing canals are necessary which are too costly for construction by the co-operative efforts of land-owners, these should be built by the states, not by issuing bonds or creating debts, but out of revenues derived from other sources; fourth: Co-operative distributing systems which should be construct- ed by the land-owners themselves under the organization of land- owners companies in which the stock should be made appurtenant to the land. In many of the Western States the leasing of the grazing lands affords the most available source of revenue for the construction by the state of such irrigation works as must be built by it to develop its resources. There is no necessity whatever that the title to the lands should be ceded absolutely to the states to accomplish this purpose or that any risk should be run that lands so ceded will embrace lands that are not grazing lands or which may hereafter become available for agricultural purposes though they may not now be so, or that the land should fall into the hands of owners who would unite them in large ranges to the exclusion of the actual settler and home builder. These risks ought not to be run, but they cannot be avoided under an absolute cession of the lands. The resolutions adopted at the Cheyenne Irrigation Congress fa- voring the leasing of the grazing lands states a policy which will ac- complish all the benefits which those who advocate this leasing policy hope to achieve by it, and will at the same time obviate the evils and dangers of unconditional cession, because it provides that leases shall "be subject to right of reclamation by irrigation and of settlement on lands actually cultivated, title to remain in federal government until actual settlement." Now, if all will unite on the broad policy outlined in these resolu- tions a great movement can be inaugurated which will accomplish marvels within an incredibly short space of time. There should be no opposition from any source to uniting upon the conservative ground outlined by these resolutions. Let this broad policy be the corner stone upon which to build, and 4hen let all work together with all the aid that can be obtained from either the state or national governments THE IRRIGATION AGE. 55 or from any of the departments at Washington in favor of this policy. Let us have liberal appropriations for hydrographic surveys. There is no field of activity in which the national government can do more good than in the work that is being carried on by the Geological Survey in pointing the way to the development and conservation of the water resources of the country. Let us have a Division of Irrigation in the Department of Agricul- ture. The preamble to the resolution adopted at the Cheyenne Irri- gation Congress recommending the creation of such a Division points out the many ways in which its labors might be of vast benefit to those who are tilling the arid lands of the West, ; and who are con- fronted by many problems which they need the aid of such a division to aid them to solve . Let us have Federal Storage Reservoirs as part of the National Policy of Internal Improvements, giving to the arid west its propor- tion of the whole amount expended by the national government annu- ally for such improvements, to be used in the construction of storage reservoirs to develop the material resources of the West, as the build- ing of river and harbor improvements develops the material resources of the East. There is and can be no right reason why there should be conflict between either of the Departments named in working out this great problem. Let each, and the friends of each, do all that they can towards the accomplishment of the one grand result to which all are working, and let all the people once realize the enormous benefits to the whole nation that will result from the carrying out of this work, and the opportunities of each department to labor in it will be enor- mously increased. Let us then give "a;long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all to- gether/' and those of this generation will see Arid America Annexed. IRRIGATION IN A SMALL WAY. By H. G. PRESCOTT, Albert Lea. There are two points to be considered in irrigation; first, to get the water; second, how to apply it. I get my supply from a tubular well, two inches in diameter, 142 feet deep, twelve feet in the rock, the water rising to within twenty-seven feet of the surface, and pump it into a tank on a tower twelve feet high. A pipe 1£ inches in diameter runs from the tank along the side of my garden. This pipe is connected by couplings, every other one being a T for a f- inch pipe. I use a pine plug to stop up tne hole until we wart to use the f inch pipe. The f-inch pipe is used for side lines of pipe and running the same way as the rows of plants. I also have twenty feet of rubber hose, f-inch. and a nozzle. Now, if your cultivator is arranged right the outside hoe will maue a small furrow just right to run the water in. Run the f inch pipe line along the row to the highest place and attach your hose, first taking ofi the nozzle. Lay the hose lengthways of the furrows, and you are ready to turn on the water. When the water has run the full length of the furrow, put the hose in another furrow, and so on. If you want to spray or run a stream of water on your plants, put off the nozzle. To spray, put your forefinger on the under side of the nozzle close to the water, and you *rill soon learn how to make a very nice spray. Your hose will water all the rows of plants twenty feet each side of the pipe. When that is done move the pipe to the next coupling in the main line. I use horse power to do my pumping. Blindfold the horse, and he will go right along without a driver. I sometimes spray the raspberry and blackberry bushes when they are repining, holding the stream at the root of the plant for an instant — it acts like a shower. Evening is the best time. It is cheaper to let the water flow, as one has to hold the hose all the time while spraying. For cucumbers and other vines, make a good furrow near the hills; the vines will run over this furrow, but you can use it just the same. IRRIGATION AND LABOR. In connection with the question of government irrigation of arid lands, which is now beginning to attract so much attention through- out the west, a report, made about ten ^ears ago by a committee on arid lands of the California State Board of Trade, is of special interest just now. In this report, the committee draws attention to the fact that most of that part of the United Stales west of the one-hundredth meridian either requires or would be benefitted by irrigation. With- out it crops are not certain. Thus, irrigation not only becomes a question of national interest, but a question of national necessity. The vast territory in the United States requiring irrigation covers over one- third of the inhabitable part or our country, and if the na- tional government can wisely expend millions of dollars in keeping the water off from a portion of the inhabited part of the country, can it not with equal wisdom, expend wisely money to put water upon that portion of land that most needs it? As showing the large area of the United States where irrigation would be advantageous, and where it is most necessary, the following figures are given: Square Acres. miles- California 100,992.640 157,801 Oregon 60,975,360 95,274 Utah , 54,380,800 84,970 Washington 44,769.160 69,994 Xe\v Mexico 77.568,640 121,201 Nevada 71,737,600 112,090 Arizona 72,906,240 150.932 Colorado 66,880,000 104.500 Wyoming 62,645,120 97.883 Idaho 55,228,160 86,290 Montana 92,016,640 143.776 To this may be added the northern and western part of Texas, with area of about one hundred thousand square miles. The population of our country is increasing at a remarkable ratio, as the population increases the opportunities for young and ambitious men who live in the older states of the union to gain an honest liveli- hood, is every year becoming less. Labor is necessarily becoming cheaper. If no more unoccupied lands are made fit for use, landhold- ing will soon be the privilege of the rich, and tenantry the only hope of the poor. Another point that should be regarded in this connection is the increased stability lent to a government where many of the citizens are landowners. The irrigation of these arid lands would do much to 58 THE IRRIGA Tl ON A GE. promote the welfare of the entire nation, by taking from the unem- ployed classes and adding to the class of landowers. The following paragraph from the report of the committee, might have been written today: "Before this republic should seek to acquire new territory, it should wisely utilize the territory it now has, and it is most respect- fully submitted that a national system of irrigation, directed by wise and uniform laws, controlling the rights of water and its uses will be of infinite advantage to the whole American people, and especially so if carried out under the wise supervision of the national government and engineered by its scientific and experienced men. When this is accomplished there will be ample room in the unsettled portion of the United States to find homes for the millions of people who are to come after us." There is another feature to be considered in connection with this question. This is the large opening for labor which the construction of great irrigation works would make. The problem of the unem- ployed in this country is constantly becoming a more serious one. It is, just now temporarily obscured by the war, but will certainly come to the front again as soon as the war is over. The constructions of these irrigation works would be more than a temporary remedy for the evil. It would, first, furnish employment to a large number of men, and then create conditions which would enable them to get homes on the land, and become permanently self-sustaining. — Los Angeles Times. MARCHING STILL. She is old and bent and wrinkled. In her rocker in the sun, And the thick gray woolen stocking That she knits is never done. She will ask the news of battle If you pass her when you will, For to her the troops are marching, Marching still. Seven tall sons about her growing Cheered the widowed mother's soul ; One by one they kissed and left her When the drums began to roll. They are buried in the trenches They are bleaching on the hill; But to her the boys are marching, Marching still. She was knitting in the corner When the fatal news was read, How the last and youngest perished And the letter, ending, said : "I am writing on my knapsack By the road, with borrowed quill, For the army is yet marching, Marching still." Reason sank and died within her Like a flame for want of air; So she knits the woolen stockings For the soldier lads to wear, Waiting till the war is ended For her sons to cross the hill: For she thinks they all are marching, Marching still ! THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. Tn div&Tmift&dif arming by lrrlffa.tion.tHea the salvation of agriculture THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pic- tures of fields, orchards and farm homes; prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns, hen houses, corn cribs, etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help us improve the appearance of THE AGE? LAND AND PRODUCTS— AN EXHAUS- TIVE ANALYSES. Our American newspapers often com- ment and sometimes severely on the fact that the English aristocracy have bought and continue to own over 20,000,000 acres of American lands located chiefly in the south and southwestern states of the Union. To this may be added at least 15,000,000 acres more, owned by the people of England and Scotland, which with the first amount mentioned aggre- gates 35,000,000 acres. They also own large bodies of land in Canada, in Ontario, Manitoba and the Northwest Territory ; in Mexico and in the Central and South American republics, which added to their holdings here will foot up a total of 75,- 000,000 or 80,000,000 or possibly 100,000,- 000 acres. But as a business or financial proposition this circumstance furnishes no just ground for complaint. The investing British public like the investing American public naturally look out for the safest, the best and most lucrative avenues for the investment of their surplus earnings and there invest them ; that is right, it is rational, practical common sense and the exercise of good common sense is always commendable, whether by Europeans or Americans. "What the great mass of men and women all over the world want and strive to have is a dividend paying invest- ment, a revenue ; and it has been demon- strated over and over again that nothing equals well selected productive land under good management, because in addition to the revenue it yields annually it increases in value and sometimes very rapidly. The acquisition of land by Europeans on the American continent commenced many long years ago and has all along been growing and developing until now their landed possessions in the new world are enormous and yet they are not done ; year by year they are extending their areas by new acquisitions and they do so becaiise that class of investment pays them better than any other. In many cases where large bodies of land have been secured in particularly favorable localities and where its proper, successful utilization demanded more cap- ital than any one private individual can devote to that purpose, chartered com- panies have been formed and stock issued and divided up with the public, largely with small investors, who have steadily drawn and are now drawing handsome dividends from their shares. As my attention has frequently been called to this subject I have given it con- siderable study and noted many facts and figures connected with it, so much so that I fully realize the wisdom of this method of the money grabbing Englishmen and the cannie Scotchman. Let us demon- strate the proposition. A recent well-in- formed writer on the cattle industry makes a calculation that is interesting to follow. He starts out with the assumption that 25,000 head of common range cattle are placed on a new ranch in 1898, consisting of 24,000 cows and [1,000 bulls, and esti- THE IRRIGATION AGE 61 mates the ratio of increase at 90 per cent, and that is a well established rule in the southwest. In 1899 he makes the increase on the 24,000 cows at 90 per cent, 21,600 which when added to the original 25,000 will make the herd number 46,600. He then follows another generally accepted rule that the sex of the increase will be about equal, that is one half will be heifers and the other half will be steers. Accordingly as the product of 1899 is fixed at 21,600, there will be 10,800 heifers and 10,800 steers. In 1900 the increase will be the same aa in 1899, namely 21, 600, this number added to 46,600 the total of that year will make 68,200 and according to the rule, there will be 10,800 heifers and 10.800 steers. In 1901 there will be the original stock of 24,000 cows to which must be added the 10.800 two year old heifers of 1899 which will aggregate 34,800 cows. At 90 per cent the increase on 34,800 cows will be 31,320; add this number to the last year's total that was 68,200 and it counts 99,5uO ; dividing the 31,320 increase according to sex there will be 15,660 heifers and 15,660 steers. In 1902 we add to the 34,800' cows counted in 1901 the 10,800 heifers of 1900 and count 45,600 cows at 90 per cent the increase on 45,600 cows will be 41,040. Add this number to the 99,520 held in 1901 and the total will be 140,560 ; dividing the year's increase, viz., 41,040 according to sex there will be 20,520 heifers and 20,520 steers. In 1903 we add to the 45,600 cows counted in 1902 the 15,660 heifers of 1901 and we have an aggregate of 61,260 cows. At 90 per cent the increase on this herd of cows will be 55,134, add this number to the last year's total, that is 140,560 and the herd will count 195,694; dividing the increase of the year according to the sex there will be 27,567 heifers and 27,567 steers. In 1904 we add to the 61,260 cows of last year the 20,520 two year old heifers of 1902 and count 81,780 cows. At 90 per cent the increase on the herd will be 73,- 602; add this number to 195,694 that was last year's total and the result will be 269,296. Now dividing the 73,602 the year's increase, into equal parts there will be 36,801 heifers and 36,801 steers. In 1905 we add to the 81,780 cows of 1904 the 27,567 heifers of 1903 and count 109,347 cows. At 90 per cent the increase this year will be 98,412 ; add this increase to 269,296 which was last year's total and we count 367r708 ; to this must be added 73,602 that was the increase of 1904 with a grand total of 441,310 cattle in place of the 25,000, the original stock of 1898. These figures, to the inexperienced, may seem large, but it must be borne in mind that they have been doubling up at the rate of 90 per cent, compound interest for seven years, which is sufficient to make the calculation appear just and reasonable. Now taking an all round average of $10 a head for the original 25,000 cattle that we commenced with it will amount to $250,000 ; averaging our present increased stock that is 441,310 cattle at $10 a head the total will foot up $4,413,100, a net cash value in excess of the original herd of §4,163,K»o. Another point to be noted in this calcu- lation is ; year after year we have been sell- ing off from 10,000 to 30,000 steers for cash as they were put into the market. Had we reinvested the money received from these sales in productive cows, the grand total would far exceed the present figures. It must also be noted that I have fixed the all around price at the low sum of $10 a head because they are common range cattle that run out and make their own living the year .round ; graded cattle pas- tured in the timothy and clover fields of the middle western states and fed during winter would be worth at least three times these figures but to be just we must re- member that the cattle of the middle western states do not increase as fast as they do on the gramma grass of the warm southwest. 62 THE IRR IGA TION A GE. My calcutions as to increase may vary a little either way but experience teaches that out in the southwest to which I have referred, it is reasonable and as nearly right as such an estimate can be made while a variety of causes may combine to vary it somewhat either way. Thus far we hare been following the figures of a careful western writer. But to be on the safe side, to make allowance for all contingencies we will discount and lop off 25 per cent and instead of using his figures viz., 441, 310 we count 331,000 and their value is $3,310,000. At the first blush even these figures af- ter the 25 per cent discount look large and require to be well digested in order to comprehend their significance and realize the truth they convey. But it is nothing more or less than compound mathematical progression and that is just what the money grabbing Englishmen and cannie Scotch- man understand to perfection and explains why those British financiers have bought and stocked with cattle large bodies of land in the United States and other coun- tries in the new world. . I am advised that there is a cattle queen in Southern Texas who has accumulated a princely fortune from a small herd of cows turned out on the plains about fifteen years ago and a cattle king in Mexico who placed a herd of a few thousand cattle on a range in that sunny land some years ago and now" counts his wealth by the million but can- not count his cattle for their great number. Let us now look on the subject from an- other standpoint. The books tell us that the first cattle imported into this country were of low grade and light in weight. Subsequently the importations were more for the pur- pose of improving the grade than for in- creasing their number. We read that the average weight of the cattle imported into this country in 1624 was less than 300 pounds a head and in 1740, more than a century later, the average weight of beef cattle on the London market was 370 pounds. As late as 1803 the average weight was only 496 pounds. In 1833 it had reached 736 pounds. Since that time it has steadily increased until now, in the English and American markets the weight is enormous, reaching 6,000 pounds and more, while 1,000 pound cattle are as common as prairie marigolds in summer. This increase in weight has been brought about by judicious grading, careful selec- tion and feeding. This grading, selection and feeding is in answer to demand for more butter, cheese, and more and better quality of beef. It is estimated that there are now more than $500,000,000 invested in cows alone in the United States. The official report of the Department of Agri- culture at Washington gives 16,504,629 as the greatest number of milch cows on the farms in the United States at any one time since 1880 and fixes their value at $423,486,649. As this does not include the cows owned and kept in the cities, nor thousands more on the mountain ranges, the prairies and plains of the far west that are never reported to the Department, $500,000,000 is really less than the cash value of the milch cows in the United States today. The number of other cattle is given in the Department report at 37,- 651,239 and valued at $694,382,913. These figures are probably a fourth below the actual number and real value. But added together as given in the official re- port of the Agricultural Department at Washington the cows and other cattle number 54,155,868, and their cash value $1,117,869,562. To the casual observer these figures are staggering, but they are correct nevertheless, because they are offi- cial as given by the Department at Wash- ington and the United States government is responsible for their accuracy, or at least that they are within the lines, and it may be accepted as mathematically true that the figures are 25 per cent below the real number and cash value. On that basis the correct number is 71,233,802 worth $1,397,336,952. Our cattle exports in- THE IRRIGATION AGE. creased from 182,756 in the year 1880 to 331,722, in 1896 in numbers and from $13,344,195 in 1880 to $30,603,796 in 1896 in value, being an increase of 129.3 per cent. The average value of cattle ex- ported has thereby increased from $73 in 1880 to .892 in 1896. The Department re- port goes on to say, "This apparently high value is the result of various causes. In the first place, only the best and heavi- est cattle are exported, usually weighing from 1,300 to 1.700 pounds each and they command a much higher price than th« average," But this 30,000,000 and odd dollars of live cattle export is a small item in comparison to the dressed meat and canned meat, butter and cheese that go across the water every year. The in- creased value of the exported cattle proves however, that the better grade and the better fed the higher the price and greater the profit, And this leads me to the con- sideration of another phase of the subject. The exportation of dressed meat will henceforth be enormously augmented and the demand proportionately increased as Armour & Co. have inaugurated a "daily service" of dressed beef shipments from New York to London to furnish American beef to the English markets direct' from the refrigerator cars without the interven- tion of wholesale houses or special agents. Kefrigerator space has already been en- gaged in the White Star, the Cunard, and other trans-Atlantic steamships to furnish the daily service and refrigerator cars have also been secured in England and in the United States so that from now there will be a continual stream of American dressed beef amounting to hundreds of tons daily rushing across the country to the sea board and from there by fast steamers over the ocean to England and thence to every market in the British Isles, and as I have before remarked the service will create a ne\v and large demand for American dressed beef. In this examination it may be proper to note our progress in the manufacture and exportation of butter and cheese. In ad- dition to our large exportation of ordinary gilt edge cheese that is annually increasing and now amounts to about $4,500,000 a year, we have advanced to the point of ex- cellence where we are manufacturing a high grade foreign cheese for exportation to the amount of about $15,000,000 a year, including Roquefort, Camembert, Gar- ganzola, Stittan, Cheshire, Swiss, and limburger. Our exportation of butter is also in- creasing from year to year, and now amounts to about $4.750,000 annually. And as strange as it may appear to the casual reader there are tons and tons of poultry, turkeys, geese, ducks, and chick- ens, sent across the Atlantic to feed the hungry in the good old mother country, the British- American ranchers so manage their affairs as to make everything con- tribute to the general revenue on the com- mendable principle, "Take care of your nickels and your dollars will take care of themselves," Recurring to the advantage of graded stock all will admit that for beef, a 1,000 pound animal is worth much more in pro- portion to its size than a 500 pound ani- mal, because the bone and offal of a steer above 500 pounds do not increase in the same ratio with the meat, or anything ap- proximating it and beyond that the meat of the larger, better graded and well fed animal is better and worth more than that of the common range steer that has had to rustle for a living. Our American stockmen began to realize these facts many years ago, and year by year they have devoted more attention to the grade and grading of cattle, until now we rank all other cattle countries. A few years ago the British government sent a special cattle commissioner to all foreign coun- tries to- examine and report his findings. As the result of his investigations he re- ported that the American cattle as a whole ranked well and that a particular herd in Ohio excelled all others in the world. Since that time herds in other states have been so improved as to rank 64 THE IRRIGATION AGE. with the , best on the globe. A recent writer says, "The southwest has taken the lead of other states the past year in the introduction of pure breeds of beef cattle. The herders in these states have not al- lowed the price of high-class animals to cut any figure in the matter, for as a rule the higher the price paid the better the animal and the result. These same west- ern men are today beginning to sell to the western farmer their high grade yearlings to mature and fatten for the market. Short horns and Herefords, stockmen say, will make more herders rich during the next ten years than ever did the longhorns in thirty years. " After this general review let us resort to a few figures on a business basis. .We will commence with a capital of $3,000,- 000, buy your land, cattle, horses, farm- ing implements and everything necessary to carry on successful ranch operations. We will stock our ranch at the outset with 12,000 head of graded cattle at the rate of $15 a head. On the basis of 90 per cent increase as figured out above year by year the herd in seven years will number 221,655 graded cattle. If we accept the suggestion of our western author, sell our two year old steers and replace them with two year old heifers the herd in seven years will num- ber a great many more. But holding to the 321,655 and even then to provide against all possible contingences and bring the number surely within the line of actual results we discount these figures at the rate of 15 per cent and count 188,407 cattle worth $15 a head, just what we paid for the original stock and their cash value will be $2,826.105, or 10 per cent compound interest on our capital. Should we determine to stock our ranch with a higher grade of cows they ^ill cost say $30 a head and allowing the increase to be the same the profit will be much greater as the 221,655 cattle discounted at the rate of 15 per cent will give us in this instance, as before 188,407 cattle but the higher grade and greater value per head makes the herd now worth $5,652,2 10 or nearly double our orfginal capital in seven years, thus proving our position in the earlier part of this article, that is, the higher the grade the greater the profit. Where money is loaned on bond and mortgage at four or five or even six per cent the lender gets his interest and at maturity of the mortgage the principal is returned. In this case the holders of stock in the company gets ten per cent with the medium grade cattle and twenty per cent higher interest with the better grade, while the land in which the capital is largely invested has doubled and threbbled in cash value. In my next letter I will write on the productions of the soil, etc. WALLACE HARRINGTON, San Antonio, Texas. A COW BARN WITH FRAMEWORK OF STEEL. Steel for railroad and highway bridges is now the rule rather than the exception. Nearly all of our new modern manufactur- ing plants are also constructed of steel rather than of wood. Steel for the frame- work of ordinary buildings however, has not come into so general use and no doubt the illustrations which we give with this article will be of interest, from the fact that, as we believe, it is the first time in history that a cow barn has been con- structed using a steel frame. Figure No. 1 is taken direct from a photograph, and shows the exterior of a cow barn designed and built by us for the State of Connecticut on the grounds of the Hospital for the Insane, at Middle- town, Conn. Figure No. 2 shows the plan of the building, the general dimensions of which are 200 feet in length and 47 feet 8 inches in width. For a distance of 101 feet at the north end, the building is two stories in height, the lower or basement floor be- ing used as a root or vegetable cellar. Over this portion of the barn the floor is made of steel beams supporting brick IRRIGATION AGE. 65 arches; the floor of the cow stable itself being throughout of concrete and cement, thus eliminating all danger from the con- tents of the cellar being contaminated from the refuse from the floor above. Fitrure No. 3 shows a cross-section of the barn through the two- story portion, giving the general dimensions and heights. The heavy 24 inch masonry pillars shown in the cross-section of the vegetable cellar are not continuous walls, but. are only isolated pillars or columns 24 inches of 101 feet, but for the balance of the barn the cross-section is the same as shown in figure 4 without cellar. Figure No. 5 is taken direct from a photograph a.nd gives a view of the cow barn looking down through the center aisle, this view being taken from a photo- graph when the barn was completed and before it was occupied. Figure No. 6 is an interior view taken from a point near the side of the stable, and shows the stalls, each 8 feet in width, FIG. 1. square, placed 8 feet apart, for supporting steel columns in the interior of the build- ing, which columns in turn support or brace the wooden partitions between the stalls and also support the steel roof trusses of the building. Figure No. 4 shows the cross-section of the barn through the main portion, the dimensions being exactly the same as in figure 3, except that there is no cellar under this portion. The root eellar is under one end of the barn for a distance with a cement trough or feed box. and the cement gutter behind the stalls to receive the droppings. The supporting columns, as will be noticed from Figures 3, 4. 5. and 6. are placed 8 feet apart, that being the width of each stall — provision being made for two cows. The cows are confined by tying instead of in the usual manner with stanchels. The feed troughs are V-shaped, formed of wooden planks, which, as shown in both cross-sections Figure 3 and > s -' .-' < I t a .- * 3 — - .. _" ^j ^,- 5 r ^. f» -- '. : yt _-•- — » | ™ -- H ^ s, > r^--~ p j «rJ rt /F<00r cfiiAff ff/? /£/? r/f& & ^^Fffo ffaart off/fe . erf ~!v -4 .-PL Art 0f ffO0F FIG. 2. 66 THE IRRIGATION AGE. Figure 4 are bedded in the cement floor, the concrete being made to conform to the shape of the trough, thus securing a solid, firm and permanent construction. . P/KH OF /?00f, /" TO/'-O". used for catching the refuse. This trough, in that portion of the stable over the vegetable cellar, is lined with steel to insure its being perfectly air-tight and CR055 5ECT/OH. THROUGH FOOT C£LLA/? . FIG. 3. In the rear of the stalls, as shown in Figures 3 and 4, is a trough made of cement and forming part of the concrete floor of the cow stable, this trough being that no liquid can by any chance reach the concrete and perforate through into the vegetable cellar. The side walls around the stable are -fLEVATWrf Or 6//?P£ft-. FIG. 4. THE IRRIGATION AGE. of brick throughout, the roof being con- structed of 2 inch plank covered with tar and gravel. This construction was adopted for particular reasons in this location, but we would recommend that an improved construction would be to use an ordinary gable roxrf in place of The ventilation of the stable is secured by a monitor extending through the length of the building, provided with windows on each side, these windows being arranged to swing open and shut by cords operated from the floor, as shown by cross-section Figures 2 and 3. In this way we believe FIG. 5. the flat roof, the roof covering being of corrugated iron, thus insuring an abso- lutely fire-proof construction, better air and ventilation in the interior -of the building, and providing a space over-head, between the roof trusses, for storing lum- ber, boxes, supplies, etc. perfect ventilation is secured during all kinds of weather. The passageway in the center of the stable is 6 feet in width. The floor being of cement, a push cart can be* easily moved back and forth to distribute the feed. Ample provision is made in rear of ' FIG. fi. 68 THE IRRIGATION AGE. stalls next to the side walls, so that the refuse can be taken out by push carts pro- vided for that purpose, or if desired, there is sufficient width for a horse and cart to pass in and out. The cost of the stable complete was about $12,000, but as a portion of the material was furnished by the Asylum authorities, and a large amount of labor was furnished by the patients, the exact cost of the building cannot be ascertained. For Public Institutions, where much of the labor is furnished by the inmates, and consequently costs little or nothing, the construction particularly commends it- self. The architect in charge of the construc- tion of the barn was J. D. Sibley, of Mid- dletown, Conn., who also designed nearly all of the buildings at the Institution. The steel work throughout was furnished by The Berlin Iron Bridge Co., of East Berlin, Conn. RECLAIM THE LAND. A. Barnett, of Kamona, San Diego Co,, Cal. , writes as follows concerning his land : ' 'I have about ten acres of land that I flow above a dam on San Vicente Creek, and as I draw the water off, I plant. This year the first piece drained was planted to Kaffer ; I cut one crop and another was ready the first of October. The next piece drained was planted to sweet corn which as fed to cows and horses through the summer. It was a heavy crop. On July 12 I planted the next piece — about three acres — to sweet corn, thick in drills three feet apart ; ran the cultivator through it twice and cut it Sept. 15. It was just tasseled and had very little silk. I meas- ured off one-sixteenth of an acre and the crop from that, when well dried, weighed 650 pounds. This was a fair way to av- erage the crop as it was very even. The next piece was planted to potatoes and turnips which did very well when the weather became cooler. The past season has been the worst ever known here; beets and some other crops would not grow even with plenty of water, the air was so dry and hot. The land is not of the best ; it is on a sandy bottom with a good deal of coarse sand and gravel, but it is growing better every year from the sediment deposited by the water and will continue to bear good crops every time for one hundred years without manure. There is no alkali and no gopher*. I write the above in the hope of calling people's attention to this land, with the view of having it reclaimed. I know of hundreds of acres of such land, much of which produces nothing but salt grass, which might be reclaimed with much less expense than mine was. One acre I have for fish. PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. A PROMISING PROPOSITION. The following is a letter received some time ago from Mr. W. S. Burke, of Albu- querque. X. M. . and as the offer may be an inducement to capitalists to invest, we give it to the readers. Mr. Burke gives as reference the Albuquerque Bank of Commerce : ' 'Albuquerque is much the largest town in New Mexico, and is the commercial center of the territory. Immediately east of the place, and lying parallel with the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe railway, is a plain with an area of over fifty thous- and acres all of which is too high to be irrigated from the river, but can be watered by the building of storage reser- voirs. The land is of the richest and most valuable tract in this county. The plain is bounded on the east by the Sandia mountains, and extends thence west al- most to the city limits. Just on the wes- tern edge of the plain, and overlooking the town and the Rio Grande valley, is the University of New Mexico, twelve miles from the mountains. The best res- ervoir site, and the only feasible one for a number of miles, is at the mouth of Ti- jeras canyon, immediately east of the uni- versity. Here, by the building of a dam, water enough can be conserved, according to the estimates of engineers, to give an abundant supply for twelve thousand acres of the best part of the plain — best only because nearest to town ; otherwise all the land is alike. If it should be de- sired to take in a greater quantity of land the water could be secured by the build- ing of feeding reservoirs, at points up the canyon. The building of the main reser- voir and the necessary ditches to carry the water on to the land would cost about fifty thousand dollars. The land has all been a part of the public domain, and is not embarassed with any great complica- tions. A portion of it, probably 25 per cent, has been taken up by settlers under the public land laws, and these people are nearly all willing to give one-half of their respective holdings for the privilege of buying water for the other half at any reasonable rate a company might establish. In this way a bonus of about four thous- and acres can be obtained, worth as soon as it can be irrigated, an average of not less than thirty dollars an acre. This would pay more than twice the cost of the entire work. The superior charac- ter of the laud, and its favorable location would insure its occupation by farmers and gardeners as soon as a water supply could be had, for there is an excellent market at home for everything that can be raised out of the ground, and more than half of all we can consume in the ter- ritory has to be shipped in from the states. The annual charge for water in this coun- try is never less than two dollars per a ere and the company's income could therefore be reckoned safely at $24,000. The man- agement of the dam and ditches with re as, enable repairs would not cost more than $4,000, for aside from one man at $1. 200 or $1,500 a year, everything could be done with Mexican labor which is very chep, leaving a net income of $20.000 a year from a plant that will have been built en- tirely by the proceeds of property contrib- uted. The land in question lies in the heart of the sugar beet zone, and analyses of beets produced in the immediate vici nity show as high a per cent of both sac cha- rine matter and purity as the best gr own THE IRRIGATION AGE. n any part of the United States. All the facilities for conducting a beet sugar plant are excellent at this point, and if the irrigation proposition could be taken up by a company with a capital sufficient to put up a factory, the outcome would be much greater. A first class factory, with the necessary working capital involves about half a million dollars. Sugar beet lands, accessible to factories, at any point where this industry has been established, are worth from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars an acre. This land would be worth as much as the best now in use, but assuming that it *ould be worth no more than the cheapest land now in use for the purpose, the bonus received by the company would represent enough to cover the entire outlay for both the irrigation plant and the factory. I am fully aware of the fact that these propositions may look to a stranger very much like the great schemes of Col. Mul- berry Sellers, but if any cool headed bus- iness man will come here and let me show him the situation I think he will be con- vinced that all the foregoing statements ore under rather than over the truth." IN FAR-OFF INDIA. India has the largest and most extensive irrigation system of any country and is therefore best fitted to say whether gov- ernment irrigation enterprises are profita- ble or not. ^Indian Engineering," pub- lished at Calcutta, contained in its Sep- tember number an article on "Madras Irrigation, 1896-97," in which a comparison is made of the work done in these two years. In closing this article states: "The three best irrigating systems, the Cauvery, Godaveri, and Kistna, yielded as dividend respectively 46, 16, and 10 per cent. These works have brought when every charge is paid, a surplus pro- fit of nearly seven and a quarter lakhs. Unusually high floods caused much dam- age throughout the province, and conse- quent exceptional expenditure upon re- dairs cut down returns from irrigation works to figures less than those of the two previous years. But still the year's work yielded on the whole an eminently satis- factory result. Facts of this nature serve to emphasize the now admitted truth that irrigation works afford a safe — perhaps the safest — investment for people's money." Under the heading "What Eddy, Eddy County and the Lower Pecos Valley (N. M.) Have:'' the Pecos Valley Argus sums up many advantages. Among them : "Three hundred and forty days of sun- shine in each year. "A nearness to the markets of the east not enjoyed by any other irrigated dis- trict. "The most extensive, complete and con- venient irrigation system in the United States, affording absolute protection against drouth and crop failure. Twelve hundred miles of irrigating canals delivers the water to the farmer's door.'' And under the heading of what this section "Wants" is given: "Hundreds of enterprising homeseekers and tillers of the soil, for it is the inten- tion of the managers of the great irrigation enterprise to place the rich lands along their canals within the reach of every in- dustrious farmer. ' 'Men who know that a forty acre irri- gated farm will pay more net profit each year than a 160-acre farm dependent on rainfall. And that ten and twenty acre tracts properly tilled are ample for the support of an ordinary family." A correspondent to the Boston Herald makes a plea for a representative of our country in Mexico. He says: "I, in com- mon with other countrymen, would like to see an American ambassador in the capi- tal of Mexico. We send an ambassador to republican France: why not to republican Mexico? * * * Let us show the Mexi- ican people that we desire to treat them with the highest consideration, that we desire their good will and their practical alliance: let us show them that we esteem them as our equals." LADIES HOME JOURNAL. The November issue marks the fifteenth birthday of this now famous publication. During that short period it has developed from an eight-page magazine with a few hundred readers, to one of fifty-two pages with the present immense circulation of 850,000 copies monthly. Under the modest caption "Fifteen years of Mistakes," the editor. Mr. Bok. traces the history of the Journal in the past and gives a short out- line of what its future is to be. It is a history he can well feel proud of and the journal today is a splendid example of what may materialize from a small begin- ning. Its one fault is the unhandy size, but after the clear explanation of why this size is still retained, which Mr. Bok give?, we will patiently await the change which we hope the future will bring. We are given the first of the three illustrated articles which are to appear called "My Collection of Dolls. " of much more inter- est than would be supposed from the title The oddest of those in this month's illus- trations is the doll made by nature — the mandrake root doll. "Snap Shots at Fam- ous People/' from the private collection of Maj. Jas. B. Pond, is a page which will be appreciated by nearly all readers, serv- ing as it does to give us a glimpse of some of our favorite writers. The second arti- cle ;* About Men" will of course be read by the women and will be found to contain a great deal of what is vulgarly called "good horse sense." Those interested in palmistry will find something to their lik- ing in "Easy Reading of the Palm" by Blanche W. Fischer. These, and many more equally good things serve to make the Journal's "birthday number" especially attractive, not the least of them being the handsome cover. THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS for the month contains articles on the timely topic of the Nicaragua canal: one by Prof. L. M. Keasbey. "The Nicaragua Canal and the Monroe Doctrine" deals with the subject from the political stand- point, while Dr. Emory R. Johnson, who has devoted much time to the study of the economics of transportation, treats of the commercial side, the trade benefits to be derived from the construction of the canal. These articles are such good ones that we urge all who can to read them and gain a idea of what the Nicaragua Canal would mean to this country. THE FORUM Is another magazine that devotes some space to the discussion of the proposed Nicaragua Canal and ex-Senator Warner Miller answers many of the questions so often asked regarding this immense vent- ure: First as to its feasibility, is the route proposed possible from an engineering point of view: Second, as to its desirabil- ity, will it greatly benefit American inter- ests: and. Third, will it pa.y'1 All of these questions he answers in the affirmative, giving his reasons for so doing. "The Change of English Sentiment Toward the United States'' is discussed by Sidney Low, late editor of the St. James Gazette. Among the other many important subjects taken up in the current issue are "Some Weak Places in our Pension System," by Maj. S. N. Clark: "The Dreyfus Affair." by Yves Guyot: "The New Panama Ca- nal." by Brig. -Gen. H. L. Abbot: etc., etc. SCRIBXERS'. Walter A. Wyckoff reaches the end of his long journey and career as a day-la- borer in "The Workers — the West — from Denver to the Pacific,'' in the November Scribner's. and this second series, describ- ing a remarkable experiment, will be shortly issued in book form. Thomas Nelson Page's first long novel. "Red Rock," also ends in the November num- ber, and will be published immediately as a book. Jesse Lynch Williams contri- butes another of his newspaper stories. 72 THE IRRIGATION AGE It is called "The Great Secretary of State Interview," and describes with graphic realism an incident in the career of a young reporter. MCCLURE'S. The recent threats of a new outburst of Vesuvius give timeliness to an article by H. J. W. Dam on the "Mystery of Vesuvi- us," appearing in the November number of McClure^s Magazine. Mr. Dam and the artist C. K. Linson made a recent exploration of the volcano, for McClure's: and the article embraces much new in- formation thus gained. It will be illus- trated from special drawings made by Mr. Linson on the spot. From the Canadian Department of the Interior we received the report on "Irri- gation i and Irrigation Surveys" for the year ending June, 1897. In addition to the report proper, are numerous maps and surveys showing not only present irriga- tion systems, but proposed reservoir sites, etc. The plates used in the report are especially fine. A neat little pamphlet has been received from the United States Department of Ag- riculture, dealing with the very important subject of good roads for the country. "Must the Farmer Pay for Good Roads?" is the title: it is written by Otto Dorner, Milwaukee, Wis., chairman National, Com- mittee for Highway Improvement League of American Wheelmen, and was pub- lished by the League, but adopted by the Department of Agriculture as circular No. 31. When we consider that in many farm- ing districts the roads are so poor as to be practically impassible for vehicles during certain parts of the year, we 'will realize at once the necessity of agitating the matter of state aid in building roads. Into this little pamphlet or booklet of forty-four pages, the size of page being only 3ix6 inches, is crowded a great deal of in- structive reading, together with over thirty illustrations. The different heads under •which the subject is treated are "Aims of the League of American Wheelmen— State Aid- Cities Shtuld Help; What Ntw Jer- sey Fanners Think of State Aid;The Cost of Hauling Crops; Beads and Read Machin- tiy: Building Macadtm Reads; Railway Tracks on Highways: Importance of Wide Tires; and Good Words from Good Men," being the opinions of such well-known men as Sec'y Wilson, ex-President Harrison. J. M. Rusk and others on the improvements of roads and highways. This book is a practical treatise on a most important sub- ject and should be in the hands of every progressive farmer. The contrast of the road before and after being improved is shown by means of good illustrations. The L. A. W. deserves much credit for its work in this direction. One of the things that come to our desk this month which is deserving of mention is the catalogue of the Lidgerwood Manu- facturing Co., manufacturers of hoisting engines. It is certainly a work of art and in arrangement, typography, paper and press work is something of which the pub- lisher, as well »8 the Lidgerwood Company may well feel proud. The Spokesman- Review, of Spokane, Wash., came out the last week of Septem- ber with a supplement consisting of twenty extra pages, and an illustrated cover printed in colors. This was devoted to facts, figures and views of Spokane aid is a credit to the Review as well as a wel- come visitor to the subscribers. The first issue of the Vinemont *eics (Vinemont, Ala.) has been received. This neat little sheet made its initial bow to the public Sept. 30 and it evidently in- tends booming Vinemont for all there is in it. The Southern section of the country has been comparatively unknown and un- appreciated as a location for prospective settlers, but owing to the efforts of several men, among them Joseph Barron, of Chi- cago, the tide of colonization has turned to Cullman County. L ODDS AND ENDS. ;THE RIO GRANDE DAM. In commenting upon the article by Nathan G. Boyd, M. D., entitled "Bio Grande Irrigation," which appeared in the October issue of the AGE, the Silver City Entfi-iirise (Silver City, N. M.) says; ''We have not the honor nor pleasure of being acquainted with Nathan G. Boyd, M. D., the author of the article published in the IRRIGATION AGE and referred to above, but we do know for a certainity, of our own intimate knowledge of the facts in the premises, that Mr. Boyd is thor- oughly well and truly informed in regard to the matter of which he writes and which he justly stigmatizes as 'an official crime.'" Discussing the navigability of the Eio Grande the editor remarks further on : •'A navigable river, but they did not al- lege the kind of craft with which it might be navigated. Three weeks ago today we travelled from Rincon to Albuquerque, on the A. T. & S. F. E. R.. which follows the river in its course the greater part of the way, and for miles at a stretch not a drop of running water was to be seen, only an occasional stagnant pool, perhaps one to two feet in depth. Yes, and occa- sional stretches of miles without even the stagnant pools, only the dry white burn- ing sands of the river bed, navigable for the patient Mexican burro, but still better suited to navigation by the camel accus- tomed to the burning sands of the Sahara. This was the navigable river which United States officials procured an injunction to restrain a company from placing obstruc- tion to navigation in its course. Nor is its condition this season an exception, We have seen it thus every season for the past sixteen years. "A dastardly outrage has been perpe- trated upon a company composed largely of capitalists of a friendly foreign nation. The courts of the United States have been disgracefully brought into ridicule and disrepute by the prosecution of this ab- surd suit based upon the navigability of the Rio Grande river." SPIRAL RIVETED PIPE FOR WATER WORKS CONSTRUCTION. The great strength and long life of Root's Spiral Riveted Water Pipe, the ease with which it may be handled, and the fact that it is not liable to give trouble through leakages, make it especially de- sirable for water works construction. The Abendroth & Root Mfg. Co., 28 Cliff street, New York, sole manufactur- ers, report a number of large orders re- cently received for their pipe for this particular service. To Sheely & O'Shee Co.. contractors of Lincoln, Neb., they have lately shipped 12.000 ft. of spiral riveted pipe which will be used in extending the water works at Lanesboro. Minn. About 10,000 ft. have been sent to Milledge. 111., and 15,000 ft. to the city of Augusta, Wis. The U. S. Water Steam Supply Co.. contractors. Kansas City, hare placed an order with the Abendroth & Root Mfg. Co., for about 5,000 ft. of pipe which will be used at Con- oordia, Mo., and 6.500 ft. are to go to J. L. White, contractor, Wyoming. 111. Modern Mexico for November contains an entertaining account of a visit to a Mexican theatre. The author. Irene A. Wright, attended the theatre "Principal'* of Mexico City one afternoon and thus sums up her impression of it: ''But badly set, badly costumed, and badly paid, as is the Mexican theatre, it can often set the American an example in morality, and at least compare favaorbly with it as far as the true genius of acting is concerned. The music is always good: the dances typ- 74 THE IRRIGATION AGE. ical; the innocence of the little plays and the absence of abbreviated costumes is positively refreshing." In its interior arrangement the theatre is quite different in appearance from our own, the boxes being on three sides, di- vided into four floors reaching to the roof and resembling our galleries. They are plain, dirty, uncomfortable affairs. Down below the choice seats are those directly in front and that they are very near to the deafening orchestra is no drawback. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon the matinee be- gins and does not end until 8 in the even- ing. It consists of three or four short plays and admission is paid either by the piece or. by the afternoon. There is" a prompter who has a stand before the stage and he reads the lines in an undertone a few words ahead of the actors. As his gestures can' be quite plainly seen by those seated on the sides of the theatre and as his voice even is often quite dis- tinctly heard by them, it does not enhanee the interest of the play. "The result of the war has, without question, improved the general standing of Americans in Mexico, and through the same cause many Spaniards find that they do not receive quite the same homage from the native populace that they did before their recent ignominious defeat. These changes are not marked to the cas- ual observer, but they exist and will work to the advantage of American enterprise and trade in the Republic." — Modern Mexico. The arrest of Jesse James, the son of the noted out-law, brings the ''James Brothers" once more to mind, Frank still survives, being 55 years of age, and recently paid his nephew a visit at Kan- sas City. In a talk, with a reporter he made a few remarks which, outlaw though he has been, are worthy of repetition. He said that some one, hearing him en- dorse the policy of the present adminis- tration, asked him if he had turned Re- publican. Said he: "I replied that I had not. But I told him I'll believe old Gen- eral Joe Wheeler above any man on earth, and I believe my boy who is now in the regular army and got as far as Tampa. There's the authority of the highest an the lowest, and it's good enough for me. McKinley is my President, the flag is my flag and I was an outlaw to the Union for four years and to the world for fifteen, but \ this is my country and I love it and hun- dreds and thousands of detectives and a price of $20,000 on my head couldn't drive me out of it and it didn't. This is my ad- ministration and I'll stand by what it did even if I didn't vote for it. That's why I let my only boy go into the army." A Spanish newspaper description of Theodore Roosevelt is an example of un- conscious and unintended humor, and will cause American r-eaders many a hearty laugh. The item in question is quoted from a Madrid newspaper by the Saturday En ninq Post and reads as follows: ••'The commander in chief of the entire American army is one Ted Roosevelt, formerly a New York policeman, who \rus educated at Harvard Academy, a com- mercial school (there being no universities or colleges in America). His body-guard is termed 'rough rioters.' " The Literary Digest of recent date, calls attention to an article written by Mr. W. H. Sargent in which he points out the re- semblance certain mechanical appliances bear to natural objects. It is interesting to note, for example, how closely the hay- tedder resembles the grasshopper's legs: the pillar of an upright drill that of a tree trunk in size and shape; the pulsometer, the human heart: while the illustration of a hay carrier is so much like that of a crab that one wonders at never having noticed it before. Mr. W. H. Hamlin, farm superintendent of the Santee Normal Training School. Santee Agency, Neb., writes that they are trying to raise $3000 with which to put down a good artesian well for irrigating purposes. Of this amount $900 has al- ready been contributed. The AGE wishes them success in their efforts. In the August issue of the AGE mention was made of a shooting affair that oc- curred between two farmers of Idaho Palls, Idaho, as a result of a dispute over water rights. Mr. Johnson, the one who did the shooting, was convicted at the trial which was held not long ago, and a damage suit will probably follow. THE IRRIGATION AGE. VOL. XIII. CHICAGO, DECEMBER, 1898. NO THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN flMERICH Our This number of the AGE being1 pi., *|^ for 1899. the last one for the year 1898, it is fitting that in it we should give a brief outline of our plans for the coming year. In 1897 a party was sent out through Wyoming to investigate the question of the construction of reservoirs in arid regions through the agency of the general govern- ment. Among the members of this party were Prof. Elwood Mead, Capt. Chitten- den, Col. Nettleton and Mr. Johnson. We will have the good fortune to present to our readers during the coming year, the results of -their investigations in a series of papers written by the above named gen- tlemen and published under the general heading of ''The Irrigation Problems and Possibilities of Northern Wyoming: A Symposium." This will be illustrated by views of different points visited, which will add to the interest of the article. The first article in the series, that of Elwood Mead, State Engineer of Wyoming, en- titled "Some of the Agricultural Problems and Possibilities of Northern Wyoming," will be given in the January issue. Joel Shomaker contemplates writing for us a series of articles on Co-operative Irri- gation Colonies, Corporation Irrigation Communities, and Individual Irrigation Enterprises, in response to a demand for more knowledge regarding these subjects. The first of these articles will appear in the January number. Anothe" who will contribute during the year is Lodian Lodian, of Paris, France, a civil engineer whose profession has taken him to many portions of the globe, and whose first contribution will be regarding the "Waste Lands in Europe." While we cannot positively assure our readers of the continuance of T. S. Van Dyke's articles, we hope he will favor us in the future as in the past with witty and instructive writings. Papers read at the Kansas State Horti- cultural Society meeting, and from differ- ent writers throughout the west and south- west will appear during the coming year, together with the usual number of agri- cultural, editorial and general news arti- cles. We intend giving more illustrations than heretofore and contemplate other changes that shall add to its attractive- ness. Hoping that we may retain our old friends and gain new ones during the com- ing year, we will wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. T. S. Van Dyke "An impetuous writer, a prince of sportsmen, and the most picturesque recorder of the California of 'Boom' days," is the description the Land of Sunshine gives of T. S. Van Dyke. Among the books which have brought him prominently to notice are "Southern California," which so good an authority as Charles Dudley Warner considered the best book on that theme at the time it ap- peared; "Still Hunter," "Game Birds at Home" and "Millionaires of a Day," the latter being "an inside history of the Great Southern California Boom." An author- ity on irrigation matters.and a writer who is appreciated by AGE readers, we give 76 THE IRRIGATION AGE. the following brief sketch of his life, to- gether with his portrait, feeling confident that all of our readers will bu glad of a glimpse at the personality of one whom they have so long known through his pen: T. S. Van Dyke is a native of New Jersey and is about 56 years of age. From a child he was fond of gardening, tree grow- ing, anything connected with out door life in fact, "and was," as he expresses it, "fond of working in the ground with spade, hoe or anything else, provided al- ways that I did not have to." Having this liking for agriculture, it was but natural that, when at the age of 33 his failing health forced him to give up the practice of law and go to California, he should turn his attention to the use of irrigation in farming. He had tried irrigation in New Jersey and made a failure of it, but during the ten years that he spent in the country regaining his health, he lived among irri- gators and on irrigated farms, and there made the thorough study of the different methods which has given him such an in- timate knowledge of the subject, and which puts life into his writings. To be thoroughly conversant with your subject is the first requisite to a good writer, Mr. Van Dyke thinks, and he attributes the success of his irrigation writings to the fact that he "learned irrigation with a hoe in hand, still keeps it up and is not a bit alarmed at the sight of a spade." Tn 1885 he took up the building of irri- gation works as a business, making a thor- ough study of hydraulic engineering, which he found quite as essential for a promoter as for anyone else if he wants to know just what he is about. Finding that the handling of water economically and properly after it was on the ground was fully as important as the getting it and that it was folly to spend tens of thousands of dollars to put water into the upper end of a ditch and allow it to be wasted at the other end, he made a study of this feature, both in the United States and Mexico and as a result is proba- bly the best posted man, on every question pertaining to irrigation, in the state of California. Mr. Van Dyke is a resident of Los An- geles and while most of the time is occu- pied in his own business in engineering he does some expert work outside of it. This issue contains the seventh paper in the series on "Unprofitable Irrigation Works," that have been running in the AGE. Land In this number of the IRRI- and Products. GATION AGE we present our readers with the second letter from Wal- lace Harrington on "Land and Products" and like the first it is interesting and in- structive, although the author deals with the subject along different lines. They are both somewhat general in character, leading up to a practical examination of the question from a local standpoint. The articles that are to follow will deal with climatology, temperature, precipitation and sources of water supply which in all that Southwest country is a question of paramount importance, and it is one with which Mr. Hanington is specially quali- fied to treat. The soils will be, analyzed with the view to determine the particular class of crops for which they are best adapted. Cattle ranching and farming, like any other business, to be successful must be conducted on rational lines by ra- tional laws that demand study and obedi- ence. One section of a country may be specially adapted to grazing, another to wheat and kindred crops, another tobacco, flax, hops or canaigie, another to orchards and another to vineyards and so on, there- fore the investor or the homeseeker should be careful in his selections in order that the land and conditions are suitable for his particular purpose. And jn going to the Southwest the water is as important a consideration as the sun. He THE IRRIGATION AGE. 77 must keep within the rainy line or where there is a visible water supply, for every- body familiar with that region knows very well there are thousands of acres there that are valueless from lack of water. Keep within the rainy line or have a visible water supply and the vield is pretty sure to be abundant and valuable. An old Ac- Joel Shomaker. the well known quaintance western journalist was born in Pendleton County, Ky., Oct. 2, 1862, and grew up on a farm. He was educated in the home high schools and Kentucky State University, and began his journalis- tic work while attending college. In 1883 he went west and located in Utah, where he has since been engaged as an experi- mental farmer and gardener, editor and publisher and general writer for a score of prominent magazines and newspapers. He has made the subject of irrigation a life study and is recognized as an authority on all subjects pertaining to practical irriga- tion. His connection with the AGE began in 1891 and although much of his matter has been unsigned, his contributions have covered the pages devoted to irrigation, farm, garden and orchard subjects. He served as agricultural editor during the three years the AGE was published in Salt Lake City and is very familiar with thousands of its readers. In the January number he will begin a series of articles on "Co-operative Irrigation Colonies'" and treat the subject of western colonizatio from a practical standpoint. During the past fifteen years he has traveled over almost every section of the irrigated west and personally investigated the various systems of individual, co-oper- ative and corporation canals, the result of which will be described in the AGE. Mr. Shomaker was the first editor of the Manti Messenger and was for a time editor of the Logan Republican. Besides his other literary ventures he has written four books on irrigation and kindred sub- - jects. his latest work, "The Farmer and Financier — A practical exposition of the principles of co-operation of capital and labor," is soon to be published. About the middle of November. 1898. Mr. Shomaker " became editor and manager of the Farmer and Dairyman.a, weekly published at North Yakima. Wash. Under his able manage- ment the publication will probably become one of the foremost weeklies of the North- west, and the AGE joins with his many friends in wishing him success in this new field. Secretary The report of James Wilson. Wilson's . . . . . Report. Secretary of Agriculture, for I the year ending June 30. 1898. has been re- , ceived and the attention given to irriga- tion during the past year by the Depart- ment of Agriculture, is especially gratify- ing to all friends of the movement. ''All of our country west of the Missouri River is interested in irrigation.'' says Sec!y Wilson, "and facts are being collated re- garding soil moisture, the supply and dis- tribution of water, uniformity of laws and court decisions relating to irrigation, and the requirements of different crops in this regard." The friends of the irrigation movement secured an appropriation of $10.000 from Congress for the current fiscal year, to be expended under the direction of the Sec- retary of Agriculture in collecting statis- tics and information on the subject of irri- gation from agricultural experiment sta. tions. agricultural colleges and other sources. As a matter of economy, re- searches and the expending of this fund is to be done in co-operation with the De 78 THE IRRIGATION AGE. partment of Agriculture instead of creat- ing a separate division. That will come in time, but we are content to have our cause in the hands of so efficient and inter- ested a worker as Secretary Wilso i. It has been decided by the Department to confine the work on irrigation for the present to two general lines: "The colla- tion and publication of information regard- ing the laws and institutions of the irri- gated region in their relation to agricul- ture" and "The publication of available information regarding the use of irrigation waters in agriculture as determined by actual experience of farmers and experi- mental investigations, and the encourage- ment of further investigations in this line by the experiment stations." Bulletins It will be especially gratifying Published, to the small farmer desirous of trying irrigation, but ignorant of the cor- rect method of using water, to learn that arrangements have already been made for the preparation of several bulletins on ir- rigation by competent experts, one of whom is the State Engineer of Wyoming, Prof. Elwood Mead, and these bulletins will be published and distributed by the the Department during the present fiscal year. This is of great importance as it will enable people to gain some certain knowledge as to the best methods tor'be used. The laws and institutions relating to ir- rigation, which have grown uo in the different communities, are in most cases so unsatisfactory that there is a crying need of immediate reform, and as this is a question of general, rather than local, in- terest, Sec'y Wilson recommends that it be taken up by the National Government and such investigations be made as shall determine the solution of these many problems. The Present Work. As already stated the Depart- ment has decided to divide the work for the present into two heads. Un- der the first of these — the careful study of the laws and institutions of the irrigated region with special reference to their im- provement— the objects will be to aid the courts in the adjudication of claims re- specting water rights; to bring out the defects in the existing laws and suggest remedies for them; and to assist farmers in securing water rights and to protect their interests in the appropriation and use of water for irrigation. Under the second heading — the publication of the re- sults gained from experimental investiga- tion— it is proposed that the Department take up the carrying on of thorough origi- nal investigations along a number of differ- ent lines. The agricultural experiment stations in the irrigated regions have shown the way in which these investiga- tions should be conducted, but their lim- ited means have prevented them making very great progress. In closing his report regarding irriga- tion Secretary Wilson say: "I believe that the importance and variety of the work demanded in the interests of irriga- tion in this country will justify a large in- crease in the appropriation for irrigation investigations by the Department. I hope that at the coming session of Congress a well-defined policy regarding the work of the Department on this subject will be definitely adopted." In this hope he is joined by 'every friend of the irrigation movement. The Beam There is a great deal of very in Our Own , J Eye. natural enthusiasm over the acquisition of new territory by the United States, but there is a serious phase of the matter which is forgotten by many in the first flush of triumph, and that is our duty to these newly acquired colonies. David Starr Jordan, president of Leland Stanford University, Cal., dis- cussed this question in the Atlantic Month- ly recently and taking Alaska as his theme told of the abuses in that country and pointed out certain lessons that he deemed useful in dealing with other colonies. Mr. Jordan visited Alaska several years ago by request of our government and may therefore be taken as authority and his statements given due consideration. Al- aska's suffering resulted, in his opinion from four causes — ''Lack of centralization of power and authority, lack of scientifi c knowledge, lack of personal and public interest, and the use of offices as political patronage;" the first of these probably being the main one. The natives were incapable of self-government and to force THE IRRIGATION AGE. 79 it upon them was to bring about the sad results that are now before us. Congres- sional interest was not sufficiently excited in their behalf to pass laws looking to their welfare and questions, vital to her, were never introduced in Congress, while many of the regulations that were passed were never enforced. For as Mr. Jordaji says: "What is every body's business is generally nobody's business, and what happens in Alaska is generally nobody's business." That is the reason why at the present day "starvation is inevitable along the whole line of the southwestern coast." Thirty- one years ago when we purchased Alaska from Russia it had a native population of 32.000: now in many of the villages the en- tire native population is huddled together in a single cellar, while starvation and want are everywhere. With such a record in our own colony it is a case of the "pot calling the kettle black," to censure Spain too severely for her colonial policy. The same cause is at the bottom of the trouble in both cases. Says Mr. Jordan %iWe try to throw the burden of self-government on people so situated that self-government is impos- sible. We impose on them statutes un- fitted to their conditions, and then leave to them the enforcement." As an ex- ample, there are laws in Alaska regulat- ing the salmon fishing, etc., but the sal- mon company would have to arrest and punish itself if it infringes the laws, as the native would not be capable of doing so. From this one can see how very little provision is made for the enforcement of any laws that may be made and how little the native population is considered. The lesson Mr Jordan draws from our Alaskan failures is. that before we accept colonies we must count the cost and that if we do accept them we must protect and care for them, foster their industries and look to their welfare, no matter how ex- pensive a proceeding it may be. There are races living under our flag that are at present not capable of self-government, and uutil they are, some sort of colonial bureau must be established to look after their welfare. The following words of Mr. Jordan should be echoed by every loyal American: "If we cannot afford to watch them, (the colonies) to care for them, to give them paternal rule when no other is possible, we do wrong to hoist our flag over them." This country has taken a great responsibility in annexing new territory and we echo the sentiments of the writer when he says: ''It may be that the final loss of her colonies, misman- aged for two centuries, will mark the civil and moral awakening of Spain. Let us hope that the s»me event will not mark a civil and moral lapse in the nation which receives Spain's bankrupt assets." The Clayton- Editorial mention was made Treaty^ in last month's AGE of the Nicaragua canal project. That we will soon have to have an isthmian canal is generally conceded, on account of our re- cent territorial acquisitions in the Pacific, bat whether it is to be the Nicaragua or the Panama canal is still an open question. The friends of each project are busily ag- itating their respective canals and both will probably come up before Congress this winter. A question that has come up regarding the proposed Nicaragua canal is whether the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of Great Britain is still in force. This treaty was made between the United States and Great Britain in 1850. the terms being that England and the United States should have joint control over any canal which might be built across the isthmus, provid- ing that Great Britain should on her side pledge herself never to annex any part of Central America. Ex-President Cleve- land, during his term of office, considered the treaty as binding, though previous to his administration official notice had been given England that, owing to her having formed a colony in Central America while this country was engaged in its great civil war, she had violated the treaty and it would henceforth be considered null and void by the United States. Different views are taken by public men and by the press on both sides of the water as to 1 he validity of the treaty. The Spectator (En- glish) advises that England abrogate the treaty at once, thus removing what might possibly be an obstacle to the construction of the canal — an enterprise whose success means almost as much to Great Britain as to this country. IRRIGATION IN NEW MEXICO. JOEL SHOMAKER. New Mexico comprises an area of 122,580 square miles, or 78,374,- 400 acres. The Territory was created by act of Congress, Sept. 9, 1850, and in 1890 had a population of 153,593, including 1,956 colored. The official census report gives 4,458 farms owned and cultivated, and 3,085 or about 70 per cent being irrigated. Small farms are noticeable here as in Utah, the average size of the irrigated farms being only 30 acres. The first cost of water right averages $5.58 and annual maintenance fee $1.54 an acre. There are sixteen county di- visions, possessing similar characteristics, enclosing numerous fertile valleys ranging from 2,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level. Several mountain peaks reach an altitude of 13,000 feet and hold the winter snows in perpetual reservoirs for mid-summer irrigation. Irrigation has been practiced in New Mexico for many centuries, and in some instances the primitive canals of the native Indians and Spanish invaders of ancient days are yet in use. The principal irri- gated areas are narrow valleys along the river banks, where the Mexicans originally owned small individual ditches, taken from the streams by means of temporary dams of brush and rock. The pro- ducts of these farms include all the fruits, cereals and grasses of the temperate belt, and such semi tropical plants as oranges, lemons, figs, peanuts, sweet potatoes and cotton, all of which grow in great profusion in some of the warmer sections. The water supply is well distributed and most of the smaller streams are appropriated by farm partnership or co-operative ditches, constructed at little expense, and kept in repair by the labor of the owners. Water is an appurtenance to the land and a proportionate volume is transferred each heir in the division of old estates or the sale of cultivated areas". In 1890 there were 35,504 families residing in New Mexico and 25,867 families occupied farms, all except 721 being free of mortgages or other incumbrances. The corn crop of this Territory for 1897 was a total of 661,581 acres, which yielded 4,282,648 bushels, and oats 258,795 bushels. In 1895 the official returns gave 2.936,612 sheep owned in the Territory. The average wool clip hardly reached five pounds on account of many natives having a poor class of sheep, but the more enterprising wool growers have the best Merinos and Cots- walds. Stockraising has always been a leading industry in New Mexico and the last official census figures give 7,247,820 as the actual number of live-stock owned by farmers and rangemen. The entire Territory is well adapted to ranges as the tablelands are covered with THE IRRIGATION AGE. 81 grass and rain falls frequently, and the valleys are watered by rivers and streams fed from the mountains. The markets for irrigated products are chiefly local, but there are nearly 1,500 miles of railroad, including the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Pe, Atlantic and Pacific, Southern Pacific and Denver and Rio Grande system, ramifying every important agricultural and mineral producing district. The soil, climate and other natural conditions make of New Mexico an ideal fruit and vine growing section, and the sugar beets and canaigre roots grow to perfection in this region. A sugar factory at Eddy and canaigre extracting plant in the Pecos Valley insure markets for the tubers. With railway connection east and west, and north and south the native products may be shipped to the markets of the world and compete in quality and beauty with any section of the irrigated realm. Farmers report harvesting $600 worth of watermelons from an acre in the Pecos Valley, and experiencing no difficulty in finding an anxious market. All systems of irrigation are practiced throughout New Mexico, and some curious customs prevail among the old timers. The basin system of irrigating trees, consisting of filling a hole with water and allowing that to percolate to the roots is practiced. Some of the Mexicans carry water and irrigate their melon vines by filling boxes or holes near the roots. The old wild flooding method is still in vogue, especially in orchards and meadows. Furrow irrigation is practiced generally by the modern irrigators, though some have sub-irrigation plans and others flood the land occasionally. The soil is so prolific and climate so adapted to plant growth that when water is applied by any means the results are marvelous. Alfalfa produces from three to six crops annually. Trees and vines make a growth of from four to sixteen feet during a season, if well cultivated and thoroughly irri- gated. An acre planted to mixed fruits will yield from $500 to $2,000 yearly, after the trees come into bearing. The Pecos Irrigation and Improvement Company has the largest irrigation enterprise in the Terrritory, having transformed several thousand acres of desert land into a perfect homeseeker's paradise. As stated in the advertising columns of the AGE this company has the soil, climate and water, and men with little capital, plenty of enter- prise and active minds and muscles can soon create bowers of Eden in this chosen vale. I have no advertising object in writing this about New Mexico, any more than any other of the series of articles that have appeared in former issues, so the readers must not conclude that because I mention Pecos Valley it is a paid advertisement. But those in quest of cheap lands, abundant water, unexcelled climate and all the natural elements for creating magnificent homes, surrounded by vineyards, orchards and everything that can be grown in a semi-tropic country will do well to look over the Pecos Valley before locating 82 THE IRRIGATION AGE. elsewhere. This water system is intended to irrigate 400,000 acres of excellent land. New Mexico offers excellent opportunities for the investment of capital in constructing reservoirs for conserving the spring floods, for use on lands now desert. The co-operative system practiced in Utah could be used very successfully in reclaiming large areas and im- pounding water for irrigation. Individual ditch building is practically at an end as the many small farmers' canals in the Territory and on the Rio Grande in Colorado have appropriated the natural flow of streams. Wells are obtainable in some valleys and the underflow or sheet water may be tapped and lifted by means of windmills or other pumping machinery. Numerous good wells are completed in Grout county and elsewhere and the farmers are still prospecting -for better fountains. Much water is wasted through the old Mexican systems of irrigation and some of the natives are very slothful farmers, but men of determination are conquering the deserts and startling the world with the wonderful productions. Bernalillo county in the north central part of the Territory has probably 400 irrigators, residing chiefly on the banks of the Rio Grande from which small ditches are taken. The river valley lies at an altitude of about 5,000 feet and produces abundant crops, if proper- ly cultivated. The method of irrigation is almost wholly confined to the old basin and flooding systems. A great waste of water is notice- able in seepage and evaporation from the little basins or ponds sur- rounded by sand banks. Colfax county in the northeast is devoted principally to sheep and cattle raising, having only a few farmers lo- cated near Springer, the chief city. Canals and ditches are small, but increased efforts are being made for additional reservoirs, wells and underflow channels. Donara Ana county in the south-central part has many farmers — over 400— using small ditches and growing a mixed variety of agricultural products. Grant county in the southwest has miners and stockraisers, with some small farms, carried on chiefly by the stock owners. Windmills are used in lifting the under current, one mill supplying water for about five acres of garden. Lincoln formerly comprised the present counties of Eddy and Chaves and is the most advanced section of the Territory, in having new farms and vineyards, sugar beet fields and everything of modern invention in connection with fine irrigating systems. Here are the towns of Eddy and Roswell and the great irrigation works of the Pecos Valley Improvement Company. Mora county has a large area under irrigation and probably 500 farmers till small fields successfully. The individual reservoirs show the feasibility and value of impound- ing water in the spring for use in the dry summer months. Rio Arri- ba county in the north is watered chiefly by the San Juan and contains many Mexican towns and Indian pueblos. The people have good THE IRRIGATION AGE. 83 sources of water supply and on the headwaters of the San Juan some dry farming is practiced. Small storage basins are located at various places, but the rivers are the main sources of water supply. San Juan in the northwest has many farms at an elevation of about 6,000 feet. Alfalfa is the principle crop, but all kinds of temperate fruits do well, especially along the river bottom. Ditches are small and do not cover the finest land on the mesas. San Miguel county consists chiefly of plains where irrigation canals have not been built. The small valleys are cultivated to a limited extent. Santa Fe county has numerous small farms and gardens along the streams where irri- gation is possible by means of small individual ditches. Sierra is mostly mountainous and contains very few .small farms. Mining and stockraising occupy the attention of the citizens. Socorro includes much of the Rio Grande valley and contains many small farms. Min- ing and stockraising are the leading industries. Taos in the north contains quite an extensive area of agricultural land. The native Mexicans own most of the ditches and cultivate land after their ancient patterns. Valencia contains only small farms along the stream and has not been very much developed. One peculiarity about the old Mexican land holdings is the description of many claims given in yards instead of acres. The land has been divided and sub-divided so often that a farm will be described as "30 yards ditch front and 1,000 yards back to the bluff," thus giving every claimant enough land on the ditch to get his water without crossing another's possessions. Whatever may be said of the old manners and customs of New Mexico the modern canals and up-to-date farmers- are all that homeseekers desire. The climate is mild and heathful, the soil rich and productive, water abun- dant if properly reservoired and the opportunities for further indepen- dence are as good here as in many of the apparently more advanced and better favored western states. UNPROFITABLE IRRIGATION WORKS. NO. VII. T. S. VAN DYKE. In spite of all that can be said, the fact still stands out clearly, as I stated at the outset, that one of the main things with which irriga- tion companies have had to contend has been the difficulty of getting settlers. The stupidity of companies about this has been wonderful, but even the most judicious management has found it uphill work for several years past, growing steadily worse up to the last year or two. The main cause of it is due to the idea that farming is unprofitable; that a country life is dull and slow; that farming is good enough for those who know no better, or can do no better, but is not the thing for the boy of the family, who must be something better than his father was; that it is not progress but rather setting one back in the world and making him a laughing stock under the name of "hayseed" or something else. While these ideas have been growing there was a boom over a great part of the farming sections of the west due to the opening of the great prairie region since the civil war, the vast production of wheat with little competition in the market of the world, the growth of the country in population and wealth which had no equal in history so long as any government land in the good rainbelts was left, and upon that the influx of foreign capital in such great amounts some fif- teen years ago. Kansas and California were the storm centers of the culmination of this boom, but it raged more or less all through the west and found people in the country almost as ripe for it as those of the towns. For many years we had been taught, indirectly but quite plainly, that we, the people of the great United States, were an exception to all known rules that govern the human race. Of course a Mexican farmer can- not enjoy this and that luxury. He is only a peon. Of course a farmer in Europe cannot. Is he not a peasant? Surely a farmer in India cannot. Why, he is only a ryot. But the American farmer can have this and that and the other thing, of course. For is he not an American? Of course he can have luxuries, and the progress of our country on the great upward road, which it is to travel forever at an ever increasing pace, is measured by the town lots, pianos, fine car- pets, fancy buggies and other things which are the true heritage of the American farmer. It was a sad awakening to find there was some mistake about THE IRRIGATION AGE. 85 this, that we no longer had the monopoly of the wheat of the world, but that cheap labor was using against us the fine agricultural ma- chinery which we thought we were so very smart in selling and show- ing how to use. But this and the fall in other produce in sympathy with wheat merely cut into the farmers's surplus. It did not cut into his living. The absurdity is in supposing that he was the only suf- ferer. The real sufferers were those into whose living the change cut, and their number was greater than that of any farmers who were much affected. They never had any surplus to reduce. They never had more than a living and that was reduced, while the farmer's living was the same as before. Call silver the cause and we do not affect this fact. Suppose the world consisted of three people. It is easy to see how one of them may get the surplus labor of the other two, and two may get all the labor of the other one. Or all three may make merely a living by their own labor and none of the three have any of the sur- plus labor of the rest. It is clear enough that if one gets above the average, one or more must drop below it, and the only way to avoid this is for each to be satisfied with turning his own labor into food and clothing. The chances of success are far greater in this, for the moment one tries to capture some of the surplus labor of one or both of the other two, he is increasing his risk of failure. And failure may leave him worse than where he started and one or two of the others may have the whole of his surplus. This is often very simple. Suppose A thought himself a fine poker player; B thought himself an extra fine player; whereas C did not think anything about it, but was a super-exera fine player. A makes a start for the surplus of the other two, B does the same and they wind up by C getting the whole of it. For surplus labor let us now substitute money, for convenience in making the exchange. Have we changed the conditions? Can it alter the consequences of a mistake of A as to his smartness and the mistake of B as to the stupidity of C? Will any amount of money make any difference or any kind of money? Do we escape these conditions by increasing the number of people or do we merely hide the machinery with numbers? Must there not be a vast number of men satisfied with making a living, a great big average man who neither climbs above nor falls below? Is not every attempt to climb much above liable to result in a drop below? Is not every attempt to secure much of this substitute for surplus labor dangerously like a game of poker, in which you may easily be mis- taken about your ability or your watchfulness? And as long as you allow people to get in any way the surplus labor of others (or its rep- resentative, money) how are we to prevent the long-headed, the ener- getic, the economical from being ahead; especially if they walk the floor when the rest are sleeping? 86 THE IRRIGATION AGE The great mistake of the farmer is in supposing that he is the only average man. He thinks the majority of men in business and the professions of all kinds are making money while he is making only a living. But they are all struggling first for the surplus labor of their fellows in order to convert it into bread and clothes. The farmer turns his labor into bread directly, wherein he has an advantage that he little realizes. The great majority of men in business do not, ex- cept during some very exceptional boom, make more than a living, and fully one half of them fail to do that. They are eternally shifting from one failure to another, living off their creditors most of the time, adding to the burden of the next financial crash that is due in the course of things. A very few make far more money than it is possible to make out of the ground, but these are not three per cent, of the struggling mass. The great majority of those who make more than a living make no more than is made in all states and in all times, even the hardest, by a few farmers who are thorough businessmen. On the other hand the proportion of farmers who fail to make a living where they work for that first is amazingly slight and due either to poor con- ditions, poor soil or lack of rain, or something of the sort, or poor health, which cannot be charged up against farming. The conditions that can throw a man in business are far more numerous, and every year narrows the margin on which it is done, so that greater business talent, more unremitting attention, more grinding economy are neces- sary to make even a living as the country grows older and competition more fierce. But the farmer sees men wearing good clothes and driv- ing around in fine buggies and buying cigars in the nickel-in-the-slot machine and thinks they have a fine time. Simple soul. Half of them are dead beats putting on style at the expense of their creditors. Of the half that are honest two-thirds are walking the floor wondering how they are to pull through when the farmer is soundly snoring. No wonder. They are struggling against friction. The great fight is for food. Instead of turning it out of the ground with one wheel they are running two wheels playing on each other, with the sand of com- petition in the bearings instead of grease. They have first to get money which is someone else's labor — a hard task for the average man and one that will always be so. In this they are face to face with the fierce opposition of every one else in the same business and with many that are not. But in getting food without money there is no competition. And this is why forty years ago it was a maxim that the farmer is the most independent of men. Too many have drifted away from the old anchorage and made haste to get rich by expand- ing more sail. So great was this temptation that ten years ago the Kansas farmer could not get .rich fast enough on his own boom, but had to come to California to buy town lots. Much talk has been made of the mortgages paid off in Kansas last year. What business had THE IRRIGATION AGE. 87 farmers on such rich soil with such a load of mortgages? Most of them were old ones and any man who was in California during the great boom can tell where much of the borrowed money went. On the other hand, in states like Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, where they never have had any booms, except in a few towns witb> with which the farmers did not meddle, the farmers have felt the late- hard times less than any other class. All have suffered some, but the farmers less than any — that is, farmers who farm, as most of them do there, in the old style with mixed industries and farming for a living first and money afterward. The farmer often thinks he is injured because he cannot put on some of the style of the city. He little thinks that he is lucky in being: free from it. To command his respect when he comes in town to con- sult his lawyer, his lawyer has to spend a hundred dollars a year or more for white linen and starching, etc., and still more for good clothes. But that farmer can come in to consult that lawyer in old overalls and a flannel shirt and be as good as any other client. I may be a poor judge because, from my earliest days, I hated the town and loved the country. I was raised on the edge of town among the farms in New Jersey and as soon as school was out skipped for the woods and fields. I have spent about half my life in the country, and for nearly ten years have lived sixty miles from even the smallest village. Few have had my opportunities for knowing how people live in both town and country, how they make their money and for what they have to spend it, for there are very few equally at home in both town and country. Within -my observations, the average farmer is far ahead of the average city man in everything that goes to make life comfortable and pleasant. He can not make the money made by a very few in the city for there is no such thing as great wealth from farming. But on the other hand, there is no such thing as the great poverty oi the city. Though the farmer cannot make the lofty flight above the average that some men of great foresight and diligence,, and often luck, can make in the city, he cannot drop much below it except through ill health or some misfortune that would set him much farther behind if he ran the race of life in the cily. Many a farmer can rise a little above, and some drop a little below the average, but none are very far below it. In the city the number of those who arc far below it is vastly greater than in the country. Quite as great a mistake is it to suppose that those who are far above the average are to be envied. The rich are the most unhappy of mortals. Their troubles are far more intense and far greater in number than can be conceived by those who are content with a plain living. Should the farmer grieve because he cannot try it for him- self? He has no more reason to grieve than I have. The world says to me "If you will spend so much time in hunting and fishing, so much. •88 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. in reading and traveling about looking at irrigation works and other nonsense that uses up time, you cannot have much of our surplus." To which I reply, with many another, "To the deuce with your surplus, I don't want much of it at the going price. I like to sleep while you are walking the floor. I like to pull a trigger while you are pulling a friend's leg and cast a fly on the whirling water while you are casting your accounts to see if somebody is not going to leave you in the lurch on your interest for the month. I have no relatives ,praying for my translation to a better sphere and don't have to be a slave in my own house to a lot of servants who would look at me in horror if I should venture to help myself to my own victuals without waiting the requisite period in a swallow- tailed coat." This is the independence of the farmer, and he ought to be proud of it. But there are many who think work is not exactly respectable and some even think it degrading. Atone of the last presidential con- ventions two years ago, a delegate from Texas deploring the dread- ful state of the country, "with tears in his eyes" told another how his daughter, "a lovely girl, had to help him pick cotton" the year before. "We are not informed as to how many young men this "lovely girl" could dance off the floor on a long winter night; but as no point was made on her health it is fair to presume there was no suffering of that kind. Lovely women in New England and many states have helped raise a family by picking cranberries and other berries, husking corn and a score of things within the limits of their strength, and no one ever sniveled over it. Twenty-years ago, during a spell of im- pecuniosity caused by loss of health and business, I worked four months for my board. I could only do half a day's work and light •work at that. Yet I did all the irrigating on a seven acre orchard and a garden. I did not feel at all degraded or in any way hurt. On the contrary, it was good for my health and I would do the same again to- morrow rather than contract debts for board that I did not see my way clearly to pay. All notions that work in the ground is menial are un- American in these days; however sound they may have been in the south in the days of slavery. Working the ground where it does not exceed one's strength, a matter generally within one's control, is far less disagreeable than nine-tenths of the daily cranks on which one has to grind from twelve to fifteen hours in the city to get a living no better than the farmer has, but with far more annoyance, risk, in- somnia, dyspepsia, Bright's disease and a score of things of which the farmer knows almost nothing. The last census showed some seventy per cent, of the farms of the United States free from mortgage. There is not a city of any ac- count that can show fifty per cent, of its lots free from mortgage, and plenty have less than twenty five. The difference in the struggle for existence between city and country can be seen in a dozen other ways THE IRRIGATION AGE. 89 to one who will read the ways of men. But people look only at the men in fine clothes and fine buggies with reserved seats at the show and drinking fancy drinks at eleven and think the whole town is mak- ing money. During all the hard times the farmers have suffered less as a class than any other class, that is, farmers who farm. Farmers who specu- late are no different from other speculators. And the farmer who farms exclusively for something to haul miles to market to sell for money with which to buy food to haul back home to eat is not a farmer but a speculator. He never did succeed in the history of the world ex- cept for short periods, on some exceptional product. He is up to day and down to-morrow. The true farmer does not play eagle to day for the fun of playing gopher to-morrow. He finds it better to play plain jack rabbit and keep on the surface all the time. If he does happen to fall through some mischance he does not make much of a hole in the ground. But under any and all conditions he can keep afloat longer without angel's wings than any other member of the com- munity This is true of the common farmer but far more so of the irri- gating larmer. From all quarters of the west have come the same re- ports about this class. In California and Arizona they have laughed at the hard times. In many places they have felt them some, but in most places not at all. Thousands have made money right through it all, and whole sections like Orange county in southern California and Salt River Valley in Arizona are well worth a study by any one who wants to know what true independence is. Take five, fifty or five hun- dred farmers as they come, and compare them with an equal number taken at random in the city on the best street, and the comparison would be ridiculous. The same industry and business capacity that will ensure a living in the city will ensure a surplus in the country on the irrigated place, and that is why we find the banks in all these sec- tions full of farmer's money. The complaint will find its own remedy. It is already doing so. Already the real estate agent is tilling the soil that but a few years ago he was trying to sell to someone else for a commisson. The curb- stone broker is folding his tent and quietly stealing away to where he can make living directly and certainly. The sweet-voiced pro- motor is following suit and learning to dig in the ground instead of in the pocket of some stingy capitalist. The man who started the fifth grocery^ on the same block because his dear wife wanted "society" is growing tired of seeing all the folks go to his rivals while the only profit he can figure out after cudgelling his brain till ten o'clock over his books, is the difference in the retail and whole- sale price of the canned stuff on which he lives as a matter of economy. The man who moved into town to educate his children, on the prin- THE IRRIGA TION A GE. ciple that some men have in going to the circus "to take the children," is beginning to wonder how the algebra and latin they are alleged to be learning at the great high school will help them make a living any better than the stuff taught at the country school. And then, too, the man who had that great genius of a boy that he had to bring to town to "give him a chance in the world;" what a dreadful thing it is to find that so many other farmers have a boy equally smart, if not more so! Alas! here is the main trouble after all. Each one of us thinks he is one out of a million. The deuce of it is he is. There are a million others just as smart, many of them a great deal smarter and thousands of them more active. In the city we meet competition at every turn. The only man who is free from it is the man who has a good piece of land and -works it directly for a living first and -a surplus afterward. The competition he meets in struggling for the surplus is nothing beside that which the city man meets in struggling for the living. And in the struggle for theliving the farmer has no competition. And where he has a good piece of irrigated land and will work it with one- half the industry and business capacity necessary to make a sure liv- ing now days in a city of any size, he cannot fail to make both living and surplus. And if he has good land and plenty of water the surplus he will make will be greater than that of the average surplus made in the city. The politicians may talk to the contrary as much as they please, the testimony comes too strong from every irrigating settle- ment in the west. The farmer is not suffering as much as the rest of the community, and the great majority in the irrigating sections know nothing different from the best years before the late depression. RECLAMATION OF THE ARID WEST. BY A. C. KOMIG. The uncertainty of crop results in the arid and semi- arid regions of the West, by reason of unfavorable climate conditions and inadequate rainfall at crucial periods of crop development, suggests the problem of redemption and whether it be not possible to mend this condition by artificial means and promote a more generous and timely precipitation. It is conceded that if a duplicate of Lake Michigan were placed in the center of the area bounded by the longitude of Kansas City, the Rocky Mountain range, British America and the Gulf, there would be increased humidity, evaporation, dews and climatic conditions analo- gous to Missouri or Eastern Kansas. But in default of any such basic source for evaporation what is the remedy, how shall we find a sub- stitute? Manifestly by the conservation of storm waters impounded in a system of artificial lakes, catch basins, storage reservoirs and dams on the farm. This is the conception of a system outlined by Major Powell, late director of the United States Geological Survey and by him recom- mended to Congress as a panacea for the evils of aridity and as a re- straining factor and permanent relief from disastrous flood calamity on the lower Mississippi and streams traversing the arid regions. It is a self evident fact that so long as the present status exists, and storm waters are permitted to flow unrestrained, depositing mil- lions of tons of silt on the bed of the lower Mississippi, lifting ithigher and higher above the surrounding plain — until a vessel seems to be floating in mid air, just so long will flood calamity result, entailing enormous and constantly increasing expense for repairs. The timely suggestions Major Powell have borne good fruit. Congress in 1888 voted $100,000; in 1889, $250,000 for surveys, typo- graphical maps, segregating and locating storage reservoir sites for impounding storm waters. Of the 147 sites selected by the Coast and Geodetic department in 1890, 33 are in California, 46 in Colorado, 27 in Montana, 39 in New Mexico and 2 in Nevada. The aggregate sites selected since 1889 will approximate 400, including four or five artific ial lakes on the upper-Mississippi. This work of the Coast and Geodetic department is preliminary to the great scheme of redemption. The construction of dams, en bankments, canals, and laterals for irrigation facilities remains tot future development and it rests with the people of the arid region to work up an interest and arouse an enthusiasm that will culminate in fruition. TEE IRRIGATION AGE. How shall this be done? We answer by agitation; by making it a political issue, incorporated in our platforms and proclaimed from the rostrum. Let the state encourage the construction of ponds and basins on the farm by a measure of tax exemption, or other reward to the individual farmer. Let our representatives in Congress press the matter of appropriation for the heavier work to a finish. It is a fact of mathematical demonstration that if fifty per cent, of the enormous sums expended on the lower Mississippi (supplemented by state and local aid) was diverted to restraining flood tides on the water shed of arid regions, the flood disasters of the lower country would be reduced to a minimum and the expense of repairs be corres- pondingly lowered. That an effort to so divert and portion off the natural revenue would encounter determined opposition on the part of contractors and those who have profited and grown rich off flood disaster, is a foregone conclusion. And the pessimist, appalled at the magnitude, the ex- pense and opposition, will decide that the scheme of redemption is impracticable and cannot be accomplished. But in the language of Daniel Webster on Bunker Hill when he requested the marshall to keep back the crowd and received for an- swer, "It cannot be done, it is impossible," exclaimed in lionion voice "There is nothing impossible for Americans on Bunker Hill." So of the giant West. There is nothing impossible when all unite on a great economic question of national importance. We must agitate; we must agitate if we would escape the calamity of protracted drouth and secure a maximum of agricultural results; or must be content with doubtful results and conditions of uncertainty that belong to lottery; either this or we must relegate to pastoral pur- suits and sparce population the vast area of arid America. When the Grand Artificer of the universe carved out of chaos this magnificent domain, there was no purpose to relegate it to the Texas long horns and the festive cow-boy with a population of five or ten to the square mile. But rather under a system of intense culture, small holdings and irrigation to become the home of many millions of happy prosperous people, working out the problem of civilization along Christian lines of jurisprudence, as outlined by the great Master, earnestly striving to eliminate crime, poverty and misery; to promote virtue, thrift and happiness, until every heart shall throb with a di- vine impulse, and everybody shall see, "Tongues in trees — Books in running brooks, Sermons in stones And good in everything. ' ' THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. In diversified farming' by irrig-ationcHes the salvation oftagriaulture. THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pic- tures of fields, orchards and farm homes', prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogsr Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns hen houses, corn cribsr etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch c.eaners and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help us improve the appearance of THE AGE? LAND AND PRODUCTS— AN EXHAUS- TIVE ANALYSES. No. H. PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL. According to promise I will devote this letter largely to the ordinary products of the soil. In ma»y countries the farmers depend on one or two varieties as money producing crops. In the warm climate of the southwest the varieties are greatly en- larged. There they produce all the crops common to the temperate and semi-tropi- cal climates and in her virgin sofl the yield is much larger than in the exhausted soil of the old settled regions. In favored localities out there wheat will average 40 bushels to the acre. According to the offi- cial report of the Department of Agricult- ure atWashington the average yield of the older states in the Union runs from 7.9 to 21. 5 bushels, or an all round average of 13.4 bushels an acre. Oats in the virgin soil of the Southwest will average from 70 to 75 bushels and sometimes run as high as 90 bushels an acre, which is quite a third more than the yield in the East. Corn yields about the same as oats; barley, rye, peas also yield about a third more in the Southwest than in the East. Potatoes average from 8 to 10 tons to the acre and the whole line of vegetables keep pace with potatoes. Alfalfa averages 6 tons an acre. All tame and wild grasses thrive and yield well. Sugar beets excel not only in quantity but in saccharine matter, ranging much higher than in Europe. According to figures at hand the world's total sugar production in 1896 was 7,000,000 tons, of which 60 per cent, was from sugar beets. As an illustration of the rapid growth of the industry we note that in 1887 the United States produced 400,000 pounds ; in 1888 we produced 3.600,000 pounds; in 1889, 6,000,000 pounds; in 1890, 8,000.000- pounds; in 1891, 43,000,000 pounds and so on up to the present writing. Last year California alone produced that amount. Nebraska comes next with 6,970,780 pounds, and other sugar pro- ducing states follow with smaller lots. In the old world they produce 7 to 8 tons of beets to the acre, but we produce 20 tons and often more. In the old world the laud is enormously high in price ; here- in the Southwest it is cheap. There the average is from 7 to 9 per cent saccharine matter; here it is from 17 to 20 per cent. The average price of beet roots here is from $4.50 to $5.00 per ton. The Southwest is the home of the- canaigre plant. In Mexico, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona it grows wild, but produces much more and a better article under cultivation. It is in constant de- mand in the markets of Europe and Amer- ica for tanning leather, as it is much better than the barks and other substances' THE IRRIGATION AGE. heretofore used. A comparison of the Amount of tannin contained in canaigre and other materials used in tanning shows its superiority over all others. Canaigre root, 26. 30 per cent. Oak bark 7 to 20 per cent. Hemlock bark 13.92 per cent. Sumac 16 to 24 per cent. Wattle bark 20. 00 per cent. When properly planted and cultivated the yield runs from 25 to 30 tons to the The Canaigre Plant. acre of green roots which when dried will •weigh about one-half of the green product and it has Europe and America for a mar- ket. The value of the crop averages from $225 to $250 an acre. There are now approximately 2,000,000 acres of land devoted to the culture of to- bacco, and it is doubtful if any better tobacco is grown in any country than that of the Southwest. This remark will be better appreciated when it is remem- bered that before the recent war with Spain tons and tons of tobacco were an- nually shipped from Connecticut to Cuba and there metamorphosed and then re- shipped and imported into the United States as the genuine Cuban article. The force of the imagination is strong in the use of tobacco as well as in the use of some other things. It is a fact that many quite important American citizens prize the merits of a cigar by the price they pay for it, rather than from any other reason. The total world's production of tobacco in 1897 was 1,330,000,000 pounds, of which gross amount the United States produced 550,000.000. The annual increase in pro- duction is large and it can be grown and manufactured in the Southwest in equal excellence and perfection with any coun- try in the world without the aid of imagin- ation. The Souths e«t is pre-eminently a fruit country. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, prunes, thrive and ripen to per- fection. But the grape excels either for the table, raisin and wine. Most of these fruits will not grow in the North or East in anything like commercial quantities, hence the Southwest is particularly valu- able as a fruit country and here many fruits grow wild. Hops, broom corn, flax and ramies grow abundantly and mature well, and the cult- ure and manufacture of American silk is becoming an important and lucrative in- dustry. The reason of this is found in the demonstrated fact that the sun and soil in particular localities in the warm and equable climate of the Southwest is particularly adapted to the production of the raw material and experience teaches the transposition of this raw material into a high grade manufactured article is here as complete and perfect as in any country. But a few years ago American silk found no market at home, because of a foolish prejudice against it ; buyers in- sisted on the French article or that made in Belgium or Switzerland or perhaps Japan or China, but all that "foolish pre- judice" is now happily a thing of the past THE IRRIGATION AGE. 95 forgotten to be remembered no more for- ever. An expert on the silk subject re- cently placed himself on record in the fol- lowing language : "American silks of certain grades are just as good as those made abroad, and a good many of them are better. It was formerly necessary for shopkeepers some- times to pretend that silks made in Amer- ica were imported, but it is becoming un- necessary nowadays, as women realize the excellence of the goods of home manu- facture. " In 189U the value of American manu- factured silk was $69,154,599. In 1898 it had increased to $92,677,710, while the value of imported silk on June 30th. 1898 was only $23,523,110, or about one-fourth the value of the American article. In a few years more we will be exporting silk across the water as we now are exporting a multitude of other American goods. Assuming that \ve devote 10,000 acres to the production of these various crops, some of which will far exceed $100 an acre, some will fall below $50 and others below $25 an acre, but they will make an all around average of $50 an acre To be within the -mark of reasonable certainty we will fix the average at §40 an acre. At that figure they will give us an aggre- gate of $400,000 a year to add to the ranch profits, or more than 10 per cent, of our capital. Now all the products here mentioned are in universal use and therefore in uni- versal demand. America alone has a population of 70,000,000' calling for sup- plies of every one of these articles and be- yond the home' consumption the markets of the world are constantly calling for them, and this call will be increased from year to year. This position leads me to briefly note the general exportation business of the United States. Twenty-five years ago we stood fourth as an exporting nation, now we stand second, England only leading us as the subjoined figures prove : Amount of Exports. Bank. 1872 1896 1872 1896 England 11,235,200,000 Sl,422,000,000 1 1 United States 430,583,000 1,050,692,000 4 2 Germany 559,700,000 994.156.000 3 3 France ?26,066,000 656,393.000 2 4 Russia 270,586,000 513,908.000 5 5 Before another year passes away the United States will change positions with England and lead the world as an export- ing nation. The above figures run over the fiscal year 1897, ending on the 30th of June that year. In the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1898, we increased our exportations $180,637,766, making an aggregate for the year of $1,231,359,766. At this ratio of increase we will pass England and lead the world as an exporting nation in two years. A noble old Eoman general declared that wars were won by wheat. "Well, that may have been true in his day, but how- ever important a part wheat plays in the affairs of the world, all will admit that meat pretty evenly balances the scales. In 1897 we exported 79,562,020 bushels of wheat, valued at $59,920,178. During the same period we exported cattle and the products of cattle to the value of $83,371,988. We read a great deal in the newspapers of the day about the wonderful produc- tion of gold. Last year was a record breaker, the yield being $57,000, 000. But the gold coin brought into the country in return for cattle exportation «nd distrib- uted among the people was a third more than the yield of the mines. Such facts must be noted in order that a proper ap- preciation of the value of the cattle in- dustry may be gained. But notwithstanding all that has been said we must not imagine that every man is fitted for or can carry on [the cattle business successfully; There are a multi- tude of things to be considered, : among which are good judgment, experience, in- dustry and economy. At the very thresh- old the selection of the land is most im- portant, both or the climate, the water, 96 THE IRR1 GA Tl ON A GE. he character of the grass and other crops' as well as for the condition and probabil- ities of rapid rise in value. Many of the great fortunes the world over have been won from judicious investments in real estate and the opportunities are as good today as they ever were, and in the case of a cattle ranch the land is paying you a high annual interest while it is growing in value. The Englishmen and Scotchmen who have been so successful in the cattle busi- ness in America have made their pur- chases of land chiefly in the South and South west, and this to avoid the blizzards, the deep snows and the rigorous winters of the North that are so prejudicial to cattle breeding and raising. And now the popular trend is in that direction for gen- eral farming and live stock. In all that I have said I have kept far within the line of facts and by this short story relating to climate, sun, soil and manifold productions, I have explained why the aristocracy of England have bought and continue to hold -20,000,000 acres or more of American land. There was no other way for them to invest their money to equal advantage, equally sure and remunerative, and there is no avenue now open for the investment of Ameri- can or European money, enterprise and industry that is at all comparable to the virgin land of the Southwest. We cannot reasonably complain of the English ari- stocracy for acting sensibly and making the most of conditions. But we can avail ourselves of the blessings that God has showered upon us with such bountiful hand. As Texas is now occupying an unusual share of public attention, especially amongst immigrants and home seekers, it may be interesting to examine, generally, its chief characteristics and finally lead up to some local conditions and no con- sistently determine whether or not it is a promising and desirable country for set- tlement. Oilicial figures places its area at 260,901 square miles of land and 3,310 square miles of water surface, consisting of lakes and bays, making a total of 264,- 211 square miles, equal to about 8.7 per cent, of the entire area of the United States and territories. It is much the largest state in the UnkA, being six times larger than New York and seven times as large as Ohio, and 100,000 square miles larger than all the Eastern and Middle states, including Delaware and Maryland. Compared to the countries of Europe it has 34,000 square miles more than the Austrian Empire ; 62,000 more than the German Empire, and nearly 70,000 square miles more than France. And yet Texas has only 2,235,523 inhabitants and less than six per cent of the area is in cultiva- tion. If Texas had the density of popu- lation that Illinois has, it would have 14,650,000 inhabitants; if as densely pop- ulated as New York it would have 26,750,- 000; as New Jersey, 63,800,000; or as Great Britain and Scotland, 85,422,000 inhabitants. It has a wider range of climatic condi- tions than any other state in the Union except California and a greater variety of valuable products than any of her sister states. It is located between the 25th and 36th parallels of North latitude and the 94th and 106 meridans of longitude. The dis- tance between the extreme northern and southern points is nearly 750 miles, and about 800 miles from east to west. Gen- eral custom has divided the state geo- graphically into five parts, namely : Cen- tral, Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Texas, but the dividing line is imaginary and not well defined. The State Commissioner of Agriculture describing its topographical characteris- tics says "that portion of the state lying east of 96th degree of longitude and north of the 30th parallel of latitude, and known as 'East Texas' is characterized by a long range of hills running in an irregular line from northeast to southwest, containing large deposits of brown hematite iron ore. it is also marked by a heavy growth of THE IRRIGATION AGE. timber, consisting principally of forests of pine, oak and hickory." That portion of the state lying east of the timber region and north of the Gurf coast is a vast open plain, composed of gentle rolling prairies and gradual eleva- tions. It is covered with a luxuriant growth of native grasses and dotted by an occasional mass of timber, and extends to Bed river on the north and the mountains ranges on the west and northwest. The water courses and ravines are usually fringed with a growth of hackberry. ash. elm, cottonwood. pecan, walnut and the various oaks. In the extreme northwest, bordering Kansas on the south and New Mexico on the west, is the elevated table land desig- nated as the Panhandle of Texas. On a Hue north of Austin and San Antonio and running in a southwesterly direction, there is a low range of hills that mark a change in the topography of the country. Westward it is more broken and the ele- vations more abrupt. The valleys are broad and the lands very fertile. The ."••it is described as of greater variety and richness than any other state in the Union. The Commissioner says: "The black waxy, black sandy, black pebbly, hog wallow, gray sandy, red sandy, sandy loam and alluvial soils are each to be found in the state, the majority of them in greater or less quantities in each section. " But the principal soils of Texas are the black waxy, black sandy and alluvial lands of the river bottoms. We often hear Texas spoken of as a vast timberless country, but that impres- sion is wholly erroneous. In the prairie region the bottoms along the streams and ravines are skirted with timber, and in most places there is a happy admixture of prairie and timber land that so delights the heart of the farmer. Besides this, portions of the state are covered with a dense forest of fine timber, embracing nearly every variety grown in the south, aggregating 35,537,967 acres of timber land. Texas has a wide range in her climate as well as in her productions, it is in fact this wide range of climate, rich soil, fer- vent sun and pure water that gives her so wide a range of productions. In addition to this it has often been suggested that Texas should become a health resort as well as a refuge for people seeking to es- cape the rigors of winter in more northern latitudes. Schools, churches and newspapers con- stitute an infallible standard by which any country or any people can be judged and the character and convenience of the schools is always a paramount question to every home seeker. In this Texas takes first rank, her school endowment is, I be- lieve, much the largest of any state in the Union, embracing £7,500,000 in interest bearing bonds. £14,000,000 in interest bearing land notes, and about 23,000.000 acres of unsold lands. Of the unsold school lands 'JO. 000,000 acres are leased at 4 cents per acre, and the funds thus derived added to the annual available school fund-: aggregates a total state and county fund of £73.454,868. In the face of such facts as I have pre- sented in this and a former letter we are still reaching out and annexing new terri- tory in the Eastern as well as in the Western hemishere. Some of these come by gift, some by purchase and some by conquest. But if we examine all. the old and new, from the Penobscot to the Yu- kon, none of them can offer to the honest industrious young man any more, or even the same, inducements that Texas does. Here we have unequalled climate, rich soil, with a guarantee of seed time and harvest for all our products, and our loca- tion is central, with not only desirable ocean service, but railroads radiating in all directions, affording cheap and rapid transportation to the markets of the world. Eastern people don't appear to under- stand existing conditions in Texas; they don't realize that during the past fifteen years the *stat« has been filling up with the best blood of the East and South ; the 98 THE IRRIGA T10N A GE. young, robust and ambitious of those sec- tions have gone out and settled in the West, bought land and planted vineyards and orchards, cotton and tobacco, wheat and corn, herded cattle, sheep and horses ; they have plowed and sowed and reaped and gathered into the garner of the hus- bandmen ; they have been frugal and prospered, and as a result towns and cities have sprung up ; in answer to the demands created all sorts of industries have been established and new avenues opened for the safe and lucrative investment of labor and capital. That is the class of popula- A DAIRY SCHOOL. The Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, Kan., will begin its second annual Dairy school Jan. 3, 1898, and continue it until March 25, 1899. Kan- sas is a state that has first class conditions for profitable dairying and it is estimated that 30,000 farmers within the state send milk to creameries and cheese factories. It is, therefore, quite as important that in- struction should be given in dairying as in other branches of farm work and realiz- ing this the Agricultural Colllege has opened a way by which the farmer may tion Texas wants; there is room enough and to spare for those who are willing to toil to accomplish something every year as they go along, create wealth and all its desirable accomplishments and so system- atically benefit themselves, the state and the nation. In my next letter I will treat of local conditions as I find in those portions of the atate that I may visit. WALLACE HARRINGTON. In the Cuban election, if an American meal ticket was put up it w&uld sweep the island. — Journal, Minneapolis. become posted on dairy subjects at very little expense. Tuition is free, the only expense being for books, blank books, and suits. The total expense of the term, exclusive of railway fare, may be made as low as $40 for the term, board and room being furn- ished at $2.50 a week and upwards. Any person over 18 years of age, of good char- acter and of sufficient intelligence and ed- cation to understand the lectures given may be admitted without examination. The school has a model private dairy with the best forms of apparatus for handling milk and making butter and a herd of dairy cows THE IRRIGATION AGE. The course of study is divided into seven divisions: Principles of Agricult- ure— Treating of soil, crops, etc. , and the managing and equipping of Kansas dairy farms; Dairying — The secretion, nature and composition of milk, the causes and conditions affecting its quality and quanti- ty, handling of milk, butter making, etc., etc.; Bacteriology; Feeds and Feeding — The effect of common feed stuffs on the character and yield of milk and butter; Breeds and Breeding; Diseases of Dairy Cattle — Common ailments, symptoms and remedies: Butter Making and Milk Testing. From this brief outline some idea may be gained of the plan of instruction and the practical knowledge thus obtained should recommend it to every farmer. The value of an education in this line is beyond question, as a thorough under- standing of the proper feeding, selecting and managing of cattle, together with knowing just how to handle and care for milk and butter, means a gain in dollars and cents for the farmer Mr. Thomas E. Will is the president of the Agricultural College and will gladly give further particulars. The dairy course is intended for private dairymen only, as the college does not possess facilities for giving instruction in creamery or factory work. The accompanying illustration shows the barns and sheds of the college . AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS IN FOR- EIGN LANDS. The following is a brief outline of the work and course of study of the agricult- ural schools in Egypt and Australia. As the information was gained by the United States Department of Agriculture from documents sent by the above countries, it is of course authentic. In Egypt the School of Agriculture is located at Ghizeh and during the four years' course the following studies are taken up : practical and theoretical agri- culture, agricultural chemistry, natural science, theoretical and practical chemis- try, farm bookkeeping, land surveying, hydraulics, veterinary science, physics, arithmetic, algebra and geometry, trigon- ometry, Arabic language and English lan- guage. Eight hours a week throughout the course are given to practical exercises in agriculture. Each pupil is allotted a plat of land which he must cultivate with his own hands, "the employment of hired labor or other assistance being absolutely prohibited." This plat consists of one- quarter of a feddan (1.038 acres) the first year, half a feddan the second year, and three-fourths the third and fourth years. "Every pupil shall be allowed to dispose of the produce of his plat, subject to the approval of the principal." To be admitted to the school the pupils must be at least 14 years of age and must pass an entrance examination. The an- nual fees for tuition and other expenses are $75 for day pupils and $125 for board- ers. The fee for day pupils covers the cost of a mid- day meal provided at the school. Pupils may be admitted to the school free of charge, at the discretion of the minister, provided they are in needy circumstances . The instruction in theoretical agricult- ure includes such subjects as soils, cli- mate, tillage, manuring, the feeding and breeding of farm animals, dairying, cult- ure of different crops, construction and sanitation of farm buildings, and agricult- ural implements. Special attention is given to irrigation and the culture of crops especially suited to local conditions, among which are rice, cotton, sugar cane berseem (Egyptian clover), beans, wheat, barley, maize, peanuts, flax, potatoes, sesame, indigo, fenugreek, chick-peas, and alfalfa. Sugar making and the extraction of cotton- seed oil and indigo are also taught. A special topic is the treatment of the salt lands in upper and lower Egypt, including washing, reclaiming and crop- ping. In Australia the school is located at ichmond, forty miles northwest of Sid- 100 THE IRRIGATION AGE. ney and is known as the Hawkesbury Ag- ricultural College. It is a flourishing and practical school owning a farm of 3,500 acres of poor soil and two other fields of richer soil. At Richmond the teaching force consists of a principal, science master, farm fore- man, experimentalists,orchardist, dairy in- structor, carpenter, poultry and bee expert, blacksmith, baker, and engineer. The plan of the college is to thoroughly weld science and practice. Students pass from the lecture room direct to the microscopic hall or to the chemical labratory — study- ing one day, busy in the field the next. One hundred students fill all the avail- able dormitory rooms, each paying $125 per year for his subsistence and giving his toil for his instruction. In cajie of sick- ness an hospital and a trained nurse are available. This college presupposes that every farmer nrust know how to produce every- thing necessary to self-support as a farmer, even though he is engaged in specific lines of agriculture, hence every student is instructed practically in all fundamental processes of farming. Crop production ; stock breeding and raising; milk, cheese and butter producing and marketing ; fod- der production and storage; scientific feeding of animals; manure production and manufacture from bones; purchase, protection, and repair of farm implements ; experiments with new and with rotated crops; poultry, bee and fruit economy, all find a place in the curriculum of this flourishing institution. Ample stables and machine shops, silo and manure pits, and modern creamery are part of the equipment, together with 1,000 sheep, 130 imported cows, and 50 work horses. By this it may be seen that the agri- cultural schools of Australia and Egypt are not behind those of our own country in course of study, equipment and in- structors. State Horticultural Society will hold its thirty-second annual meeting in the state capitol, Topeka, Kas. The three days and evenings will be devoted in the usual way of similar meetings, to addresses on various topics with discussion of same, reports of committees, and social enjoy- ment. A number of promising subjects appear on the program, and the society extends a cordial invitation to all inter- ested in horticulture and kindred lines to attend. Holiday rates will be given by the rail- roads, and board at Topeka is very reason- able indeed, hotel rates ranging from $1.00 to $2.00 per day. We hope, in a subsequent issue to pre- sent some of the many interesting papers read at this meeting. AN INTERESTING TEST. An Indiana farmer recently made an experiment which demonstrated beyond doubt what a harmful effect noise has up- on cows as regards their milk yield. This farmer has a dairy of 20 cows and had al- ways been very kind and gentle in his treatment of them. To prove his theory he bought a Babcock test for use in the dairy and one day he had the hired man drove the cows into a yard and turn the dogs in with them. Then the two men went in with sticks in their hands and be- gan shouting ; the dogs barked and there was a very noisy time for a few moments. The cows were not struck nor bitten, nor injured in any way, but upon driving them, into the barn and milking them immedi- ately afterwards, it was discovered that there was a decided falling off in the milk yield. The test showed that the falling off in butter fat was 10 per cent, which goes to show that in dealing with cows kindness, like honesty, ''is the best policy." On Dec. 27, 28, and 29 the Kansas The sentiment in favor of holding the Philippines would be less intense if some- body would explain how to let go. — De- troit Tribune. 8 PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. THE ARKANSAS VALLEY. James R. Davis, the industrial commis- sioner of the Santa Fe recently returned from a trip throug-h the Arkansas Valley in Colorado, and is enthusiastic in his praise of that section of the West, which has been reclaimed and made habitable by means of irrigation. The Arkansas Valley is a section almost 100 miles long on either side of the Arkansas river, beginning at Canon City and ending at Holly. Col., within a few miles of the Kansas state line. There is scarcely a product of the soil that cannot be raised with] success in this re- gion. The Salvation Army colony is lo- cated in this section and. though the colo- ny has only been established about six months, it has already taken off its first harvest, giving them almost a self-support- ing yield. Their station is Holly. Says Mr. Davis in the Chicago Record: ''The Arkansas valley enjoys the distinction of having one of the greatest and most -com- plete irrigation enterprises in the United States. The five lakes cover an area of 14,000 acres, with a maximum depth of ninety feet. They are only used for stor- age purposes as auxiliaries to the canal system, which aggregates 410 miles of main canals supplied with water from the Arkansas river." Irrigation has made the section what it now is. as it was once arid, and what has been done here may be done elsewhere by its aid. In concluding, the writer said "Arid land when provided with water is the most productive in the world. The fact of the matter is that the West is as inviting a field today as it ever was.'' GILA BOTTOM DYKE. The Yuma (Ariz.) Suu in a recent issue states that a plan is contemplated of dyk- ing the bottom lands of the Gila river that lie just east of the Yuma levee. The sec- tion of land in question lies in the shape of a horse-shoe and comprises an area of almost 600 acres of rich land, the richness being due to the sediment deposited by the Colorado river which annually over flows this tract. The proposition is to build a levee from the high bank, one mile above, in nearly a direct course along the Gila river to Prison hill, the purpose of which is to control the summer overflow from the Colorado. The word control is used be- cause it is not intended to prevent the flooding of the bottoms entirely, as the water may be let in above by the head- gate and conducted over the highest por- tions of the land, and the entire tract given a thorough irrigation without leav- ing any surplus to stand in sloughs to drown out growing crops. A water gate at the lower end might serve to drain off the land should an over supply be let in at the head. This levee need not be more than three or four feet in height on an average, and the cost, liberally estimated, need not be more than $5000. Levees, under similar conditions, have been built at different places and proved to be successful and the Sun hopes that this proposition may be carried out. The successful consummation of this undertaking, considering its close proxim- ity to the town, and its surpassing fertil- ity, could not fail to enhance the value of this tract many times its present value. For alfalfa alone, for which it would then be especially adapted, an expense of ten dollars per acre (an outside estimate on the cost per acre in constructing the levee), the outlay would prove as an invest- ment a veritable bonanza. Geo. H. Peck, an old resident of El Monte, Cal.. recently contributed to the Los Angeles limes an interesting article 102 THE IRRIGATION AGE. relative to the impounding of winter rains for the purpose of doing away with fresh- ets and increasing irrigation. "About twenty-five years ago," said he, "Col. Hamilton Hall, State Engineer, ex- pended nearly a quarter of a million dollars in surveying the water sheds and canyons of the San Gabriel and other rivers, with the view of multiplying irri- gation facilities and saving the lowlands from destruction by freshets. His plan was to impound the rains in the canyon. The project was never utilized, and the destruction of the lowlands and the atten- dant ruinons conditions to agricultural in- terests have continued and grown. In the meantime, the country has spent many thousands of dollars in remedial legisla- tion, surveying river channels, building and caring for bridges, and so forth, near- ly all of which has been a useless expense to taxpayers. The value of the land de- stroyed more than equaled the probable amount needed to impound the rains. Meanwhile, other States and Territories have adopted Col. Hall's plan, with com- plete success. Quite a number of eminent engineers have commended, and so far as known, none have condemned it. It would seem that government construction, distribution and management is the only course by which to secure individual prop- erty and the rights of the public." That the farmers of California are awak- ening to the truth of the above is shown by the fact that at the Farmers' Institute, held ar Monrovia, last May, a resolution was passed declaring that the farmers assembled, realizing that several thousand acres of valuable land bordering the San Gabriel and other rivers have been and will continue to be destroyed by freshets, "respectfully request the Legislature, and especially the senators and assemblymen of Los Angeles county, to consider the propriety of adopting such legislation as will secure to the farmers such a state or federal reservoir system as will immense- ly increase the irrigation supply, and at the same time save the lowlands from destruction." This is certainly a step in the right direction. The following is an extract from an ad- dress delivered at Covina. Cal., by Geo. H. Maxwell: "In this necessity for cheap water lies the great merit of the policy of Federal storage reservoirs. Their purpose is to reinforce the natural flow of the streams, by so regulating them that the water will come down when needed, and this without charge of toll of any kind. If the reser- voirs were to be built by private capital, the capital must be repaid, principal and interest, and though the burden goos first upon the California fruit-grower, it would have to be finally paid, if at all, in a higher pi ice paid for the product by the eastern consumer. And it is very doubtful wheth- er the industry would bear the burden. At any rate as conditions now exist, it would be practically impossible to put to- gether a proposition which would warrant the investment of the capital. The possi- bility of a market for the products at a rate high enough to reimburse the capitalist, would after all be the capitalist's only se- curity. It matters not what contract he might get from the land-owner. If the product could not be marketed with profit the land itself would afford no security." WITH OUR EXCHANGES. MCCLURE s. In the December number Capt. Mahan begins a series of articles on the naval operations in the recent war ; a new serial by Rudyard Kipling, entitled "Stalky & Co." is also begun. Stories from the ex- periences of a famous elephant hunter, from those of a telegraph operator and of a train- despatcher give the necessary spice of adventure to the number, while the holiday spirit is furnished by two Christmas stories. BEVIEW OF REVIEWS. Mr. W. T. Stead, who has spent the greater part of the autumn in a tour of the European capitals, making inquiry into political and international conditions and especially with regard to the Czar's peace proposition, gives some of the results of his investigations in the December num- ber, under the title "World Politics Through a Russian Atmosphere." Mr. Stead has a ready pen, and were he living in Germany would doabtless have to face the charge of "lese Majeste" for his words regarding the famous pilgrimage of Em- peror William to the Holy Land, which he characterizes as "one of the most bizarre and picturesque incidents of the season." Says Mr Stead "Belter men than he have made the pilgrimage before, although none ever signalized their Christian zeal by publicly fraternizing with the head of Mohammedanism, whose hands still drip with Christian gore." The reproductions of the paintings of J. J. Tissot in connec- tion with the article on the great painter, are very fine. They are from scriptural subjects, most of them being scenes from the life of Christ. "Current History in Caricature," contains as usual the best of the caricatures that have appeared during the month, while the other departments are possibly more interesting than com- mon, particularly the review of the late books, this being the season when so many new publications appear, and old friends, in covers befitting the holiday time, greet us again. THE COMPANION'S NEW CALENDAR. The calendars given by The Companion in former years to all subscribers have been remarkable for their delicacy of de- sign and richness of coloring. But the Calendar for 1899 far surpasses any of those. The publishers have endeavored to make it the finest calendar of the cen- tury, and readers of Jhe Companion will not be disappointed in it. Those who subscribe now will receive not only the gift of the Calendar, but also all the issues of November and December, from the time of the subscription free. The new volume will be the best The Com- panion has ever published. Among the contributions already engaged are "The Little Demons of war," by Hon. John D. Long; ': Opportunities for Young Ex- plorers," Sir Clements Markham; "The Boy with a Voice," David Bispham; "The Wonders of Somnambulism," Dr. Wm. A. Hammond. "Police Spies in Russia." Poultney Bigelow ; and "Where Living is Cheapest,'' Hon. Carroll D. Wright. Fine illustrated announcement and sample copies will be sent to any one addressing The Youth's Companion, 211 Columbus Ave., Boston, Mass. The annual report of the Smithsonian Institute, (Washington, D. C.) a neatly bound volume of over 725 pages, has been received. The account of an archseologic expedition, sent out by the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Instititute, to Winslow, Arizona, is especially interest- ing. The Pueblo ruins are in the vicinity of Winslow and the investigations were for the purpose of discovering something regarding the animals of the ancients. Many valuable pre-historic articles were found, fine plates being given in connec- tion with the article. The "Utilization of Niagara" and "Arc- tic explorations" are among the many subjects discussed. 104 THE IRRIGATION AGE AUSTRALIAN REVIEW OF REVIEWS. The October number, the latest re- ceived, contains as a frontispiece the por- trait of the Hon. Mrs. G. N. Curzon. Under the heading "Sharing the Empire with the States," attention is called to the fact that the vice-empress of India, second in rank in the British empire to Queen Victoria herself, is an American — a Chicago girl. That the "American wife" is becoming more and more in evi- dence in England, is showed by the num- ber of prominent Englishmen who married American girls. The journal says, "Mr. Balfour is not married — probably because he has never been to America." The Earl of Kilmore, K. P., contributes an article on "The Proposed Harbor and Graving Dock at Large Bay," the pro- posed new port for Australia. SCRIBNERS. At the advent of each season — spring, summer, autumn and winter — Scribner appears with an appropriate art cover. The December number has a beautiful cover, with background of silver, suitable to Christmas time. The colored illustra- tions appearing in connection with the poem "The Rape of the Rhine — Gold" are an added attraction to the number. A portrait of John Ruskin published for the first time, is given in connection with "John Ruskin as an artist." Richard Harding Davis contributes "In the Rifle Pits," while among the short stories are "Where's Nora?" by Sara Orne Jewett, and "Mrs. H. Harrison Wells's Shoes," by by Jesse Lynch Williams. THE FORUM. Agriculture and forestry being so close- ly allied with irrigation interests, the article in the December number on "For- est Fires" was the first one to command our attention. "A fire in the forests, especially at night is one of the grandest and most awe-inspiring spectaclgs in nat- ure," says the writer, Henry Gannett, "It is a magnificent spectacle, but one too ex- pensive to be indulged in even by Ameri- cans." This -being true it is well to con- sider every possibly means by which they may be prevented. Some idea of the extent and damage of forest fires is af- forded by the statement that in 1880, according to information collected by Prof. C. S. Sargent, in connection with the Tenth Census of the United States, at least ten and a quarter million acres of forest land was destroyed by fire during that year, the value being more than $25,- 000,000. The year was not one especially remarkable for fires either. Forest fires during the present year have been more frequent than for • some time previous, owing probably to the dryness of the past summer, the western states of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, etc., suffering most. Washington and Oregon have always been the scenes of great and destructive fires. Despite the great losses yearly resulting from this cause, it was not until recent years that any concerted at- tempt was made to check them, New York being the first state to take the matter up in earnest. In 1885 her legislature passed a law providing that setting fires, whether accidentally or intentionally, should be punishable by fines or imprisonment and an organization of fire wardens was made. This method proved so efficious that we hear little of fires in that state. The eastern states soon followed her example but the west was slower to accept the les- son. One of the methods suggested by Mr. Gannett for preventing the spread of forest fires is the clearing of broad roads through the dense forests at frequent in- tervals," not only for quick and easy com- munication, but to serve as fire-lanes, up to which fires may spread, but beyond which they may be prevented from passing." The California Mirror, a weekly journal published at Los Angeles, Cal., is noted for the caricatures appearing on the front page of each issue. That of Nov. 26 shows the "G. O. P." elephant sitting down to his Thanksgiving dinner of "pros- perity pudding," "political pie" and "Vic- tory brand "champaign, while the defeated democratic tiger, with one eye patched up, runs from the missies of "dead issues" that are being thrown. Its agricultural department contains an address on Stor- age Reservoirs, delivered by Geo. . H. Maxwell before the Pomological Society of Southern California at Covina, Nov. 17. , 'Forest Preservation" is also discussed. I a; u> p jr. THE IRRIGATION AGE. VOL. XIII. CHICAGO, JANUARY, 1899. NO. 4, THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN SMERICl A New Year's The ^tasi J'ear °f 1898 ma-V Greeting. certainly be called a "history- making year" so many stirring events have taken place, so many charges made, that to even mention, let alone discuss, them. would demand more time and space than we oan spare. With the history of the late war— begun in the interest of humanity but ending in the acquisition of new terri- tory that was as unexpected as it is. to many, unwelcome. — we are all familiar. and to review the glorious events which changed civilians to soldiers, soldiers to heroes, cemented north and south in bonds of friendship, and rescued oppressed Cuba from the tyranny of Spain, would be but a repetition of what has already been re- peated. So with a welcoming shout for the soldiers returning and a tear for those who will return no more, we leave this part of history. After the usual Spanish delay, the terms of peace have been signed and the war is over. As a result of the conflict, in which Uncle Sam has demon- strated that he " intends to have peace if he has to fight for it," the United States has won for herself wholesome respect from foreign powers, and begins the New Year with a large standing army, better defenses, a stronger navy and a friendlier relation with England, than ever before. and a colonial territory heretofore un- dreamed of. Good crops and increased trade has made the past year one of pros- perity. The interest manifested in the irrigation movement is a cause of especial rejoicing to all of us who are working for the cause: and we see encouraging signs for still more progress in the year of 1899. So with rejoicing for our achievements, regrets for our failures: with the determ- ination to turn over the traditional "new leaf" and. if necessary, nail it down to keep it turned: the AGE welcomes 1899 and wishes for its readers a happy and prosperous New Year. Possibilities Wyoming is a state of big of Northern possibilities. Long regarded Wyoming. as only a range country, its broad plains and valleys were .covered by roaming flocks and herds while other regions no more favorably situated were being dotted over with homesteads. But a change has come, and when the next great westward movement of homeseekers occurs Wyoming will attract thousands where before she attracted scores. One of the last of the arid states to recognize the benefits of irrigation, Wyoming is now one of its most active and certainly its most intelligent advocate. In no other state have so many public men of genuine ability and almost prophetic foresight given their best efforts to the study of the problems of irrigation in its relations to the development of a region capable of al- most unlimited advancement when its water supply is utilized to the utmost. Ex-Senator J. M. Carey devoted his great abilities to the study of irrigation and to framing and securing the passage of the Carey Act, which, whatever its defects, has had great influence in developing por- tions of the arid region and in directing public attention to the needs and possibil- ities of the states where irrigation is nee- 106 THE IRRIGATION AGE. essary to agricultural development. Though out of the Senate, Judge Carey is still a power; and as President of the Na- tional Irrigation Congress he will have large opportunity to use his power for the advancement of the irrigation interests of the Great West. Senator Warren, also of Wyoming, is likewise a student and an ad- vocate of irrigation: and his work in the Senate is likely to have even greater prac- tical results than that of his predecessor for the reason that he has the advantage of accumulated knowledge and experience. Wyoming's system of water rights and water administration is the best in the west— due mainly to the engineering skill and administrative ability of her territor- ial and state engineer, Elwood Mead, and to the long lease of official life she has given him. For the reasons here stated or suggested, it seems that a discussion of the resources of Wyoming is bound to be of more than local interest, especially when it is carried on by men of such standing as to make their statements authoritative in the best sense. The writers of this series of articles, who were members of the party which examined the valleys of Wyoming in 1897, are men of large practical experi- ence and unusual technical ability. Pro- fessor Mead and Colonel Nettleton are too widely known among those familiar with the irrigation history of the West to need introduction to our readers. Captain Chittendon was the former engineer officer of Yellowstone Park, and is one of the most distinguished engineer officers of the U. S. Army. Clarence T. Johnston, as assistant state engineer of Wyoming, has been principally employed in making stream measurements for that office and for the U. S. Geological Survey. We con- fess to feeling a good deal of pride in being able to present so valuable a series of arti- cles to our readers.— THE EDITOR. Reports to In his report to the Secretary tarySofT\eri- of Agriculture for the year culture. ending June 30, 1898, Mr. John Hyde, the statistician, recommends that there be appointed five traveling in- spectors, whose duty it shall be to visit periodically the state and county agents to visit the principal agricultural regions after seed time and during critical periods of the growing season, and report to the statistician the results of their observa- tions In this way more accurate and re- liable reports may be obtained than by the present system of reports from state agents, supplemented by voluntary re- ports. Mr. Hyde further calls attention to the necessity of making adequate pro- vision for establishing a system of crop in- vestigation and reporting for the islands recently acquired by the United States. Methods of investigating soil conditions have been considerably improved during the past year by the department having charge of the work, and among the inter- esting investigations carried on was that regarding the alkali soils of the Yellow- stone Valley. It was found that in the original prairie soil above the ditch there is not sufficient alkali to be injurious to vegetation. The amount of alkali was greater in the lower depths of the subsoil. As a rule, water is used in excess on all of these lands under irrigation, and in all cases the first injury was from the accumu- lation of water from excessive application. The Bureau of Animal Industry has made experiments upon hog cholera and swine plague with such gratifying results that the experiments will be continued. Dipping cattle to destroy the ticks, which spread the infection of Texas fever, has met with such success that preparations are made to adopt it generally, as a solu- tion has been discovered into which the cattle may be dipped without injurious effects. Cattle may then be shipped north of the quarantine line. The dipping of sheep to prevent sheep scab was also ad- vised. It was recommended that during the coming year the government inspec- tion and certification of meat and meat products for export from this country be extended to include butter, cheese and condensed milk. Dr. A. C. True, Director of the Office of Experiment Stations, in his yearly report, gives encouraging news from his depart- ment. The agricultural experiment sta- tions are, as a rule, doing more thorough and effective work than ever before and while the number and importance of insti- tutions organized for scientific researches on behalf of agriculture are constantly in- creasing in all parts of the world, nowhere has so comprehensive and efficient a sys- TRE 1RRIGA TIOX AGE. 107 tern of experiment stations been estab- lished as in the United States. The inves- tigations of the agricultural resources of Alaska were continued during the year. Prof. C. C. Georgeson. a native of Den- mark, who has had a long experience as professor of agriculture and as an experi- ment station officer in Japan and Kansas, was made special agent in charge of these investigations. His headquarters are at Sitka. and experimental plantings of seed of over 100 varieties of vegetables, grasses, and forage plants have been made in the vicinity. Investigations upon the "Nutri- tious value of various articles and commo- dities used for human food" have been pursued and the result of the studies have been re-published not only in this country but abroad. The most radical and impor- tant step taken by the department has been the collection of data on the subject of irrigation, which will be published in bulletin form during the present fiscal year. The report of the United States Geolog- ical Survey is now in preparation and will be more comprehensive, as far as the sub- ject of irrigation is concerned, than pre- vious ones. The topics presented will be: — Quantity of steam flow, this to- include measurements of various streams with a view to utilization either for munfcipal or irrigation purposes, the q lality of water: lakes and ponds, their orighu size, loca- tion, etc.: irrigation canals and ditches, under which will be noted the recent progress in the development of irrigation, especially of large structures, and while a complete list of irrigation enterprises cannot be given, mention will be made of the more important ones, whose construc- tion bears upon the utilization of the va- cant public lands: pollution of streams: water power: storing water, which will include a description of reservoirs sur- veyed and projects recently constructed or under consideration, the methods of con- structing dams, and other information bearing upon this very important subject of the storage ol floods and waste water for the development of the water re- sources: pumping water is another thing considered, and is taken up more espec- ially with reference to the utilization of the water supply for irrigation purposes as well as for draining swamp lands. Among the subjects that were The Fifty- .. -. fifth Con- under discussion before the gress. recesss of Congress was the Nicaragua canal bill, which has so long; been a question before the public and which has been the source of much con- troversy. What government is to be adopted in the Philippines, whether they are to have home government or a colonial one. was argued pro and con. A bill to increase the standing army was intro- duced, as was also the Pension Appropria- tion bill. The proposed amendment to this latter bill met with determined oppo- sition. This amendment provided that ex-Confederate soldiers or ther widows and children should be pensioned. The breach between north and south is now so nearly healed that only a few prejudiced northerners would object to old Confeder- ate soldiers becoming inmates of the sol- diers' home: but granting them a pension for fighting against this government — ahr that is a different matter, and savors of sentimentality. Ethan Hitchcock, of Missouri, has bien appointed by President McKinley to suc- ceed Senator Bliss as Secretary of the In- terior. Will it There has sprung up consider- Iniure the Farmers? able agitation concerning an- nexation, imperialism, militarism, etc., among the agricultural publications of the country, and our opinion regarding them has been asked. We have not given the matter the study and careful consideration the subject should receive before an opin- ion upon it is formed, and it is therefore with hesitancy we speak, and if we are mistaken in our views, we are always open to conviction. Laying aside all prejudice and party feeling and speaking with frankness and sincerity, we cannot see how the acquisition of new territory by this country can result disastrously to the American farmer, nor how it is. as many claim, a departure from the previous policy of the nation. The United States extended her territory when she pur- chased Louisiana from France, Florida from Spain, a portion of Texas from Mexi- co, and Alaska from Russia, and her pres- ent acquirement of new territory differs only in the manner of its acquirement — the latter being, in a measure, thrust up- 108 THE IRRIGATION AGE. A Brief Call. on us. In freeing- Cuba many new prob- lems confront us, problems that were un- forseen before the war began. As to our letting go of the Philippines, we are in much the same position as is the man who grasps the handles of an electric battery and has too strong a current applied . It may not be what he likes but he cannot -let go until some one turns off the current. No European power has, as yet, turned off the current and we must, perforce, hold •on. The productions of the Philippines, Hawaii and Cuba are so widely divergent in character from those of this country that, with the exception of sugar, they will not compete with those of the United States, while whatever loss the beet sugar industry may suffer will be more than re- paid by the opportunity given farmers to dispcsa of their wheat, grain and other products to these new markets. On January 3rd we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. L. C. Carpenter, C. and I. E., who called at the AGE office. Mr. Collins is connected with the State Agricultural College of Fort Collins, Col. We regret the briefness of Mr. Carpenter's stay, but hope to have an opportunity, in the future, to become better acquainted. ThiMas The public seems to be con- Talked siderably agitated over the About. Utah congressman, Roberts, and his three wives, and there is much op- position manifested to his taking his seat. It is rather a hard question to decide, but as he has had three wives for several years; had them when elected, we lean somewhat to the opinion as expressed by an exchange that so long as Mr. Roberts was elected fairly by the people of his state, the fact of his having three wives is no more to his discredit than the proven charges of bribery are against many of the members. If a man is the chosen representative of the people and his actions are not so crim- inal as to land him in jail, it is hard to see by what law he can be prevented from taking his seat. If only those whose pri- vate lives would bear close inspection were sent to Congress, there would be many a seat vacant, and while this is a sad truth, it is truth, nevertheless, and if Mr. Roberts married these women it seems more to his credit to support and acknowl- edge them, than it would to curry favor by deserting one or two of them. At least the matter will give a subject for the news- paper wits to exercise themselves on. A man at Kansas City, Mo., has jnst been re- leased from the workhouse there on condi- tion that he get out of the state, who is ahead of Roberts, having eight wives. No wonder he was in the work house ! After the United States whipped Spain, there seemed to be strong indications that Cuba herself would require a little "dress- ing down." Havana was in a state of dangerous excitement, bordering on riot, the dissatisfaction being caused, it was claimed, by the refusal of Gen'l Brooke to permit Cuban troops from joining in the exercises held Sunday. Jan. 1, in honor of the evacuation of Havana. The affair passed off without any disturbance, how- ever, and Cuba is now free, and the stars and stripes float over Havana. Rumor nas it that Canada fears the ter- ritorial expansion fever has such a hold on Uncle Sam that he will annex her next. Toronto papers have much to say concern- ing this. The hired girls have at last decided to form a union, and its rules will go into ef- fect as soon as the two women organizers arrive from Copenhagen. Among these rules are, that work is to begin at 6:30 a. m. and end at 9:30 p. m. ; one night a week and every other Sunday off: light, warm and well ventilated rooms, with only one hired girl to a bed. Chicago is making a desperate and praiseworthy "kick" against the infamous Allen law and it is to be hoped the great weight of public opinion, added to the Mayor's veto, will foil Mr. Yerkes* scheme to get a great deal of something for nothing. THE IRRIGATION PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES OF NORTHERN WYOMING. SOME OF THE AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES OF NORTHERN WYOMING- IMPRESSIONS OF A CAMPING TRIP. BY PROF. ELWOOD MEAD. Early in 1897, I decided that before snow fell again I would visit Wind river and Jackson hole, the two irrigable districts of the state I had not seen. To do this was no holiday affair. Both are far from railroads- one might truthfully say from good roads of any kind. To make even a hasty examination of their agricultural prospects re- quired so large an outlay of both money and time that I had not be- fore been able to attempt it, thongh it had long been in mind. When, therefore, a proposal to unite our forces came from Captain H. M. Chittenden of the Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., the offer was gladly accepted. Captain Chittenden wished to examine some reservoir sites in the Big Horn mountains' and we arranged our trip to begin with his work and end with mine. To do this we had to start at Buffalo, Wyo- ming, climb the Big Horn range to the headwaters of Piney Creek at the base of Cloud Peak and from there to return to Sheridan to outfit for the longer journey. As the latter involved a ride on horseback and in wagons of over 600 miles, in which three lofty and rugged mountain ranges had to be climbed, and two of the largest rivers in the state forded, we had to have a good outfit. The need of this was not lessened by the fact that much of the distance would be through a region devoid of either settlers or houses, making the carrying and cooking of our meals, and providing our own shelter not a matter of choice, but of necessity. Before we set out so much interest was manifested in the sections we were to visit that our party of two had grown to seven. Clarence T. Johnston, Assistant State Engineer, was added to gage the streams crossed for the U. S. Geological Survey. Hon. Henry G. Hay, State Treasurer and the first government land surveyor in Wyoming Terri- tory, joined us and he was followed by Hon. E. S. Nettleton, ex- State Engineer of Colorado, C. H. Harrison, a hydraulic engineer of St. Paul, and Rev. E. E. Smiley of Cheyenne. While six of the seven 110 THE IRRIGATION AGE. were educated civil engineers their present callings ranged from theology to politics and war so that we felt equipped for any emer- gency which might arise. Our examination of Piney Creek was greatly aided by the courtesy of the Rock Creek and Piney Reservoir and Ditch Company and their engineer, Mr. Bond. This company is an association of farmers on Rock Creek who have not water enough to irrigate the land they have under ditches and who have banded themselves together in an effort to in some way increase the supply. Being familiar with the region in which the reservoir sites were located they kindly offered to guide us and furnished the tents, pack horses, saddle animals and provisions for the trip. As this involved a climb from one mile above sea level at Buffalo to over two and one-half miles above that level at the highest point we reached the assistance which they rendered was highly appreciated and contributed much to the comfort and success of our examination. Piney Creek is one of the most important streams rising in the Big Horn range and, owing to peculiar physical conditions, the use of its waters in irrigation have created about as many water right prob- lems as there are ditches. Rising in the immense snow banks, which lie at the base of the precipitous cliffs on the north and east side of of Cloud Peak, its headwaters drain the summit of the main range for a long distance and this gives to its discharge a perennial character not shared by the smaller streams on either side of it and which its drainage cuts off from the late water supply. It not only rises above these smaller streams but it stays above them after it leaves the mountains from which it emerges on a ridge instead of in a valley. This ridge is a conspicuous feature of the topography of that region. Its summit is the boundary between Johnson and Sheridan counties and the divide which separates the drainage of Tongue and Powder rivers. Piney Creek is the largest tributary of the latter stream, yet one mile from the point where it enters the valley it is less than fifty feet below the top of this divide. Hence, water can be taken from its channel and turned into other streams in both drainage basins and has been taken and is used to reinforce the supply of eight of these valleys. These smaller streams have not a perennial flow. They have a flood in the spring and run dry, or almost dry, before the irri- gation season is over. In order to mature their crops the owners of ditches out of them have to obtain a supplemental supply from some other source and they have secured this by building ditches to divert the waters of Piney Creek into them. This stream has therefore to supply irrigators in its own valley for the entire season and water for all the late irrigation on these other streams. The late supply is not sufficient to do this, so that instead of a shortage on part of the streams there is now a shortage in the last part of the season on all 112 '/' HE JR R IG A 7 10 X A G E. of them and the acreage of crops which can b3 brought to maturity is not measured by the flood discharge on any stream but by the July flow of Piney Creek alone. Taking the combined flow of all these streams it is probable that four or five times as much water runs to waste in June as is beneficially used. The June discharge on Piney Creek alone is about three times that of the July flow, while the de- mand in June is not one-third that of the latter month. The benefits to be derived from the storage of the early flood waters are therefore so apparent that the construction of reservoirs is an essential requisite to the further extension of the cultivated area in this section and this fact is now generally recognized. Our trip was to determine to what extent the topography of this country would permit the desire for storage being realized. Prelim- inary surveys filed in the State Engineer's office had led to the belief that the conditions were very favorable and the more careful surveys instituted by Captain Chittenden fully confirmed this impression. The largest of these basins is Lake De Smet, which lies just out- side the mountains. It is over three miles long and one mile wide. It is at present partly filled with water but has no outlet. Its utiliza- tion, therefore, will require the construction of a canal to fill it and of an outlet tunnel to empty it after it is filled. The making of these two improvements will permit of the impounding of 67,000 acre feet, or about three times as much water as is now used in the growing of cultivated crops in the entire district. The other lakes lie far back in the mountains at elevations rang- ing from 9,000 to 11,000 feet above sea level. The highest lie almost at timber line. The others in the canon of this stream are basins of solid granite and bordered by dense and extensive forests of pine and spruce. The ones surveyed are the largest and lowest of the series, but in addition to those there are at least a score of others of smaller size which could be improved if the larger ones do not afford capacity to store all the waste water. These lakes lie in the channel of the main stream and are connected by a series of water-falls and cascades which form a landscape of such beauty as to be worthy of a visit even if the lakes would serve no other purpose. The four surveyed can, however, be made to store about 30,000 acre feet of water, mak- ing a total combined storage in the five reservoirs of over 90,000 acre feet. The influence of this improvement on the productiveness and value of the lands in the valley below can scarcely be realized. While ditches have been built to water about 40,000 acres of land the aatural flow of these streams only permits of the cultivation of about 10,000 acres. The storage of this water would reclaim from aridity and add to the productive lands of this section more than four times that now in use. The following table gives the capacity and estimated cost of these works: THti JRR1GAT10N AGE. 113 SUMMARY, CAPACITIES AND COST. Name of Reservoir Capacity in Acre f.*-t Estimated cost Cost per Acre ft. Elk Lake. Kearney Lake. Cloud Peak Lake, Piney Reservoir, Lake De Sm-t, 2.500 3.800 (i.HX) 11.040 (57.000 , H.OtiO 7.500 31.040.75 70,228.25 113,360.00 3.20 2.00 4.ovater. Then again there is no draft on the fertility of the soil for the water that goes into your ber- ries. For instance, a crate of fine, large, juicy strawberries does not take as much "strength," as we gardeners say, out of the soil, as a crate of strawberries that are all skin and bones. It is mainly the skin and seeds of berries that cost. That is where the nitrogen, the phosphoric acid and potash are stored. And then consider the effect of the two on the market; seedy berries soon satisfy demand; big juicy berries create demand. Little nurly, prongy, ornery potatoes stop people from eating potatoes. Nothing hurts the peach market like cull peaches. When it comes to potatoes, it would seem at first thought that the rule as to water would fall down; but it don't. The driest potato comes from the irrigated districts; and yet one of those Utah Rurals for all it cooks so mealy will have in it as much more water than one of our Kansas potatoes as it is bigger than our speci- men. Potatoes have the faculty of discrimination; they will take up the right proportions of everything to make 'em taste good but salt, that has to be added. Irrigation does much more than supply the needed moisture to plants. It fertilizes them as well. Take it one year with another it beats commercial fertilizers. It doesn't take the place of barn-yard manure because it does nothing to supply fiber and humus to the soil. The essential elements of" fertility, potash, phosphoric acid and nitro- gen are now locked up in the soil in such abundance that the only con- cern the cultivator need to feel is how to unlock them. These ele- ments are unlocked by moisture, heat and cultivation. Our summer season furnishes plenty of heat, we can supply the cultivation; if the one thing now lacking, moisture, be sufficiently furnished, the fertiliz- er man will place no mortages on our fields for generations to come. A farmer's dearest enemy is the agent, the tree agent, the book agent, the lightening rod agent, the insurance agent, the creamery construc- tion agent, and the agent for chemical manures. I have observed that the farmer seems to cope with the agent fairly well till the latter be- gins to figure. As soon as he draws his note book and pencil the farm- THE IRRIGA Tl OX A GE. 1 61 • er begins to waver on both wings and in the center. The only de- fence is for the farmer to out-figure the agent. Let us figure; the es- sentials of fertility which I have named can be supplied from within the soil or from without: from within by heat, cultivation and moisture; from without by fertilizers. An acre of ground, where the fertilizer route is adopted should receive each season from a half ton to a ton and a half of fertilizer. It will cost £30.00 to $40.00 per ton. Suppose we use only one half ton of the cheaper grade £15.00 at the factory; in seven years the cost of the fertilizer will be £105.00 per acre — more than the value of land in most parts of Kansas. Better results with half the money in any of our river valleys can be produced with water: and leave on hand a water plant, fully paid for, not half worn out. The commercial gardeners in Kansas are mostly on bottom land within easy reach of water, lying directly below them from ten to thirty feet away. All that is required for their irrigation is a perfor- ated point, a practical pump, some pieces of pipe and plenty of power. Points are cheap: pipe is cheap; pumps are cheap: power is cheap. We have envied our sister states with their mountain system irrigation without reason. We can deliver water on our bottom gar- dens cheaper than many Californians or Coloradians get their water delivered at their flood gates. And in ten thousand locations in Kan- sas, outside of river bottoms, running water is at hand or artificial ponds are feasible. The most extensive use of the point and pump for irrigation pur- poses, that I know of, is to be found in Muscalin Island, Iowa. Its advent, there, dates back about ten years, and its development has been continuous. There are now about thirty irrigation plants on the" island. I am told that none have ever been abandoned. These people are north and east of us; they have less sun and wind to con- tend with than we do: they also have more rain-fall. They don't need irrigation as bad as we do. If their necessities are less than ours, their facilities are somewhat greater: they are only twenty feet from water, whereas on river-bottoms we are about thirty. They ap- ply the water they pump in precisely the same manner that a Colo- radian applies the water to his ditch. One of the most extensive irrigators on the island is Mr. T. B. Holcomb, he has been irrigating for five years, he intends to put in a second outfit next spring: his present equipment is simple and inex- pensive. It consists of four four-inch points driven equi-distant from each other and each five feet from a common center. Here they are all connected up and a rotary pump attached to the connection. The pump is run by a twenty horse-power portable engine. The cost out- side of the engine was about £500.00. The discharge is sufficient theoretically to give ten acres one inch of water in ten hours. This 162 THE IRR1 GA Tl ON A GE. • plant, all portable but the points, is located on the highest ground in a forty acre corner of Mr. Holcomb's garden. The pump and engine could easily serve a second battery of points in another similar field, giving forty acres a wetting while the first is drying out and being cultivated. The water is carried from the pump in two ditches over this forty, running substantially parallel with each other, across the field. When I was there the crops were cabbage, the harvest of which had just been concluded, and tomatoes which had followed early peas. The rows of cabbage and tomatoes ran clear across the "forty" and intersected both ditches. The ditch banks were thrown up with lister and plow entirely. They required reconstruction pre- vious to every application of water. The force required to operate the system was an engineer and a man and boy to handle the water. The mode of application, was to begin at the lower end of one of the ditches; there the ditch bank was opened for four rows on each side of the ditch and the water allowed to run sufficiently, when a sheet- iron dam was forced into the soft dirt of the ditch banks and four more openings, opposite the next four rows, were made in the ditch bank, and so on. In practice, six acres per day was all that such an outfit got over; at the following cost: Coal $1.50 Engineer 1.50 Man 1.00 Boy 50 Total .$4.50, or 75 cts. per acre. The cabbage was irrigated three times; the peas twice, and the to- matoes twice. The yield of early cabbage was, last season, fourteen tons per acre. In the neighborhood of large towns, hydrant water has been used for hot beds and intensive gardening. The new celery culture contemplates a perforated pipe for every row. I have seen it in far away Florida. Thirteen cars of celery were received by one Kansas City commission house in one week this fall and every stalk of that celery crossed Kansas the long way. It seems to me that celery ought to be headed off by us. Mr. J. H. Hale, the famous nurseryman, irrigates his nurseries and small fruit plantations in far away Connecticut on the Atlantic coast with all its fogs and drizzling rains and he says it pays. If it pays a gardener to irrigate there, where the moist breath of the ocean is in the air, what would it not do in a country like Kansas, where a summer sun and thirsty winds conspire together to dissipate the soil moisture. Not only is ditch water in effect a manufactory of fertilizer, as jt flows along, and a substitute for, if not an improvement upon, the early and the later rains, but it is also more nearly a specific for the diseases that threaten the welfare of garden and orchard growths THE IRRIGATION AGE. 163 than all the nostrums that were ever unloaded upon the unwary horti- culturist. Nature abhors a weakling in the plant world. Once let the development of a plant suffer from lack of cultivation or nourish ment or moisture or from wounds or other causes and you will find Nature loosing upon it all the troop of plant-woes locked up in that Pandora-box of hers. If there is a feeble tree in the orchard that is the one sure to be infested by borers, both round and flat-headed, the coddling-moths, the gougers and curculio, the bacteria, and fungi and microbes and wooly-aphis and straight-haired aphis and myriads of spores and various other things. For fortifying against this swarm the application of water is cheaper and better than "powder-guns"' or pomological vermifuge — cheaper because in thousands of Kansas gardens, it will cost less to apply, and then being applied is also the most efficacious. It is efficacious because water is life; and whenever the life of the tree or plant is kept unchecked and bounding from start to finish, there is no foothold for enemies of the plant. It is not an unusual feature of fertilizer advertising to urge the prospective user of the same to give his crop, where the fertilizer is applied, double the usual cultivation. Nothing is said about double the usual cultivation where the fertilizer is not applied. But when you irrigate, you've got to give more than ordinary cultivation to keep the soil from baking; that extra tillage must be given also at a time when the ground is in that condition of moisture when cultivation seems to do so much good. Many of us need a spur to get a proper movement on our cultivators and tools. Nothing insures action in this regard with the horticulturist more certainly than garden irrigation. Finally, brethern, I suggest that most of us keep our buildings insured against fire which seldom comes more than once or twice in a life-time, to most men never; others of us are insured against acci- dents, which hardly ever come to our assistance after we've arranged for a hundred dollars a week while the hurt lasts; still others have our lives insured, a doubtful sort of investment, wherein we have but one solitary chance, and it postponed to the very end of our careers, to win back our purchase money. But when it comes to insuring our garden crops against disaster by the application of water, there is no part of America, not the most favorable, where you couldn't get some returns from our irrigation insurance, and in half the summers there are dry spells that cause many of us more loss in three or four rainless weeks than we have lost by fire in twenty years. J. Max Clark told me once that though he was sent by the Greeley Colony to Europe to study Italian and the system of irrigation, yet the conditions in Colorado were so different from any he found abroad that they had to develop plans of their own. It will be so with us. And if I have not been able to give you such definite information on this subject as I desired, I am confronted by the reflection that what- 164 THE 1RR1GA TJOiV A GE. ever we do in this way in Kansas, must be done tentatively and pro- ceed slowly as we learn how. That cremona-loving residenter of Ar- kansas freely acknowledged to the fiddling traveler that he realized the porous condition of his roof, but he plead in extenuation of his neg- lect that in dry weather the necessity for repairs was gone, while in wet weather the ability to repair was lacking. Has it not been some- what so with us? When we have had rain in plenty, water to burn, as we might say, we have felt independent of artificial moisture; and then afterwards when the plants ' 'drooped and died in the stillness of noon" it was plainly too late to save that crop; and so we have al- lowed one precarious season after another "to slip into the silent hollows of the past" without any other effort than that which is found in draining, to avail ourselves of the way out, to which in many cases we have only thirty feet to go. ABOUT MILK RIVER VALLEY. SUCCESSFUL CO-OPERATIVE IRRIGATION CANALS IN THE MILK RIVER VALLEY, MONT BY W. M. WOOLDRIDGE, CHINOOK, MONT. The first co-operative irrigation canal in this part of Montana was organized in 1897 by Mr. T. C. Burns, a former resident of the Gallatin Valley, Montana. For two years previous to that tune Mr. Burns had been engaged in the construction of a canal to irrigate his own land, but at the earnest solicitation of his neighbors, concluded to make a co-operative stock company of it. A set of by-laws were drawn up, adopted articles of incorporation filed with the secretary of state, with Messrs. T. C. Burns, Thos. O'Hanlon, A. H. Reser, L. V. Bogy and W. M. Wooldridge as the incorporators. The amount of water filed upon was ten thousand inches; the company was organized at ten thousand shares at a par value of two dollars per share. These shares were sold to the new stockholders in the denomination of one hundred each, which is usually spoken of as one share. This was deemed sufficient to irrigate 150 acres. These denominations were sold to the new stockholders for the par value of the stock. In this manner ' Mr. Burns was reinbursed for the work he had already done and all the members of the new organiza- tion were bound by our by-laws to assist in the completion of the new canal and to pay whatever cash assessment was necessary to complete the work. The work being the principal item of cost, the cash assessments proved comparatively light, averaging about one- fourth of the entire cost. As soon as the organization was perfected, a competent civil en- gineer was employed to survey the proposed canal and to draw plans and specifications of the headgates, dams, flumes etc. A superin- tendent was also employed during the construction who had immediate charge of the work. During the second season some of the stock- holders living near the head of the canal received water, and during the third, all. The management is vested in a board of five trustees, elected an- nually from among the stockholders, one of whom acts as president of the board or company: the trustees appoint a secretary and treas- urer. All officers except the secretary serve without pay, the secre- tary receiving a nominal salary, usually about one hundred dollars per year. Under this system we have found it easily possible to reclaim THE IRRIGATION AGE. 167 land at three dollars per acre, with a maintenance fee of only*T£25 per year for each 160 acres. The Belknap canal — the first one organ- ized— now has twenty-three miles of main canal, covers 16,000 acres of choice land and has been in full and successful operation for four years. Since its completion nine other companies have been organ- ized on the same plan and the amount now invested in co-operative irrigation canals in this immediate vicinity is about $200,000. With such a start your readers will readily see why this community is des-' tined to become prosperous. One successful enterprise begets an- other. We have already learned the truth of the old adage, "in union there is strength" and are turning our attention to other matters. This undertaking being the first of its kind it was considerably in the nature of an experiment, many mistakes were made, and the operations of the company were seriously hampered by poor and im- perfect by-laws, but this was finally overcome and the company placed upon a firm financial basis. Subsequent organizations have profited by this experience. The stock of one of these co-operative irrigation canal companies is the best collateral that a person can offer a busi- ness man or bank in our community, it being accepted in reference to any other security. In perusing the pages of the AGE have often wondered why such companies were not more general throughout the West. I have noticed in various sections, opportunities offered to investors in the matter of the construction of irrigation enterprises, where the settlers were already upon the ground, and the thought has occurred why these people themselves did not go ahead and complete the work. I have recently been making an extended investigation in the eastern part of this state. In many places I found splendid openings to put our- theory in successful practice, and upon speaking to those concerned, found that it was little understood, but a little missionary work started them along. In many cases I found the number of settlers too limited to accomplish anything, and called the attention of the immigration agent of the railroad to the fact, so that it was assisted by more people being brought in. In nearly all such localities I have found the "leader" lacking. It requires some one person on the ground who has the faith of his convictions, who will take a per- sonal interest in the company, who is a hustler and an enthusiast on the subject. On my trip, I found no less than seven communities that after a little effort seemed desirous to go ahead and accomplish some- thing. I am confident that if I had the time and was to take a per- sonal interest in these localities by placing two or more teams on the work to prove my confidence, that they could be successfully com- pleted. I have always been an advocate of the theory that those who own 168 TIIK IRRIGATION AGE. the land should also own the water to irrigate the same and if this article will serve in any manner to further carry out that idea I will be amply repaid. THE CALF PATH. One day through the primeval wood A calf walked home, as good calves should, But made a trail all bent askew, A. crooked trail, as all calves do. Since then two hundred years have ffed, And, I infer, the calf is dead, But still he left behind his trail, And thereby hangs a mortal tale. The trail was taken up next day By a lone dog that passed that way, And then a wise bellwether sheep Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep And drew the flock behind him, too, As good bellwethers always do, And from that day, o'er hill and glade, Through those old woods a path was made, And many men wound in and out And dodged and turned and bent about And uttered words of righteous wrath Because 'twas such a crooked path. But still they followed— do not laugh — The first migration of that calf And through the winding wood way stalked Because he wabbled when he walked. This forest path became a lane That bent and turned and turned again. This crooked lane became a road Where many a poor horae, with his load. Toiled on beneath the b irning sun And traveled some three miles in one. And thus a century and a half They trod the footsteps of that calf. The years passed on in swiftness fleet The road became a village street, And this, before men were aware, A city's crowded thoroughfare, And soon the central street was this Of a renowned metropolis, And men two centuries and a half Trod in the footsteps of that calf. Each day a hundred thousand rout Followed the zigzag calf about, And o'er his crooked journev went The traffic of a continent. A hundred thousand men were led By one calf near three centuries dead. — Fact and Fiction. THE FARMERS' HOMESEEKERS' LEAGUE. "FREE HOMES FOR WILLING WORKERS." 5 sections of land cannot well be settled on by people individually. j| as it requires the united effort of a number of men to create the j| improvements necessary to open up the land for profitable culti- * The object of this article is to extend a cordial invitation to homeseekers to join the "Farmers' Homeseekers' League" and by so doing gain all the advantages of mutual aid and concerted action. By the term "homeseekers" we mean those on the look- out for suitable locations for home-making along with land and conditions that will yield full returns for labor. On the axiom that "union is strength" it is our aim to have our membership sufficiently large and powerful to insure the suc- cess of our movement to the fullest extent The program of the League is to select for settlement one of the many hundreds ofs sites throughout the western states that are known to pcsses very fertile soil and natural facilities for raising bountiful crops thereon. Owing to reasons that we shall explain elsewhere these ^ £ * * vation. Many of the tracts of land to which we allude have been acquired by land companies for the purposes of speculation and are being held at rates that put them practically out of the reach of the average homeseeker. Our intention is to avoid the neces- sity of having to go to these concerns by procuring the land di- rect from the government, which stands willing to make free grants to colonies and associations of men who undertake the work of reclamation. In this way our members will secure land for little more than the labor spent on the improvement, that had they bought from land companies might cost from $25.00 to $100.00 an acre. Information of several suitable loca- tions is already at hand and other is expected, so that by the time the League has completed organization we shall have a good se- lection to choose from. If you feel any interest in the movement and think it ought to be pushed along, join the League and help us to uphold the principles ''Free hu7nes for ic ill ing workers" so long as Uncle Sam * THE IRRIGATION AGE has vacant lands that he wants to get settlers onto. Do not let the rest of our unoccupied domain get into the hands of land <| grabbers but give them to those that need homes and are ' 'choke- full-of-a-hard-day's-work" kind of people, that will make such land of real value to the nation. Get your friends and acquaint- ances also to take a hand in the good work, calling their atten- tion to the fact that the issue we are fighting for is — Shall the valuable lands that still remain at the disposal of the govern- ment go to those who want them for speculation, or to those that will work and dig their living from them:' The League for several good reasons has decided to use the IRRIGATION AGE as the medium of communication between its member. The AGE is issued monthly and is devoted to the cause of colonization and the settlement of vacant lands. It is more- over the zealous advocate of and recognized authority on irriga- tion, the wonderful art that is destined at no distant day to in- <» crease many times the resources of this country. 5 Each issue of the IRRIGATION AGE will contain a faithful re port of all the transactions of the League during the previous month along with all matters of interest to its members. There will be articles especially bearing on our project and the popular ownership of agricultural land as against landlordism. Every effort will be made to gather information respecting choice tracts of land for successful homeseeking and the result will be duly re- corded in the AGE. All questions and answers from individual members will be duly attended to, thereby saving to the League for the present at least, the expense of a paid secretary. The IRRIGATION AGE has, in short, taken up a line of work of the greatest moment to the country and all such as come under the term homeseekers will find it simply invaluable. The IRRIGATION AGE will be sent to our members for one year at the reduced price of 90 cents, postage prepaid. Send this amount in stamps or money order to the Editor IRRIGATION AGE, 916 West Harrison St., Chicago. Further information may be obtained by addressing I. HAMMOND, member F. H. League, 225 Dearborn St., Chicago. i g THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. In diversified farming by irrigation lies tne salvation of agriculture. THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pic- tures of fields, orchards and farm homes: prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs, Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns hen houses, corn cribs, etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help us improve the appearance of THE AGE? GAS FROM MANURE The Literary Digest \ Jan. 21) contains a translation from a French paper upon the scientific use of farm refuse. It is claimed by a French scientist that manure could be put to a better use than that of a fertilizer, as the only elements which make it valuable for that purpose are found in such small quantities that in a ton of manure there is not more than a handful of the real fertilizing ingredients, such as potash, phosphoric acid and lime. The suggestion is made, therefoce. that these fertilizing agents be used directly and the manure put to a more profitable use. The use suggested — that of lighting farm dwellings from the gases arising fi-om manure — will be a new idea to many but this is what it is claimed can be done. The director of the Pasteur Institute at Lille. France. Dr. Albert Calmette. has made experiments which have demon- strated that not only ammonia may be ob- tained from manure, but that the gases generated will burn in the open air. His method, as outlined in the magazine, is as follows: '•He advises covering the manure with a bell-shaped cover furnished with a tube that ends in a receiver filled with acidu- lated water. Thus, instead of dispersing through the atmosphere, the ammonia engendered by the fermentation of the manure would be collected in liquid form, from which the ammoniacal salts could easily be recovered. But this is only the smallest and the least interesting side of the question. The fermentation produces not only ammonia, but also, in great quantities, carbonic acid. and divers gaseous hydro-carbons endowed with the precious property of burning in the open air with a bright flame.'' By furnishing the receiv- er with a good gasometer. Dr. Calmette claims enough gas can be obtained to light all the buildings of a farm. There are establishments in England which now use city refuse to run the en- gines connected with the city electric plant. This refuse is burned in a special form of furnace and no other fuel is neces- sary. While these suggestions are of no prac- tical value to the average farmer at present, as it will doubtless be many years before we see farms equipped with an ap- paratus for making, gas from manure, it is interesting to know what may be done in this line and in the future these* possibili- ties may become practical realities. A PLEA FOR THE POOR. ANNA FORBES GOODYEAR. While vast multitudes of poor people, in the United States, are suffering for pro- ducts of land, millions of acres of govern- ment lands lie vacant and untilled. But want of a few hundred dollars to the family prevents the very poor avail ing themselves of them, under homestead laws: for means to get to them, cultivate them, and live while raising first crops are indispensable. Since the needy of our land are estimated at millions, and all benevolent individuals 172 THE IRRIGATION AGE. and societies together are doing- but a very small fraction of what is required, both by charity and honesty, to supply this enor- mous demand for the barest necessities of life, it appears to be left for the United States government to do the great work of supplying, in such a way as to enable a large proportion of our poor to begin to become independent immediately, and to render all the rest who are able to work capable of undertaking private occupa- tions, especially farming, within a few years. Since life is necessarily dependent upon products of the soil, the right to life can- not be made good without them, or, in other words, comprehends a right to them, or to means of obtaining them by labor. The facts that, in past history, the power- ful have succeeded in getting and keeping dominion over about all the earth's sur- face, to the deprivation of the weaker or less influential, and that the means of liv- ing and of getting livelihood are still with- held from a large proportion of the earth's inhabiters, by the rest of them, render governments now under obligation to act in a large way, and each see that its own poor have right— the means of independ- ently living by their own exei'tions. Present lack of capital results from deprivation of opportunity in the past, as does also ignorance of agriculture. Evidently also this same poverty has been a temptation to the greater evils of enerva- tion, want of industry, and perhaps all forms of sin and suffering. Certain it is, that generally in civilized nations, the respectability of people is in proportion as they are well-to-do, or well off. Be it emphasized, this is speaking generally. But it is well known that the poorest classes are the more dangerous classes. The wealthiest streets in cities are the safest streets. Thus it is seen that the United States government has before it, even more prominently and imperatively than it did have its lately accomplished glorious work for Cuba, the duty of enabling the great body of its own poor to obtain independ- ently their own living, and gradually to rise to as high an elevation as any part of humanity should. The method of this, it is thought, must be by teaching, in farming and in making by hand necessities, training and temporarily managing the able-bodied poor collectively upon large government farms, thus enabling them to earn inde- pendent capital, besides, if requisite, se- curing repayment, in work, of all expend- ed by the government for them. But, as soon as these ends are attained, it seems certainly advisable to let the laborers give their places to others, and go elsewhere for permanent settlement. There are a number of weighty arguments for this, particularly, for instance, separ- ating the individual families of the lower classes from each other, for their own elevation. Undue contact of the superior poor with the degraded can be largely avoided by dividing them at the outset, and putting them on distinct farms. The lack of the advantages of actually seeing the men settled in their own homes, as common in small colonies, can, by special arrangement, be made up for by trying, whenever expedient, to induce them to take land near the government plantation by aiding them and by ex- changing products with them. Friends of the work are needed to help choose localities, suppose of a township each, to aid in making minor details of plans, and to uphold it by their sympathy. I-N MONTEREY, MEXICO. In a letter recently received from T. C. Nye, of Laredo, Texas, he spoke of a visit he made to the Sot Springs near Monterey, Mexico, from which we make the follow- ing extract: "I saw fine irrigated land, water by natural gravitation; Mexicans plowing with a pair of oxen and using a crooked stick for a plow. On our hotel table there were absolutely no vegetables. The street cars of Topo Chico, [the springs] run through some fine irrigated lands which are given up to raising oats to be sold to the brewery at Monterey. It looked to me like a great waste of good land and pure water to be •-aisinS beer, while the city of Monterey, 73,000 population, had no vegetables. I had not seen Monterey for two years before, and thought the city THE IRRIGATION AGE. 173 looked cleaner and brighter than before. I found that the cause for the improve- ment was that two weeks previous Presi- dant Diaz paid a visit to Monterey, and sometime before Gov. Reyes of the state of Xueva Leon, of which Monterey is the capital city, issued an order to the effect that every house and fence must be painted in honor of the Presi&e it's proposed visit. So it was done and done completely, even if the people had to borrow the where- with-all to do it with. Fancy such an order in the United States! * * * * All of the citizens of Monterey, regardless of nationality, take a two hours siesta after dinner and the consequence is that business is paralyzed for that length of time." THE UBIQUITOUS BEET. The beet sugar industry in the United States is now one of the recognized sources of revenue to the farmer, and the facto- ries that are being erected to produce beet sugar attest the fact that the sugar beet is no longer a "fad'' indulged in by a few experimentalists, but a moneymaking crop to the practical farmer. Indeed, so well satisfied have people become as to the possibilities of this crop that the experi- ment stations of almost every state have devoted considerable time and expense to the raising of the sugar beet and have embodied the results of their investiga- tions in the bulletins which are sent out from time to time. So much has been ac- complished in this way that there are few farmers now who are ignorant cf the pos- sibilities of this vegetable. Whether it- pays to raise sugar beets depends almost entirely upon the proximity of the factory to which the product may be sold, as they can be raised in almost every stats. As Mr. Herbert Myrick says in his book on "The American Sugar Industry." "Xo one state has a monopoly of the beet sugar industry. Some Nebraska farmers have an idea that the business will be confined to their state because it has two factories in successful op3ration." The fallacy of this idea is proved by reading the book. Of an industry of such magnitude as this promises to be. it may be interesting to trace the growth from small begin- nings. This, thanks to Mr. Myrick. we are able to do. It is only in very recent years that we have heard very much re- garding the sugar beets in this country, and it will doubtless bs news to many to learn that an attempt to produce sugar from beets was made as early as 1830. In that year the attempt was made at Philadelphia but was not a suc- cess. Eight years later. David L. Child, of Northampton. Mass., was more success- ful, obtaining 6 pcr cent of sugar from beets. Experiments were made with more or less favorable results in different sec- tions of the country from that time on, and in 1863 the Gennert Brothers. Ger- mans, started a sugar beet factory in Illi- nois, at Chatsworth. The location was against it. to begin with, and other disad- vantages conspired to render the enter- prise a failure. The plant was moved from Illinois to Wisconsin, from where, after another discouragement, it was taken to California. The chief cause of the failures in the factories was due to the lack of interest on the part of the farmers: they did not realize the possibilities of the crop and so it was difficult for the factories to obtain beets and those that were produced were of an inferior quality. From this era of discouragement was evolved the present great industry, which is increasing from year to year: and the history which Myrick gives is interesting to anyone and is not the least attractive feature of the work. California was the first state in which a sugar beet factory met with success, and the pioneers in this line were E. H. Dyer and his son Edward, who were persistent in their efforts at Alvarado. where the first successful factcfry was established. It was years, however, before this suc- cess was attained. In 1880 the journal devoted to the beet sugar industry, known as The Sugar Beet was founded by Lewis Ware: an omen of the success of the vege- table, for when an enterprise has gained a sufficient foothold to warrant its having a journalistic "organ." it is in a fair way to succeed . After tracing the failures and successes of the early pioneers. Mr. Myrick de 174 THE IRRIGATION AGE. scribes the sugar beet factories now in operation, with their managers, and illus- trations of the more prominent ones — such as the factories at Lehi. Utah; Chino, Cal.; the Oregon factory, etc. — are given with both interior and exterior views. "The American Sugar Industrjr' is just what its author claims it to be — "A prac- tical manual for farmer, or manufacturer, capitalist or laborer, statesman or student, " and an idea of what Mr. Myrick has em- bodied in the work may best be gained by giving the heads into which the contents are divided. Part One takes up the "Economics of Domestic Sugar Production," and in three chapters discusses what the industry means to this country, the effect of the Dingley tariff, the progress of the past three years; the present outlook and the effect of "expansion"' upon domestic sugar, etc. Part Two is devoted to the considera- tion of the cane sugar industry: the area suitable to its production, the culture, harvesting, etc. Part Three— "The Beet Sugar in America Prior to 1897" — is divided into four chapters, in which is told what has been accomplished in the United States, the growth of th£ industry in each state, and the commercial aspects of the in- dustry. Part Four tells of the progress made since 1896: the development east of the Mississippi, from the Mississippi to the mountains, and the best development on the Pacific coast; lessons to be learned from the past; mistakes to be avoided; and lastly the appendix, which in ad- dition to its valuable reference tables and statistics, gives a list of places that want sugar factories. This will give an idea of the contents of the book, which is handsomely illus- trated and bound in cloth, the cover be- ing especially unique and artistic. is tosecure perfect cleanliness in the dairy: "The 18 men who do the milking wash themselves and comb their hair before be- ginning their task, dress in clean white suits, milk into pails protected by strainers which prevent a particle of dirt from en- tering, and everything is of the most clean- ly and sanitary nature. The cows are reg- ularly inspected and subjected to tubercu- lin tests to insure perfect healthfulness- The miJk is put up in bottles, the corks of which bear the date and hour of bottling." Farmers and dairymen who are inclined to la,ugh at this as being too particular, should bear in mind that on account of its absolute purity the milk from this dairy is sold to Chicago hospitals for twelve cents a quart, thus giving Mr. Gurlera revenue of about $100 a dav. Springville. Utah, is making a mighty effort to secure a beet sugar factory. It is claimed this is the best site in the state for the location of the factory, as it is in the center of a great sugar beet country. The manager and superintendent of the Lehi plant say if the citizens of Spring- ville will donate a hundred acres of land, with water rights, they will build and equip a larger factory than that of Lehi. IT PAYS TO BE CLEAN. A model dairy farm is the one owned by H. B. Gurler, at DeKalb, 111., and it is an interesting place to visit. The following extract shows how careful the proprietor "The extension of the Pecos Valley and Northwestern railway from Roswell, N. M., to Amarillo, Texas, is completed. The last rail was laid today," says the Pecos Valley Argus, Feb. 3. This con- nects the Pecos Valley with the eastern markets and gives cause for rejoicing in New Mexico. "The country tributary ta the line from Amarillo to Pecos is the largest and best cattle-breeding section in the whole south-west," continues the Argus, and "with the new transportation facilities, the business of fattening cattle for the Kansas City and Chicago markets on the cheap food raised on the irrigated land in Pecos Valley or on the refuse from sugar factories will assume large propor- tions." We congratulate the Pecos- Valley and vicinity upon the completion of this road, which means so much to her. PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. THE WORK OF THE YEAR. Through the courtesy of TV". A. Hemr, Director of the Agricultural Experiment Statioa. University of Wisconsin, at Mad- ison, we are in receipt of the fifteenth annual report of the station. It is a -well gotten up volume and the reports contain valuable information for all interested in agriculture. The director's report shows a gratifying advancement in the work of the station, and increased interest in its work by farmers throughout the state is attested by the heavy correspondence and the large number of visitors. The new barn, erected during the past year is one of the many improvements made, and the director hopes during the coming year to receive a sufficient appropriation to make the remodeling of the dairy building pos- sible. The new dairy barn is so well ar- ranged and equipped that it may be'taken as a model of its kind and at some future date we hope to give a detailed account of it. A few words will suffice at present. "The barn is a frame structure, consisting of the barn proper. 86 feet long by 50 feet wide, with two wings each 70 feet long, projecting at right angles from each end of the main building. A large class-room is conveniently located between the two wings. '" From this may be gained an idea of the dimensions of the- building, the cost of which was $16.000. with $2,000 more for equipment. The illustration of the stalls and mangers, reminded me of noth- ing so much as a hospital ward, the stalls, constructed of gas pipe posts with frame- work of gates and panels of channel-iron supporting woven steel wire, correspond- ing to the rows of iron beds in a hospital. The students have every facility for study- ing dairying that the importance of the dairy interest in the state warrants. Ex- tensive experiments were made regarding milk and its products — cheese and butter. It was demonstrated that, contrary to the popular, belief warm milk absorbs impur- ities even more readily than cold, which im an added reason why the cow stable should be kept clean. The results of the investi- gations in this line are very interesting. Sugar beets received considerable at- tention at the station during the year, as the director has maintained for years that it was possible for this country to produce its own sugar The physicist. F. H. King, under the subject of the "Importance of the Right Amount and the Right Distribution of Water in Crop Production," says that the past year is the first since 1888 which has had sufficient rainfall, and so well dis- tributed as to allow nearly maximum yields to be produced. From the first of April to the last of September there was but one interval of fifteen days when no rain fell. Despite the unusual amount of rain fall, irrigation was used, and was amply jus- tified by the results. Three crops of hay were raised during the season ; the third crop/which was harvested Oct.5. was made possible by irrigation. Two crops could have been obtained without it The first crop yielded over two tons per acre, the second crop over one ton per acre, and the third. 950 pounds per acre. Experiments were, of course, made with other products. In the potato crop the yield from the irrigated plots showed a decided increase over those not irrigated, there being a mean difference of 8.65 per cent between the two. These results, taken with those of 1896 and 1897. "appears to establish the fact," 176 THE IB1UGAT10N AGE. says Mr. King in conclusion, "that with potatoes, as with hay, the rainfall of Wis- consin is seldom so large in quantity or so well distributed but that good and timely irrigation will measurably increase the yield. " Mr. King also gave the results of his investigations with the windmill as a motive power, an accurate record being kept of the amount of water pumped each day from March 6, 1897, to March 6, 1898. The windmill used was a 16 ft. geared steel po\ver mill, purchased of the Aer- motor Co., of Chicago, and the pumps used were : a reciprocating pump with 14-inch piston, one of the bucket kind, manufactured by Seaman & Schuske, of St. Louis, Mo. ; a No. 2 Gould and a Menge pump. The Seaman pump was al- ways given to the mill in light winds, as it required the least power to run it. Its normal capacity was 120 gallons per min- ute. From the accurate account kept of the work it was found that during the year the total amount of water pumped was 24,433 tanks, each tank holding 141.2 cubic feet; or expressed in another way, enough water was pumped during the year to cover 79.1 acres 12 -inches deep or at the rate of 2.6 cubic inches per day for the entire year. To use the windmill as a motive power for furnishing water for irrigating pur- poses, it is necessary, owing to the great variability of the wind velocity, to store some of the water pumped so that it may be used in times of insufficient wind, if needed. Statistics concerning the windmill power with especial reference to irrigation give the following conclusions: Irrigating once every ten days, lifting the water ten feet, it was found that the mean amount of water pumped during the 100 days from May 29 to Sept. 6, the sea- son when irrigation is most needed in this country, was 24,549 acre- inches per 1(1 days. Expressed differently, 10 inches of water can be given to 24.5 acres of ground during 100 days where the lift is 10 feet. THE ALKALI SOILS OF THE YELLOW- STONE VALLEY. The evil done to the soil through over- irrigation is so widespread and so disast- rous alike to the soil and to the irrigation industry, that anything tending to correct the tendency by pointing out to farmers the folly of the injurious use of water, is worthy of dissemination. We take pleas- ure in presenting a few extracts from a bulletin lately issued by Chief of Divi- sion of Soils, Milton Whitney, and Thos. H. Means : "There is generally little system in the application of water to the land. Very few of the planters know how much they need. The water is applied when the surface appears dry, and it is then applied is such excess that much of it cannot evaporate. ***** Proper irri- gation in an arid region furnishes an ideal condition of crop production. In practice,, however, the method or applying water to the land Is extremely crude, and there is really liitle cause to wonder that much harm has been done through over- irri- gation" The following is given as to the origin of the alkali salts : "Any excessive accumulation of soluble mineral salts in the soil is popularly spoken of as "alkali" in the West. The term, therefore, as popularly used and a& used in this bulletin, does not necessarily refer to material of an alkaline or basic nature. The alkali soils of the West are of two principal classes : The alkaline carbonates, or black alkali, usually sodi- um carbonate, is the worsb form of alkali, actually dissolving the organic materials of the soil and corroding and killing the germinating seed or roots of plants; the Avhite alkalies, the most common of which are sodium sulphate, sodium chloride, magnesium sulphate, magnesium chloride, and occasionally, as in northern Nevada, some of the borates, are not in themselves poisonous to plants, nor do they attack the substance of the plant roots, but are injurious when, owing to their presence in. THE IRRIGATION AGE. 177 excessive amounts, they prevent the plants from taking up their needed food and water supply. " ******* 'One of the most discouraging features of the whole problem is that the owner of a tract of land may use the most approved methods of irrigation, and yet be com- pletely ruined by the excessive and inju- dicious use of water by his neighbor, who may himself escape the injurious effects of his own crude methods, at least many years after his neighbor has been ruined." * * * * Summing up the investigations and conclusions of the authors we get the following: '•The results of these investigations show that the ultimate source of the al- kali is in the sandstone, and particularly in the shale or slate rocks from which the soils have been derived. Before irriga- tion was introduced the salts were pres- ent in rather large amounts, but well dis- tributed throughout the soil, and not in such large quantities as to be injurious to crops. The injury is due entirely to over- irrigation, to the translocation and local accumulation of salts by means of seepage waters, and to the imperfect drainage facilities in the compact gumbo soils and the inability of the soils to remove the ex- cess of salts and of seepage waters. The first trouble appears to be due to the seepage waters. This, of course, need not necessarily be so, but it appears to be the case in this locality. The open sandy lands, having better nnderdrainage, are not likely to be injured by a rise of salts except from an excessive application of water or in the low places in the path of the drainage system, especially when these are underlaid, as they are liable to be. by the heavy gumbo subsoils. The gumbo soil requires great care in cultivation, as it is easily ruined by the accumulation of seepage waters and the subsequent accu- mulation of salts." "Where the damage has been done, or where the conditions are so imminent that ultimate ruin can be forseen. the logical method of reclamation is in providing ade- quate systems of drainage to carry off the excess of water and the accumulated salts. This is expensive, but it is the only thing in this case to hasten the slow processes of nature, which are entirely inadequate in the presence of the present methods of ir- rigation and of. culture. Underdrainage is expensive, but it has amply repaid for the investment in other localities where land is worth no more than in the Yellow- stone Valley. Any land which is worth s50 per acre could well afford to be taxed for underdrainage if it is necessary, as in many places in the Yellowstone Valley, to save the investment from utter anni- hilation." "It must not be assumed, ho wever.that a thorough system of underdrainage relieves one from exercising care and judgment in applying water to the land. There is less immediate danger of ruining the land, to be sure, but there are two things to be considered, namely, that an excessive use of water means just so much loss to irri- gation and so much less land which can be brought under the ditch, and also that in the removal of these salts by the flow of the. seepage waters out through the drainage system large quantities of really valuable plant food are likely to be re- moved from the soil. The very accumu- lation of these soluble salts is due to the arid conditions of the climate. The great fertility of the soils results from the accu- mulation of these salts, and if we intro- duce artificial drainage, which will tax the resources of the soil, we may remove in the course of a generation, or even in less time than this, the accumulated re- sults of the changes of vast geologic ages in the disintegration of rocks. By over- irrigation and underdrainage we may re- move in a few years the very conditions which contribute to the wealth of the country in the fertility of the soil. " "Great care must be taken in the appli- cation of water. As little as possible should be applied at each time, so that 178 THE IRRIGATION AGE. there shall be as little waste as possible to go off as seepage water. The surface then should be thoroughly cultivated, un- less otherwise protected from evapoi-ation by alfalfa or other close-growing crops, so as to reduce the loss of water from the surface to a minimum and prevent there- by the accumulation of salts at the surface. The rise in the level of water in the wells must be looked upon with uneasi- ness and guarded against with great care." The Division of Soils has invented a device for determining the moisture con- tent of soils through their electrical re- sistance. A cheap modification of it has been made, for use with irrigating plants, which will not cost over $10, and as by this the farmer can gauge the water con- tent near the surface or at any desired depth, and thus avoid undue accumula- tion of water in the sub-soil, it would seem well worth the price. About the middle of January a meeting of the Farmer's Protective Association was held at Phoenix, Ariz., and a new organi- zation formed, comprising the "original appropriators" of water in the Salt River Yalley. The written articles of the asso- ciation were signed by eighteen of the farmers present and the next step will be to file the articles with the county record- er, thus becoming a legal incorporation. The object of the association is to"defend, support, protect and mutually aid" each other in obtaining water for the purpose of irrigating the individual lands of the members of the association. Only farmers and land owners of Salt Eiver Yalley may become members. Renters or owners of land in Manicopa county to which water was applied on or before 1880 are eligible. Similar organizations should be formed in other localities. THE DAM AT EL PASO. I. A. Barnes. El Paso, Texas, sends a clipping from a local paper with reference to the construction of the Elephant Butte Dam, which says: "It it understood the Elephant Butte Dam company is making active prepara- tions to resume work and is contracting for a considerable amount of foreign ce- ment. This would indicate that the Eng- lish company has reason to believe that the decision of the Supreme Court will be fa- vorable to the company." Mr. Barnes is of the opinion that the "International Dam" project has received a severe blow in the death of Minister Romero, as he was more familiar with the subject than it is likely his successor will be. Mr. Barnes' letter was not intended for publication, but we quote his closing words as they echo the sentiment of many irrigationists in other sections of the coun- try besides El Paso : "I think the expan- sion of a lot of waste flood waters into a storage reservoir beats Philippine expan- sion all to thunder, and it would be a great deal more benefit to our own home agri- cultural interests." WITH OUR EXCHANGES. FORUM. The current number of Thf Forum com- pletes the twenty-sixth volume: and it may with propriety be said that the maga- zine, with increasing years, shows no sign of decadence, but, On the contrary, pre- serves its virility unimpaired. In the February issue there are two articles of especial importance at the present time. One is by Commander H. B. Bradford on ''Coaling-Stations for the Navy." This officer, as is well known, has seen much active service, and in bringing the neces- sity of coaling-stations before the public his effort has been, as he says, to deal with facts. The other paper is by Hon. David J. Hill, Assistant Secretary of State, and is entitled "The War and the Exten- sion of Civilization.'' But possibly the article which will most appeal to AGE readers is the one on ''Good Roads and State Aid." by Otto Dorner. chairman of the National Committee for Highway Im- provement of the L. A. W. The fact tn at an article of this character appears in such a leading publication is a gratifying indication of the progress the "good roads" movement is making. "The last two generations" writes Mr. Dorner, "have seen a wonderful growth in transportation facilities. The opening up of new territory has continued to lend tempting opportunities to capital for rail- road investments. * * * The improvement of country roads — the principal arteries of commerce and travel — has not kspt pace with the developmant of transportation facilities by rail and water. The country road seems to have been a stepchild of legislatures. Its con- struction and improvement have been left almost entirely in the hands of th^ farmer: and the rural district is not equal to the occasion. * * * * 'Working out the road tax' is generally a farce. Our aver- age country highways are little better today than they were at thi closi of the Civil War. Sterling Elliot, editor of the Good Boads Magazine, once very aptly said, that be- lore we could thoroughly realize the diffi- culty of hauling on our country roads, it would be necessary for one of two things to happen: either the horse must learn to talk, or else we must take his place on the wagon. The latter occurred, he said when we learned to ride the bicyle." MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE. Rudyard Kipling has written a poem en- titled ''The White Man's Burden."' evi- dently called forth by the colonial de- velopment of the United States, which ap- pears in the February issue of McClure' $ Maqazine. The following are a few ex- tracts from the poem which is written with Kipling's usual power of making scenes and people live before you. Who but Kipling could, in a single line, so well describe these half savage people? — ''The silent, sullen people— half devil and half child." Take up the White Man's bnrden — Send forth the best ye breed — Go. bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need: To wait in heavy harness. Our fluttered folk and wild — Yonr new caught sullen peoples. Half devil and half child. Take up the White Man's burden—- The savage wars of peace — Fill full the mouth of Famine, And bid the sickness cease: The ports ye shall not enter. The road ye shall not tread. Go, make them with your living And mark them with vour dead. By all ye will or whisper. By all ye leave or do. The silent sullen peoples Shall weigh your God and you. It is claimed that the Januarv number .80 THE IRRIGATION AGE. of this popular magazine is out of print, with nearly 15,000 unsupplied subscribers, while their February edition is 70,000 copies larger than that of last year. SCKIBNER'S. A writer new to American magazine readers is William Charles Scully, who appears in the February Scribver's with a tale of South Africa entitled "The Lepers." Mr. Scully is a magistrate of Pondoland, whose work has attracted the favorable attention of Rudyard Kipling, who says of him, "He has been practical- ly brought up among South African races, and has no small reputation of his own, as the author of 'Between Sea and Sand,' and several other books." Joel Chandler Harris has created a new character, "Aunt Minervy Ann," who is destined to take a permanent place along- side of "Uncle Remus." The first story about her appears in the February num- ber, with Frost's inimitable pictures. Senator Hoar's article on "Four Nation- al Conventions," tells the story of how Elaine lost his chance of being nominated for the presidency and also defends Gar- field from the charge of being untrue to the interests of John Sherman when he accepted the nomination for the presi- dency. Senator Hoar presided over the convention when Gartield accepted the nomination. THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS FOR FEBRUARY. "The Progress of the World," the edi- torial department of the Jfe-view of Ifcvieics, deals this month with the new problems of colonial administration now confronting the country, with the senatorial cam- paigns in the different states, with the polygamy question, with the question of army beef in its bearings on the reorgani- zation of the War Department, with our recent industrial progress, protective tariffs, and the "trusts," and with the month's developments in foreign politics. The subject of the character sketch is Aguinaldo, the Filipino insurgent leader, and a very interesting career is outlined by one who has known the young leader intimately. Mr. Crittenden Marriott writes in defense of the Cuban character and Mr. Henry Macfarland describes the admirable work of Ihe Signal Corps in the war with Spain. An article advocating the federal taxation of interstate com- merce is contributed by Prof. Henry C. Adams, Statistician of the Interstate Com- merce Commission. An interesting study of the Dutch rule in Java is given by Sylvester Baxter. A RANCH THAT PASTURES 120,000 CATTLE The X. I. T. ranch, in the extreme north-west corner of the Panhandle of Texas, the largest ranch in the world, has an area of five thousand square miles. Its herds of cattle aggregate 120,OCO head, beside 1,500 horses, and the calf crop branded in 1897 exceeded 31,000. Sur- prising as it may seem, all the work on the ranch is done by 125 men, one man to every 24,000 acres. — February Ladies' Home Journal. INDIAN ENGINEERING. This journal, published by Pat Doyle, at Calcutta, India, is one of the recent additions to our exchange list, and is a very acceptable one indeed. It is issued weekly and gives the irrigation and engi- neering news of India and the east. In one of the recent numbers was a poem, "Died on the Line," by Rudyard Kipling, which was written expressly for this journal and appeared in the February issue, 1887, years before Kipling achieved his world-wide fame. It was reprinted in the December number this year, and the following verse will show what it is like: "Their headlamps drove a nation's dark- ness back, Their whistles bade a hundred hatreds cease — Their engines thundered down the echo- ing track: — 'Prosperity and Peace. ' ' Another issue contains an interesting account of the proposed Assuan dam across the river Nile. ODDS AND ENDS. A NEW COMPANY. The readers of the AGE have become familiar with the advertisement of the Shuart grader, which appears regularly in our columns. This machine was originally devised by Mr. Shuart to meet his personal needs as an irrigator and alfafa grower, on a large scale, in Montana. A few years since Mr. Shuart sold his ranch interests and removed to Oberlin. O.. where he has since been en- gaged in the manufacture of his grader. The machine is now made in two styles, one of which is especially designed for leveling land for irrigation and the other, for the use of contractors for road and street purposes. For leveling land, it is far superior to any other device in use, and has had a wide sale throughout the irrigated west. A company, composed largely of Cleveland, O. , capitalists and named the Shnart Grader Co. , has re- cently been organized to manufacture this machine on a large s^ale at Oberlin. O. ROOSEVELT'S OPEN DOOR POLICY. One of the sensible things Gov. Roose- velt has done is to set apart a time for the reception of newspaper men when they will be given such news as is proper to publish. Nobody is barred for partisan reasons, and the governor proposes to use the press and the publicity it gives to cur- rent news of his administration as a help to a better understanding by the people of their state affairs. The example of the governor is a good one, and such frank dealing with the press indicates that he does not contemplate work as the people's servant which cannot stand the light. — iSfoux City Jour. NOW IS THE TIME. Now is the time to order indexes and replenish the office with desks, chairs, cabinets and office necessities and the reference card index system, which the U. S. Desk, File & Cabinet Co., of Indian- apolis, are originators of. and others imitate. If you have not purchased your supplies for your cabinet file, or want a new one, they only cost 50 cents per drawer complete with indexes. This offer is only for thirty days though. In- dexes can be furnished from the Amberg, National Rival. W abash & B. & B. cabi- nets at the low price of $1.75 per dozen and cases at the same price per dozen_ The inventor has been twenty years com- pleting this series of indexes and he i& confident they will be appreciated, both as to style and particularly price. Their factory is one of the best equipped in the United States and occupies more space than all the others put together for this branch of the business. They have been running day and night for the past two months and at the present time are thirty days behind with orders. As soon as the Aveather will permit they will erect a new building to accommodate their growing business. The entire force of employees from president to janitors live in homes owned by the company and their business is run somewhat on the co-operative plan and is done on the cash basis. Particulars and circulars can be had upon application. A BRIGHT OUTLOOK. Chicago capitalists recently paid $3,000.- 000 for a controlling interest in the vast pure native soda deposits in Wyoming. These deposits are about fourteen miles from Laramie (Wyo.) and consist of three 182 THE IRRIGATION AGE. dry lakes or beds containing supplies Of practically pure sulphate of soda, the government analysis showing 44 parts of pure sulphate of soda, 54 parts Avater and 2 parts alien matter. The deposits are reached by a spur of the Union Pacific road. The chemical works now in opera- tion can only supply 150 tons of the sul- phate per day, but as the material is used in many of the industries and manu- facturies the demand for it is so great that the company propose increasing the capacity of the plant to 1,200 tons daily. The past year has proved to the satis- faction of the doubters that the canning factory at Austin. Texas, is a paying con- cern. It is claimed the factory can put up for market 15,000 cans per day of corn, tomatoes and similar products. The fac- tory would have mnde more money the past year but for the fact that it was im- possible to get the products, so many farmers insisting on raising cotton. WE'LL BE GOOD. Recently we received a copy of the Grand/alls New Era (Texas) with vicious- looking lead pencil stabs around an arti- cle to draw our attention to the fact that we had ''done the editor wrong," Some publication had evidently copied from the New Era without giving proper credit, and the editor voiced his woes under the heading "Give the Devil his Due," itt which he said: "And now comes the January number of the IRRIGATION AGE of Chicago, who copies our article under the heading of a 'Good Suggestion' but credits it to 'Some One' who has been moved to write to the editor of the New Era. — Gee Whillikens as if the editor was not capable of making such a 'Good Suggestion.' It is very true that our little 'Twofer* is not much of a paper but for this very reason we must insist that our friends either let us severely alone, or give us credit for what we do." We acknowledge the error of our ways and crave pardon. We thought the ar- ticle was a communication from a sub- scriber, bnt we were wrong; the editor wrote it himself. "Well, anyway," as Bobby Gay lor says, it was a "good sug- gestion1' and the New Era far from being a little "Two-fer" is a bright, newsy little sheet, a credit to the town and to its edi- tor. We have made similar remarks before. THE PERNICIOUS GRUMBLING HABIT Do not let your child acquire the habit of grumbling. Stop the first beginnings and it will never become a habit. If there is just cause of complaint, try to remedy it: if there is no possibility of improvement, teach that silent endurance is the best way to meet the inevitable. It is never wise to stay in a place and grumble. If the things you dislike cannot be altered, change your environment. If on reflection you decide that, balancing one thing with another you would rather bear the ills you know than fly to others that you know not of, bear them in silence. — February Ladies Home Journal. The above is a suggestion that everyone should heed. Grumbling, or "worrying" as it is more politely termed, will cause more unhappiness in a home than many other faults of a graver nature. Have you not felt like shaking the chronic grumbler whose complaints over infinitesmal griev- ances made home unhappy V Such a one seems to "enjoy being miserable," to use a "Paddyism," and is never content unless discontented. Each household should es- tablish a "don't worry'' club, to which all the family should be compelled to belong and whose motto should be the one which a wise mother of our acquaintance taught her little daughter, "Never worry over anything you can help; but instead remedy it; and never worry over anything you can't help, since worrying will do no good. THE IRRIGATION AGE. VOL. XIII. CHICAGO, MARCH, 1899. NO. 6. The It is with gratification we Work in note the work that has been Congress done for the cause of irriga- tion during the present session of Con- gress. Much has been accomplished, for though we cannot point to specific results and say "we have gained this or that: our mission is successful.'' we can see a general growth in interest in the subject which is an indication of the final success of the cause. Storage reservoirs for the West are not yet an assured fact, but the resolution of Feb. 7, calling for a concise report on this subject from the Secretary of the Interior, proves that the earnest and untiring efforts of the men who have labored for years are bringing results at last. They have succeeded in persuading Congress that irrigation is not merely a local question affecting the welfare of the farmers of some of the western states and territories but is a national problem, of vital importance to the -vhole country, east. west, north and south. The con- struction of storage reservoirs for the im- pounding of flood waters comes within the province of the general Government as does the constructing and maintaining of light houses and other works of internal improvement, as Mr. Newell, hydro- grapher. points out in his report on the subject. The irrigation investigations carried on by the Department of Agriculture during the past year have been of great value, despite the fact that the Depart- ment was hampered by lack of funds, a sufficient appropriation not having been made to admit of the work carried out as it would otherwise have been. Last year the Senate inserted $27,500 in the agricul- ture appropriation bill for irrigation in- vestigations, but this was cut down to $10,000 by the conference committee, who did not realize the importance of the work. This sum was totally inadequate for the purpose and the Secretary of Agriculture is to be commended upjn the results achieved. This - year he asked Congress for $50,000 with which to con- tinue his investigations, but the Com- mittee of Appropriations recommended an appropriation of $25,000, 50 per cent, of what was asked. An amendment was offered, increasing this to $35,000, which it is hoped will be available this coming year. Senator Perkins, of California, and Senator Warren, of Wyoming, in connec- tion with the amendment explained what had already been accomplished by the ap- propriations made in the past and what it was proposed to do in the future. No one is better fitted to speak on this subject than Senator Warren and no one deserves more praise than he for the manner in which he has worked for the irrigation industry. Thoroughly posted upon all phases of the subject, practically as well as theoretically, he has "borne the heat and burden of the day" and worked con- stantly and faithfully in the interest of irrigation and the state which he repre- sents. It was through his efforts that under the last River and Harbor Bill the appropriation was made for the survey of reservoir sites in Colorado and Wyoming, the result of which is summed up by 184 THE IRRIGATION AGE. Capt. Chittenden, who had charge of the work, in the elaborate report he made to the Government. The paper by him, which we present this month, gives his impressions of the country through which the survey was made and the character- istics of its water supply. To In his report Capt. Chittenden Build said he deemed "a compre- Reservoirs hensive reservoir system in the arid regions of the United States ab- solutely essential to the future welfare of this portion of the public domain," and therefore he recommended that one- seventh of the total amount of each River and Harbor Bill be set aside to build reser- voirs. "The use of the waters so stored should be absolutely free to the public forever, just as the canals, harbors and other public works are free for general use without toll or levy of any kind." Prominent in support of this policy, during the recent session of Congress, was Senator Carter, of Montana, who in- troduced an amendment to the River and Harbor Bill, appropriating generally five million dollars for building storage reser- voirs in all the semi-arid and arid-land states and territories, the water stored to be used for irrigation. The fact that, by storing the heal-waters of the Missouri, the Platte and the Arkansas rivers in reservoirs in the Mountain Valleys, the disastrous floods which overflow the south could be prevented and the millions of dollars now spent yearly on levees in the vain endeavor to keep the waters in check, thus saved, proves that the subject of reservoirs is not a local question, affecting the western states only, but is one of far-reaching import. IM The Senate Committee on B«haif , n ,_ of the Commerce gave a full hearing Congress tQ those wh{) urged tne adop. tion of this policy. Those who spoke in advocacy of it included, besides the senators of Montana and Wyoming, already referred to, Geo. H. Maxwell, represent- ing the National Irrigation Congress. In behalf of this body he urged the construc- tion of reservoirs, which policy was em- bodied in the resolution passed at the Congress at Cheyenne last September. "We favor the preservation and de> velopment of our national resources by the construction of storage reservoirs by the Federal Government, for flood protection and to save for use in aid of navigation and irrigation the flood waters which now run to waste and cause overflow and des- truction, as recommended in the report of Capt. Hiram Crittenden, and we urge the adoption of -the recommendation of this re- port as to the construction of storage reservoirs in the arid regions, as a part of the national policy of internal improve- ments." Mr. Maxwell spoke chiefly with refer- ence to the immense benefit the reservoirs would be as a flood protection to the southern and middle states at the annual rise of the Mississippi. By his zealous efforts Mr. Maxwell has proven himself a worthy representative of the Irrigation Congress. Under .the department of Irrigation in this number, we give a more extended ac- count of the addresses made by Senator Warren and Mr. Maxwell, together with additional information on the pamphlet by Mr. Newell. The While "old glory" was waved Closing and patriotic songs were sung of Congress by the enthusiastic members, the Fifty-fifth Congress adjourned sine die, March 4. Owing to the number of vital questions with which Congress had to deal, this session was of unusual in- terest. While many mistakes were made, both of omission and commission, its re- cord, as a whole, is fair and in its closing acts of ratifying the treaty of peace and making Dewey an admiral, it left a pleas- ing impression on the minds of the people. The President and Congress have been more in harmony throughout the session than might have been expected from the diversity of opinion held on the many im- portant issues. It is to be regretted that, with an extra appropriation of 4821 million dollars, due to the expenses incurred by the late war with Spain, the ordinary appropriations made by the Fifty-fifth Congress should have exceeded those of its predecessor by 39f millions. The regular appropriations woted by the last Congress amount to $1,084,300,000, which, with those of the war appropriations, aggregate $1,566,000,- 000. As Mr. Cannon, Chai ^ man of the Com- THE IRRIGATION AGE. 185 mittee on Appropriations, points out, an increase in the appropriations made by succeeding Congresses is a necessity due to the demands of the increasing population. This is true in a measure, but economy is not one of the virtues of Congress, and while Mr. Cannon used his - influence to check the increase, there is no doubt but what many of the appropriations might have been cut down or done away with entirely; that providing for the payment of old French spoliation claims, among them. Mr. Cannon states that the in- crease was due to the larger appropria- tions for pensions, the postoffice depart- ment, and the navy, for the construction of needed public buildings, taking the census, paying claims, improving the great waterways, and for the Paris ex- position. The passage of the Loud bill would have materially reduced the post- office department expenses and there are other money-saving measures which might have been adopted. The attention of Con- gress was so taken up with the war that their lack of economy is more excusable than it would otherwise be. The Chicago Tribune, speaking editorially on this sub- ject says: "For extravagant appropriations of this kind by the last Congress and by preceding Congresses there is no party re- sponsibility. The popularity-seeking mem- bers of both the great political organiza- tions unite in voting for lax pension legis- lation and in supporting riyer and harbor and public buildings jobs for the benefit of their districts, or, rather, for their own benefit, for they hope thereby to secure their re-nomination and re-election. There is no politics in the 'pork barrel.' ' Schley's promotion, which places him ninth on the list of Rear .Admirals, oc- casioned general satisfaction in Congress. None of the armored ships for the navy will be even contracted for this year, owing to the restrictions in the price of plate. Beyond voting a million dollars to be expended by the president in investigat- ing the two proposed canal routes, nothing was done regarding the Nicaragua canal bill. It was with genuine regret that the members of Congress, irrespective of par- A Human Hero ty, bade farewell to "sockless" Jerry Simpson, whose retirement to private life robs them of their chief fun-maker. In one of our exchanges we re- cently came across an article entitled "Leave Our Heroes Human'' in which a protest was made against the practice of suppressing all accounts of the follies and faults of our great men and dwelling only on their vir- tues. This praiseworthy effort of the biographer to give us faultless heroes in the men who have made history is on the plan of "speak only good of the dead." It is this tendency that has caused us to regard the "father of our country" as a conceited prig, and to wonder how so faultless a being could gain the love and admiration of his companions, "Biog- raphy," says the writer, "is not written for children, but for everybody, and when adults read biography they read it to learn of what matter of stuff were made the heroes described." They want the hero to stand "revealed as he was — a man, with the same faults and foibles possessed by mortals cast from the same clay but in a more common mould." Perhaps it was this same feeling which actuated the writer who gives us, in the Saturday Evening Post (Feb. 25) "The Un- familiar George Washington." From it we learn with relief that the great George, so intimately connected in our mind with the cherry tree episode, was not quite per- fect. It is darkly hinted, in fact, that on one occasion he did lie — not to his father but to his mother. When a boy of about thirteen, so runs the unauthentic legend, George was sent by his mother one even- ing to bring in the cow from the pasture and milk her. The cow was brought in but, not being fond of milking, George omitted that part of the task. Just as he was sinking into dreamland his mother asked if he had milked the cow. And the cherry-tree hero answered "yes," proving that he not only could tell a lie but that when he did it was a very bad one. The hatchet story is said to be a mere fiction, invented by the first biographer who de- sired it "to point a moral and adorn a tale." "General Washington is known to us 186 THE IRRIGATION AGL. and President Washington, but George Washington is an unknown man," says John Bach McMaster. Why we even cele- brate his birthday on the wrong day, he having been born the llth of February in- stead of the 22nd. This is due to the fact that under the revised system of chrono- logy the date was advanced eleven days. It is the "Unfamiliar George Washing- ton"— the man, whom Perriton Maxwell introduces to us in his admirable article. The man who, "masterful politician that he was, could boast of only ordinary quali- fications as a man of peaceful pursuit?- he was, after all, a personage of excellent character upon whom fortune smiled, and who was wise enough to make the most of men and circumstances." He did what few of us do — grasped the oppor- tunities that came his way. "The Unfamiliar Washington" was somewhat of a sport; the sums he won at cards would excite the envy of gamblers, and he also indulged in lottery invest- ments; dancing, riding, hunting were favorite amusements, all of which, how- ever, he considered tame in comparison with a cock fight. He was fond of liquors — though not a drunkard; was also very fond of dress, being in his youth quite a leader of fashion: his hands were so large that his gloves had to be made to order, and his boots were No. 13. Being forced to leave school at an early age, he had but little education and though fond of reading and possessing a wonderful memory, he never became either a correct speller or good grammarian. Such, according to Mr. Maxwell, was George Washington, the man. Not a god; not a genius: simply a brave, honest man, who did his duty conscientiously and who, in leading his feeble forces to victory against overwhelming odds, laid the foundation of this glorious republic. A man whose sterling worth and great achievement make him worthy of our honor and praise. Send Those who are desirous of be- Vour coming members of the Farm- Names, ers' Homeseekers' League are requested to send in their names to J. Hammond, member, 225 Dearborn street, or to the IRRIGATION AGE. The names will be registered and as soon as a sufficient number of members have been obtained, locations for settlements will be secured and colonies formed. For fuller informa- tion regarding this organization see Feb- ruarv number of the AGE. * HORTICULTURE IN MEXICO. THE NATURAL ADVANTAGES OF THE REPUBLIC FOR FRUIT GROWING. BY LEON N. STUART, Gen'l Mgr. La Virginia, Montemorelos, Nucoo Leon, Mexico. The great diversity of climatic conditions of Mexico, caused by its physical location in the tropics, with its high altitude of tablelands and mountain system, enables fruit growing to cover a wider range of varieties than are found in most any other country. From the Gulf on the Tropic of Cancer running south and gradu- ally rising higher to an elevation of four thousand feet in the south- ern part and widening out into the interior, crossing over to the Pacific side and north to Mazatlan, we have the pure tropics entirely free from frost, in which the most delicate and luxuriant plant growth thrives, such as vanilla, mangoe, bananas, pine apples, papaya, coffee, rubber, etc. ; while bordering on the same, but extending up to a higher plane and farther north, we get a semi-tropic region which is subjected to a few light frosts, but not heavy freezes. It is here that the finest quality of oranges, lemons, agua-cates and pomegran- ates are grown: farther north, and up to 6,000 to 8,000 feet high, on the great table lands, we get the temperate zone, with all its varied products quite similar to those of the Middle and Northern states of the United States. Commencing on the low coast lands and following the same line of latitude, we find that every 280 to 400 feet ascent is equivalent to going one degree latitude north, hence as we go from the lower lands to the higher plateaus, there is a change from the luxuriant and deli- cate tropical plants to the sturdy pine and oak trees of the far North. As the temperature changes so also changes the humidity and rain- fall, the low warm lands being bountifully supplied with 100 inches annually at the Isthmus to 25 or more inches at the north; the semi- tropics having a much lighter rainfall, irrigation is required to insure full crops yearly; while in the temperate and great central districts we find the true arid zone, with its dry, clear, rarified and invigorat ing climate so conducive to health. The semi- tropic and temperate lands comprise the greater part of the territory of Mexico and it is here that man comes to help nature by taking out in canals water from the streams that come from the high mountain peaks which rise above the general tablelands and. 188 THE IRRIGATION AGE. OLD ALAMEDA, NEAR LA VIRGINIA. conveying it to the rich lands of the plains, supplies the moisture for plant growth that nature failed to provide, making it rich in products for the maintenance of man. Irrigation, as now practiced in general, is on the same system that it was 200 years ago when the ditches were first planned by the Spanish and exca- vated by the Indians. But few dams have ever been built to store the surplus waters of the rainy season or those that run to waste when not in use on the growing crops, there- fore the area cultivat- ed now is just the capacity that the running streams will irrigate, during the growing season, which no doubt could be increased two or three fold by a series of dams and reservoirs and by paving the ditches. The method used to take out water from the streams is gravitation; the ditches running far enough up to tap the water at the river bed. At present there are no high water assessments to pay, for whoever owns land under irrigation owns water rights with the land and the only expense is cleaning and keeping the ditches in repair. The main can- al is called toma, the branches, acequris, while the laterals for irrigating are called regaderos, and to irri- gate is regar. Water is measured by surcos — 48 surcos make a buey. A surco is a flow of Qi litres per second or equals 1.43 galons per second, or 85.8 gallon per minute ORANGE GROVE-FOUR YEAR OLD TANGERINE TREES. THE IRRIGATION AGE 189 One surco equals 9£ inches. Hence a buey of water is equivalent to about 456 inches California measurement. One surco, in 24 hours flow, will irrigate one and one-half acres of land. The flooding sys- tem is generally used by native Mexicans in irrigating; they are very good irrigators but are too wasteful with their water. More cultivation and less irrigating would produce much better re- sults, but they will never change their methods here. Mexico offers today, with her genial climate, her millions of acres of rich soils, of undeveloped .lands, a great field for the capitalist to build storage reservoirs along the many streams, im- pounding the enormous amount of waste water which is supplied during the wet season, and that which runs off unused in the winter months, taking these waters to the new LA VIRGINIA-FOUR YEAR OLD ORANGE TREE. lands that have lain dormant for centuries for the lack of sufficient moisture to be productive. Many fruits and plants of Mexico are indigenous, others were brought from Spain and other European countries by the pa- dres, years ago, but when planted in their proper place in Mexi- co, the quality was at once admitted to be of the best — and when the horticulture of Mexico shall have been brought up to the standard and science of France, United States, Italy and other LA VIRGINIA— SCENE IN PATIO. 190 THE IRRIGATION AGE. countries by man's assistance of nature, Mexico will be the leader in the finest fruits in the world. In Mexico this interesting industry is at present confined princi- pally to seedlings, as but little effort has ever been given to the cull- ing out of small, inferior fruit or to propagate only the largest and best by budding, but notwithstanding this failure on the part of man, the general average in quality is good. The reason that fruit growing has been left so dormant and limited here has been for the lack of transportation facilities; until recent years there were but few railroads and the marketing was con- fined to the local dis- tricts of production, except such exchang- ing as could be carried on by burro trains; hence there are but LA VIRGINIA-TWO YEAR OLD ORANGE GROVE. few commercial or- chards in Mexico on a large scale, but instead we find in the yards, gardens and lots of the villages and towns a general assortment of trees of all ages and sizes. Now since the new era of building rail- roads has made it possible to sell fruits in the distant markets of the Republic and the United States the President and his Governors are giving much encouragement to capital and enterprise to increase Mexico's horticultural industry and bring it up to a higher standard. Their efforts are being well rewarded, as is seen in the new or- chards of budded trees of standard and tried varieties, that were re- cently, and are now, being planted by both foreign and Mexican capital. At M o n temorelos, state of Nucoo Leon, with a semi- tropic and arid climate, on lati- tude 25 degrees north, and at an elevation of ORCHARD SCENE, NATIVE WORKERS. TtiE IRRIGATION AGE. 191 1,400 feet, has recently been started La Virginia, an orange planta- tion, (the largest in Mexico) with an assortment of deciduous and other fruits, whose results so far have been most gratifying and whose future appears quite bright. With the advent of the M. & M. G. R. R., giving direct connec- tions with the vast interier and the United States, there came pros- pective investors into this old settled, but undeveloped, district, who found a rich calcarious soil, in places red with iron, which produces such fine flavors and colors in fruit, and an a b u n dance of water from a stream that headed far back into the towering mountain range near by — whose waters had been used for irrigating for 200 years on vast fields of corn and sugar cane. In the numerous gar- LA VIRGINIA-ROSE AVENUE. dens, surrounding the quaint, white adobe houses were many old orange trees of the ad- vanced age of 75 years, which were still bearing crops of 1,000 to 4,000 oranges each, of a fine texture and most delicious flavor — these were seedling trees whose origin had been Spain many, many years ago. They showed they had had but little care or cultivation and in producing such crops of fine fruit, proved this to be a true orange district — hence the decision to locate La Virginia at this place some- thing over four years ago. The first orange trees were brought from California and planted on lands that had grown crops of corn for ages, and at once La Virginia began to assume life and shape under the new regime. Today there are fifteen thousand orange trees, standard varieties from Cali- fornia and Florida and six thousand peach, HEADQUARTERS AT MR. TAYLOR'S. 192 THE IRRIGATION AGE. pear, plums, etc., with the prospect that more will 'be added the com- ing spring thus gradually increasing the plant to its fullest capacity. The assortment of roses and ornamental shrubbery has kept pace with the growth of a place of this size and there are but few days during the year that the fragrant roses, orange blossoms, honey- suckles, etc., are not filling the air with their delicate perfumes. Several other orchards were started about the same time as La Virginia, and are doing well, viz., those of Taylor & Lawrence, Ber- langa Huos., W. A. Davidson, T. J. Goff, W. B. Butcher, J. Ingram and Richard Mitchel. The oranges here begin to ripen about Oct. 1st and is fully ripe for November and December and by Jan. 1st are all shipped. LA. VIRGINIA-ORANGE TREE IN BLOOM. This is truly a land of manana and anyone coming to Mexico to settle should bring a large supply of patience and expect to do things in a slower and easier way than at home and to leave his "rush" be- hind as it will only bring him vexation and trouble here. The people have been doing business in their way for many generations and there is nib use to try to change them in a day or week. The laborers here let each day take care of itself and take the future as it comes. If a man can live by one day's labor per week, that is all the work he will do in that week. He also prefers to work by daily tasks, even should they be larger than he would do in a steady all day's work, for THE IRRIGATION AGE. 193 then he goes at it early and rapidly and will get through with it by the middle of the afternoon so he can "rest" the balance of the day. In this way is most all the work done on the large haciendas (farms) of Mexico. When in Mexico treat the laboring class firmly; the better class as you would your other friends at home, only be as polite as they- are and you will be respected, honored and beloved as you would in your own country, for they are a kindhearted and generons people and have many superior qualities, or at least I have found them such in my few years of association in their sunny clime. Practical results were first demonstrated last year, when Messrs. Stuart and Eobertson sent in May and June from La Virginia peaches and small fruits over the greater part of Mexico and to many points of Texas; and also in November shipments of oranges were made to St. Louis and other markets of the United States, including Califor- nia, which is very critical. These fruits excited general interest and were declared to be of an excellent quality. Such gratifying results, have interested the Mexicans and they are now putting out orchards of budded trees, constructing seed-beds and adding many innovations, "como los Americanos." With such new life Montemorelos will, without some unforseen cause, become one of the most prominent orange growing sections of the Republic. TIMIDITY— A HINDOO FABLE. A silly mouse, thinking each thing a cat, Fell into helpless worriment thereat: But. noticed by a wizard living near, Was turned into a cat to end its fear. No sooner was the transformation done, Than dreadful terror of a dog begun. Now. when the wizard saw this latest throe, "Here, be a dog," said he. "and end your woe," But, though a dog, its soul had no release, F^.r fear some tiger might disturb its peace. Into a tiger next the beast was made: And still 'twas pitiful and sore afraid, Because the huntsmen might some ill-starred day, Happen along and take its life away. ''Then," said the wizard, turning to his house, "You have a mouse's heart — now be a mouse." 'Tis so with men: no earthly help or dower Can add one atom to their early power. Them from their smallness nothing can arouse — No art can make a lion from a mouse . — Joel Benton. THE IRRIGATION PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES OF NORTHERN WYOMING. SOME GENERAL IMPRESSIONS. BY CAPT. H. M. CHITTENDEN, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A. The especial purpose of my tour through Wyoming in the months of August and September, 1897, was to investigate the question of the construction of reservoirs in .the arid regions through the agency of the general government. As the result of my investigations of that particular subject has been embodied in an official report which has been made public, and as Mr. Mead in his paper has covered pretty thoroughly all other matters relating to irrigation and water supply in the country traversed, I will attempt to give here only my general impresssions of the trip. The section of the country in the neighborhood of Piney Creek prt sented one feature, not mentioned by Mr. Mead, which particularly attracted my attention, and that was the extent to which irrigation may be carried in a very rough and uneven country. Accustomed as I had been in visiting other se'ctions of the west, to find irrigation generally practiced on broad, flat areas where the distribution of water seemed to be a matter of great simplicity, I had involuntarily arrived at the conclusion that this class of topography is alone well adapted to irrigation. But what I saw in the above locality altered my opinion in this respect. I cannot call to mind another tract, out- side of the mountainous areas themselves, where the topography is so uneven and broken as that just north of the divide between Piney Creek and the upper tributaries of the Tongue River. Yet nearly the whole of this tract was under cultivation, the ditches winding in and out among the hills and the slopes covered with meadows and fields of grain. -The general effect was on the whole more pleasing, though less impressive from the point of view of vastness, than the broad expanses of even land in other localities ."here cultivated fields succeed each other as far as the eye can reach. Piney Creek was about the most favorably conditioned of any of the streams which I \isited in regard to storage reservoirs. There will be no difficulty in conserving the entire flow of that stream above a point about opposite Lake De Smet and utilizing it in agriculture. There is reservoir capacity enough clearly in sight, and land enough to absorb the full resources of the stream. Fortunate would it be if 196 THE IRRIGATION AGE. all streams in the arid regions were equally favored by nature in this respect. On our second day out from Sheridan we visited Dome Lake a nascent summer resort in the Bighorn Mountains under the patronage, I believe of the Burlington Railroad. It may have been the surpassing beauty and sublimity of the scenery around Cloud Peak Lake, which I had seen but a week before, that caused this much-advertised spot to appear altogether tame in comparison. More probably, however, it was the desolate appearance of the surrounding country which is almost divested of the noble forests that once covered it. Here in- deed is an impressive example of the ruin that has spread over many of the forest areas of the west. It alone is sufficient to convince any believer in the necessity of preserving our forests, th,at prompt and vigorous measures ought to be taken by the government to save what remains, and to restore what has been lost. In this connection I may mention a matter which came to my at- tention about a week before. The day before Mr. Mead joined me, I made a short excursion from Buffalo, up the valley of Clear Creek to the old military reservation of Fort McKinney, where I had spent some time nine years before, surveying its boundaries. I passed through the abandoned post, now the property of the State of Wyom- ing. The perfect state of preservation and the neat appearance of everything spoke highly for the care with which this piece of property is being preserved. But I imagine that the state is at a loss to know what to do with it. It at once occurred that here was a central position from which to protect the forests of the entire Bighorn Range. Let the post of Fort McKinney be reoccupied by United States troops, held there to do duty as foresters. If this is not con- sidered a proper function for the regular troops, let a regiment be raised whose duty shall be confined to that of forest protection and let a portion of it garrison this post. There is no good reason that I can think of why the army should not afford the basis of an efficient police system for our national forests; there are many and excellent reasons why it should. From Dome Lake our party proceeded into the Bighorn Basin, a valley renowned in all the history of the west. I had always been desirous of visiting this valley and embraced the present opportunity with much earnestness. My expectations as to its agricultural possi- bilities were pitched pretty high, and I can hardly decide as yet whether they were equalled or the contrary by what I saw. I think that the general impression, as we rolled down the long western slope of the Bighorn Range, was one of disappointment. The scene of widespread desolation, as the endless vista of naked, ashy hills un- folded itself to our view, was not calculated to inspire a feeling of confidence in the future of such a country. It did not seem capable of sustaining a living thing. Yet we had before us the evidence of THE IRR1 GA T10N A GE. 197 abundance of life in the innumerable sheep tracks that covered the ground in every direction. I remember that one of the most spirited arguments that divided our little party was caused by the appearance of these paths which encircled in parallel bands a distant hill, and bore so much the appearance of natural stratifications that it was difficult to tell what they really were. And speaking of the sheep of this country I may say that one fact appeared to me indisputable: namely, that the unrestrained grazing of these vast herds over the public lands of the west is ruin- ously destructive to their best use as grazing lands. It seems to me a thing of the highest importance that these lands be divided as far as possible so that they may pertain to the lands under cultivation in the valleys, giving to each holding of irrigated land an extent of grazing land, and giving to every tract of grazing land access to water somewhere. I believe that the outcome of such an arrange- ment will be that more cattle will be produced in that country than were ever produced under the free range system. The cession of the lands to the states in order that they may be thus leased to bona fide settlers is a question of vital importance to many of the western states. After we had gotten down into the immediate stream valleys of the Bighorn Basin the country took on a more pleasing appearance. The rich soil of the bottom lands was here and there under a state of cultivation which made it an entirely legitimate flight of the imagina- tion to picture a dense and prosperous future population in those valleys. The Bighorn River fully realized the expectations I had formed of it from the many descriptions that have come to my notice. It was a strong, rapid stream, almost perfectly clear where we crossed it, but evidently liable to be completely beclouded at the faintest sug- gestion of rain on the barren hills among which it flows. The growth of irrigation in the Grey Bull valley gave convincing evidence of what this country is yet to be, and I remarked to Mr. Mead that the future would see within its limits a population equal to that of the state of Wyoming at present. I need enter into no further comments upon this valley than to say that the abundance of water in the main stream and its tributaries made the purpose of my visit seem minus a sufficient motive, for surely it will be many years before there will be any pressing necessity for the storage of water there or in any other portion of the Bighorn Basin that fell under my observation. Of all the localities visited by our party, the Wind River valley has left me with the most agreeable impression, unless possibly it is equaled in that respect by the valley of Jackson Hole. As we topped the Owl Creek Divide and looked expectantly across the valley of Wind River for the vast wall of mountains which we knew lay on the farther side, the deep haze made it for an instant indiscernable: but 198 THE IRRIGATION AGE. we soon detected the dim outline, only that its great height and extent at first made it seem impossible that it could be a portion of the earth upon which we stood. Well does it merit the high place which it holds in the history and tradition of this region. Wind River appealed to me as one of the most beautiful streams I had ever seen, and I cannot now recall one which I would place ahead of it in this respect. It was perfectly clear, and the powerful volume of water which it carried along with marvelous rapidity, now in deep boiling pools and again spread out in sparkling ripples over the wide gravel bars, -generally confined within banks of dense willows, and overshadowed by groves of lofty cottonwoods, composed a scene which left little tc be desired by the most critical observer of nature. The fact that we were upon an Indian reservation soon suggested itself in explanation of the absence of habitation or cultivation in that broad and fertile valley; but I then thought, and still think, that if I were to have my choice of a tract of land in the State of Wyoming, I should select it along the grove-do 'cted shores of Wind River in the vicinity of Crow Heart Butte. * Union Pass, as a way of getting over Wind River Mountains, was a distinct disappointment to me. Discovered in 1860 and used ever since, frequently referred to in official reports as an exceptionally easy pass, I had expected to find one of those low and gradual slopes across the mountains which are always sought for as highways of travel. Instead, we found at the northern approach an excessively long and steep ascent which finally landed us on the bleak and barren summit of a mountain, so obviously out of our desired course and so much higher than the land to our right, where we ought to have gone, that it excited considerable adverse comment among the party. The accident which led to this peculiar choice was no doubt the open space on the summit where the original discoverer was able to fix his bear- ings from prominent points in the surrounding country. This was an important matter at the time, but is no longer so, and it is to be hoped that a better and more direct route will be selected when government appropriation for this road is made advisable. The summit of the pass was without exception the windiest spot we encountered, and from the oblique growth of all vegetation in the vicinity, it was evident that the wind is blowing there most of the time and in one direction. What connection, if any, this fact may have with the name of the mountain and river is of course conjectural, but I think few of our party would have doubted the propriety of "Windy Pass" for the point where we crossed. The southern or western descent from the pass was a process which no one could tell the end of. Crossing some of the headwaters of the Gros Ventre, we passed over onto the watershed of Green River and then swung back onto the Gros Ventre. The landscape from the point where we overlooked the celebrated Green River was THE IREIGATION AGE. 199 very fine, and disclosed a worthy gathering ground for the waters of one of the most noted streams of the west. It is a stream, however, which I fear will be of less use than almost any other in the agricul- tural development of the west. At its headwaters the land is so ele- vated that but few crops can be raised while further down it sinks in- to those deep gorges, of which the Grand Canon of the Colorado is one, while its diversion to the uplands seems physicially impossible. Perhaps near the end of its course in the Gulf of California, it will yet be used in the tropical climes of Arizona or California. While we were yet on Union Pass we saw for the first time what every traveler in that region always looks for, the lofty peak of the Grand Teton Mountains Wherever seen it is an impressive sight, but it was especially so at this great distance, from which it looked like a thin spire piercing the sky, scarcely visible except for the patches of snow that covered it. Two days elapsed before we reached .ts base, but it was in view at intervals in the meanwhile, and we could well appreciate how important it must have been to wanderers in the early days when no roads crossed the country. In approach- ing it we were at a loss to see why this peak and its immediate neighbors came to be called The Three Tetons, for there seemed to be several of the lesser peaks of equal prominence. But two days later, when I found myself on the other side of the range and looked at it from the west, the explanation was obvious enough. From that point of view, there are three distinct peaks which stand out prominently above all others. This wonderful range of mountains and the no less wonderful valley at its eastern base have received the enthusiastic encomiums of every traveler who has seen them. This continent affords not their equal, and it is a great pity that the tour of the Yellowstone Park, which lies to the north, cannot be made to embrace them. To the lover of sublime and beautiful scenery they are beyond praise. Mr Mead has spoken of the agricultural possibilities of this fa- vored valley and I will say nothing upon that point. It was here that I left the rest of the party, who turned north into the Yellowstone Park, while I made my way to the nearest railroad station, Market Lake, Idaho. Our hospitable host in Jackson Hole Valley, Mr. R. E. Miller, treated us very shabbily in the matter of weather. We were received at his place by the only rain of any consequence which we encountered on the entire trip, and a rain which was long and vigor- ous enough to make up for previous deficiences. In fact I have seen few more severe downpourings than that which prevailed nearly the entire day following our arrival. Mr. Miller, however, atoned as far as possible for this inhospitable reception by accompanying me on my first day's journey, which I found it impossible to postpone for better weather. On horseback we made our way for seven hours in a drenching rain, across the summit of the Teton Range and into the THE IRRIGATION AGE. 201 State of Idaho. Teton Pass is incomparably the most difficult pass I have met with in the mountains. Its slopes are so steep that one would scarcely believe it possible for wagons to cross did he not see the evidence of their having done so. Unlike most passes, the two slopes of this one come together almost like the top of a roof, wit(h no space on top; and it is but a mild exaggeration to say that a saddle horse on arriving at the top is laboriously digging it way up on one side with its hind feet and vigorously bracing with its fore feet to keep from sliding down the other. On the summit of this pass we were in dense clouds from which the rain came down in perfect floods until we were drenched through and through. The road carried such torrents of water that it seemed unsafe to travel in, but the occasion afforded an excellent opportunity of seeing how forests protect mountain slopes from erosion by the elements. The heavy rain causes streams of water to pour down every gully or depression, but wherever this was in the forest areas the water came out clear, notwithstanding its heavy volume. Wher- ever we came upon open tracts destitute of vegetation the surface water was invariably laden with sediment. That night we rested in the little village of Victor, being more nearly played out than we were ready to admit. Next day the eighty miles which I had to travel to reach the railroad took me through the Teton valley, or as it used to be called, Pierre's Hole, and down Henry and Snake rivers to Market Lake. Pierre's valley is well situated for the development of irrigation, although I apprehend that if its lands are ever all brought under cultivation the water supply may not be equal to the requirements. The valley is some 30 miles long, and I should say 10 to 15 wide, and will yet be the home of dense population. In the valleys of Henry Pork and the main Snake River, there was a degree of system about the distribution of water that I had not else- where noticed. I was greatly struck by the extent of these distribu- tion systems, their regularity and thoroughness of construction, and particularly by the way in which the canals or ditches were raised above the general level and held between embankments. Although in the rapid progress we were making, I saw only what was visible from the highway, still there was enough to give me a high idea of the thrift and good management that pervaded this entire country. The question involuntarily arose, What people is this that understands its business so well and pursues it so industriously? I did not, however, have to ask, for the inscription "L. D. S.," which crowned the door- ways of the numerous churches we passed gave me the answer, must say that this exhibition of material prosperity did more to in- cline me toward the doctrines of this much-abused people than did the persuasions of my driver, an ex-Mormon missionary, who seemed to think this an excellent opportunity, and myself a promising subject, for the resumption of his abandoned calling. Although the general 202 THE IRRIGATION AGE. effect of his remarks was extremely evanescent, he did at one point excite my curiosity at his apparent insight into the thoughts of others, for although I had said not a word of my business, he evidently knew that I was looking up the subject of reservoirs. At least I inferred as much, because, among his persuasive arguments, he held out the fol- lowing mild and attractive view of the subject of damnation — that it did not mean at all eternal punishment or endless suffering, but simply a postponement of happiness which will later return in fuller measure, just as in damming a stream, the waters are held back for a season, only that they may eventually flow forth to greater harvests and more bountiful fruition. This simile, metaphor, or whatever form of paral- lelism it may be best designated by, was too conclusive to admit of any reply and I remained lost in reflection until the welcome light in the railway station at Market Lake burst into view. The general result of my long journey was to confirm the favor- able opinion which I have held upon the subject of irrigation since my first acquaintance with the West some .ten years ago. Although I have not entertained the visionary hopes of those who expect to see a garden spot throughout the entire West, and who believe that the time will ever come when there will not be a great American desert, still I have always been of the opinion that the future greatness of that part of our country, no less than of those sections blessed with an abundant rainfall, is bound to rest ultimately upon its agricultural de- velopment. NORTHERN HIBERNIA. AN AMERICAN IRRIGATION ENGINEER'S PROFES- SIONAL SURVEY THROUGH THE COUNTRY. BY LODIAX LODIAN, C. E., Paris, Prance. (Original for this Journal.) My chief object in this second trip to the north of Ireland was to make various hydrographic surveys in connection with a call for a re- port on the projected isthmus to connect septentrional Anglia and Erin. As this is also a big irrigation project, lower down I will say a little relative thereto. My professional researches brought me in close contact with the poor men, women and children who are the backbone of Ireland; and the memory of this short sojourn is filled with pleasure at the frank, open character of the people, and the charming bonhomie and kind- ness with which they meet those in whom their keen perception de- tects sympathy. The Irish boys and girls have a most attractive ingenuousness about them — that is, the poor cotters' and small farmers' children you meet in the hills and in the glens, looking after the sheep or going to milk their small goats and cows. One peculiar habit I noticed was that of the barefooted and bareheaded Irish girls, in per- chance returning with some purchases from an adjacent village, of sheltering themselves under one shawl — not from any need of shelter against adverse weather, but simply from a sort of clinging lovingness of nature, adherent in the mass of poor Irish. As a rule, they are keenly sensitive, appreciative and accurate in their ability to read character, and, with their open impulsiveness, they act quickly upon their judgment in meeting a stranger. Their facility of utterance contrasts remarkably with what holds with the same class of farm girls in England, who generally lack words for a prompt reply. Here, in this respect only, the Irish are distinctly French -like. We are apt to forget that their mother tongue is Erse, and that they have had to learn another language — the English — which they often speak with facility, seldom hesitating for words to express their ideas, though the broad vowels, full rs and strongly aspirated h's largely inflect their speech. The mountain air seems to bloom on their cheeks and add vivacity to their sparkling eyes; and the purity of their lives to make them speak from their souls, rather than simply by their mouths as is the case with more educated'people. 204 THE IRRIGATION AGE. I overtook two of these girls in an old water- worn lane amid the hills in Antrim, my arrival interrupting an apparently earnest conver- sation, and diverting their attention to my photographic kit. After a nod and a smile in a short walk, we arrived at a broken bridge or cul- vert, the arch of which had tumbled into a deep gully in the hill; and this took my fancy for a view. Their curiosity increased on my open- ing out the case, uncovering the instrument for focusing, and they were delighted when asked to hold the tripod on the rocky ground. Just then a gust of wind carried off one of my numerous papers con- tained in the kit, and off went one of the girls in hot pursuit after it, over the stone fence, across the field, and away into the stream filled with boulders. Finally she "heaved" (brought) it to me— a worthless scrap — for which I thanked her as if I considered it of real value. On showing them the inverted reflection on the ground-glass, an explana- tion of the inversion was required, and this (not having time for a lec- ture on optics) I satisfied them by saying, "Oh, that's a reflection merely, as you sometimes see the moon in the water." "5 1 took two views here, and then made them merry with my propo- sal to photograph the two under their shawl. "I wish it were Sunday, for I then wear a hat, you know," said one. "And I wear boots and stockings when I go to chapel," added the other, swelling with pride. I had to stop their merry chatter somehow, for I had no large dia- phragms for rapid exposure. With a formidable ambition for effect, for contrast, the idea occurred to me to make one of them frown while the other smiled, but for some time I was not successful in provoking a frown, until I suddenly blamed one of them for causing me a loss of THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 205 time, and I immediately caught the sad expression it caused. I had then to beg the girl's pardon, for she had taken it so seriously and said with tears in her voice that my words had "scalded"' her heart. All the rippling laughter was ended then for a time. This little incident was one illustration I had of the sensitive na- ture of the humble Irish folks, to whose open soul, a wrong, though unintentional, is as a flaw in a gem — there, and irradicable while the gem lasts or memory survives. They helped me with my instrument down the steep sides of the stream, and shortly after, I left the two poor Irish girls, who smiled at parting as in meeting them noar the broken bridge on the road from Ballycavot to Torhead. My objective point was the gulf stream at the narrow "north passage," where the Irish Sea flows between the shores, separated at present by a distance of twelve miles, though some guide-books give it as eleven miles — it would be more correct to say "Irish miles, "which an Irishman explained as "being a bit over," which they were obliged to throw in beyond fair measure to their English conquerors. Pair- head is on the way to Torhead. There are two giant's causeways, and the sites of both merit in- spection by irrigation engineers. Everybody knows the world-famous causeway in Ireland at its near connection with Scotland, so veritably manifest at the isle of Staffa and the intervening isles of Colonsay, Islay and Rathlin. There was, in fact, the Giant's causeway, making Scotland and Ireland one island. In what form that ancient way existed to occupy its near- ly seventy miles junction, will ever remain an inscrutible mystery of nature. The traveller in those parts, even if no geologist, sees the break in the basaltic columns, now submerged by the sea, and feels the conviction that the sea has filled the gap, made ages and ages ago by some convulsion of nature, which at the upheaval and subsidence, moulded the conglomerate of earths and metals into the myriads of mighty columns that reach for many miles down the coast of Ireland, southeast of the giant's causeway. This is the one referred to, but this is not now a causeway at all, but the mouth of the passage through which the gulf stream pours in from the north-west in never- pausing volume, estimated as being several cubic miles in extent, daily, and flooding the. fore-shores. An isthmus is proposed here, with great works, for gravitating suitable material to make up and fill in the lines of breakwaters ex- tending from land to land. The iron, coal and lime-stone, which form the bold head-land "Fairhead," 640 feet high, is worked now, as it has been for ages past. One mountain rock, Knockalayd, 1800 feet high, also others, as Carnlea and Escot on the Irish coast here, and 206 THE IRRIGATION AGE. equally suitable rock on the Kintire coast at Banan-head, Dess-point • and other mining headlands opposite Torhead in Antrim. Of course, the promoter, being surveyor and engineer, with a wide experience of work and means, did not fling off his idea, and leave it nebulous for others to mould into working order. He joined figures to facts, and proposed that it should be a national enterprise — this gigantic isthmus scheme— that should not be made a pretext for taxa- tion, but should, by the reclamation of land, secure the redemptions by rents of a special issue of costless paper-money, and cheap metai tokens, and that all able-bodied convicts of the state should be worked here, however short their term of sentence. Details in other forms of a practical nature were briefly stated by the engineer. This is the other giant's causeway which would make the sister islands integral. The projector says "It is not engineer's work to fill up a big ditch." He has spent his time, means and money in his investigations, and has issued two editions of his "land-junction" pamphlets and charts and is now engaged on a third edition, looking forward to no gain from it "except financially," and willing, as heretofore, to give a part of his busy life to its fulfilment, which he says will cost about £3,000,000 of paper-money, and occupy three years to accomplish. The study of Fairhead with its varied stone and mineral wealth ranging from brownstone, coal and limestone to basaltic rock and gran- ite, possessed for me the greatest interest for the purposes of the proposed isthmus. Fairhead is honey-combed with coal, iron, and limestone; and stone -workings and air-shafts, some of them ages old, are found. The bold headland, over 600 feet high, is backed by the round- topped hill of Knockalayd, nearly 1,700 feet high, with a pretty town — Bally castle — nestling almost between the "head," the "hill" and the sea at its narrowest part. Here I rested myself and my camera, after long tours afoot, from which I only returned at 9 or 10 o'clock at night, oftentimes seeing no one in twelve hours' outing but a shepherd or perhaps children, whose homes would be in some out-of-the-way nook in the hills. The question of food may occur to the reader. This was surely the mountain air, for although possessing a fair appetite I often con- tented myself with a biscuit and drink from some rill. When I arrived at Ballycastle for the first time early Sunday morning, I was shown good quarters by the kind village post-man. This was at Mrs. Blair's in the main street — a quiet, comfortably- furnished home, where without fuss a breakfast was at once set be- fore me, along with slippers for my aching feet; and I may add that my welcome was increased by the proprietor's two nice daughters, who talked genially and without intrusiveness. People know that touring is cheap in Ireland, so I shall astonish, no one by mentioning that the tariff was 1 s per night for one room. THE IRRIGATION AGE. 207 The table was equally reasonable, and with ample choice to order of fish, joint and fowl, besides which there was a large drawing-room for reading and writing, which for me "was especially convenient with the plans and charts I was working upon. [The writer wishes at once to acknowledge his indebtedness for collaboration in these and other notes to follow to C. Rinald, c. e., 'la Herre', Val-Roger, Villiers- sur-Marne, France. — L. L.] THE BURIED MOTHER. Out by the walls of the Danish town, The graves stood cold as the night came down. The Angelus prayer had long been said, And the bells tolled out the Psalm for the dead; It swung for awhile from the darkening steeple, "Out of the depths," said priest and people. Through all the close set town and towers The doors were shut for the silent hours. But a mother, buried for half a year, Woke with a crying in her ear. She woke with the vague sleep still in her head, And clad in the shroud that wraps the dead, She left the cold graves under the walls And took the streets to her husband's halls. She felt her long-dead bosom ache, For her seven children were all awake: And none had broken them bread that night Or poured them beer or trimmed a light. And none had laid them pillow or sheet; The dust of the day was on their feet. Two strove for an empty cup, and one Was crying — that was her youngest son. She washed and kissed them, and hushed their cries; While tears pressed out of her long-dead eyes. But their father, who lay on a lower floor, Had heard her step on the corridor. And he arose and came, and saw her stand With the childreu clinging to either hand. She said, "The crying smot? my heart, It broke my dreams of death apart. "I was loath to leave these seven, I died, But when have I slept when the child has cried? "Take note, ere I pass to my many dead; Your children woke and had no breml. "No fire, no lamp: two were at strife: One cried uncomforted. Tell your wife." —Magazine of Art. To the Editor of the IRRIGATION AGE : Dear Sir: — As the Farmers'^Homeseekers's League has as yet no paid secretary, and as my time is so taken up with my own business as to render it impossible for me to answer individually the numerous letters received during the past month, I am compelled to trespass on your valuable space to furnish our brother homeseekers with the information they seek. Applicants for membership should send to the secretary a statement somewhat as follows: "1. There is, to my knowledge, nothing to prevent my becoming a useful and desirable member of the F. H. League and in joining I promise to do my utmost to fulfill my duty in the colony and in every way promote the best interests of the League. 2. My age is my occupation my family (if any) consists of aged 3. I have sufficient means to contribute my share of the cost of preparing the new settlement for occupation, provided the same does not exceed ($100, $200, $300) per colonist (head of family). 4. I give the following as my references 5. I am willing to uphold the principals that (a) Every member of our colony shall be entitled to the fruits of his own labor, (b.) The best interests of the colony at large shall have precedence over individual considerations. 6. In securing recruits for our colony I will recommend only such as will prove desirable members and will avoid those who might, in any way, hinder the success of our movement. " I will state my reasons for suggesting irrigated land for our colony to settle on in preference to land dependent on rainfall : 1. Irrigated land is many times more productive and sure of returns. The irri- gator can calculate almost with certainity on fair returns for his labor, while the farmer dependent on the rainfall has to wait until the thresher tells the tale to know whether his year's operations have yielded him a living or resulted in heavy losses. 2- Less capital is required to start with. 3. It takes less time to bring land to the producing stage. 4. Much of the heavy work and drudgery of ordinary farming is not met with in irrigation culture. 5. The localities where irrigated lands are mostly located are remarkably health- ful, being especially so to sufferers from consumption, catarrh and kindred diseases. There are yet other weighty considerations which I will refer to when time and space permit. Very Eespectfully, J. HAMMOND, Member F. H. League. WHY CALLED "FARMERS' HOMESEEKERS' LEAGUE." Our title is not intended to convey the impression that only farmers are admitted to membership. It was adopted because the movement originated among men of that calling and it was decided that the policy of the League should be to see that the THE IRRIGATION AGE 209 colony contained a sufficient number of practical, experienced food-producers to pre- clude any possibility of failure through ignorance on the part of the colonists. In all probability we will welcome to our ranks a number from other walks of life. We will endeavor to find room for any man, whose superior intelligence and willingness to undergo the necessary training to fit him for the work, lead us to believe that he will prosper in a new home. We must also have among us a sufficient number of craftsmen to insure the comfort and prosperity of the colonists. SHALL WE SEND OUT PIONEERS? Let us assume that one colony consists of 500 able-bodied men,some of whom have families and some of whom not. Manifestly our best policy would be to send out the men unencumbered with families, to prepare the new homes for their future occupants, remunerating them, of course, for the work done on the property of their brothers who stay behind. These latter may decide to have this arrangement continue until their land is brought to the producing stage, in which case they need not give up their pres- ent means of livelihood until the land is capable of supporting them. WHAT CAPITAL WILL BE REQUIRED? Assuming, again, that our colony consists of 500 able-bodied men. of whom 200 go t as pioneers to prepare for each colonist (head of a family) 40 acres of land we may give, as a rough estimate. $50,000 as the sum which will be required the first six months and a like amount the second six months, or an average of $100 per colonist for each six months. The pioneers' portion of this amount being, of course, less than that of the other colonists. The expenditures for the first six months would include ma- chinery for irrigating purposes. 250 horses and harnesses, farming implements, tools. etc. . lumber for building houses for the pioneers, transportation expenses, young trees, seeds, etc.. and the expense of maintaining 200 men for six months. For the second six months the expenditure would include the cost of material for the building of 500 small cottages, maintenance of 200 men for six months, seeds, trees, etc. VALUE OF THE LAND AT THE END OF THE FIRST YEAk. The probable value of the colony's property at the end of the first year would be 20.000 acres improved irrigated land, (partly under cultivation) consisting of 500 40- acre plats, each with small cottage thereon $1,000,000, the original cost of which was £200,000. The colony in addition to its land would have valuable assets consisting of an irrigation system, town site, irrigation machinery outfit, implements, horses, tools, etc. . depreciated by one vear's use. SIZE OF LOTS. The amount of land each colonist should hold is a matter of considerable import- ance. If the lots are too large, the colonists are so far apart that it tends to create that feeling of isolation, which to many people is the chief drawback to country life. It also is a temptation to the holder to attempt to cultivate more land than he can proper- ly take care of. and in thus attempting to do too much he does none of it well. On the other hand a lot so small as to be insufficient for the support of a colonist's family is an evil equally to be avoided. Shall we put the amount of land at from 20 to 40 acres ? Give us your opinions on this point. The Mormons have become a very pros- perous community on 20 -acre holdings while other colonies have adopted larger tracts. OPEN TO CRITICISM. All our readers are invited to give their opinions on the above and a frank criti- cism of the ideas promulgated in the above paragraphs is desired. By giving us the benefit of your advise and experience the plans formed may result in placing the colony on a firm and sound basis. WHERE SHALL WE SETTLE? Should we succeed in securing the 500 members desired to which end we are striving, we will proceed to ascertain which of the western or southwestern states is sufficiently wide awake to offer us adequate inducements for settlement within its borders. Xo offer that does not include the following advantages will be entertained : A tract of land free of charge, where an irrigation system can be easily and cheaply oonstructed.having fertile soil .favorable climate and railroad facilities within easy reach. THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. tn diversified farming by irrigation lies tne salvation of agriculture. THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pic- tures of fields, orchards and farm homes; prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs, Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns hen houses, corn cribs, etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help us improve the appearance of THE AGE? A MODEL BARN. Few farmers can afford to bave as com- plete and fine a dairy barn as the one the barn was obtained. Our limited space has obliged us to condense the ex- cellent article given by W. L. Carlyle, in the accompanying illustration— that of and also to omit some of the illustrations. FIG. 1.— Cross-section of cow-stall and stable floor, showing location of manger and manure gutter. A, gate; B, front side panel; C, frame work supporting side panel; D, swinging panel; E, manger: f. g, sides of manger; H, manure gutter; k, k, gate bars; m, pin arranged with a spring for fastening gate; n, eye for chain; p, arrangement for moving swinging panel. the College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin — but from a description of it an idea may be gained of the progress made by dairymen, and valuable hints derived which may be put to practical use when building a new barn. A brief men- tion was made last month of the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Wisconsin College, from which the following description of We present those which we think will give the best idea of the interior arrangement of the stable. The cuts were loaned us through the kindness of Dean Henry and Prof. W. L. Carlysle. The building, which is of frame, con- sists of the barn proper, 86 feet long by 50 feet wide, with two wings, each 70 feet long, projecting at right angles from each 212 THE 1RRIGA TTON A GE. end of the main building. A large class- room is located between the two wings. The main building^is three stories high and the wings two stories. The material D FIG. 2.— Front view of cow stall. for filling the silo, the hay bays, and the straw for bedding, as well as the grain, is taken* into the top floor, a steel trestle of moderate grade leading up to it, as shown second floor may be termed a "store room" for feed, etc, , while the main floor is taken up by the milk room, herdsman's room, hospital for the stock, etc. The cow stable proper, to which we wish to call especial attention, is located in the left wing of the barn. It is 10 by 70 feet lined throughout with corrugated gal- vanized sheeting, and as the walls and ceilings can thus be washed whenever nec- essary with a hose and scrub brush, per- fect cleanliness is insured. The floor is of Portland cement and crushed granite, with a slightly sloping surface, leading all water used in washing and scrubbing to the sewer drains. Fig. 1 shows a cross section of the floor and mangers of the stable. The mangers are built up from and composed of the same material as the floor. The manure gutters behind the cows are 16 inches wide and slope toward the center of the stable where a trap can be opened connecting with a sewer to be used only in flushing out the stable with water. The manger is so arranged as to be used for watering as well as feeding. The water Fig. 3.-Plan in the illustration. A wagon scale is lo- cated at the entrance, so that everything may be weighed, and the ensilage and fod- der cutter are also on this floor. By trap doors and a little machinery the ensilage is dropped into the silo, the cut food, grain and bedding to the lower floors. The of cow stall. flows into the manger at either end from a pipe, and can be drained into the sewer by removing a valve, as the mangers, too, slope slightly toward the center. The barn is arranged for thirty-six cows, with the two rows of stalls facing each other and a ten-foot passage between, wide THE IRRIGATION AGE. 213 enough to admit of a team being driven through. The stalls are constructed of gas pipe posts with frame-work of gates D that the droppings are received into the manure gutter and not on the floor of the stall. The side panels of the stalls are Fig. 4. — Perspective view of improved cow stall. and panels of channel-iron supporting a mesh of Xo. 7 woven wire. (Figs. 2, 3 and 4. The figures show how the posts are an- chored in a cement foundation. The let- ter C indicates the frame-work extend- hinged to accommodate] the milkers and allow the cows to pass out without back- ing over the manure gutter. The stable for young stock consists of an arrangement of stanchions and mangers similar to that of Fig. 5, which is a bull F:g. 5 — Perspective view of ball ing the length of each row of stalls to sup- port the front part of the side panels and give them rigidity. D indicates the swinging panel which may be moved (see P) to suit the length of the cow, forcing a small cow to stand well back in her stall stall, showing gate and stanchion, stall, with the exception that the bars and gates are not so heavy as those of the latter. The whole makes up a stable'which, in point of cleanliness, ventilation and gen- eral sanitary arrangements, far excels many dwelling houses. 214 THE IRRIGATION AGE. A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION. WALLULA, WASH., Feb. 15, 1899. EDITOK IRRIGATION AGE : Dear Sir: — I saw an article in the Feb- ruary mimber that is so at variance with years of observation and experience that I cannot help calling your attention to it. The writer says : "There is no kind of culture that can compare with horticulture in this particular of appropriating water, except cow culture. Milk is also mainly water, but wet as milk is, it contains more dry matter than an equal weight of plums, gooseberries or turnips. And there is this difference between milk and fruits : the more water milk has in it the poorer the milk is ; the more water you can get into fruits the better they are.'This may be a fact in Kansas but it is not so in the far West. I have seen fruit ruined by over water- ing. You can injure the color of phecaes by over-irrigating. I speak of peaches because they have been my specialty. I have seen many hundreds of sacks of po- tatoes ruined by over-irrigation. It is a science not easily learned — to know when you have irrigated them just enough ; it can be learned only by careful observa- tion and experience. Porous soil can be ir- rigated with more impunity, with less dan- ger of injuring the crop thaa compact soil . I am aware that milk can be ruined by over- watering, in fact I am not sure that •water, when put in the richest of milk helps it in the least, while water on some soils when applied in large quantities, will make an almost unrecognizable change in color, size and flavor in both fruits and vegetables. But do not deceive your- selves and think because water is a good thing for all crops that you cannot overdo it. If your conditions are like they are in the West, over-watering will make your potatoes soggy, your fruit sour and insipid. I once shippad a carload of watermel- ons to Helena, Montana. After I had made arrangements with the commission merchant to handle my melons, I told im I had forty boxes of peaches wanted to know what he would give m<» for them. He said, "I wish you would see if you can't dispose of them to some retail dealer; they would have to be of better quality than I have seen from your state if I could afford to give you more than 45 or 50 cents per box." He took me around to see his fine California peaches. "Now see how large and fine those are; try them; .all in fine condition. Peaches from your state do not stand up well Aint those fine ?" I replied, ' 'Yes, sir, you have fine looking peaches, but that is all. I offer you a real peach." He asked what I meant. "Sir, when you eat one of my peaches you want another and another, until your hunger for peaches is satisfied. One or two is all you want of this kind. " A few hours later my peaches arrived. After examining them he said : "I will give you 80 cents per box." "Kaise her 5 cents and they are yours," and they sold at 85. He said they had the finest flavor of any he had tasted since he had been in the commission business. Those peaches were raised on sub-irri- gated land. The river is the highest about the 20th of June. I do not believe any kind of irrigation is so good as this, although I have had one or two crops that were not good on account of the river re- maining up too long, and I think they were not cultivated enough. I have land that the river does effect, that I hope some day to irrigate by steam or current wheel. In this I shall have much to learn as my soil differs greatly from other irrigated land near me. Yours respectfully, T. B. H. ACTIVE SOLICITORS WANTED EVERY- *» where for "The Story of the Philippines," by Murat Halstead, commissioned by the Govern- ment as Official Historian to the War Depart- ment. This book was written in army camps at San Francisco, on the Pacific with General Merritt, in the hospitals at Honolulu, in Hong Kong, in the American trenches at Manila, in the insurgent camps with Aguinaldo, on the deck of the Olympia with Dewey, and in the roar of battle at the fall of Manila. Bonanza for agents. Brimful of original pictures taken by government photographers on the spot. Large bjook. Low prices. Big profits. Freight paid. Credit given, Drop all trashy unofficial war books. Outfit free. Address, H, L. Barber, Gen. Mngr., 356 Dearborn Street, Chicago. PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. SENATOR WARREN'S WORK. In the late sessions of Congress Senator Warren, of Wyoming, made an eloquent plea for the desired appropriation of $35.000 for irrigation investigation. In his opinion it was the most important in the entire bill. He said: — "This is not a local proposition nor a local want in a narrow sense, nor is it narrow in any sense. It is a very broad subject and a burning one with many people and localities. It is fallacious to think it applies to only the strictly arid region. Irrigation will benefit all parts of the country, each and every state in the union, if only a knowledge of its ap- plication and benefits be properly dis- seminated. I do not think I overstate its value when I say that irrigation and re- clamation of land is the most important economical subject or problem that we have before us today and capable of yield- ing- the largest returns to us as a people for the expense of providing for and prose- cuting vigorously this department work. It is a national want more than a state or individual one, the nation at large being the great beneficiary from every point of The United States owns exclusive of Alaska, about 700,000,000 acres of public land, about 550,000,000 acres of which is arid and practically useless except as to some portions which furnish very thin grazing. To apply the waters of the streams to the lands and to impound and use the storm waters intelligently upon these arid wastes is practically to create land, and of the most valuable character." Later on, in referring to the value of the land he said: — "The value of irrigable and irrigated lands and irrigation water depends upon wise laws governing the ownership and distribution of water, a knowledge of the best assimilation of land and water, and its power and adaptability with reference to the different agricultural crops. The Secretary of Agriculture says, in speaking of irrigation, in'his last annual report: Unfortunately, the accurate information on which alone intelligent reforms can be based is almost wholly lacking. As the problems which confront these communi- ties are. in a general way, the same, and in many particulars affect the national as well as local interests, it is highly appro- priate that the National Government should undertake investigations to aid in the solution of the problems of irrigation. As many of these problems are directly connected with those in other agricultural lines in which the department and the experiment stations are working it is my judgment that this department should be put in a position to efficiently organize and conduct important investigations in thi« line. A noted and most competent expert in irrigation, Prof. Elwood Mead, State engineer of Wyoming, in speaking of this department work, says: It is the purpose of this investigation to aid the state irrigation authorities in their work of framing and enforcing laws for the distribution and beneficial use of the rivers of the arid region: to help farmers in their 3fforts to secure the con- servation and best use of that supply, and to collect and arrange the facts which will tend to promote wise legislation by Con- gress for the reclamation or disposal of the remainder of the public domain. The same author further says: The history of all irrigated countries show that wise laws do more for the pros- perity of their farmers than a fertile soil or abundant water supply. The settle- ment of the arid West, the separation of single drainage areas into different politi- cal divisions, and the necessity of framing laws to meet emergencies before experi- ence or study had shown what those laws should embrace have created industrial and legal complications which threatened the stability and value of the irrigated farms, and whose solution will require all the wisdom and patience of our ablest minds. The investigation of institutions 216 THE IRRIGATION AGE. inaugurated by the department is des- tined, I am confident, to mark a new and better era of irrigation development for the arid states." MR. NEWELL'S REPORT. In response to the resolution passed by the Senate Feb. 7, Resolved, That the Secretary of the In- terior be and hereby is, directed to furnish in concise form for the use of the Senate a general statement of the origin, character and extent of the surveys of reservoir sites made by the United States Geologi- cal Survey, with brief memoranda as to present conditions of water storage and the most important sites in each large hydrographic basin, also a summary of estimates as to probable cost of construct- ing suitable dams at points where the stored water will be of most immediate value to the public. Secretary of the Interior, C. N. Bliss, pre- sented the report prepared by Mr. F. H. Newell, hydrographer, entitled "Surveys of Reservoir Sites," which is valuable for reference as well as interesting to all who are in sympathy with the irrigation move- ment. Mr. Newell 's report traces the work of the government surveys from the report prepared by Maj. J. W. Powell, April 1, 1878, on the "Lands of the Arid Region," to the investigations of recent times. A history of the extent and char- acter of the surveys is given, with a dis- cussion of the present conditions, requi- sites for success, and important reservoir sites. In speaking of the present condi- tions Mr. Newell says: "One fact has come prominently for- ward during the last ten years, since the inauguration of the reservoir work, and that is that water storage on a large scale can rarely be made profitable to individ- uals or corporations. Water conservation is expensive at best, and existing condi- tions, laws, and customs are such that the person who builds a dam on the head waters of a stream is rarely in a position to be benefited financially by the water which he impounds. * * * * While reservoirs in general cannot be made sources of profit to the investors, there is no gainsaying the fact that they are indis- pensable to the community. They may be classed with light-houses and works of internal improvement, which, under ex- isting laws and customs, can not be made sources of private gain, and yet must be had if a full development of the natural resources is to be obtained. The one great demand of the western half of the United States is for more water during times of scarcity. This has been particularly accentuated by the droughts of 1898, when millions of dollars were lost through lack of ordinary supply. It is highly probable that the aggregate losses to the communities, if these could have been put in the form of works for conserv- ing flood water, would have repaid the cost of all such works. Such losses are so dis- tributed and so far-reaching that it is, of course, impossible to segregate them, or to indicate definitely the individuals most deeply concerned. They are, moreover, of such character that only the communi- ty as a whole is competent to guard against them, individual, or even corpor- ate action, not being possible. The state or the nation must provide the means by which disasters of this kind may in the future be avoided. Ten years ago it was commonly asserted that every acre of the arid land could be reclaimed. Now there is no longer talk of irrigating every acre of the fertile lands of the arid region, and comparatively little interest is displayed as to whether 10 or 15 per cent of these lands can be reclaimed. Public sentiment is now concentrated on the question how the relatively small quantity of water can be conserved for the largest use, it being apparent that by such conservation a pop- ulation of many million can be directly or indirectly sustained." ACTIVE SOLICITORS WANTED EVERY- ** where for "The Story of the Philippines," by Murat Halstead, commissioned by the Govern- ment as Official Historian to the War Depart- ment. The book was written in army camps at San Francisco, on the Pacific with General Merritt, In the hospitals at Honolulu, in Hong Kong, in the American trenches at Manila, in the insurgents camps with Aguinaldo, on the deck of the Olympia with Dewey, and in the roar of battle at the fall of Manila. Bonanza for agents. Brimful of original pictures taken by government photographers on the spot. Large book. Low prices. Big profits. Freight paid. Credit given. Drop all trashy unofficial war books. Outfit free. Address, H. L, Barber, Gen. Mngr., 356 Dearborn Street, Chicago. SCRIBNER'S. W. J. Henderson, whose family have long been in the business of -managing theatres, writes for the March Scribner's a very clear account of "The Business of a Theatre. " unfolding that side of theatri- cal affairs of which the public is profound- ly ignorant. Jesse Lynch Williams, whose newspaper stories have made a success, contributes the famous tale of the "Cub Reporter," who had been a half-back and stirs up his college to burn the King of Spain in effigy, and Albert White Vorse introduces to us a new field of fiction in the story about the Eskimos. Senator Hoar's Reminis- cences give an important and hitherto unpublished letter of Daniel Webster, regarding slavery. In his "Search-Light Letters" Robert Grant speaks of the growing snobbism of Americans, "the appetite for social tittle- tattle." displayed by the poor who desire to hear what the wealthy class do and say. He says: "But this is not the spirit of the United States, nor are these the best Americans. Our nation is strange in this respect. We wear our faults upon our sleeves, or rather we suffer a surface popu- lation to belie us in various walks of life. That is the reason why the foreigners who come over here and t,ry to amass the materials for a book in a few months fail to understand us as we really are. They are led by superficially prominent indica- tions to believe many things which are true only of a limited portion of the popu- lation, and they fail to perceive the sturdi- ness of character, the independence of view, and the social charm which distin- guishes a large and constantly increasing portion of the American people, who are neither extravagant plutocrats nor vulgar republican braggarts and despisers of civ- ilized practices." The little booklet of the Frank B. White Company. February issue, is of neat and attractive appearance, and to us of espe- cial interest, due no doubt to the kindly mention given the AGE. LADIES' HOME JOURNAL. Despite his dislike to be photographed. Pope Leo XJII has permited himself to be pictured by the Biograph, and a number of the most interesting portraits are found in the March issue. They show the ven- erable Pontiff in the grounds of the Vati- can, passing along his favorite walks and drives, attended by his secretary, guards, or members of his household. The pict- ures are exceedingly interesting in show- ing the Pope as he lives at the Vatican, and his surroundings, and are doubly valuable because they are the first pictures that have been made of the Pope in a great many years. "What it means to be a Wife." by Helen Watterson Moody, is one of those common-sense articles that it does one good to read. She does not give any rules on ''how to manage a husband" as she claims (with truth) that a man who can be managed is not worth writing about. MOCLTJRE'S MAGAZINE. The March McClure's is an unusually good number 01 a magazine that never fails to supply something out of the ordi nary. An account of Tripler's invention and process for reducing ordinary air to a liquid of such wonderous potency that it may displace steam and electricity and supply, at next to no cost, all the force re- quired in all the mechanical operations of life, brings us to the "edge of the future'' with a sweep that takes one's breath. Somewhat the same palpitant expectancy is raised by Lieutenant Peary's account of his plans and hopes for the new explora- tion for the North Pole, in the prosecution of which he is now established somewhere in the vicinity of Lincoln Sea, 82 or 83 de- grees north latitude. No less interesting 218 THE IRRIGATION AGE. in their several ways, and scarcely less striking, are a series of "Sketches in Egypt," drawn by Charles Dana Gibson, with some genial comment and description written by the artist himself; some en- tirely new reminiscences of Lincoln, showing his relations with Fremont, Mc- Clellan, Cameron, and Stanton, and illus- trating his rare tact and.cDnsideration in dealing with men in general; an account (largely his own narrative) of the way in which the artist Tissot came to take up his great work of picturing the life of Christ, and of the manner in which he ex- ecuted it; and incidents and anecdotes of General Wood's great work n the regen- eration of Santiago, furnished by H. H. Lewis, who himself spent sometime at Santiago with General Wood. All of these articles are fully illustrated, the one on Tissot with some beautiful reproduc- tions of the chief of his paintings. Cap- tain Mahan, in his series of papers "The War on the Sea and its Lessons," sets forth in this number the problems pre- sented to the navy by the arrival of Cer- vera in West Indian waters, and relates how they were dealt with. Mr. Kipling gives us a further chabter from the ad- ventures of "Stalky & Co., "one that shows those heroes in quite a new role; and there are several other good short stories in the number. THE FORUM. To say that the March number is an unusually good one is great praise, as this publication is one of such high order that each issue is full of timely and interesting articles by writers of ability and experi- ence. Mark Twain contributes an article full of his old-time humor. Taking for his text "Diplomatic Pay and Clothes," he discourses, in terms of withering satire, on the meagreness of the stipends which we pay to our diplomatic representatives abroad. He also ridicules, in his unique style of pleasantry, the absence of an official court dress, which, unless our minister happen to have been in the arny or navy, compels him to attend court and public functions, "even at seven in the morning, in that same old funny swallow- tail. * * * It is a night-dress and a night-dress only, — a night-shirt is not more so. Yet when our representative makes an official visit in the morning, he is obliged to go in that night-dress. It makes the very cab horses laugh." "A Lost Eden — Cuba'' is the expressive title of an article by Dr. Felix L. Oswald. "The coasts of Cuba, " he says, seem to to have been constructed for the special convenience of filibustering expeditious." It will be many years before the despera- does and outlaws of Cuba become peaceful, law-abiding citizens and, despite the fact that "the undulations of the coast-plain will soon resemble a wide-spread sea of verdure," the writer thinks "for the in- terests of American civilization it would perhaps have been better if, like the lost Atlantis, the whole island had disappeared beneath the ocean wave." Col. Alexander S. Bacon, in his article, "Is our Army Degenerate?" compares the success of our naval engagements during the late war with the disgraceful record of our army management. Lack of proper military training was, he thinks, in a great measure to blame for the mistakes which were made, and he says truly. "It is worse than a blunder, it is, as I have said, a crime, to put thousands of precious lives under the control of an uneducated soldier, no matter how experienced and efficient as a subaltern." From undisciplined and raw recruits a magnificent army may be made, but the officers must be men who are heroic: who have sufficient enthusiasm to inspire their men and who, in addition to having brains, must have training and experience. While our army is not as a whole degenerate, it will not bear com- parison to our navy. Hon. Charles Denby, who has been ap- pointed a member of the commission to the Philippines, contributed an article entitled "What shall we do with the Philippines," which was brought to a somewhat abrupt close by the fact that, having been appointed on the commission, he felt he was not at liberty to express opinions on a vital question of this nature, which before he could discuss at his pleasure. Since our last issue we received a "harbinger of spring" in the shape of a package of flower and vegetable seeds from the D. M. Ferry Seed Co., of Detroit §** " ~^*********^ § ODDS AND ENDS. « fi 0 0 QQQQQQQQQSQSQQSQQQQSSQQQQQSQiQQGQQQQQQQQQ WATERING TREES IN AUTUMN. Perhaps many \vill think that the fall of the year is not the proper time to water trees, but the fact is it is much more important that orchard land should be thoroughly flooded during autumn than at any other season, especially if the lat- ter part of the summer and early autumn has been extremely dry, says the Orange Jndd Farmer. If the ground is allowed to freeze about the trees without the ap- plication of moisture, the chances are life will be extinct by the following spring. There is a great deal of talk about dry siimmers killing ornamental and fruit trees. In my opinion it is not the dry summer, but the lack of moisture just be- fore the ground freezes. This being the <:ase late autumn is the time to water, and by so doing the trees will come_ out in good shape in the spring and make a sat- isfactory growth. If allowed to freeze up dry. the severe cold during the winter im- poverishes the trees, and next spring they they are puny and sickly, with not suf- ficient vitality left to carry them through the summer. The best way to apply the water with the least waste is to select a solid stick of timber two feet long and about four inches in diameter and sharpen one end to a point tapering back to within six inches of the top. Drive this down about 18 inches close to the main root of the tree. Remove it and fill the hole with water. Repeat every evening until the roots are thoroughly soaked. The hole should be covered with a stone to prevent evaporation and filling up. After the pro- cess is completed fill the hole up with earth. The best time for doing this work is the latter part of October or the first week in November. This may seem like a great deal of work, but it is better to do this than to see groves and orchards, die. ADVANTAGES OF DIRECT BUYING. New innovations do not as a rule meet with prompt public approval. While the American people are famous all around the world for their business acumen and general aptitude to think out and bring into action new invention and new methods, we often show a disposition of positive lethargy when it comes to changing so- called fixed principles and methods. Certain manufacturing institutions have in recent years inaugurated a new system of disposing of their products which is unqualifiedly to the advantage of the con- sumer. It took courage to make the change, but they did it. Among the pioneers in this new method of doing business was the Elkhart Carriage & Har- ness Mfg. Co. , of Elkhart. Indiana, whose ad. appears on page 221 of this issue. These people began this plan of doing business twenty-six years ago and have adhered to it strictly ever since. The re- sult has been so entirely successful that they are today the largest manufacturers of carriages and harness in the world sell- ing to the consmmer exclusively. The advantages to the consumer are almost beyond estimate. He gets better goods ; better and larger selection ; better styles and finish and finally he buys at a much more equitable and advantageous price. In dealing with the Elkhart people there is no risk to assume as they ship either vehicles or harness anywhere for examination and guarantee every article they manufacture and sell. Then, too, one may deal satisfactorily from any dis- tance. The Elkhart Carriage & Harness Mfg. Co. , publish an extended illustrated catalogue, which they take pleasure in mailing to all our readers who request it. THE IRRIGATION AGE. AN ILLUSTRATED flONTHLY. Entered at the Post Office at Chicago, 111., as second-class matter. THE IRRIGATION AGE is a Journal of Western America, recognized throughout the World as the exponent of Irrigation and its kindred industries. It is the pioneer journal of its kind in the world and has no rival in half a continent. It advocates the mineral development and the industrial growth of the West. CONTENTS FOR MARCH, 1899. The Progress of Western America. The Work in Congress 183 , > To Build Reservoirs ' 184 In Behalf of the Congress 184 The Closing of Congress 184 j ; A Human Hero 185 ft Send in Your Names 186 i > I t Interesting Contributed Articles Horticulture in Mexico. By LEON N. STUART 187 The Irrigation Problems and Possibilities of Northern Wyoming. — Some General Impressions. By CAPT. H. M. CHITTENDEN 195 ] [ Northern Hibernia. By LODIAN LODIAN . . 203 ( I I I The Farmers' Homeseekers' League. By J. HAMMOND 208 ( i The Diversified Farm. i i $ © j A Model Barn 211 i ) A Difference of Opinion . . 214 ® Pulse of the Irrigation Industry. E i } j Senator Warren's Work 215 Q Mr. Newell's Report .216 I fliscellaneous. I With Our Exchanges 217 Odds and Ends 219 a Poems— The Buried Mother 207 • Timidity— A Hindoo Fable : 192 Frontispiece — Winter Feeding of Sheep and Range Cattle in Yellowstone ® Valley, Mont. TERMS:— $1.00 a-year in advance; 10 cents a number. Foreign postage 50 cents a year additional. Subscribers may remit to us by postage or express money orders, drafts on Chicago or New York or registered letters. Checks on local banks must include twen- ty-five cents for exchange. Money in letter is at sender's risk. Renew as early as possible in order to avoid a break in the receipt of the numbers. Bookdealers, post- masters and newsdealers receive subscriptions. J. E. FORREST, Publisher. 916 W. Harrison Street, CHICAGO. L. R. WING Editor THE IRRIGATION AGE. VOL. XIII. CHICAGO, APRIL 1899. NO. 7, THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN RMERIGH A Breed of Men. Speaking of the Progress of "Western America, we must not overlook the fact to which that progress is true. It is solely to the kind of men the west breeds, self-reliant, adaptable, big physically, morally, men- tally, and every other way. This charac- teristic "bigness" is nothing to be sur- prised at. The west is a land of big things — big lakes, big prairies, big mountains, big rivers, etc. It would be surprising, indeed, if such environments should fail to produce big men. What a glorious record the men o_f the west are making to day in the far east. They are bearing the brunt of the war in the Philippines. Their dash, energy and efficiency is permeating the old world with a healthy respect for the American citizen soldier. Their actions may not be charac- terized by the machine-like precision of Uncle Sam's regulars. Perhaps they make much more noise when charging the enemy than is called for by array regulations. Their knowledge of the science of ware- fare may be limited to the desire to get within fighting reach of the enemy and then annihilate him. But do you notice how they "get there?'1 Nothing can stop them. So long as Uncle Sam can breed such lusty nephews in his western territory so long will he never lack sufficient intelli- gent soldiery to hold his own against the combined strength of foreign rivals. The "military geniuses'' of Europe, bred in the atmosphere of an "I am better than thou" society, tell us that it requires a year or two to whip raw recruits into shape. They overlook the fact that the armies of Europe are recruited from the ranks of the in- capables, whereas the American Volun- teer is an intelligent unit who knows what he has to fight with, fights because he wants to, and when the fighting is over is ready for anything that "turns up." All of which inevitably suggests the moral that your Uncle Samuel has no use for a large standing army. If anybody says we do he is either a traitor or a coward. We recently received the J an- uar^' February and March numbers of The Forester, the official organ of the American Forestry Association. We should be glad to wel- come so neat and attractive a magazine even were its aims entirely apart from ours, but our fields are so closely allied that we are still more pleased to number it among our exchanges. Irrigation and forestry should go hand in hand, for our mighty forest growths conserve the moist- ure which would otherwise run to waste, if it did not do positive damage. Where ever you find a treeless section of country there you find an arid or semi-arid region, whose slight rainfall runs off the barren hills, scarcely moistening the under sur- face. While in a country thickly grown with woods the rain is "caught," as we might say. by the leaves, branches and roots of the trees, sinks into the earth, to reappear later on in a trickling spring which helps to swell a river. India and Germany are two countries that have rec- 222 THE IRRIGATION AGE. ognized the value of tree planting and forest preservation and in the latter coun- try the wanton destruction of a tree brings swift punishment. An Australian writer in commenting upon this says: "In most countries that are noted for successful forestry, the enterprise has been under- taken simply to grow the timber and sell it. Some countries, however, have re- garded this as a secondary consideration. The forests have been planted to check floods, and to turn deserts into grazing and farming areas by attracting rain and moisture. In India, where deserts have been turned into forests, some districts have been rendered free from most devas- tating floods through the foliage and undergrowth retarding the rush of the water, and allowing it time to soak into the ground." " As the value of trees*, then, is so fully understood it is but natural that those in- terested in the irrigation industry should welcome a movement so beneficial to their interests as that of the forestry association. To The Forester we extend the right hand of fellowship and wish it, and the association of which it is the official organ, the success so good a cause deserves. The great drawback to farm life in the estimation of many is its loneliness. To live miles from town and possibly be prevented from exchanging visits with neighbors by bad roads, is certainly a drawback to rural life. Few persons are so self-sufficient as to be able to live without the companion- ship of their fellows for any length of time. In certain sections this condition is remedied by the telephone. It is in most successful operation in Geauga county, Ohio, where telephone wires are strung throughout sixteen counties. The lead- ing telephone company is the Bainbridge, which was organized by eight farmers. They formed a stock company and began putting in 'phones which have given gen- eral satisfaction. The cost of one mile of this system was about $51.50, the stock- holders doing a great share of the labor. Aside from the commercial value the telephone is to the farmer, the social side is well worth considering. If the men are oo busy to spare the team, the "women folks" can have a good visit over the 'phone; Mrs. Smith can tell Mre. Jones that the baby has a tooth, and the latter can obtain a recipe for angel-food cake or brown bread without leaving her own home. In case of sickness, doath or acci- dent how invaluable it would be! When a man is injured by the mower, or thrashing machine how handy it would be to run to the telephone and call for the doctor. The success of the system in Ohio should recommend it favorably. The Recently we received the Cofo«ifs.ed little booklet of the "Associ- ated Colonies," 42 Union Square, New* York, of which Wm. E. Smythe, former editor of the AGE, is president. The Associated Colonies is a corporation under the laws of New York which is actively engaged in colonizing the arid region of the United States. Its land lies along the Pacific coast and else- where, but principally in Honey Lake Valley, Cal. To place the surplus popula- tion of the East upon the surplus land of the West is the work being done by the Colonies on the co-operative investment and co-operative settlement plan which has already proven a success in certain sections of Great Britain and the United States. The principles of the Colonies are similar to those of building and loan associations but the investment, it is claimed, is even safer than the former as irrigated land is the basis of security. "There is no sound- er security than fertile irrigated land with an industrious man upon it engaged in diversified production under skilled di- rection." Persons desirous of becoming co-opera- tive colonists must subscribe for an amount of bonds sufficient, at maturity, to pay for their colony home and its improve- ments. As in the case of building and loan associations only a nominal amount is required to be paid upon the bonds for the person to become entitled to the advant- ages and enjoyments of the colony op- portunities. The self styled patriots, call- Points to ing themselves the Cuban Annexation. Assembly, is an educational body. They are such by an act of provi- dence, and not because they care a conti- nental for the education of anybody. We THE IRRIGATION AGE. 223 Red School- house. have always held that the illegitimate off- spring of a Spanish bushwacker and a negress is no lover of republican institu- tions. He is an irresponsible combination of sentiment, cupidity and blood-thirsti- ness. That is the lesson the Cuban Assembly, and the Cuban situation gener- ally, is teaching Uncle Samuel. Annex- ation is the only proper solution, and at no distant date it will be demanded by the more enlightened among the Cubans. The Little Heredity vs. environment is still a debated question— whether the former decides the mental and moral status of the child or whether it is determined by the latter is discussed by laymen as well as physi- cians. While the invironment and train- ing of a child may not eradicate the evils it inherits from generations of ancestors, it will certainly correct and modify these evils to no small degree and the benefit of good surroundings and training no one can deny. Admitting this fact, then, we must also admit that whatever tends to beautify and brighten a child's surround- ings is a strong factor for good. Those of us who attended public school in a cheer- less barn-like building with nothing about it either beautiful or interesting: sur- rounded by a barren yard destitute of trees or shrubs, upon which the summer sun beat with a fierceness that made us, in our brief play-spells there, think of the deserts of our Geography lessons; we. who recall such youthful surroundings, will read with sympathetic interest the little pamphlet gotten out by the experiment station of Ithaca, N. Y., entitled "Hints on Rural School Grounds." "The Report of the Committee of Twelve" of the Edu- cational Association, of 1897, says: "The rural schoolhouse, generally speaking, in its character and surroundings, is depress- ing and degrading. There is nothing about it calculated to cultivate a taste for the beautiful in art or nature. . If children are daily surrounded by those influences that elevate them, that make them clean and well-ordered, that make them love flowers, and pictures, and proper decorations, they at last reach that degree of culture where nothing else will please them. When they grow up and have homes of their own. they must have them clean, neat, bright with pictures and fringed with shade trees and flowers." The pamphlet gives several illustrations of school houses and surroundings, one of which, (a schdbl house in eastern New York) is located in a grave yard. The writer, L. H. Bailey, says we ought not to blame children for playing truant if they are sent to such a place. There are also illustrations showing how much improve- ment might be made in the appearance of both buildings and grounds by the ex- penditure of a little work and money. The cost would be practically the same for a school house of attractive shape and pro- portion, as it would for the usual box-like structure built on a stereotyped pattern. In his plan for a reform of these defects, Mr. Bailey assumes that in every rural district there can be found one person who is desirous of bettering existing condi- tions, and he suggests that this man call a meeting and bring the subject of improv- ing the school grounds before the patrons of the school house. If he can succeed in arousing interest in the subject, as he doubtless can, different ones can easily be persuaded to give thein aid. which will mean only a little labor on their part Let one man do the plowing, another the repairing of the fence, another haul the trees and shrubs to be planted and in one day, by this method the beginning may be made. To keep up the improvement will require but little attention and work. This is a brief outline of Mr. Bailey's plan and he would be glad to correspoud with any one who is interested in this matter. Beating Sometime ago, when certain Pkmghint° "little Englander politicians" Shares. doubted the practicability of home rule for Ireland, Cecil Rhodes, the "uncrowned king of Africa." bade them look to America for a success- ful demonstration of the principle the Irish race is contending for. Just now our attention is called to still another matter which goes to prove that the eyes of the world are turned on America whenever it is at a loss for prac- tical reform measures. All the nations of the world envy us our agricultural devel- opment and the high standard of agricul- tural intelligence which has made it pos- 224 THE IRRIGATION AGE. sible, and they have gone to imitating our methods. In Russia, even, a hopeless theocracy of which the czar is god, they are planning for the organization and es- tablishment of agricultural schools, and to induce the people to attend them they propose certain exemptions from military service. This is beating swords into plough shares with a vengeance. Surely the world is growing better and better every day. o T unnecessary with Qer- anxiety seems to be exhibited both in Germany and in the United States about the trade relations between the two countries. Some figures recently prepared by the Treasury Bureau of Statistics show that the supposition that American trade in Germany or Ger- man trade in America is being disturbed or depressed by existing conditions seems to be unfounded. Certainly the United States is giving to Germany a larger per- centage of her import trade than ever be- fore, and is selling to Germany a larger percentage of her exports than ever be- fore. American exports to Germany in- creased over 11 per cent, in 'the last six months of 1898 compared with the corre- sponding six months of the preceding year, which of themselves were phenome- nally large, and the imports from Ger- many into the United States for the same period were nearly 25 per cent, greater than those of the corresponding six months of last year. The share of our im- port 'trade given to Germany has steadily increased during the past decade, as has also the share which she takes of our ex- ports. A decade ago 10 per cent, of our imports was taken from Germany, while now 13 per cent, comes from that country; a decade ago 8 per cent, of our exports went to Germany, now over 13 per cent. goes to that country. A victory The recent elections in the east and in the middle west point to a healthy develop- ment of a sentiment in favor of public ownership of public utilities. As usual the Chicago city election attracted more than its proportionate share of attention. The re-election of Harrison to be Mayor of Chicago has demonstrated once more that the "machine" is losing its hold — that adherence to well defined principles is rapidly superseding blind partisanship. The ideal democracy is becoming less of a dream every day. We are "Trade the pup for a pig," Conservativesavs the parm Journal. That is good advice. If you don't want a pig trade it for something which is less useless than a mongrel pup and more ornamental than a pig. We believe in being conservative in the advocacy of reforms. It *s a matter of regr Libby Prison the management of the Libby Prison Museum has been forced to do away with this picturesque reminder of war times. It was never a paying investment from the start and the wonder is that its supporters were willing to bear so long with a losing venture. Just why it was not more patronized would be hard to say; the location, possibly, had something to do with the non-success, it being so near the heart of the city that the ground upon which it stood was too val- uable for such a purpose — or perhaps "too expensive" would be a better term than valuable, since no spot could be too val- uable to bear this record of the country's suffering and achievements. Another drawback was its apparent permanence. Had the museum been established with a great display of red lettering to the effect that for a "limited time only could be seen," etc., etc., it would have been crowded. But we reasoned that "we could go to see it any time," just as we can the Masonic Temple or the Board of Trade; and "any time" means no time. "Blessings brighten as they take their flight," and no sooner was it announced that "Libby Prison" was to be torn down, than the place was thronged. Possibly the fact that the Tribune gave tickets ad- mitting the bearers free, was a strong in- ducement for people to attend, since hu- manity enjoys getting someting for noth- ing. Thanks are due the Tribune for thus affording a great number, who would otherwise have missed it, the chance to see these records of our past as contained in the old prison . Listening to the tales of suffering and privation which those walls had witnessed; looking upon the pictures of those who THE IRRIGATION AGE 225 have "gone before," and then turning to the crowds of merry sightseers, whose flippant remarks such as. "he ought to get a hair cut," referring to the portrait of a great commander in the civil war, one wondered what the thoughts must be of those who suffered agonies within those walls, if they were among the visitors. Could they realize that it was the same old building which held them prisoners, years ago? It is to be hoped that a suitable loca- tion may be found upon which the prison may be permanently erected and become a fitting museum for the relics of our coun- try's conflict. Puerto Under Spanish rule and the Rico's tariffs framed by Spain, Puerto Rico was practically compelled to buy most of her imports from Spain, the duties upon articles from other countries being so high as to give Spain a monopoly of the trade. On Feb. 1, '99, the manufacturers and merchants of the United States, for the first time, had equal access with other parts of the world to the markets of Puerto Rico, and the people of the island have now a chance to exercise their own judgment as to where and what they shall purchase. In the past few years their imports have ranged from twelve to fifteen million dollars' worth annually, the greater part of which was supplied by Spain. Statistics for the year 1896 (the latest available) show the Spanish imports received by Puerto Rico to have been greatest in the manufactured articles of cotton. Shoes and sandals come next in value. The imports of playing cards from Spain in '96 amounted to 69,085 pesetas, a peseta being equal in value to 19-,30 cents of our money. As the natives become familiar with our national game of poker. this latter import will doubtless increase. A Just a few short months ago there was a great hue and cry , , .. about the strained relations between this country and Germany. At the time of our late war it was even prophesied that the United States •vas stirring up a great brawl in which all the other powers would become leagued against the eagle and the lion. Instead, it seems to have cleared the atmosphere and Germany, for one, is disposed to smoke the Change of Heart. pipe of peace with not only Great Britain but the United States as well. While the lion and the lamb do not lie down together, all the animals have lost their desire to stir up the eagle, preferring to let that glorious bird alone. As an earnest of the change undergone in Germany's feelings toward the two countries mentioned, the German Emperor received Mr. Cecil Rhodes at Berlin re- cently, and also sent inquiries as to Kip- ling's condition during his illness. Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Kipling represent English politics and English literature, two things which Germany has hitherto regarded with dislike. The cartoonists picture Liberty on the mountain being tempted by Satan in the guise of Imperialism, who shows to the wavering damsel the world-wide empire, of which the Philippines are but a small part, which is to be hers if she will fall down and worship him. The A great deal is being said and Anglo-Saxon writ,ten now-a-days about ' 'Anglo-Saxon supremacy. " Anglo-Saxon rot! It is time that some impartial historian devotes his scholar- ship and his energy to relegate this ab- surd myth to the musty shelves of "for- gotten lore.'* Who can read the stories of the successive invasions and coloniza- tions of Britain by practically every race of Europe and intelligently maintain that the most boorish, the least intellectual and the most barbarous of these invading anS colonizing tribes is entitled to the grotesque laudation which it receives at the hands of predjudiced and sycophantic historians and narrow gauge philosophers? The Anglo-Saxons were pirates, as treach- erous, as superstitious, and as cruel and barbarous as any which cursed the world. We might as reasonably ascribe the su- premacy of America today to the hypothe- sis that we are descendants of the Bucca- neers that terrorized our coasts once upon a time. In their own country these anglo saxons could not be distinguished from other dirty, ignorant, savage brawlers. In Britain they succeeded in terrorizing the coast people, as did our buccaneers of old. until they were driven inland by more intelligent invaders and lost their identity 226 THE IRRIGATION AGE. and their faults by amalgamation with the course of ages you will have the English more intelligent natives of the interior. speaking man, the lover of individual The English speaking people is a cos- liberty, the friend of God. That's all mopolite one. there is to this so called "Anglo-Saxon" Everything that is good is enduring. supremacy. • Everything that is evil perishes. It is The greatest Englishman of the nine- the law of evolution, and the English teenth century wasa Jew! speaking man in America, England, Afri- ^ Th&t famous a ca, Australia, anywhere and everywhere white Man's hag had to bear his share you find him, is a living demonstration of Qf the <^^ man,g burden,, this glorious truth. He is not the off- ., , , . , , ., ,,.,, . recently, for certainly most of the "ills to spring of any marauding tribe. He is not ' . , . , ,, . , , . , which flesh is heir to" is a burden which the creature of environment. He is the ,, , . ,,. . , the "white man" has inflicted upon him- embodiment of the best traits of all races ,, , ,, ,. , . self by his reckless disregard of nature, and is superior to all environment. It is , . , , . , a burden which his barbarous brother is an insult to the Deity, who is no respector remarkabl free from. of persons, to proclaim him a descendant Th& whole civilized wQrld watched the of a certain thievish, ignorant, supersti- , , . ,. -, -.. •. progress of his diaease, and his heroic tious tribe which is obliterated and for- f -^ j u -^ u v •* j battle with death, with much solicitude, gotten in its own bailiwick. Settle repre- ., . ,. , t and drew a deep breath of relief when it sentatives of all nations in a desert island , ^ ^ .. i. \, A A A *v, learned that he had conquered death, and let them intermarry, and in the IRRIGATION IN RHYME. How dear to my heart is the prospect of riches, When dizzy old age comes along by and by, A farm in the west with a number of ditches, And life would be one constant Fourth of July. How sweet is the sound of swift flowing waters, That coursfe near the fields of alfalfa and oats, A sod house to shelter my sons and my daughters, A monster frame barn for the, horses and colts. Thus blessed in old age life would be worth living; No failure of crops from the desolate drouth, Eacn day would indeed be a day of thanksgiving; A prayer in my heart and a song in my mouth. The best thing I know of for saving the nation, Is found in the creed of the people now here, Whose motto is "ditching," whose pass "irrigation," Who stand up for water as some do for beer. No more hot winds will sweep over the prairies To wilt the potatoes and wither the rye, When the people dig ditches from Dundy to Cherry, And keep them bank full in the sweet bye and bye. There'll be ample cause then for constant rejoicnig, When money is plenty and crops never fail, For all will be happy and nobody voicing The gruesome refrain of calamity's wail, — National Advocate. THE WATER DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. ADDRESS BY T. S. VAX DYKE AT FARMERS 'INSTI- TUTE, BURBANK, CAL. MARCH 29th. The coming summer will see more water development south of Tehachipi than any two seasons of the past. Much of it will be solid and permanent addition to the resources of the section. Much more will be of merely temporary benefit but still well worth what it cost. Considerable more will represent disappointment either sooner or later. How to avoid loss of tune and money is the principal question that is of much practical value and is also the hardest question to answer. From the time when our mountains were several feet higher and the streams leading from their bases were several hundred feet below the present level of the wash and drift that has formed the soil of the valleys and slopes the streams have shifted their channels so many times that it is quite impossible to tell where they now are or what their number. Many are miles from the present bed of the stream while the chances are against any of them being exactly under the present bed because the range of most of the streams from side to side has been so wide. Equally impossible is it to say how large they are or what the amount of water they carry or how long it will take it to run out if heavily drawn on. Some one has had the audacity to frame a formula for computing the flow of water under ground. But there is nothing in hydraulic engineering that justifies anything of the sort. In the dozens and even hundreds of old channels that the shifting of the streams and covering of the old beds with drift have made, the gravel or sand through which the water is now flowing, between two lay ers of clay or concrete, varies so much in the size of the grains, ia the amount of fine material laying between the grains, as well as the character of the inlet and outlet to the sea that nothing approaching a rule should be given even if we knew the size of the channel and its exact slope. In short, the only way to develop water is to develop it. There are however, certain principles to be borne in mind or you may find trouble ahead though it may not be immediate. First, all development is DRAWING ON A RESERVOIR. If vou have an artesian well or one in which vour water rises 228 THE IRRIGATION AGE. much above the level on which it is first struck, you have a reservoir in which the dam is generally friction instead of masonry. But it is none the less a reservoir. Too many taps cannot be made in it nor can too many be left open. Much of the development made this year will represent pockets or channels of water connected with the source of supply by some small thread of gravel through which water moves very slowly. If exhausted it may take a long time after the next wet winter to fill them again. In many cases the very fact they are now full shows that they have no outlet to the sea. From this it is quite easy to understand how the inlet to them may be very small. For if it were very large the channel would probably go clear through to the ocean. , The expression inexhaustable well has become quite common. But all wells are inexhaustable as long as you do not exhaust them. The test will come after many weeks, months or even years of pumping, when you have planted your orchard or alfalfa and expanded out on the strength of the new supply. Many develop- ments will stand it but it is quite as certain that many more will not. In case of wells, which will be the principal means of develop- ment, keep a careful record of the material passed through, so that you will know whether you are on gravel channel which is probably a stream or only in a sponge which will feed the well by seepage. Seepage is unreliable for heavy and continuous work. It may do for the windmill but generally 'the engine that is throwing much of a stream. MUST BE ON AN UNDERGROUND STREAM or a few weeks or even a few days may find the bottom of the well dry soon after the engine starts up. At first the well fills readily when pumped out but a cone of depression forms around it as soon as the pump begins. At first the sides of this are steep and when the pump stops the water soon fills it to the general level of the stratum of water in the sand or gravel. Day after day the edges of this cone spread farther away from the well, the slopes forming the sides become longer and more nearly a level. The water having farther to travel through resisting material comes in more slowly while the general level of the stratum of water is constantly falling to the level of the bottom of the pump. Once down there it may take several weeks, months or even years to fill again. The time cannot even be guessed at for you know nothing of the mode of supply and perhaps not even its source. Such is quite certain to be the case with wells sunk in decayed granite if a heavy draft is made on them. Even though the water comes in from crevices they cannot long be depended on. THE PASSAGE OF WATER THROUGH FINE MATERIAL IS VERY SLOW. You all know springs in the hills that flow without weakening for at least seven months after the last rain and yet where it is much THE IRRIGATION AGE. 229 less than a quarter of a mile in any direction to the rim of the water- shed from which you can readily see they must come. It is much the same and often worse with water passing through soil and even through pure sand it is provokingly slow. No one can calculate its rate of progress but you can generally rely upon its being provok- ingly slow when you need much water. If it were otherwise few oi our water supplies would hold out after one dry year. People love to flatter themselves that the water comes from some distant source, independent of the watershed about the well. If in a well defined gravel channel this is generally the case and most wells in such for- mation are reliable under very heavy draft. But if in soil, or decayed rock the presumption is heavily the other way and even sand is often a mere sponge for a local watershed. Even where it is certain that it is not I have found the passage of water through it so slow that a well twenty feet across pumped down from eight feet to two feet took one hour to regain one foot with the water standing at the eight foot level all around it. This was a foot an hour under an average pressure of five and one-half feet. No one can sav what it would have been under no pressure but with the grade of the stream twenty-five feet to the mile. A mile and two thirds a year is quite slow under a pressure of five and a half feet. EVEN FOR FINE QUICKSAND WHICH THIS WAS. Yet I measured and timed this well myself as soon as the pump stopped and could not have made more than five percent, error at the most. Through most sand water will pass more rapidly under that head yet you are liable at any time to be greatly disappointed in its velocity. Wells in soil, soft rock, and fine sand will do for a. light supply and also to help out in bad seasons but should not be made a basis of farther expansion in planting until time has proved what they will do. The only danger in the present great developing movement is the cry Eureka. Too many may think they have solved the great problem only to find that what may be valuable as a reserve will not stand the brunt of steady battle. Strange sa it may seem a gravel channel in which the water does not rise in the pipe MAY BE A MORE RELIABLE SOURCE OF SUPPLY than one where it does. Where pressure is indicated by the rising of the water above the top of the stratum in which it is struck it means resistance all the way back to the last thread of water that feeds it below ground. If this resistance be removed by opening the channel by wells and drawing out the resisting water the supply is quite apt to come in much faster than when the resistance of the water below aided friction in holding it back. Consequently too many taps on an artesian belt may seriously reduce it by accelerating the feed of water 230 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. from above. But where there is no pressure the flow from above accord it space in your columns. I also ask the same favor to my reply thereto. J. HAMMOND. WAYNESVILLE, OHIO, March 28, 1899. MR. J. HAMMOND, CHICAGO, ILL. Dear Sir: — Your circular and letter of the 23d to hand. While your «> scheme of starting a colony is in many respects praiseworthy, yet it seems to «> me that we have multiplied thousands of acres of land now within the bounds <» of civilization, that could be cultivated and thereby give employment to labor, J» if prices of farm products were such as to remunerate the farmer. Farms all over Ohio are today selling at less than fifty cents on the dollar of what they 221 To Banish Loneliness 222 | | The Associated Colonies 222 ; ! Points to Annexation 222 The Little Red Schoolhouse 223 ] * Beating Swords into Plough Shares 223 Our Trade with Germany 224 A Victory for the People 224 8 We are Conservative 224 Libby Prison Museum 224 Puerto Rico's Imports 225 A Change of Heart 225 The Anglo-Saxon Myth 225 The White Man's Bu-den 226 Interesting Contributed Articles The Water Development in Southern California. By T. S. VAN DYKE 227 The Irrigation Problems and Possibilities of Northern Wyoming. By COL. E. S. NETTLETON 235 Irrigation in Russia. By LODIAN LODIAN 239 The Farmers' Homeseekers' League. By J. HAMMOND 247 The Diversified Farm. 5 \ Agricutural Capabilities of Alaska 249 Preserving Eggs 249 | ! Gleanings from the Experiment Station 250 An Old Irrigation Idea Revived 251 5 \ A Chance for the Girls 251 8 j Eggs by the Wheelbarrowful 251 State Fair and Exposition Combined 252 Pulse of the Irrigation Industry. Elwood Mead Resigns 253 A New Place 253 ( i Keep the Reservations Closed 253 fliscellaneous. With Our Exchanges 254 Odds and Ends 256 © Poem— Irrigation in Rhyme 226 (9 h ~ \\ TERMS:— $1.00 a year in advance; 10 cents a number. Foreign postage 50 cents a year additional. Subscribers may remit to us by postage or express money orders, drafts on Chicago or New York or registered letters. Checks on local banks must include twen- ty-five cents for exchange. Money in letter is at sender's risk. Renew as early as X possible in order to avoid a break in the receipt of the 'numbers. Bookdealers, post- masters and newsdealers receive subscriptions. J. E. FORREST, Publisher. 916 W. Harrison Street, CHICAGO. (3 WATER FALL AND CASCADE, BIG GOOSE CREEK, WYO. THE IRRIGATION AGE. VOL. XIII. CHICAGO, MAY, 1899. NO. 8, THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN flMERICi If we should read that the c?vuSio«. savages in the Philippine Islands or some other unciv- ilized land had roasted a human being alive, after first cutting- off his ears and fingers and pouring kerosene oil over his bleeding body, we would doubtless be hor- rified beyond measure at such barbarism among the heathen. What, then, shall be said when this revolting thing occurs in our own midst, in a civilized, christianized community? This was what an infuriated mob of southerners did to a negro recently. The press throughout the country gave an account of the affair with all the grew- some details, but the feeling in the section was not very strong against the mob. We need not cross the ocean to " Take up the White Man's Burden. " We do not wish to be understood as sympathizing with black brutes, who commit fiendish crimes, but we wish to be understood as being on the side of law and order. Let the law take its course. Because a negro — a decendant of a race of slaves, de- graded and hampered by circumstances, — gives way to the baser instincts of his nature, should white men — with every advantage in their favor be excused for brutality and cruelty that would disgrace a savage? It was not so much the crime that aroused the fury of the mob as the fact of its perpetrator being a negro. White men have committed crimes as bad; some of them were lynched, some were hanged, and some after a brief term in prison were allowed to come forth to delight dime museum audiences. No, we have here the old race question again — white against black. At the time of the conflict between the two races in North and South Carolina, and the Pillager Indian outbreak in Min- nesota, this question was much agitated and among the articles regarding it was an exceptionally good one by Francis E. Lsupp, in the December Forum, in which he says. "Is our attempt to civilize the Indians a failure? This is the question heard on every side since the recent so-called out- break of the Bear Island Pillagers, a band of Chippewa Indians living on and near the borders of Leech Lake in Minnesota. Is our Caucasian civilization a failure? By the same token, yes." A few days before the Indian trouble a white mob in the south lynched a negro; a few days after it a murderous riot occurred in the mining town of Illinois. The same impulse was at work in both cases and it was the same feeling which animated the Indians. — a desire to redress grievences. The only difference is the difference between the nature of a white man and of an Indian. The former, when wronged, acts upon the impulse of the moment and in a fit of rage avenges the injury of last night or to-day; the Indian, on the contrary, is slow to retaliate, nurses his wrath for years, adds the memory of the last insult to that of a pre- vious one, his anger growing stronger instead of diminishing until some appar- ently trivial event proves the last straw 260 : THE IRRIGATION AGE. and we are horrified by "another Indian outbreak" and we begin to wonder if our "attempts to civilize the Indian are a failure." Mr. Leupp has no desire to uphold violence or riots as a means of settling grievences. but in his capacity of member of the United States Board of Indian com- missioners he doubtless saw the Indians side of the question and was desirious of being just to him. "Let us try to be just to the Indian," he says farther on. "Is it a sign of the failure of any scheme of civilization that under it race antagonisms survive, individuals usurp the functions of organized justice, and masses of ignor- ant men, despairing of any other means of resenting a supposed trespass on their rights, resort to blood-shed?" Ought we, in short, to expect a higher standard of mortality from the Indian or the negro, who after years of injustice and slavery, have had a few years in which to grasp advantages that should always have been theirs, ought we, then, to expect more from them than from the white man. with his centuries of education and freedom? May First. It is running a fearful risk to attempt writing anything in regard to the weather for a monthly publi- cation. On a morning paper, where seconds count and everything goes up with a rush, it is possible to say some- thing concerning the weather that will still be appropriate when the paper comes forth damp from the press. But on a monthly it is a risk: your spring poem may be nipped by an unexpected blizzard that comes along not on schedule time. But though the odds are against us, the temptation to say a few words of praise for the delightful spring days we are having, is too great to be resisted. The warmth of the sun brought leaves and blossoms out almost in a night. In the country the smell of burning leaves is in the air and the scent of blossoms, and there comes the languid feeling that tells us spring is here. It is a pleasure simply to be alive — to see the green trees and blue sky, and to watch the daily unfolding of fresh verdure. Certainly spring is the most delightful season of the four. It is agreed that "anticipation is more enjoy- able than realization," and the spring is but the anticipation or prophecy of the coming of summer, whose delights are alloyed by the thought of autumn's blight. Who could be miserable on a bright May morning? Certainly not the country dweller. The first of May to city people is so intimately associated with prosaic thought of "moving" as to be almost divorced from the poetic sentiments. This year it brings to mind the name of Dewey, who achieved world-wide fame a year ago. There is talk of making the first of May a holiday in his honor — mak- ing it "Dewey's Day," but we fear there is shrewd practical sense as well as patriotism at the bottom of this idea as people can move and have a holiday on one and the same day. Curtis Letter It was with great pleasure we noted the prominence given to irigation interests in a recent issue of the Chicago Record. The letter of Wm. E. Curtis — about two columns in length — was deyoted almost exclusively -to the discussion of this important subject. The Record is the "people's paper" to such a great extent that any issue taken up by it is sure to be brought to public attention, and the mention made is there- fore all the more appreciated. Under the department of "Pulse of Irrigation In- dustry" we quote extracts from this inter- esting article. The Advocate and News of What it „, . T;r Should be. J- opeka,> Kansas, has been suc- ceeded by the Farmers Advo- cate. In the editorial announcing the change there are some good ideas as to what a farm paper should be. "We are of the opinion," it says, that what the farmer wants is not so much to be told how to farm. ****** Our idea of a good farm paper in something like a candidate for office with truthfulness added, a regular visitor to the farm home, telling the farmer what has happened outside in the world during the past week, watching his interests at points which he cannot reach, giving him an interchange THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 261 of views with other farmers, and becom- ing an indispensable companion the year round." This is just what a farm paper should be — not simply a mass of theories as to farm methods written by some one who has. perhaps, had no practical experience on a farm and would hardly be able to tell a cherry from an apple tree except during the fruit season. The farmer is as well versed in his line of work as are men of any other trade or profession and what he needs is a publication which will bring him into more intimate connection with the rest of the world — do away with the feeling of isolation. The Advocate has adopted a high standard, but if it reaches it. it will become a model "farm paper." It is well, at any rate, to aim high. A Theepitaphon the tomb of Good Edward Courtney, Earl of Devon- shire, is a sentiment which might be made a life motto for us all. It is as follows: "Through the toilsome world, alas! Once and only once I pass. If a kindness I may show. If a good deed I may do, To any suffering fellow-man, Let me do it while 1 can. Nor deny it. for 'tis plain I shall not pass this way again." The month of April marked Reed!" the retirement into private life of Hon. Thomas B. Reed, who had so long been a familiar figure in the United States Congress that his re- election as speaker was considered certain. His resignation at the close of the fifty- fifth Congress was, therefore, quite a sur- prise. If Mr. Reed had served through the term for which he was elected last fall he would have been in the House of Representatives twenty-four consecutive years. He is now about sixty years of age and contemplates becoming a partner in a New York law firm, a business which he hopes will yield him a fair amount of money: something that his political career never did. Many men grow rich out of politics, but Mr. Reed is not of the num- ber, and while he has, as most public men have, many enemies: while his autocratic methods as speaker won for him the title of "Czar," he retires — voluntarily — into private life with a reputation for strict honesty and integrity, which even his ene- mies dare not dispute and of which any one might well be proud. He who can, amid the many temptations and opportun- ities of a political life, retain his honesty and remain "unbribable"' and uncorrupted is certainly a man of strong moral nature. After a political career of almost thirty years, Mr. Reed retires into private life — comparatively poor — that he may acquire a little money for his family. Onr The present bankrupt law has Bankrupt been in operation about nine months now and diverse are the opinions held as to its value. It is claimed by some that it has been of great benefit to the honest business man of small means who became bankrupt, enabling him through it to start afresh. While it is thus a blessing to the honest bankrupt it will also enable many dishonest ones to take advantage of their creditors. Strict- ly speaking it is not morally good for us, since men become too prone to think their business obligations may be disposed of by taking advantage of the law, but it has certainly proved a wise measure in cer- tain cases. One writer, in discussing this subject, claimed that while the law was a needed measure at present and one that would prove beneficial to both debtor and credi- tor, he was in favor of having it repealed in a few years, and the assignment laws of the various states made as nearly uniform as possible. There are any number of people who are • constantly wondering "what will they say?" And they live in dread of the great bugaboo — public opinion. They fear to do this or that because if they do they "may be talked about.'' And so they expend a vast amount of worry and often go against their better judgment on account of this bogie man. "People may talk," say these sensitive folks wnen some course of action is proposed. Well, let us suppose that people do talk; what of it? The people who have never made an enemy and nev "Thsy Say." 262 THE IREIGA TION A GE. been talked about, are not the ones who have made history. If you amount to anything you are bound to be talked about. If you fail they talk; if you succeed, jeal- ousy starts evil reports, for while it is true that "nothing succeeds like success," there are many friends who regard your advancement as a personal grievance and their envy prompts them to "talk." To walk through this world in the midst of gossipers is like forcing your way amid briers; if you try to push them gently away you will get a great many more scratches than if you grasp them decidedly. Let sensitive folks take for their motto— ' 'They say. What do they say? Let them say," Do what your own conscience tells you is right; make up your mind that no one else knows your capabilities, your as- pirations, your trials and your tempta- tions as you do yourself and therefore can- not decide for you; remember we must "build the ladder by which we rise;" and then if "they say"— let them say. Whatever faults, either of commission or omission, may occur in this month's issue of the AGE must be condoned by our readers, for we have good and sufficient excuse! We moved May 2nd and this necessitated extra work, extra worry and much con- fusion. We therefore crave absolution this time and hope that in our present more commodious and convenient quarters we may be able to work to better advan- tage. Our number still remains the same -916 W. Harrison St., the move being from front to rear building only. New Quarters. T1je Kipling's poem, "The Truce Peace of the Bear," expressed the Conference. opinion of a great number re- garding the peace proposal made by the Czar of Russia. It seemed somewhat in- congruous for the universal peace idea to originate with the absolute monarch of a country noted for its despotism, and when first broached, last August, it occasioned much surprise and no little scepticism. Despite of that, the nations to whom the proposal was addressed, have all cordially" responded and will be represented at the peace conference which is to be held at The Hague, May 18. This will be as important a conference as the congress of Vienna, at which a body of men met to decide how they would devide Europe. The members of the con- ference will be invested with great repre- sentative authority and each nation addressed may send four delegates. This is not to be, as it is often called, a "Disarmament conference," but a "Peace conference." Not a meeting to make changes in the present armaments of the world, but to make some plan, as yet not decided upon, whereby the great increase that is necessarily being made in the armies and navies of the world, may be checked. For the past twenty years this subject has been more or less agitated and many questions between nations, have during that time been settled by arbitra- tion instead of war. What is hoped for, as the result of the forthcoming con- ference, is a permanent court, established by the twenty-seven nations, to decide on the various questions of importance which are constantly occurring between nations. THE IRRIGATION PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES OF NORTHERN WYOMING. WATER SUPPLY. BY CLARENCE T. JOHNSON. The regions in which large streams have their source generally afford an interesting study. The Mississippi river and Red river of the North rise within a few miles of each other in a region abounding in lakes, from which one flows north and the other south. The St. Lawrence river begins in Lake Ontario above which the chain of Great Lakes furnish an endless and varied scenery regarding which the tourist wonders and the scientist speculates. Between Lake Ontario and Erie is Niagara, and in the same system lie the scenic features of Lake Huron, The St. Mary's river and Lake Superior. The largest rivers of Europe and Asia begin in the highest mountains and are fed by glaciers or the perpetual snow of unknown altitudes and in such localities is almost invariably found the leading scenery of a continent. In the North-western portion of Wyoming, among the Wind river and Absaraka ranges, is found the birthplace of three of the largest rivers of Western United States. The Colorado, Columbia and Missouri rivers here have their tributaries which begin where chance only determines whether the drainage goes to the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of California, or Puget Sound. That this region should abound in geysers, water- falls, canons, inaccessible peaks and rugged mountain chains is not surprising. Among the tributary streams emanating from this portion of the Rocky Mountains is the Big Horn river, whose two most important tributaries — Wind river and the Shoshone river — rise within a few miles of each other. Wind river from its source flows south, thence east through the Shoshone Indian Reservation, after which it is called the Big Horn. The Shoshone river flows north, then turns north-easterly through the northern part of Wyoming and joins the Big Horn river near the mountain line. These two streams cut off from the high mountains all other tributaries to the Big Horn between them, except the Grey Bull river which heads near the source of the other two. 264 THE IRRIGATION AGE. The Yellowstone, Snake and Green rivers are the other principal streams which drain this water-shed. THE BIG HORN RIVER. The Big Horn river, having a maximum flow of over 50,000 cubic feet per second, is the largest river in the state that can be utilized for irrigation. This volume of water would cover an area of one square mile 150 feet deep, or nearly 100,000 acres one foot deep, in one day, and if the entire discharge for that time could be utilized it would suffice to irrigate 50,000 acres of land. It was gaged at Alamo, near the mouth of No Wood river, on the 21st day of August 1897, and discharged then 1,800 cubic feet per second. To show the discharge of streams gaged more definitely than can done by numbers alone, I have quoted the volume flowing in ivell known Colorado and Wyoming streams for the same day. In this way the discharge can be compared and a better idea can be obtained of the volumes the figures indicate. On August 21st, 1897: The Big Horn river discharged 1,800 cubic feet per second; the Arkansas river, 216 cubic feet per second, the North Platte river 717 cubic feet per second; the Laramie river, 100 cubic feet per second; the Poudre river, 265 cubic feet per second. This measurement of the Big Horn river was made above its junction with the Grey Bull river which carried on that day 200 cubic feet per second, and the Shoshone river which discharged 510 cubic feet per second. This added to its discharge at Alamo increases the volume to 2,510 cubic feet per second. WIND RIVER. On August 29th, 1897, the discharge of Wind river, near Crow- heart Butte on the Shoshone Indian Reservation, was approximately 1,600 cubic feet per second. On that day the Arkansas river dis- charged from 200 to 250 cubic feet per second; the North Platte river discharged 575 cubic feet per second; the Laramie river 70 cubic feet per second; the Poudre river discharged 258 cubic feet per second. The land best suited for agriculture along this stream lies within the Shoshone Indian Reservation. Some of this land has been allotted to Indian settlers and they have not impaired the value of it for grazing purposes to any extent, No ditches have been taken out above Crowheart Butte, no buildings have been erected, no fences have been made. Here is an opportunity for a thriving community when the natural resources are intelligently dealt with. The water, the land, the timber and the power all demand to be employed in improving the natural conditions; but under present control the slow geological changes, only, will alter its appearance or value, 266 THE IRRIGATION AGE. SNAKE RIVER. Snake river was gaged; immediately above Jackson's Lake on September 5th. It discharges 147 cubic feet per second. This is above all of its important tributaries. When it crosses the Wyoming- Idaho line it rivals the Big Horn in size. On September 5th the Arkansas river discharged 184 cubic feet per second; the North Platte river discharged 575 cubic feat par second; the Laramie river discharged 70 cubic feet per second; the Poudre river discharged 165 cubic feet per second. THE SHOSHONE RIVER. On September 15th, 1897, the Shoshone river was gaged near Corbett, Wyoming, Its volume on that day was 360 feet per second. This discharge is the lowest that has ever been known. On the same day in 1897, the Arkansas river discharged 426 cubic feet per second; the North Platte river discharged 525 cubic feet per second; the Laramie river discharged 70 cubic feet per second; the Poudre river discharged 70 cubic feet per second. In 1897, the streams draining this part of Wyoming were unusu- ally low while rivers in the south-eastern portion of the state were .correspondingly high. The Shoshone river particularly felt the effect of a light snow-fall in the mountains. However, in May its mean daily discharge was over 8,000 cubic feet per second and in June it exceeded 5,000. The June discharges would in one day cover 9,900 acres one foot deep or suffice for the proper irrigation of 5,000 acres one entire season, if impounded and utilized. In thirty days with this volume flowing each day, 297,000 acres could be covered one foot deep or to contain it would require a reservoir, covering nearly 6,000 acres 50 feet deep. This quantity of water would irrigate 150,000 acres. WATER POWER. All of these mountain streams have a large fall. Wind river is as fair a type as can be chosen. From the mouth of Warm Springs creek to Crowheart Butte is a distance of 46 miles. The total difference in elevation between these two points is 1,775 feet, or 38 feet per mile. Sixteen hundred cubic feet per second with this fall would furnish nearly 7,000 horse-power each mile. At high water his would be increased to exceed 159,000 horse-power per mile. In his small portion of the river there goes to waste at low water 322, - 000, and at high water 6,900,000 horse-power. The Shoshone river, excepting the canon through Cedar Moun- tain, has an average fall of 25 feet per mile. Through the canon it falls 100 feet per mile. The lowest discharge of the stream, or 360 cubic feet per second, would furnish 1,025 horse-power each mile, which, in the canon, THE IRRIGATION AGE. _ 267 would be increased to 4,100 horse-power. In May, 1897, 23,000 horse- power could have been utilized outside of the canon each mile, or 92,600 horse-power each mile. There is no lack of favorable places for dams on either of these streams, nor is there a scarcity of material from which dams could be constructed. The elements lacking are a serious impediment to rapid growth. There are no cities to light or heat, there is no crying demand for electric rail roads and there is no raw material for mills and factories to work upon. Before a fractional part of this power will be utilized, beyond that required for a few saw mills, which will furnish lumber to a local market on the head-waters of the stream, agricultural development must be made to give it value. DEVELOP OUR OWN RESOURCES. BY O. H. CURTIS. That God formed this great earth as a source of sustenance for all His creatures living upon it, no one will for a moment deny. It there- fore follows that upon its surface, or within it, can be found every- thing desirable for the true needs of all the beings now existing here. This fact, then, proves all that is necessary is that the resources already placed here should be thoroughly developed and carefully utilized in order that every creature be supplied with all his personal wants. The question then arises, are all resources being now faith- fully developed by mankind everywhere to the best advantage, and if not, what can be done in order to bring about this great result? Unquestionably each region should be utilized to produce whatever its own natural resources will best accomplish, for then the desired re- sult can be attained with the least cost of labor. No result in life is reached except at the cost of effort on the part of someone, which is perfectly right andjjust, but that labor is oft- times lessened by the inventive genius of someone else, who produces appliances that make the work more easily accomplished. It is largely through this means that the present generation so greatly excels those preceding it, and the future will undoubtedly show far greater surprises than have been seen anywhere in the past ages of humanity. We are, of course, most interested -in the prosperity of our own grand country, and the thorough development of all its resources, and we are constantly seeking new means whereby this desired result can be more easily and quickly accomplished. This attribute and tendency of our people is wherein we chiefly differ from the inhab- itants of all other countries, and the results are seen in those depart- ments wherein we excel all other nations. Look back in history only one short century, and compare the condition and wealth of our country then with the various nations of the entire world at that time, and we must admit that we were indeed weak and insignificant as compared with the rest of them. From almost nothing at that time, in only one short century we have out- stripped the other nations, some of whom were already several cen- turies old when ours began, until today we stand far and away the wealthiest nation now existing upon the face of the whole earth. Our nation's value is now estimated at over $80,000,000,000 or over $1,000 for every man, woman and child in our whole country. Only a few THE IRRIGATION AGE. 269 days ago every nation was astounded at the fact that our country at that time controlled the finances of the whole world. What, then, has been the powerful cause whereby our people have made such wonderful growth and so far outstripped the older nations, that heretofore have always possessed the controlling wealth of the world'? We have accomplished it by quietly developing the almost exhaustless resources of our country, and utilizing the natural products in manufacturing different articles needed by humanity in various parts of the earth. We have been greatly aided in their man- ufacture by the inventive genius in which our people manifestly excel all others, thus enabling us not only to overcome the obstacle of cheaper labor in other countries, but to produce really far more ex- cellent goods and at decidedly a less cost than any of our competitors. These facts of our superior skill and energy in developing and util- izing our natural resources, have brought our nation from mere noth- ing to the point whereby our exports in 1898 considerably exceeded those of every other nation in existence and were just about double the amount of our imports. This wonderful attainment was accomplished in the face of de- cided hindrances to success in many ways. Not having our own merchant ships we are still compelled to use those of foreign coun- tries, chiefly our direct competitors, thus not only paying them about $100,000,000 each year as freight for carrying our goods, but having them everywhere to influence the trade away from us if possible, and into the hands of the manufacturers and dealers of their own country. Not only has the vast influence of the shipping interest in all foreign countries been against us, but also the gigantic interests of the en- tire producing, manufacturing and selling elements of the various nations all over the world. This commercial rivalry has already be- come so strong that the jealousy of the people of certain European countries has been very bitterly manifested against our own nation, and we are justified in looking with a large degree of apprehension as to what this feeling may cause the future to have in store for us. Certainly we ought not for a moment to lose sight of its existence, but should begin now to prepare for its possible developement, in- stead of our remaining satisfied with our marvelous attainments, and being puffed up and satiated by our present success. Common prudence demands that we immediately begin to remove the hindrances to our commercial success, by the rapid building of our own ships, both for merchant marine, and for a navy sufficient to thoroughly protect all of our national interests everywhere, no mat- ter what the future may have in store for us. Nor should we allow ourselves to be deceived by the flattery any nation gives to us be- cause it is not at present able to fully combat our success, while all the time it is intriguing with others, so as to ultimately overcome us, hiding its preparations under a plea of desired peace. 270 THE IRRIGA TION A GE, As the past success of our nation, in the face of all obstacles, is the result of our energetic development of our natural resources, and as that work in reality is comparatively just begun by us, we should embrace every means that we can discover which will in any way aid us in this work, either in the more rapid development of all resources, or in their more profitable use and distribution among all mankind. As a great aid to their distribution, a canal should be built at once, with national funds, from the Hudson river to Lake Erie, so that ocean ships can at all times freely sail to all the ports on our Great Lakes. This would so reduce freights that the market price on all produce would be raised to the extent of at least twenty cents per bushel on all grain, and to a corresponding degree on all other products, stock, fruits, ores, and all manufactured goods, that are now or could then be produced within the whole territory of the en- tire northern half of our country, thus greatly benefitting every farmer, merchant, manufacturer and laborer of every description. Of all the vast resources of our country, far the greatest in value are those arising from the development of the soil, in agriculture, stock, poultry and fruit raising and kindred industries. But this work thus far has been very imperfect] y done, from carelessness in trying to work on too large a scale. Land has been -too cheap, thus each family has so much they do not thoroughly work any of it. They think they must work all they have, so they simply skim over the surface and do not at all, or sufficiently, replenish the soil from year to year, as the crops are removed. Thus it soon requires all the land a farmer has to produce the crops his present needs re quire. This is all wrong. Look at the farmer in the old country and what he still produces from each acre, although his land has been under constant cultivation for many centuries. As good or even bet- ter results can be obtained everywhere in our country, if the same care and attention is given to the work. Another, and perhaps greater, evil arising from the system in our country, is the false ideas instilled into the minds of each rising generation, for they are led to believe it is now necessary to have more and more land in order to live, with their present enlarged ideas of their needs, or rather the false extravagance of their tastes. These exaggerated ideas of false needs, like everything else, have grown from their constant cultiva- tion, until now there are scarcely any children of the farmer, except, perhaps, those of foreign descent, who are content to continue life upon the farm, for they consider such a life to be beneath them, and are not satisfied until they join the mad throng in our cities, where they delude themselves into believing they are better off, even when cooped up in one small, hot room, breathing only foul poisonous air, eking out a bare existence upon the intensely small salary which they THE IRRIGATION AGE. 271 are really fortunate in receiving, and perhaps afterward becoming one of the many thousands of unemployed, existing or starving as the case may be. They soon learn what real care and worry are, and be- come slaves to it, along with the other misguided mortals who have left pleasant homes on the farm, where the pure air of heaven is ever free to all, and refreshing slumber every night fully prepares the body for the duties of each coming day, and where care and anxiety need never come, if each one has rightly performed the farm duties; and that is all they ever need to do, for God then gives the increase and full reward for all their labors. The farmer's son has little real show for success in business in the city, as statistics for many years past prove that more than ninety- five in every hundred fail sometime during their business career, thus suddenly losing in a moment all the results of their former savings from years of labor, care and worry. On the other hand, scarcely ever does a farmer fail and lose his savings, even with the present careless system, but one could never fail, if he were half as thorough in all his work of farming as he should be, and as the merchant, forced by competition, is compelled to ever be. Someone is always ready to pay cash for everything the farmer may produce, and at the full market price, while the merchant must ever seek his customers, and after awaiting their coming, must then accept less than the goods are worth, because some unprincipled competitor has offered similar but inferior goods at a lower price, and may be then getting credit in- stead of getting cash. What, then, should be done in order to change che tastes and ideas of the children, so as to make them not only willing, but de- sirous of continuing in the life of a farmer. First mrke that life show more of pleasure than of poorly rewarded labor. How can it be done? By using the same care and study of means and results, backed up by as good an education, as is now used by the successful man in our cities. This will immediately result in all work upon the farm being thoroughly done, and only such amount being worked as can be thus handled, resulting at the end of the season in a minimum crop-yield of forty or fifty bushels per acre instead of a maximum of five to fif- teen bushels per acre as at present, thus rewarding the farmer at the same cost, except a slight increase in seed, and the expense of harvesting and his own labor, with a profit at least four times greater than he now receives. This in itself would at once increase the possible number who could become engaged in this grandest of all employment, and every- one would receive a better reward for less real labor, than he can now possibly receive, from the position he might get in some city. This would also allow him to take the proper amount of time for study and mental improvement, and for needed recreation. His 272 THE IRRIGATION AGE. knowledge should cause the former to practice the proper rotation and diversity of crops, together with stock and poultry and fruit raising, with special care and attention toward the recuperation of the soil. There is every reason for the farmer to be fairly educated, not only in things directly pertaining to his work, but in all the common branches, and as many others as his tastes and time may warrant. For this purpose a system of education should be estab- lished everywhere, suited to his special needs. In connection with each state university there should be a department, with at least one thousand acres of land, where the most practical as well as scientific ideas of farming would be fully taught, and everything be freely demonstrated and practiced by all the students upon the land at the college. Besides this means, there should be owned by each county, at least one section of land centrally located, with its entire manage- ment directly in control of the state department at the university, upon which additional students could be freely taught. A system of appointment free from all political influence, should be established in each state, whereby students would receive free instruction and practice at the state department to the number of two students from each county each year, and at each county department to the number of two students from each township yearly. Large circulating libraries at each county department should be established, the books to be loaned to all farmers in the county. By these two means and various others of public interest, the entire farming class could soon become educated, and farm life be then con- sidered not simply creditable, but honorable by everyone, whether engaged in it or some other vocation. Particular attention should be given by all farmers and entire communities, as to the especial quali- fications of their land to the raising of some particular crop. As for instance, in the state of Nebraska, two large sugar factories have for years, proved the soil and climate of that state, to be superior to all others in the raising of sugar beets. Therefore such inducements should be made as would result in the required amount of beets being raised in this region, as will produce the sugar required by the people of our whole country, even if we do not ultimately export some, so as to entirely cease importing raw sugar from foreign countries, as has been heretofore done to the amount of $100,000,000 annually. Not only would this vast sum of money be kept at home here, but this additional amount, would thus be paid out for labor of various kinds. The same attention in the South should be paid to the raising of rice, that we may avoid importing that. The same is true of tobacco and several other products, the grades of each being by care and study improved, until the desired perfection is reached. In this way, by turning our attention to the producing in our own country, of every thing which is possible, we not only avoid sending our money THE IRRIGATION AGE ' 273 out of the country, thus building up some foreign competitor, but by thus increasing the variety of our products, we by that much reduce the chances of our production of any one kind. Alfalfa, the wonderful fodder plant, should be far more generally utilized, especially in all regions where other kinds of grass do not success- fully grow, but its culture will amply pay in almost any region, even in direct competition with other leading grasses. Another means of success, far surpassing all past results in farming, lies in proper irrigation, by a system which will always supply the water as it is required. Its advantages have already been proved beyond possible question, in various parts of our country where the natural rainfall is not sufficient. Especially in the Pacific Coast states, and in some other regions, has it been thoroughly tried, and the result is the finest fruits, wheat and various other products, that are grown anywhere in the whole world. Compare the results of irrigation on the wonderful soil of Nebraska, which, near Ord, produced a yield of 105 bushels of barley to the acre. The work in this state is comparatively new, and only in the western part has the lack of rain aeemed to make it necessary, but enough has already been done in the central part, to prove that whenever it can be done in any state, irrigation will fully repay its cost, in the increase of crops that it always produces. At Green River, Utah, in the very heart of the wilderness, where nothing grows except now and then a scraggly sage bush, is fully demonstrated what irrigation from an artesian well will do. Three years ago fire removed every vestage of civilization. Since then a row of cotton wood trees around the grounds of the railway eating house has been produced, each one of which now measures six inches through and sixty feet high. In the garden are grown all the vegetables needed for the table and in quality they easily excel those shown at the county fairs throughout the Eastern states. Five crops of Alfalfa are cut during one season. The results are simply marvelous, and beyond the belief of those who have not actually seen them. Irrigation is bound to revolution- ize the entire agricultural interests of this country, and the sooner the work is begun the sooner the reward will follow. United effort to that end should be made not only by different local communities, but by the various states as such, and the general government also, giving every p,id possible by legislation, and the free appropriation of money when the desired result can be thus sooner attained. In regions where running water can not be utilized to better advantage proper wells should be sunk. This can be easily done, as is already proved in several states, for instance Wisconsin, the Dakotas and eleswhere. Each state has various streams that by proper storage systems, can be advantageously utilized to irrigate the greater, if not the entire portion of soil that can be used for farming. The various 274 THE IRRIGATION AGE. private wells will do the rest. Our general government should pro- vide the money and at once begin the work which will ultimately reclaim and put into use the 550,000,000 acres of arid lands which are now so useless, simply from lack of water. An annual appropriation equal to one-tenth the amount in the river and harbor bill, would probably be sufficient and a complete system of fixed reservoirs should be built so as to provide sufficient water at all times. Such a low charge should be made to the settler for the water, as would, during a long period of years, simply repay the government for the actual cost of the work already done. The government can well afford to be exceedingly liberal with those actual settlers, who, by the aid of the water furnished, shall reclaim this land that is now entirely useless, for the added products will benefit the whole nation, far more than the amount of expenditure. Here is a department, wherein the general government should, far more than in any other, freely spend its money, for ample and direct returns are sure to come, far in excess of the amount spent. But the individual farmer should not continue idly waiting for the general government, nor the states nor even his community, or some large corporation, to raise a large sum of money, and build a vast system of works for irrigation, in any region that is now partly or thickly settled, in the older or some of the newer states of our grand union. Each and every individual farmer should turn over a new leaf, and till his soil with a new energy, and increased thorouhgness, plowing deep into the sub-soil which will give him added moisture, then by adding fertilizers and continued thorough work, he will increase his crop from two to four fold. If then the natural rainfall in his region proves insufficient, to crown his own thorough efforts with proper success, let him utilize the supply of water everywhere stored or flowing beneath the surface of his own land, and by means of wells, let him bring it upon the surface and distribute it over his soil thus irrigating it to the extent necessary .to insure success. This can be done at small actual expense, by means of windmills, thus utilizing Nature's own means, wherever the flow or body of water lies near the surface as is the case in most eastern states, and especially in western Kansas and Nebraska, where the entire surface of this dry upland is underlaid by the so-called Tertairy water deposit, which extends from the Rocky mountains east to the Missouri valley and in most places at a depth of about fifty feet below the surface. This deposit is already tapped by more than 2,000 wells, each of which irrigates a few acres, and its inexhaustable supply is proved by the Hutchinson Packing Company, who, from a space 150x150 feet, are pumping daily, 5,000,000 gallons of water, with no apparent effect upon the supply. This is pumped from a depth not exceeding forty feet and is enough to cover 6,000 acres to a depth of one foot each year. Beside this Tertiary supply, is another, THE IERIGATION AGE. '21 5 the Dakota sandstone supply, which comes near the surface in the centre of Kansas, and from there, extends at a depth of 200 to 1,000 feet below the surface, towards the north and west, underlying a region 1,500 by 500 miles to the "Hogback" ridge of the Rockies. The supply is an inexhaustible ocean, and lies between a layer of shole rock, both below and above it. It can of course only be reached by artesian wells, many of which are already in active use in both of the Dakotas. With these two vast sources of water supply, known to exist underneath this large area of now arid soil, what shall be the means, within the reach of the farmer, whereby they may be utilized? Why not harness the war moving wind, that without limit constantly blows across this whole region? By applying it properly to pumps and wells at needed points, it can be done with no cost whatever for the motive power itself. Here is a field for the inventive genius of our people, and he who best solves the problem, will not only become rich, but will at the same time benefit the most important class of humanity. Some of the farmers in Nebraska have proceeded fartherest in this direction in their crude way, and manufactured, from materials they could find about them, windmills and pumps at the very low cost of £6.00 to $8.00 each which now are indeed very common in some parts of that state. Perhaps the most remarkable of these is one at Kearney which cost only £1.50 and is six feet high, nine feet long and three feet wide and has eight fans. Another one at Lincoln nine feet wide, thirteen feet long and thirteen feet high cost only $8.00. This irrigates five acres of garden land. The largest and best known "Jumbo" mill, is owned by John Tannahill, a market gardener at Columbus, Neb., and it not only fully irrigates ten acres of garden, but has made a large growth of fine trees all about his place, some of which are a foot through and sixty feet or more in height. In the plan of irrigation by diverting the running streams, Nebraska leads, and its laws are liberal to the farmer. Over 2,500,000 acres are now reclaimed by this means, at a cost of less than $2.50 per acre, and it has already resulted in an increase of value to the land, of over £9.00 per acre, a net gain of $6.90 per acre, to say nothing of the gain in the crops besides. By this means sixty-five bushels of corn per acre is raised when adjoin- ing fields not irrigated yields only thirty bushels. H. J. Hendryx, of Platte Co. has twenty-five acres of celery which netted him $125.00 per acre. Another farmer raised 1,365 bushels of onions from one acre irrigated, the largest of which weighed nineteen ounces. His neighbors raised only 100 bushels per acre without irrigation. Mr- Sailing of Cozad, irrigated his wheat, only applying water twice, which gave him a yield averaging 40 bushels to the acre, while all about him land not irrigated, produced only twenty to twenty-three bushels per acre. 276 THE IRRIGA TION A. GE. These examples are cited to show the decided effect of additional water alone, and they prove that irrigation pays the farmer, not only in the arid region, but also in all regions where there is at all a a shortage of rainfall. One windmill will fully irrigate six acres of land which farmed intensely or properly will easily support a family of five persons. Added wells and windmills upon a farm will corres- pondingly add to the profit of farming, without corresponding increase of labor on the part of the farmer, though some must be of course added. Where one animal can now be fitted for market, with irrigation and little if any labor, at least five can be sold. There is no question then, that if the farmer will intensely and thoroughly cultivate, such a portion of his land as he is able thus to do, replen- ishing its strength by proper fertilizers, and furnishing it with sufficient water, he will be rewarded by profits, from two to four times as great as are now ordinarily received, and that too by very little added labor on his part, and but a slight increase of cost of seed and other expenses. Thus soon, with increased leisure, and steadily added wealth he will prove to all his children, the evident truth of the fact that farming is the most independent livelihood and gives the surest profits, of any vocation known. PRACTICAL IRRIGATION. BY JOHN G. HALL. I have often looked through the columns of the AGE for articles treating upon practical irrigation, but find they are very scarce, so I shall endeavor, from time to time, to write upon this subject as prac- ticed at Greeley, Colo. Greeley is a town of about 6,000 inhabitants founded by Horace Greely in 1870 and is still governed by the original charter of nearly thirty years ago. It was a temperance town from the beginning, and doubtless will remain so, as the charter is renewed from tune to time as it expires. On this account many people come here to rear and educate their children. The state normal is located here: large pub- lic schools in the various parts of town, making our school system equal to the best. The town is wholly supported by agriculture. The water for irrigation is taken from the Cache La Poudre, the South Platte and the Big and Little Thompson rivers. The largest proportion coming from the Cache La Poudre. The soil is a sandy loam. Principal products are potatoes, small grain and alfalfa. Greeley is considered to be (by those who have traveled extensively) the garden spot of the United States, as the products raised by irri- gation amount to several millions of dollars annually. Greeley pota- toes are superior to any grown. The amount grown each year averages eight to twelve thousand cars, and they are shipped to all parts of the United States. In the fall and early winter solid train- loads of potatoes leave every day by the U. P. and Gulf roads. Land in this locality sells from forty to one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre: this includes water belonging to said land. The variation in valuation depends on location, improvements and the ditch by which the land is watered, as some ditches have priority of right. The suow falling in the canons of the Rocky mountains thirty miles dis- tant, help to supply the rivers, melting gradually, and when not needed is stored in reservoirs until wanted. Surface leveling is a most important factor in successful farming by irrigation. During the eighteen years of my experience here at Greeley, the question of leveling the surface, so the water can be spread easily evenly and uniformly, has been a grave one and one calling for the constant care of the progressive farmer. Many devices have been tried with more or less success. The most successful and now being adopted pretty generally is one known as the Hall leveler, invented by myself. This leveler used on freshly plowed land does its work to the en- tire satisfaction of the user, as it loads itself from the elevations and 278 THE IRRIGATION AGE. deposits in the depressions, constantly loading and unloading itself as it is drawn along. Being fourteen feet long, the ends rest on the high ground, the dirt is carried along nearly in the center until a de- pression is reached which fills level with the general surface, the balance being carried on to the next depression, and so on, until a general flat surface is obtained. But this is not the only reason a leveler should be used. Running the leveler over newly plowed land forms a crust on the surface, thus preventing the sun and wind from penetrating the soil and absorbing the moisture that should be re- tained to germinate the seed. The accompanying cut is self-ex- planatory. LET'S HANG TOGETHER! A POLICY THAT THE WEST SHOULD UNITE ON BY GEORGE H. MAXWELL. "If we don't hang together we will all hang separately," These wise words of advice which have come down to us from the good old revolutionary days, may well be taken as a guide by the people of the West in the solution of some of their western problems. For many years the development of the west has been retarded because there was absolutely no policy or legal system adapted to the utilization or administration or disposition of the vast area of public lands in the arid region. The immensity of this great domain may be conceived when we take into consideration that the area of public land not taxable comprises 76 per cent of the whole surface area of Arizona, 57 per cent of California, 64 per cent of Colorado, 89 per cent of Idaho, 78 per cent of Montana, 95 per cent of Nevada, 69 per cent of New Mexico, 81 per cent of Utah and 85 per cent of Wyoming. Among the people of the West there have been two hostile fac- tions, representing apparently, the opposing sides of an "irrepressible conflict, " as to the policy which should prevail in the disposition of these lands. One faction has contended that the lands should be donated to the states outright, the federal government surrendering all interest in them, and leaving the states to work out their own salvation. The other faction has contended that this policy would be de- structive of the best interests of the states themselves, resulting in the lands passing into private ownership in immense tracts, creating land monopolies as detrimental to development as the old Mexican grant system, and that in short it would retard the reclamation and settle- ment of the arid west for generations, if not forever. The sentiment of the east has been opposed to state cession. The people of the east have regarded these lands as the heritage of the whole people, and have considered, and why not, that the government had no more right to in effect donate these lands to the stock growers of the west than it would have to donate the live-stock of the west to the people of the east. In some of the grazing states a public sentiment has been created in favor of state cession, but the sentiment of the west as a whole is not favorable to it, but is voiced by the editorial policy of such leading 280 THE IRRIGATION AGE. western journals as the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. Not long ago the Chronicle said editorially, in the course of an ar- ticle on this subject: "Land given to states is generally turned over by hook or by crook to private speculators. There are few instances where any other result has followed, and on that account the state land-grant proposition is very popular among legislators and lobby- ists who believe that the public owes them a living. " The Los Angeles Times republished this article in full, and in commenting on it, among other things, said : ' ' Bitter experience has taught the people of the United States that such grants, made to states, are almost invariably the source of corruption and scandal. We have enough of that sort of thing at present without inviting more trouble. " Now is there a ground upon which those which hold these con- flicting views can and should unite to start the west forward on a new era of development? Undoubtedly there is — and one which would remove every existing evil of the open range and at the same time guard against the greater evils which it is feared would result from state cession. The key note to such a solution has been struck by Elwood Mead, formerly state engineer of Wyoming, and now consulting engineer to the Department of Agriculture, in an article published in The National Advocate of January, 1897, and by F. V. Coville, the botanist of the Department of Agriculture, in an article published in the Forum of September, 1898. The solution is this: That the grazing lands should be leased, and the revenues devoted to the construction of reservoirs and irrigation works and the reclamation of the irrigable lands. In his first article Mr. Mead advocated the cession of the lands to the states and the leasing of them by the states. But Mr. Coville took the ground that it was unnecessary that the government should give away the lands in order to establish this system, and in his last Biennial Report as state engineer of Wyoming, Mr. Mead said: "The principal reason for advocating cession has been the desire to put an end to range stock controversies which threaten domestic peace; to render irrigated agriculture more profitable, and to secure for the state the funds needed to aid in building large canals and extensive reservoir systems. But all states are not equipped as is Wyoming with a land department for the management of leases, or an engineering bureau for the construction of public works, and in the states differently situated it has been proposed, as a substitute for cession, that the general government should inaugurate a leasing system for the non-irrigable grazing lands to be handled by the general land office in connection with its disposal of the lands which can be farmed, the funds arising from such leases to be expended in THE IRRIGATION AGE. 281 these states in building canals and reservoirs for reclaiming the irrigable land. / see no reason why this could not be done and why it would not be an immeasurable improvement over the lack of manage- ment or control which now prevails. "It is not a question of securing title to the land which is important but the inauguration of a. system which will preserve the native grasses from injury, if not destruction, through overstocking the range, and secure the conservation and best use of the waters of our rivers which noio run to waste.'" Why is not this last clause, quoted from one of the ablest advo- cates the policy of state cession has ever had, the ground upon which the whole West can unite, and bury the hatchet among themselves, and go before the people of the East with a proposed policy which obviates every evil of state cession, accomplishes every good result that could come from it, and to which no reasonable man can suggest any reasonable objection which cannot be removed by a wise adjust- ment of the methods to be adopted for carrying the policy into effect. Just so long as those who have advocated the cession of the lands to the states, and the surrender by the federal government of all control over them, transferring them absolutely to the State Legislatures, continue to insist on this policy and demand the absolute cession of the title by the federal government, just so long will the ' 'irrepressible conflict'' continue, and the development of the West be retarded, for absolute state cession will never prevail There are too many, both east and west, who will heed the warning voice of such journals as the San Francisco. Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times whose opposition to state cession is the result of a knowledge of past experiences with state land-grants and springs from a deeply rooted belief that such a policy would be detrimental to the best interests of the West. FARMERS' HOMESEEKERS' LEAGUE DEPARTMENT. In Charge of J. HAMMOND. Mr. H. E. Lait, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, inquires where we are goiug to locate. In reply I would state that this is a matter for the colonists them- selves to decide. The promoters of the Farmers' Homeseekers' League have assumed simply the duty of bringing a sufficient number of homeseekers to- gether to form a strong and powerful colony — such a one as will be able to found a successful and prosperous community. When we shall have done this our duties cease. The homeseekers will then organize themselves, and as a corporation will examine the various propositions of suitable locations and decide the question where the colonists shall establish their homes. Among the propositions received so far there are two from Arizona, two from New Mexico, three from Nevada, one from Washington, one from Utah, and last though not least, a very attractive one from Cuba, the Pearl of the Antilles. Brother Jno. Gorton, of Litchfield, wishes to know how the funds will be laid out. This is also a matter with which the association of colonists will have to deal. It will be for us to discuss when the time comes whether it were better to place our share of the expense of establishing the colony into a common fund, or whether the plan should be adopted of each man handling his own money. Either plan, under certain limitations, could be made prac- ticable without sacrificing, to any great extent, the advantages we expect to derive from united action and co-operative effort. Thus, for instance, we can buy the provisions for the entire colony in bulk, and altogether, and it will make but very little difference whetner the payment be made oxit of a general fund or we collect together the reqiiisite amount from the individual at the time of the purchase. Correspondence during the present month clearly reveals an inclination on the part of intending members to hold back their names until they see how we ''get along." This is acting somewhat on the principle of letting somebody else make the pie, and when he has it nicely baked, come in and help him eat it. We ask such brothers to kindly reverse their policy and lend us their as- sistance in making the pie, whether they decide finally to have anything to do with the eating of it or not. When a brother homeseeker hands in his name we do not ask him to pledge himself to any course of action what-so-ever. He may stay with us if the developments of the movement are satisfactory, or he can withdraw at any time if they are not. Until incorporation of the colony no responsibility, financial or otherwise, will be incurred by our members. Do not hesitate to at once send in your name and besides that do all you can to bring our scheme to a satisfactory issue. THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. ft In diversified farming by irrigation lies the salvation of agriculture. 0 THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pictures of fields, orchards and farm homes: prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns, hen houses, corn cribs, etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help us improve the appearance of THE AGE? CHINESE AGRICULTURE. Under the above title Wm. X. Brewster gives a very interesting account of the way things are managed by Chinese farmers — Mr. Brewster has charge of the Methodist mission work in the district of Hinghua. China, and from his labors in this line has had abundant opportunity to become intimately acquainted with the every day life and work of the Chinese. In the article which appeared the Farm and Fireside, Mr. Brewster said as an introduction that ;'in order for the Amer- ican farmer to understand how the Chinese cultivate the soil it is necessary first to understand something of the con- ditions of life here in southern China. In the first place, the population is so dense that land is very expensive. Fertile fields, with plenty of water, near a good market, and where the owners can watch them against thieves, are worth to the owners prices that seem like the ficti- tious values of corner lots in a booming western town in America.5' Continuing he says: "As I write I am passing by fields that will bring $600 (Mexicans) an acre. The owners of these fields have them worked for ten cents a day. or about $3.00 a month. That is. an acre of ground represents the wages of an ordinary day-laborer for two hundred months, or nearly seventeen years. Of course, all land is not worth so much as that ; much of it will bring not more than half that, or even less ; but good rice-land, well located, is commonly valued at that figure, or even more. A laborer or the farm in America wants at least $1.00 a day. Very little farm land without im- provements is worth $100 an acre. The laborer can earn an acre in three months as easily as the Chinese coolie could earn it in seven times that time. It goes without saying that where land is so valuable it must be made the most of by the cultivators. There are no un- sightly rail fences meandering about over the face of the earth, taking up as much space as a turnpike ought to. In fact, there are no fences at all. There are high earth and brick walls around houses, and sometimes orchards are thus closed in, but never fields. They have no barbed wire for fences, and a wall would not only occupy space, but would shade the ground, besides costing a large sum to build it and keep it in repair. How do they keep the cattle out of the grain? This is simple enough. They keep them in the house, not the stable. I have never seen a stable in China. No cattle would stay there long, if locked up in a building by themselves ; thieves are too abundant. When a cow or ox wants to graze, it is led out by one of the family, and led back again after nipping tufts of grass on the canal bank or the roadside '284 THE IRRIGATION AGE. Except upon the mountains there are few, if any, fields for grazing. They cannot afford to grow grass upon land that will produce rice or sugar-cane." Land in China, owing to its being in the latitude of Key West, can be culti- vated all the year round. The greatest economy in space is used, enabling a dense population to live on a compar- atively small tract. They consider a half an acre a large field, and it is so well tilled that weeds have no chance to grow. While this economy is well enough in one way it is wasteful in another as the roads are too narrow to admit of anything but foot passengers, necessitating the carrying of all produce to market on the farmers' backs, In conclusion Mr. Brewster contrasts the lot of American farmers and says : 1 ' The American farmer is not always con- tented with his lot. Too often the com- plaint is of short crops or nothing for good crops. Life's joys and sorrows are largely in contrasts. What is hardship to the rich is luxury to the poor. One season's experience of the Chinese farmer for the most discontented American king of the soil would send him back to his native land thanking God for the easy life of abundance given him in a Christian land, more favored of Providence than any other under heaven. If the Amer- ican farmer had to keep his live stock, chickens, cattle and pigs, under his own roof in order to keep them from being stolen ; if he had to watch his fields everv night as soon as the grain began to turn, or the fruit to ripen, or the potatoes larg* enough to eat; if he had to harvest it with a little grass-hook, and thresh it with a flail, and carry it to market upon his shoulders ; if the price of land were so high that to buy even an acre of it was a hopeless task; unless he had inherited wealth, or made a happy stroke in bus- iness; if he had to pay twenty-four per cent, interest if he was so unfortunate as to have to mortgage his land; a few months of such experience would send him back to "God's country" contented with his lot. It is the difference between Christianity and heathenism." RULES FOR DAIRYMEN. The Illinois agricultural experiment station bulletin of recent date, discusses the very important scbject of milk and its impurities, bacteria, etc. The lesson to be learned may be summed up in the eleven rules that it gives for dairymen, and though many a farmer will laugh at some of them as evidence of "over niceuess," if he lived in the city where milk often sours in less than six hours after the milk man brings it, in the summer weather, anything that tended to keep it sweeter and purer would be welcome. The rules are as follows : 1. Keep the cows clean and Avash the udders before milking. 2. Keep the barn clean, with walls and ceilings whitewashed; have it well lighted, ventilated, and free from dust at milking time. 3. Always make a clean toilet before commencing to milk. 4. Keep utensils clean and bright. 5. Kemove the milk from the stable as soom as drawn and strain and cool at once. 6. Never expose milk to bad odors. 7. Do not mix fresh warm milk with that which has been cooled. 8. Give the cow only good, wholesome food and pure water. 9. Never add anything to milk to pre- vent its souring. Cleanliness and cold are the only preventatives needed. 10. Milk regularly, quick, quietly, and thoroughly. 11. Always treat the cows kinkly and never excite them by loud talking, hard driying, or abuse of any kind. England pays Denmark more than $20,000,000 annually for butter. Having educated her people to become expert butrer makers through her experiment station and dairy school, Denmark next THE IRRIGATION AGE 285 undertook experiments in feeding pigs and the curing of bacon and other pork products, Since 1880 more than $50.000 was expended in this one line of effort, and the best scientific talent of the country was employed. Until Prof. Henry's work on "Feeds and Feeding" appeared, these extensive and invaluable experiments were not available to our people because they were printed in the Danish Language. In this book of Feeds and Feeding Prof. Henry has de- voted a whole chapter to the Danish pig feeding experiments. THE VALUE OF DUST. "If it wasn't for dust,'* said Prof. Wiley, the chief chemist of the agricultural department at Washington. "man would have to devise a new plan of existence: he would be compelled to provide him- self with food by some other means than agriculture. You could not have a garden or a farm without dust. It would not be possible for a crop to grow unless the soil contained an organism capable of convert- ing nitrogeneous matter into nitric acid. Nitrogen is indispensable as plant, food, and plants can assimilate it only when presented in the form of nitric acid, com- monly known as aqua-fortis. That is in- capable of auto-locomotion and can be distributed only through the dust which falls upon the soil and upon leaves of trees and plants. Hence dust is essential to the pursuit of agriculture, and if it wasn't being carried about constantly on the breeze through the air we would simply have to quit farming: animals would have nothing to feed upon, and we would have neither meat nor bread nor vegetables. '*! have been spending some years," continued Prof. Wiley "in the investiga- tion of the agricultural value of dust, and it is a very important subject. The soil is continually being revived and enriched from the particles that are floating about in the atmosphere. They come from two sources: first, atoms of the earth's surface caught up by the wind and distributed elsewhere, and, second, what we call cosmic dust — that is. mineral matter of meteoric origin. "We are getting gradually to undei-- stand its quantity, its value and the im- portant part it plays in agriculture. The heavenly bodies are constantly shedding fragments of iron and other mineral sub- stances, which fall with great velocity, and when they reach the atmosphere that surrounds the earth are heated by friction and catah fire by contact with the oxygen. They are then burned to ashes and scat- tered in minute and invisible atoms. . Some of the larger pieces that become detached from the stars reach the earth without being entirely consumed. We call them meteors, but the little particles that premeate the air, because of this perpetual and violent bombardment from the stars, are composed of phosphoric acid, potash and other chemicals, which are absolutely essential in renewing the fertility of the soil. "What we call terrestial dust is also of great importance to agriculture. In many places the soil is almost entirely com- posed of particles that have been left there by the winds. This is particularly true of soils that are made up of volcanic ashes, which are carried immense dis- tances from the craters. A considerable percentage of the soil on the earth's surface was originally volcanic dust, which has been distributed by that good friend of man we call the wind. Pompeii and Herculaneum illustrate the great depth to which volcanic dust may reach. These are called ^Eolian soils. "The clouds are water dust. Fog is a mixture of water, coal, terrestial and meteoric dust. The fogs of London might be considerably reduced if the people would burn hard coal. "The dust from the streets of cities is of a composite nature and carries all sorts of fragments and atoms in various stages of decay. It has a high degree of agricul- tural significance, because it is loaded with germs of all kinds. Some of them are very useful and some are injurious. The effect upon the public health is not injurious except where the dust carries pathogenic germs — that is, the germs of disease. As an illustration, the sputa of a THE IRRIGATION AGE. consumptive, if ejected on the sidewalk, is reduced to dust when it dries and is then distributed through the air in the form of germs. If they find lodgment in the lungs of a human being whose physical condition allows them to revive and grow, the disease gets a foothold and can be conveyed from one to another. " There has been more big money made by the farming interest of the country the past twenty years in either taking water to lands where most needed through irriga- tion or removing it therefrom by canals, ditches, tiling or levees than in any other one enterprise. Every farmer in the middle west, the south, the north west, the south west and west should subscribe for the Chicago Ir- rigation Age and follow its good advise. If they will do so. in the near future they will be money loaners instead of borrowers. PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. MONTANA'S ADVANTAGES. In response to a letter of inquiry from Edward L. Flemming, of Philadelphia, as to the agricultural advantages of Mon- tana, Donald Bradford, arid land com- missioner, writes as follows : "There are numerous ' benches ' of various areas lying among the Clark's Fork, in Carbon county, possessing rich soil and contiguous to ample water supply for irrigation. The climate is such that four crops of alfalfa may be raised in a season and fruit and vegetables grow luxuriantly. ••The state arid land grant commission believes that the Clark's Fork valley is second to none anywhere in every element necessary to support a prosperous corn~- niunity. or number of communities, and it is ready, as soon as a sufficient number of men have been secured, to proceed to build canals or ditches to reclaim the land. "The plan is to give employment to the settlers themselves in the construction of ditches and to pay in 'trustee's certifi- Jates.' which will be received in payment for water rights and will be accepted by merchants for supplies. These certifi- cates will be secured by an equal amount of the bonds issued by this commission on behalf of that particular district, which, when fully paid, will be cancelled. In this way the indebtedness of any dis- trict may soon be cancelled. "I may say that when any individual water right is paid for. the lien against it, under the law, is cancelled, so that it will not subsequently be liable for the debt of the district. The commission will sell water rights at cost which shall includ* actual construction, engineering, interest on bonds at six per cent, per annum and the district's proportionate share of the expenses of this commission, which will be slight. After construction the state will own and operate the ditch delivering to each his share of water at the cost of operating and maintaining the ditch, which will be small. "The land is a part of the Crow Indian reservation recently thrown open to settlement and can only be had by settlers themselves under the homestead act, and by paying $1.50 per acre, one- half at the expiration of one year and the balance at the end of two years. I wish you could secure fifteen or twenty families in your region or elsewhere and com- municate with me as soon as practicable. " FROM EDDY, NEW MEXICO The Pecos valley has now made suffi- cient progress as an irrigation centre to entitle it to occasional, mention in the AGE. Of the 1.400 square miles of cultivatable land in the valley 350 square miles are now under ditch and each year sees this area increased. There are now over 125 miles of main canals from which branch 273 miles of laterals and 900 miles of farm supply ditches. In the aggregate there are five large dams, two immense artificial lakes covering 9,100 acres and 1.294 miles of canals and ditches capable of irrigating 300,000 acres. The growing industry in the valley just now is the cultivation of the sugar beet of which it is estimated that 1,600 tons will be disposed of to the beet sugar factory this season. Farmers receive for this product $4.25 per ton at a cost for production of about $20.00 an acre, 288 THE IRRIGATION AGL. twelve tons to the acre being the usual yield. Next to the sugar beet, or possibly of equal importance comes alfalfa. With judicious irrigation an alfalfa field will bear six cuttings a year, yielding a ton to the acre at eacn cutting. A peculiarity about alfalfa grown in the soil of the Pecos valley is that it appears to enrich rather than impoverish it. The irrigation system of the valley is constantly being extended by the company and new land brought under cultivation. Taking the past as a criterion it is safe to say that within another three years the number of acres now irrigated wil be more than doubled. GEO. H. HUTCHINS. RECLAIMING THE LAND. The following extracts are taken from the article on the reclaiming of arid lands, by Wm. E. Curtis, which appeared recently in the Chicago Record : "Senator Wilson intends to spend his summer vacation in making a personal investigation of the irrigation problem in the west. Both the interior and the agricultural departments are now at work in that direction. The former, throiigh the division of hydrography of the geo- logical survey, is making a detailed examination of the flovial system west of the Missouri river, for the purpose of ascertaining all the facts that can be learned in regard to the quantity and the value of the rainfall, the water from the melting snows, the courses and habits of the streams, the area of arid lands which may be irrigated by them, the best methdos of distribution, and is making a hydrographic map of the arid region for the use of the government when it attempts to utilize the waters for agri- culture. The agricultural department, through Elwood W. Mead, an eminent irrigation engineer of Wyoming, who has his head- quarters at Denver, has attacked the problem from another standpoint. He is making experiments to ascertain the amount of water necessary for the culti- vation of different crops in various sec- tions of the arid region, is analyzing the soils and testing the various grains, grasses, vegetables and fruits which thrive best under irrigation. At the same time, in the irrigated states, he is teaching the farmers how to use water to secure the best results, and communicating the results of his experiments and investiga- tions through the regularly published bulletins of the agricultural department. In other words, he is treating the prob- lem from the practical side, while the geological survey people are treating it from the technical side. He works as a far r, they as engineers. Sec tary Wilson is going out espec- ially to satisfy himself as to the practi- bility of the reservoir system. There are said to be 600,000,000 acres of land in the western country, now useless because of the absence of water, which may be made productive by irrigation, and provision was sought in the last river and harbor bill for the construction of three experi- mental reservoirs along Piney Creek, Wyoming, for the purpose of demonstrat- ing the feasibility of storing the spring floods for use in dry season. Scientists who have studied the subject maintain that there is plenty of water in the arid regions, but it runs away before it is needed, and the proposition is to contrive some means by which the melting snows and the heavy rainfall in the spring months may be detained until the dry season and distributed where it will do the most good. It has been proposed to construct the three reservoirs named as an experiment for a practical study of the question, but notwithstanding the efforts of Senator Warren, Senator Carter and other representatives of the arid states, the item was knocked out of the appro- priation bill on the last night of. the session. The subject is likely to come up again, however, in the next congress, and Secretary Wilson wants to educate him- THE IRRIGATION AGE. 289 self by personal investigation, so that he may discuss it intelligently. Several nice questions are involved in the irrigation problem. Some people contend that its solution should be left to private enterprise or th the authorities of the individual states; but when a stream of water flows through more than one state the general government must con- trol it. It is also contended that Uncle Sam has no right to go into Wyoming or Utah and build reservoirs for the benefit of the people of those states with money from the public treasury. The answer to this is that if it is right for the govern- ment to build dikes and dams and jetties to protect the people of the Mississippi valley from floods, it is equally right to build dams and furnish water to the arid regions of the west. It is estimated that the annual loss by the overflow of the Missouri river alone would build all over the nonthwest reser- voirs which would regulate the flow of the spring rainfall and snow-melt, so as to prevent such destruction. According to the theory of the engineers, the reservoir system, if introduced into the upper Mis- souri valley, will obriate any future dan- ger from floods along the Mississippi. The spring rise of the Missouri is just as certain as the annual rise of the Nile, .and the army engineers have data by which they determine that a reservoir seven miles long, eight miles wide and thirty- one feet deep would keep the river at Sioux City below danger point. Capt. Chittenden of the engineer corps has prepared plans for a reservoir forty- seven miles square and thirty-one feet deep, which he claims will control the greatest flood that has ever been known on the Missouri river, and it is argued that if money can be properly voted to protect the towns and plantations along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers from danger that always threatens them, and to relieve the people who are distressed thereby, it is equally proper to vote money to make that danger impossible. It is also argued that if it is constitutional to dig out rivers and harbors im aid of commerce, it is equally constitutional to build reservoirs for the benefit of agri- culture. Senator Warren asserts that the amount of money that has been expended upon the Fox and Wisconsin rivers in the course of the last twenty years would be sufficient to build reservoir systems at the headwaters of the Mississippi and Mis- souri rivers which would not only dis- tribute water enough to cultivate 100.000- 000 acres of land, but would permanently prevent the overflow of those rivers and add more to national commerce and pros- perity in one year than will result in all eternity from the Fox and Wisconsin improvements. He declares, also, that if one-tenth of the money that has been spent in protecting the plantations along the lower Mississippi had been expended in reservoirs nearer the source of that river, there would be no more damage or danger to overflowed lands." May 8th the Secy, of War issued an of- ficial permit granting the right, so far as his department is empowered to act in the matter to turn the waters of Lake Michigan into the drainage canal. This official action of the Secy, of War must be approved by the Congress before the water can be so turned. This will doubtless be done early after the Assembly of Congress and by January 1900 we will see the waters of Lake Michigan flowing unobstructed into the Gulf of Mexico. ' 'Whereas, By section 10 of an act of con- gress approved March 3, 1899, entitled 'An act making appropriations for the con- struction, repair and preservation of cer- tain public works on rivers and harbors and for other purposes/ it is provided that it shall not be lawful to alter or modify the course, location, condition or capacity of the channel of any navigable water of the United States, unless the work has been re- commended by the chief of engineers and authorized by the secretary of war prior to the beginning of same, and, 290 THE IRRIGATION AGE. Whereas, The sanitary district of Chi- cago, a municipal corporation organized under the laws of the state of Illinois, has constructed an artificial channel from Eo- bey street, Chicago, to Lockport, and has heretofore been granted permission by the secretary of war to make certain improve- ments in the Chicago river for the purpose of correcting and regulating the cross sec- tion of the river so as to secure a flowage capacity of 300,000 cubic feet per minute, with a velocity of one and one-quarter miles an hour, it being intended to connect the same artificial channel with the west fork of the south branch of the Chicago river at Robey street in the said city of Chicago ; and, "Whereas, The said sanitary district of Chicago has now applied to the secretary of war for permission to divert the waters of the said Chicago river and cause them , to flow into said artificial channel at Kobey street as aforesaid ; and, Whereas, The aforesaid district of Chi- cago represents that such movable dams and sluice gates as are necessary to, at all times, secure absolute and complete con- trol of the volume and velocity of flow through the Chicago river have been con- structed ; Now, therefore, the chief of enigneers having consented thereto, this is to certify that the secretary of war hereby gives per- permission to said sanitary district of Chi- cago to open the channel constructed and cause the waters of Chicago river to flow into the same, subject to the following con- ditions : 1. That it be distinctly understood that it is the intention of the secretary of war to submit the questions connected with the work of the sanitary district of Chicago to congress for consideration and final action, and that this permit shall be subject to such action as may be taken by congress. 2. That if at any time it becomes appar- ent that the current created by such drain- age works in the south and main branches of Chicago river be unreasonably obstruct- ive to navigation or injurious to property, the secretary of war reserves the right to close such discharge thro ugh said chan- nel or to modify it to such extent as may be demanded by navigation and property interests along said Chicago river and its south branch. 3. That the sanitary district of Chicago must assume all responsibility for dam- ages to property and navigation interests by reason of the introduction of a current in Chicago river. Witness my hand this 8th day of May, 1899. R. A. ALGER. Secretary of War. JOHN M. WILSON, Brigadier-General, Chief of Engineers, U. S. A." MM WITH OUR EXCHANGES THE LA xiOME JOURXAI* The May issue of this publication is, in our opinion, much the best that has ap- peared in a long time. This is saying a great deal, as it is always an attractive journal. One of the most interesting arti- cles is that of Joseph E. Chamberlain, "Helen Keller as She Really is." Few there are who have not heard of Helen Keller, and her wonderf ull progress in an educational way in spite of her having but three senses instead of five. To be deaf and dumb is a calamity: to be blind is still worse. But to be deaf, dumb and blind would be almost sufficient to cause one to ••curse God and die.'' From her infancy, when she lost her sight and hearing, as a result of sickness. Helen Keller has been an object of compassion to all who have read of her. but the wonderful way in which she has made the best of things and made the most of life, is a lesson which pessimistic people should take to heart. Being blind as as well as deaf, it has "been a source of wonderment how she ever learned to read or to understand anything. This article explains the methods em- ployed to teach her. The anecdotes con- cerning Geo. Washington are also interesting, while Anthony Hope's story. '•The Countess Emilia:'' "A Girl's Life on the Prairie" and the many other good things make the May number a banner issue. THE NORTHWEST MAGAZINE. That old reliable publication, The North- Magazine of St. Paul. Minn., is offering $100 in gold for the five largest lists of new subscribers between this time and July 15. The prizes range from $30 to $25, $20, $15 and $10. and the rules governing the con- test are such that even those who do not win one of the prizes will still be well paid for his or for her work. The yorthucfst Magazine is firmly estab- lished throughout this country, where it has thousands of friends, and the above offer affords an excellent opportunity for clerks, school teachers, housewives, and all money-making men. women and young folks everywhere to earn a handsome sum of money quickly and easily. For full par- ticulars, write at once to The yorthvxst Magazine, St. Paul, Minn. Robert Barr. in the first of a series of papers on his Travels and Troubles in the Orient, tells some stirring stories of American "guns that can speak Turkish." "Life would not be so very well worth living along these shores if it were not for the American cruisers. ***** which do many things that fail to appear in the official dispatches." Just how United States Naval officers sometimes deal with troublesome Turks. Mr. Barr tells in The So late to have the illustrations m.ide for this issue. How much of romance there is Romance . . . and Reality, in the lives of the most com- mon place people and how much personal appearance has to do with our judgment of a case. It is quite natural to imagine a romantic episode in the history of the tall, slight creature who gazes at you with a soulful look in her big childish eyes, and when you see her in a dainty hat and crisp shirt waist you are quite ready to believe that some man's life was spoiled by her refusal, or you may lancy you can trace "disap- pointed hopes" in the pathetic droop to her mouth. In reality that pathetic droop may be merely ill temper caused by her dress maker having disappointed her, and though she looks so slight and fragile, it would be wise to charge a good round sum for her board. You cannot connect romance with the stout middle aged woman who is vainly trying to induce the grocer to let her have a peck of apples for thirty-five instead of forty cents, and yet pe haps it is for love of some man she thus bargains. It is hard for you to believe that she once attempted suicide because she thought her worthless husband cared no more for her. Yet such #is the fact We still cling to chi'dish THE IRRIGATION AGE. 297 The Curfew Law traditions: the princess must be young1 and beautiful and the wicked fairy wrinkled and hideous. The best of us ic ill judges by appearances. "Cl »thes do not make th^ man" — no, but they help to make the woman, in a man's estimation. A man rails at woman's folly in the line of dress: he ridicules her high heeled, narrow shoes, her small waist, her long dress. But when he marries does he choose the sensible girl who is dressed in accordance with his views, whose skirts are just short enough to display her broad, common sense shoe, whose waist is uneon- fined by lacing, who disdains the charms of "frizzes"? Indeed he does not. His wife will be a doll-like C'-eature whose feet are crowded into shoes three sizes too small, who wears a trail, a bustle and 'Tats" in her hair And he is as proud of her 21 inch waist and her number 3 shoe as she can jwssibly be. Despite the joking and "josh- ing"' concerning the curfew law. its friends are working industriously to see that the law is not only passed, but enforced after it is passed, and we hear every now and then of a city or town added to the list of those that have adopted it. Spokane. Wash., has had a curfew law but it has been more honored in the breach than in the ob- servance, until recently, when Mayor Olmsted decided after a thorough invest- igation that the law is a worthy one and deserving of being enforced. So henceforth the little lads and lassies under 14 years, must keep off the street after 8 o'clock at night in winter and 9 in summer. An effort was made to make the age limit Ifi years instead of 14. the fine is $5 or imprisonment in the city jail until paid. While at first glance a law of this kind strikes one as unjust and difficult to enforce, a more thorough investigation of it will reveal its merits. In small country towns it is not so necessary to have the curfew, as ''early to bed and early to rise'' is the motto of the majority of the inhab- itants, young and old. But in the city it is different. Parents among the lower classes have so littlle control over their children that it is quite useless for them to forbid the young people going out on the street or in fact anywhere else they choose, and in a great many cases the parents do not try to keep the children at homj. as they are free from the responsibility of looking after them if they do not know where they are. Ask many a Mother at 9. 10 or 1 1 P. M. where her little girl of 12 or 13 years is and she will say carelessly, "Oh. I don't know, can't tell where she is. Most likely out on the street playing." ''On the street'" is as indefinite as a man's "Down town'" is to his wife, which is saying a very great deal, the latter may include most any place. So for the child whose parent can not or will not keep her children at home even- ings the curfew bell may carry more weight, as there will be before their childish eyes a vision of themselves in "durance vile,"' if caught on the street later than the lawiul limit. Years ago — and not so many of them either— mothers marched their young hopefuls off to bed at 8:30 sharp, and no curfew was necessary. It may seem hard on the kids, but like most disagreeable things it is for their good. Perhaps the little girl who asked "why good things were always so nasty and bad ones so nice"' was a victim of the curfew ordinance. We recently saw. in the Jour- tSdiln. nolist, of New York city, a short biographical sketch of Lodian Lodian, with portrait. We hope later to be able to present in our pages the portrait of this wonderful man. whose life is so full of ai venture and incident. One often wonders, when pass- Trees, ing a farm house, that stands exposed to the winter winds and summer heat with never a tree near to cast its protecting shade in summer and break the force of winter's icy blasts, why it is that the dwellers therein do not plant a few trees of s-ome description. In the western states where water is scarce and economy has to be used regarding it. we can understand, to some extent, why any- thing that tends to take up moisture from the soil unless a money-producing growth, would be dispensed with. Still even there 298 THE IRRIGATION AGE. is no excuse, miu-h less fur the ea&tern dwellers. Our fore-fathers, one generation back, seemed to be possessed with a mania for cutting down trees — any and all kinds — but their descendants should have ad- vanced far enough to realize the manifold advantages of the forests and in-tead of destroying, create; or in other words, plant trees. On every farm, there is always some spot, a neglected fence corner or an .unused spot near house and barn, where a fruit tree might be planted and in a few short years, furnish both fruit and shade. It is said that Germany ha* a quaint custom. The heir to the ducal throtie, on his eighth birthday plants a linden tree in the historic grove of "royal lindens," where his fathers and grandfathers before him have observed the custom by planting a tree on their eighth birthdays. If the farmer would commemorate an event of unusual interest by planting a tree, he would in his old age have a living, growing diary, each tree marking some event in his life, and serving as a bit of sentiment in his prosaic life, as well as being useful— that maple by the front porch was planted on the day his first boy was one year old; (woe betide him if he plants any such "age-revealer"' on his daughter's birthday), and that mighty apple tree by the well was planted the year he and "Ma" were married. It doesn't bear much now, but it is such an old land mark it still .stands. The pine by the gate "Ma" planted on the fifth anniversary of their marriage. And that tender shoot over yonder is from the acorn that his little grandson planted last summer to, "make a garden. ;' No wonder that the poet cried. "Oh woodman spare that tree." What we want now is a poet to sing to- the farmer "Oh farmer plant that tree." THE DESERTS OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW. THE DATE PALM IN THE UNITED STATES. BY J. W. TOUMEY, B. S., Tucson, Ariz. In the Old World, portions of the great desert belt which extends from India on the East to the Atlantic shores of Morocco on the West, have been under cultivation wherever water has been available for purposes of irrigation, from remote times. In the New World, a region comprising Northern Mexico and Southwestern United States, lies in the same general latitude and belongs to the same desert belt. Morever, the meteorological con- ditions prevailing in these two regions are strikingly similar. The arid regions of the Old World have long been under culti- vation, but it is only in recent years that the arid regions of South- western United States have seriously claimed the attention of the tiller of the soil. It has, however, been amply demonstrated that wherever water can be obtained in sufficient quantity the soil is very productive. In the Old World deserts, the plants grown are either those that are indigenous to the desert.and which have developed into valuable economic plants through many years of cultivation and selection, or they are plants originally indigenous to semi-arid or in a few instances to humid regions, which have developed valuable varieties, capable of withstanding the changed environment, through many years of continuous residence on desert soil. On the other hand, arid America has few indigenous plants that have as yet developed economic forms of much value under cultivation, neither have plants from more humid localities had time to become thoroughly acclimated in the comparatively few years that this region has been under cultivation. In the desert regions of America the agriculturist is so remote from similar regions in Africa and Asia that he has not drawn upon them to any extent for the seeds and plants that he has attempted to grow. In most instances he has brought them from his old home in New England or the Middle West and planted them upon desert soil, thinking that he but needs to open the gates at the heads of his canals and laterals and direct the water over his fields, in order to insure a profiable harvest. He has overlooked the fact that irrigation will not overcome the excessive heat and dryness of the atmosphere. He has overlooked IRRIGA TIOX A GE. 30 1 the fact that plants indigenous to humid regions are in most instances ill suited to grow in our most arid regions, no matter how much water be supplied in irrigation. It is imperative that dwellers in arid America give more attention to the source of the seeds and plants which they undertake to grow. With grains and vegetables, i. e. plants which require but a few years from seed to maturity the question of the environment under which the seeds planted were grown, is not so important as it is for plants that survive for a greater period than a single season. With plants quick to mature, the question of humidity and temperature can be largely modified by season of planting. Perennials, on the other hand, must continue in growth during a considerable portion of the year. They must be able to withstand an exceedingly hot and dry atmosphere during the summer and from five to fifteen degrees of frost during the winter. They must be able to stand a daily range in temperature varying from thirty to fifty degrees, not only without injury to the plants but without harm to the fruit which they must bear in order to be of value. The natural environment of the date-palm makes it well suited to the more arid portions of Southwestern America. It is the most characteristic and wide- spread economic tree of the Old World deserts. It is indigenous to the desert and is not injured by extreme heat and aridity and a moderate degree of cold, neither is it affected by wide variations in the daily range in temperature. Although the date has rarely prospered as an economic tree when taken from its home and gro.wn in similar latitudes, the explanation lies in the fact that it has usually been taken from its desert environ- ment and planted in humid regions. Centuries of experience has demonstrated that the countries where the date does best are char- acterized by intense summer heat and an almost total absence of rain. However, its roots must be well watered. In the date regions of Northern Africa and Southwestern Asia the mean annual precipitation varies in different localities from fifteen inches to less than one inch. In Southern Arizona the average annual precipitation for a period of eighteen years is as follows: Phoenix, 7.08; Tucson, 11.63; Yurna, 3.05. The average precipitation for the year practically coincides in the two countries and the excessive dryness of the atmosphere in Northern Africa finds almost its parallel in Southern Arizona. So also the temperature of the date regions of Northern Africa is very similar to that of Southern Arizona. The following are a few of the many comparisons that might be given. The mean maximum annual temperature of El Golea, Algeria, 88 degrees F. ; Phoenix, Arizona, 88.1 degrees F.; Gardaia, Algeria, 83 degrees F.; Yuma, Arizona, 85.9 degrees F.; Laghouat, Algeria, 78 degrees F. ; Tucson, Arizona, 81.1 degrees F. s; THE IRKIGA.TIOS AVE 3JJ The mean minimum annual temperature for the same places is as follows: El Golea, 56 degrees F. : Phoenix, 50 degrees F.: Gardaia. Degrees F.; Yurna, 5^-3 degrees F.; Laghouat, 49 degrees F. ; Tucson. 52.9 degrees F. The mean annual temperature at Cairo, Egypt is 71 degrees F. : at Yuma. Arizona 72.6 degrees F.. at Phoenix, Arizona 69 degrees F. Dates are successfully grown in regions where the winter tem- perature falls as low as 20 degrees F., and their growth is still possible where the temperature occasionally falls 14 to 16 degrees F. below freezing. They are grown in regions where the orange is unable to exist for a single winter. On the tableland of Baluchistan, and a few other regions of the Old World, dates are profitably grown where the sum total of slimmer heat is far less than in favorable localities in Southern Arizona. Experience has taught that the Northern limit of successful date culture, so far as dependent on temperature, is marked by the lower- ing of the average temperature for the year below 69 degrees F. This, however, is only an approximate guide, as it is not so much the warmth of the entire year or the absence of winter's cold that the date palm requires, as it is a high temperature for eight or nine months of the year, during which the tree makes its growth, blossoms and ripens its fruit. A high temperature for this period is important. Aside from the value of the date as a desert plant its influence on the cultivation of other plants is considerable. Many economic plants unable to withstand the almost vertical rays of the sun, receive from the crown of the palm enough shade to enable them to be grown with success. Putting away the above evidence, proof in regard to the success- ful production of dates, in Southern Arizona lies in the actual growing of them. The date palm has been grown in portions of the United States and adjacent Mexico for many years. Within the borders of the United States, however, until recent years it has been planted in more or less humid regions where it matured little if any fruit, although in many instances the trees grew luxuriantly and to large size. The date as a fruit producer being indigenous to a desert environ- ment does not take kindly to humid regions. In the more arid portions of Lower California and Sonora the early plantings have been more or less successful and dates of fair quality have been grown for some years. In the vicinity of Yuma date seeds planted in 1*75 have grown to trees which are now from thirty to fifty feet in height and which have fruited without interruption for the past nineteen years. These trees produce yearly from six to nineteen bunches of fruit, the bunches weighing from -fifteen to forty pounds. 306 THE IRRIGATION AGE. In recent years many seedling dates have fruited in Salt River Valley, some of which have produced fruit of good quality and fair size. With the exception of a few plants imported by the Government and distributed in 1890-91 to various places in New Mexico, Arizona, and California, the dates grown in this country are see 1 1 ings. It is not to be expected that all seedlings will produce desirable fruit. On the other hand many will produce fruit totally unlit to eat, while only a small percentage will be of special merit. That seed- lings have done so well argues much for the future of the date industry in Southern Arizona. At most, the portions of the United States suitable for growing dates is confined to narrow limits. It is not likely that dates will be profitably grown outside of the irrigable regions of Southern Arizona and Southeastern California. The industry is in its infancy, approved varieties have not as yet been imported, and the quantity of fruit grown has not reached sufficient magnitude to give to it a commercial rating. NO ROYAL ROAD. There is no royal roa.1 to God! The humblest clod Who kneels him down and dares Send one or maybe many prayers Up to the heart that waits At mercy's open gates Treads it, aye, as the elect have trod! There is no royal road to God! The chastening- rod Of conscience has a sting. Alike for beggar and for king, And if each soul obey What, then, can lead'them far astray, Though one be bare of foot and one most richly shod There is no royal road to God! The common sod Are we, though on a throne Or born low down to grieve and moan. All our inheritance is this — A thoroughfare to eternal bliss That, if our eyes but see, is smooth and broad. — Edward Wilbur Mason A THIRTY PJUND BUNCH OP DATE? GROWING ON IMPORTED PLANT, "AMR EE YALE." WATER STORAGE. BY F. H. NEWELL, Hydrographer, U. S. Gsological Survey. Presented before Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, Wichita, Kan. The most important problem that can coma to any borly of public men, commercial or otherwise, in the West, is that of tha increased utilization and development of the vacant lands both in public and private ownership. Before this question most of the other matters sink into comparative insignificance, for without an increase in popu- lation and productive capacity the West cannot continue to furnish a market for the manufacture or a field of operation for the varied in- dustries of the country. The utilization of the vast extent of vacant land is not something which should be left to the farmer; it is pre- eminently a matter for the business man, whether concerned in manu- facturing, transportation, or in handling the products of others. In fact the farmer, as such, has least concern with the development of the resources of the vast West. As long as he has a market for his produce, it makes little difference to him whether the vacant lands of an adjacent county or state are populated. To the merchant, however, the matter is entirely different. Continued stagnation or retarded de- velopment must inevitably operate to reduce his chances of financial success. The development of the agricultural resources of the western half of the United States has prac ically come to a standstill, or at least is going on only at the average rate of the whole United States. There are. of course, local exceptions, but in comparison with the conditions exi -ting ten years it appears as though development had stagnated. The reason of this is not difficult to give. The greater part of the lands are arid or semi-arid and although among the richest in the world will not produce crops except by the application of water. Ir- rigation has been introduced and carried forward in favored localities all over the West and where the ditches have been built by the land- owners the profits or increased land values have been enormous. The opportunities for continuing developments in this line have nearly ceased because of the fact that these choice spots have been taken. There still remain great areas to which water can be brought from rivers of notable size; but before this can be done, large sums of money must be invested in the construction of expensive works. The exper- ience of the last ten years has shown that these large irrigation works do not pay, and probably cannot, as a rule, be made to pay a fair interest on the investment. THE IRRIGATION AGE. 309 While it has been demonstrated that irrigation investments on a large scale do not return a fair interest to the persons who furnish the money, yet, on the other hand, there is no doubt that taking the com- munity as a whole the benefits are«far beyoncl the first cost: but, un- fortunately, these benefits do not redound to the advantage of the men who have furnished the capital and have taken all the risk and trouble of managing a large enterprise. These facts, although recog- nized for some years, have been so unpalatable to the promoters of the country that the men wao have had the courage to state th^m have baen continually assailed ani the correctness of their statemeats called into account. The truth, however much we dislike to admit it, is so generally recognized that it is worse than useless to attempt to conceal the actual conditions. Many instances can be cited where meritorious projects now under consideration are awaiting definite action because it is impossible to show to the investors a single exam- ple of profitable investment of this character. Millions of dollars could be had for the construction of irrigation works, if it could be demonstrated to impartial and critical experts that similar invest- ments were now returning a fair interest on the original capital employed. We have the anomalous condition existing of great enterprise or state or national importance languishing for need of capital. At 1 he same time it. is admitted that these enterprises will benefit the com- munity to a far greater extent than the first cost. On the other hand are millions of dollars awaiting an investment, but deterred from the fact that it cannot be shown that these enterprises will prove profita- ble to the investors, although unquestionably yielding returns far in excess of their cost. Putting these things together the question arises, what shall be done'? And the answer must be that the com- munity benefited, whether the state or nation, must in some way either furnish the capital for building these great works, or secure to the men who take the risk, a fair earning on their investment. How this is to be done is a matter of detail and cannot be worked out until general recognition can be had of the conditions just described. The utilization of the vacant lands now comprising a third of the whole United Stal es. and the consequent increase of population and of all industries, is to a large extent dependent uponaccuring more water. It is not possible, taking the year as a whole, to secure a greater amount than now exists, but it is possible to increase the available supply many fold by saving that portion which now goes to was e. in order to increase the available supply two methods are especially prominent. The first is that of storage of the floods or winter waters, and the second is by pumping water from underground, or from streams from which it cannot be taken by gravity. Pumping is es- sentially the problem for the Great Plain region, and to a less extent, for money parts of the West. It is particularly important in many 3 10 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. portions of California, where the conditions are such that water stor- age can not be had. The great advantage, or one of the great advantages, of pumping water for irrigation is that the man "who would develop a tract of land, or the farmer who cultivates it, is practically independent. Most of the successful pumping plants are and always will be small, and mat- ters of individual concern. Pumping on a large scale, while it will undoubtedly be done in many localities, will, from the nature of the case, never be as important as the raising of water by small, cheap, or home-made devices. A small pumping plant can be installed by almost any farmer or mechanic, and with a little ingenuity and care can be made highly profitable. If not successful the first time, it is capable of indefinite modification and change. A mistake made at the outset does not ruin the whole enterprise, as in the case of water storage. The power used for pumping water is as varied as the kinds of machine. In some localities horses or oxen are successfully employed and in others various forms of motors operated by gasoline or steam engines, by water-wheels or by other devices. The most common source of power, and by far the most important, is that from the wind. This is particularly the case on the great plains, where thousands, and possibly millions of windmills have been or are, about to be erected. The power is sufficient for all purposes and the kind of mill and pump matters little, although in the long run the best must be used. Every encouragement should be given to the increase of small pumping plants suited to local circumstances, for by the use of these farmers learn quickls how to produce the best results with the least amount of water, or of wasted energy. They thus become experienced and com- p3tent to take up irrigation farming on a larger scale. The reasons for the financial failure of large irrigation works need not be discussed at this time, but it is important to know that one of the causes, if not the most important, has been the fact that a few far- mers purchasing or occupying lands under these great systems have bean competent, at first, to handle the water and to successfully raise crops. Many have failed or have become discouraged, a d the great majority have not been able to make the payments agreed upon. Those who have succeeded have often done so by using the the water in the most wasteful fashion, and have not only injured their own lands, but have often ruined adjacent tracts and have jeopardized the success of others by the lavish spreading of water over the surface. Using water from the pumping plant, it is not possible for a man to be as wasteful as when he obtains his supply from a gravity system, and thus the thousands of farmers who are dependent upon windmills or other forms of motors for raising water are becoming adepts in the art of producing the largest crop with the least waste. Whenever a large bo.ly of such experien3ed men can be induced to settle under a great irrigation canal one of the principal causes of failure will be removed. THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 311 The development of the vacant lands by pumping can be left largely to itself, as it is a matter of growth and of the spread of infor- mation. But the providing of great storage works is an entirely dif- ferent question: it can come only through sustained effort and interest on the part of the public as a whole. Pumping water may suffice for the Great Plains and for some favored valleys, but for the arid west as a whole water conservation is the only source of relief. It is use- less to hope that this will come through private enterprise. Reser- voirs, mostly small, may be built here or there by corporations having large landed interests, or concerned with the increase of supplies for a city or suburban population, but they cannot be constructed for a development of great areas of improved, or partially improved farm- ing land. These must either lie idle, or united action must be taken along definite lines established by careful investigation and expert report. The importance of water storage has already been recognized by the Congress of the United States, but the efforts of Senator Warren, of Wyoming, and other western senators, have not been as strongly sustained as is necessary for ultimate success. They must be con- tinually and strongly backed by the great commercial and transporta- tion bodies of the country, as well as by the people at large. If the localities are wisely selected and the structures are economically built, there is no doubt but that storage works will return directly and indi- rectly their cost, and ultimately a reasonable percentage on the in- vestment, especially if we take the increased values of all taxable property. The funds thus used, if appropriated by the state or nation will ultimately come back", and can be used over and over again. These funds cannot be made available until the united sentiment of the country demands forward movement along definite lines. It is waste of time to talk, about private capital constructing these great works, and less than useless to argue that the capitalist ought to be willing to take the risk of building great storage works with the pos- sibility of receiving his money back again, if unsuccessful, after the lapse of many years. FARM RESERVOIRS. T. S. VAN DYKE. The following paper was read at the Pomological Society meeting in Riverside, CaL, on May 4. ';Many small reservoirs have been built in the last twelve years, and all that I have seen or heard of have been practical failures, where intended to give safe storage for water enough to irrigate any considerable area of fruit trees in full bearing. Small reservoirs differ from large ones only as small fish do from large ones. Both demand genuine water and decline to work on wind. Most of the mistakes have arisen from not considering the difference between a pond that you may fill several times in the growing season from sum- mer rains, or flowing streams, artesian wells or some pumping system, and those that receive little or no water during the irrigating season, but must depend upon the winter floods. The latter will almost al- ways be failures, unless built on a scale entirely too expensive for an ordinary ranch. Much money and time have been wasted on them, and many trees planted to be of no use. With the return of the usual rainfall and a series of good years this experiment will again be pop- ular, and in time be almost certain failure, even in years of fair rain- fall. As a rule, water can be reservoired most cheaply on the largest scale. The small scale is both expensive and unreliable. Consider first, that it takes an acre a little over fourteen feet deep to hold an inch of water — that is, for a year, or 365 twenty-four-hour inches. It takes a very good basin with a fairly flat floor to hold an average depth of water equal to one-third the height of the dam. Such basins as you are likely to find for farm use will not hold over one-fourth of the heights of the dam, and in many the average depth of the water back of the dam will not be over one-fifth, as where there are many sloping points jutting into it, with mounds or ridges in the bottom. Taking the mean of these, or one-fourth for the average depth of the flowage back of the dam, it would require a dam fifty-six feet high te hold an inch if the water surface were one acre; twenty- eight feet high if the surface wrere two acres, and fourteen feet high if the sur- face were four acres. You see at once this is quite a pond, and yet we have not allowed for evaporation. This is about four feet for the year on an average throughout the country, of which nearly three feet will be in the dry season. If this came off the bottom it would be trifling, but it comes off the top layers, and amounts to 15 or 20 per cent, of the supply. In this way you can easily judge of the value of a res3rvoir if you know THE IRRIGA 7 IOX A GE. 313 the height of the dam and the number of acres it will cover at that height You will find few basins stand the test Most of them will be too narrow or too sloping or more often both, while those with a large wide bag back of a narrow gorge suitable for a safe and cheap dam are very rare. Most of those we find suitable have a habit of having little water- shed back of them, while those that have a good watershed are too often very wide-mouthed. If the watershed is good enough to insure filling the reservoir in ordinary years, then it is quite certain to bring in considerable sediment in wet years. I have seen several complete- ly filled in this way in one wet winter. It is possible to dredge them out, but you had better let the other man undertake the task. It is a nice amusement for a tenderfoot. It looks like a simple matter to build a dam fourteen feet high in a narrow gorge. But when you have gone to a safe foundation your dam is more likely to be twenty feet high. And the gorge that to the eye seems so narrow may be fearfully wide when measured by your purse. If your watershed is reliable for medium years there is certain to be a large overflow in very wet winters, and to provide against that with certainty is no trifling matter. It seems very easy to run a pipe or a box through a dam of earth, but it is still more easy for the water to cut it out. You have seen, on hillsides, sheets of shelving rock covered with soil that was formed from its decomposition, and about as close to it as you are likely to pa< k anything but the best clay. Yet you have seen water follow the seam between the soil and the rock for many yards under almost no pressure. So it will do with any seam between earth and any hard material. When it once gets through under pressure the fate of your dam is sealed. Many other precautions make the building of a safe dam on a reliable watershed so expensive that even where the proper basin exists you are paying too much for the amount of water you get and will do better to resort to some other means. A small reservoir, to be filled by a flowing stream or wells, is quite another matter, especially where the stream does not flow through the basin but is diverted into it. Where reasonable precau- tions are taken these are nearly always well worth what they cost. for there is no large overflow to provide against, and they can be filled more than once a year. In many cases they are a necessity, as where the water is cold. The temperature of irrigating water is of great importance, 3*et it is constantly overlooked by novices in irrigation. For many things every degree that you can add to its temperature will mean dollars in the results. To be useful it must be warm, for cold water will check many kinds of growth, so as to make a practical failure of the crop. I have seen corn completely ruined by water from mountain streams, sickly and not yet in ear in August, yet the owner did not seem to • 314 THE 1RRIGA TION A GE. suspect what was the matter. For this reason I would prefer a reservoir wide and shallow, even at the risk of more trouble from vegetation. You cannot have the water too warm for the best results, with most products. t "Such reservoirs should also be used in hundreds of cases where one now deems them necessary. All experienced irrigators know the difference in efficiency between so many inches of water in large heads and in small ones. Many a man is now irrigating from a well who does not know this or does not know the extent of the difference. Even with a well flowing several inches of water, either artesian or by pumping, parties are losing efficiency seriously by not accumulat- ing that head so as to make a large run. It is not possible to frame a formula by which this may be calculated, but it is safe to say that a man with a ten-acre tract, and a well furnishing one inch of water, had better spend a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars for a reservoir, or else unload on the first tendrfoot and buy under a ditch giving large heads, as most of them do. The San Diego Flume Company got into its present trouble largely by the stupidity of directors, who ignored the plans of the projectors and limited consumers to a con- tinuous flow of a single inch. '•For valuable products, and for almost all products, one must have an irrigating head of considerable size. It should be from three to five inches for each acre to be irrigated, according to the texture of the soil. Where the soil is too porous for good furrcw work the resort must be to flooding, it should be at least ten inches of head for each acre to be irrigated. All this means high efficiency of the water. But it also means a large reservoir. "It does not, howTever, imply that such a reservoir must be cemented. Such a course wTill generally be expensive, whether with cement or asphalt, but almost all soil can be puddled with animals, and many soils wrill puddle themselves well enough in a little while. As an inch will cover an acre half an inch deep in twenty four hours, and half an inch wrill wet about five inches in depth, the seepage on any very tight soil would not amount to much compared with the increased value of the greater irrigating head. When this reservoir raises the temperature 15 or 20 degrees, the combined effect will generally justify considerable size in the reservoir. One can generally be built by home labor and nee^ not be deep enough to require very much care with the outlet pipe. "Many think the evaporation from a large reservoir is too great for economy. During very hot weather it would average about one miner's inch a day from the surface of one acre. In cool summer weather about half that. If it were very shallow this would be increased and there would be still more loss if there were very much vegetation in it. But even these losses, as well as the cost, will be generally more than offset by the effect of the increased head and the THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 315 temperature. And the larger head means not only more work out of the water, but less work and worry out of the man who handles it. • -There is one type of reservoir not yet in general use, but which most people seem very much afraid of. If water cannot be stored above ground, the next best place is in the ground. How many thousands of inches went into the sea a year ago with a short year staring us in the facer1 How much public wealth was thus thrown away for fear it might rain and people thus have a little labor for nothing. And this is done after it is certain that we cannot have enough rain to keep the subsoil as wet as it should be. How strange it is that it takes people so long to learn that if you try to cultivate by irrigation a thin sheet of soil on top of an ash heap, that the dry ash heap will sap it upward. There is capillary attraction that na mulch can break up and in trying to keep it wet you are throwing away good summer water that is needed elsewhere. "But suppose it should rainy Well, suppose it should. Many of you remember the great wet winter of 1883-4, when the ground was for weeks like a duck's back, when all the streams ran all summer and fall to the ocean, when springs broke out and ran a year or more on dry hillsides, and tule patches and willow groves started on the late dry slopes. Do you remember any harm that was done by it to- any thing that was on ground where it should have beeny Do you remember any injury to the orange crop of that year or the nexty Did it hurt the deciduous trees or the fruit except the old-style orchards in swales and in low ground y But do you not remember the effect of the water in the ground that was carried through to the next year'r Do you not remember how the next year was short in rainfall, with a very bad distribution, yet that the effect of the great wetting was plain on corn and other summer crops, as well as on trees eighteen months afterward y If you do not remember find some one who was there. It is time we stopped wasting wealth for fear of a little unnecessary work, at a time, too, when there is plenty of time to work. Had the water that during the last six winters has run away from the lower end of the ditches been forced into the ground by rates so low as to induce people to use it, we should see a much brighter green on most of the crops than we shall see this year, even where there is a trifling short asre of summer water." A NIGHT IN AN OLD ENGLISH ROADSIDE INN, AND WHAT I SAW THERE. AN OLD UNUSED "MQRLAND" INN SIGN. BY LODIAN LODIAN, c. e., Paris, France. (Original for this Journal.) In an out of the way part of England, where the postman is un- known, and letters are brought by the first chance wayfarer or neigh- bor to the small group of cottages in a sequestered nook in the hills, a small inn without a sign is to be met with, wherxe once spirits were made and sold in uncertain quantities; but as the supervisor of excise had been ignored officially, the spirit business was stopped suddenly, when the matter was officially investigated — much to the chagrin of the mild looking landlord and small farmer, who saw to the business, as well as his crops. He sometimes explained in confidence how it came about, and said that he told the justices that his great-grandfather before him — this he was certain about — had sold to and treated friends to little drops of spirits, before there was any law and fuss about the matter. It was the law that was the bother, not his spirits; and that he had a sign ready t^ put up, painted by George Morland, the best he ever painted. A collector of Morland's celebrities, on the bench, wanted to know what the painting was like. "I might be fined for having a sign not put up,'' he answered. "I do not know if I am safe a mentioning of it. What is the law, gentle- men on that pointy" he added. The clerk was appealed to. That opinion was decisive: That he might, or might not. carry on business on licensed premises, with or without an inn-sign. This profound judgment did not convince any •one about the construction of the act of Parliament, and the unlicensed inn-keeper said that he would never put up his Morland sign 'till he knew for certain. He paid the fine inflicted upon him, and suggested that the judges might let the amount of fine go towards a spirit license he meant to apply for. Of course this suggestion was not entertained by the bench. As a favor he showed me his "George Morland" picture and said it was printed from life. There was Farmer Darnell's horsestall, his .grey mare with the weather-girth to the saddle, just as it was used r HE 1RR1 GA TION AGE. 317 when the mare was in foal. She was tied up by the bridle to the or- chard rails, while old Darnell went in for "mammit" or lunch. A maid was at the cow-house door looking out on the field of young ap- proaching corn, shown by the level rows of bright green shoots. In the middle of the fifld was the scare-crow, or the stakes that formed its anatomy, with some of the tatters still on it. By it was a sturdy young tramp, partly undressed, making an exchange of gar- ments to suit his taste. Both the scare-crow and tramp being shirt- less, this garment was omitted from the al fresco toilet. A militiaman's old coat and a wideawake hat, were engaging the tramp's attention at the moment the artist caught sight of the main character of his painting. Unlike some of George Morland's pictures, this one was finished in all details, and in as good order as when it was first painted at the little secluded cottage farm. Naturally, I longed to become the owner of this unique painting, and made a substantial bid for it; but to no purpose, except to create an unfavorable impression in the old landlord's mind that I wanted it cheap, so I decided to talk about it later on. In the morning we ar- ranged to explore the old inn thoroughly with a couple of companions whom I will introduce. * * * * Before descending, Alton had full view of the roofs of Langloline, and noticed in the valley between the ridges it showed to be larger at deepest parts of roof: the water- outlet end of valley, with three gutter- holes. Yet the roof ridges> were horizontal, and though the fall of gutter was more than usual in pitch to carry off water, there seemed a double purpose to get snow water off and cover up double walls. "Does the width of the kitchen contract at one end, so as to give that valley wider outlet for water, " asked Alton. "Yes" said Mr. Clifton, "the kitchen is nearly three feet narrower at one end; that allows the roof-plates to be parted three feet at lower end of valley formed by the adjacent high-pitched roof, so that snow that fills it when it thaws, settles without checking flow of snow-water, so that there is none kept back to soak under the tiles to rot the tim- bers, and snow- boards on tiles are not used, they, often, being another source of decay to a roof. Alton admired the plan, which he had never before seen on any of the many old or modern churches or buildings with ridge and valley roofs. While on the roof Alton resolved to examine the internal con- struction of the kitchen-roof timbers, and sprang, like a squirrel, from the ladder- way on to the tie-beam over the oak partition and crawled along it to the central ribs, or braces, which sprang from the middle of beam like two spreading horns, reaching out to the junction of collar-braces and partitions. He saw that these substitutes for king and queen posts had been HI 8 THE 1KRIGA T r()N A GE. hewed out of timber that grew to the proper curves and were haunched over the tie beams by clasping-loops; this spared weakening the tie- beam with mortices or horn-beams with tenans. The massive oak columns ranged on each side of the kitchen were intact, though looking as pilasters to the walls, to which they were linked by the wall-plate at top and by massive carved spanded brack- ets springing from the shaft of ear-columns to the wall- plates. These devices giving stability to the roof by scientific long secret staircase to tower between the walls. The contraction of width at one end of the kitchen was now ob- vious to him and it explained the double purpose of the wide valley gutter and also the long stairway to tower concealed between the two walls. With 'a lamp Alton examined the roof from the upper portions to the ridge-plates and found that every rafter top was recessed slightly into the ridge-plate, as each one also was at the wall-plates and fixed with oak pins. The rafters were all made four times deeper and twice wider at the wall-plate than the ridge — so that the roof -timbers seemed as firm and as true as when first built. The same surface dressing of semi-transparent composition was varnished over all the timbers and oak panelling here as elsewhere in the building. In groping amidst the dust and cobwebs, he found tacked be- tween the junction of the curved braces a small parchment packet. This he secured, hoping it might prove a relic of value to add to the treasures of "Langholme." He was glad Mr. Clifton had pointed out this admirable piece of ancient architecture, perhaps without anything like it in any other existing roof, ancient or modern. In returning they passed into the old banqueting hall. In one corner was a pair of parish stocks of the date 1849, when an act of Parliament called "The Statue of Laborers" was passed authorizing their erection and use in every parish for laborers' punishment who wTould not work for low wages. In the same year, 1349, was instituted the most noble Order of Garter by King Edward. These facts he stated to his companions, observing how intimately kings, priests and class deputies work together in state, though they do a little squab- bling at times. He closely examined the parish stocks of 1349, saying that they revealed parish economy and perhaps its false equity of justice, as they held two prisoners at once and perhaps the same duration of sen- tence wa 5 operative, however the offence of each varied. He had read that two hours crarnp was torture fora strong man— as the man's back had no support, being hand-tied in front — sometimes fixed in hand-holes as well as by the legs. The stocks were of roughly hewn logs of oak. The holes for legs THE IRRIGATIOX AGE. 319 were V-notches cut into the elges of the log's, whiuh. when one WAS placed on top of the other, formed square holes angle- ways. A hinere at one end and clasp and staple-eye padlock at the oth^r. formed the fixing. Mr. Clifton said. "My sturdy ancestor, Harold Clifton, has left his mark of irony well secured to one of the stock-holes,"' and he re- moved a strip of silk, which appeared, by the color, to be part of some old banner and revealed in the hole a oadge of ''The Mast Xoble Order of the Garter" fixed there, with a rusty nail driven through it, and a strip of parchment as well. Alton read the doggerel verse written on the parchment in bold lettering: For the poor are those stocks, to jam laborers' legs — For the rich is a garter for which each lies and begs. Tho' the poor make men rich, who prey on their toil. The rich in return claim rent, tax and spoil. H. C. Mr. Clifton said: '-The yeoman breed of 'Ironsides,' of the type of my ancestor, is dying out fast. The flunky spirits of the age finds its second hand braggadocio in the press, and fancies itself brave at reading the bunkum." "Heigh-ho!" sighed Mrs. May thorn. "How this world .seems .ruled by gnats and moths." In the kitchen was an old order of the bath badge. That reminded her of washing her aftermaths — as the recipients of the bath Knight- hood formerly were required to have a wash before entering the kingly presence to be badged and dubbed a knight. What an unwashed tops'ey-turvey world this is! Alton now examined the relics. Looking closely at the linking of the rings of chain-mail, he saw that every alternate ring was riveted with a needle-point rivet. • The antique saddle with high pommel and cantle had the stirrup- leathers hung on the oak bars of trees; which were slightly recessed where the stirrup-leathers had worn them by constant use. The re- cess was four inches further back than m the modern saddle-bars, fixed partly on the pommel-point. "As if the rivetter-up of tree-bars made his piece work fixing dominate over the rider's comfort and safety," was Mr. Clifton's com- ment on modern riding saddle bar fixings; "quite away from the rider's equipose of seat on the saddle, which should have the foot- pressure on stirrup, fairly under the rider's weight." The smith}' door was unfastened. They entered. "Here!" said Alton, "is my ideal state room of noblest chivalry — the workshop of productive toil for other's aid and service. " Alton recalled the yester-evening joyous scene, saying to Mr, Clifton and niece. "How unconscious are most people of the joy they unthinkingly 320 THE IRR1 GA Tl ON A GE. give to others, and will us the true words: the gift can never be re- deemed. The Mayers moulded their own joys, which were made the joys of others. You will never know the joy your smithing scene and song gave to me in this place, becanse I cannot express it; though every thrill of joy still lives. Perhaps, Miss Clifton, if I ask you what gives you pleasure in the hard toil for woman's strength, your answer would snpply me with the words I might use to tell my own feelings of pleasure." "I fear I cannot word my pleasure, " said Daisy, "except to say, doing the work gives a master thrill akin to nature's subtld power. One rules with nature's secret forces; rock, air, water and fire. The stubborn steel one changes to glowing liquid, and to the fine yielding film of steel to spring in myriad motion, breakless. The water serv- ing for the tempering agency. » * » * HEARD IN THE BAR-ROOM. The police of Saxwych knew Slimy Sam, the skin dealer, and went at once to his home — a wrretched two-room cottage and some tumble- down sheds at the back. The van was at once noted, and the man came home late, and did not seem at all disconcerted by the visit of the police, asking, them in an off-hand way if they had brought him any skins, rags, bones, or bottles. They explained that all they wanted that time was Jumbo. "So do I," said the man, "but he has gone for good — gone to sea, I have heard, and he chalked it here in the inside of this cupboard. Dicky says it reads, 'Gone to sea; I hope when I come back to see Dicky, but not you' — Jumbo. " This was what was written on the door. A small block bed for sleeping was on the floor there. "Out of the way of the rain, for Dicky," said the man. The inspector could glean no more about Jumbo except that he was a bad 'un and that he had tanned him for not minding what he- said, and letting some fellow take the pony and van from him into a wood, but that the load of skins was safe; and before they had been home an hour, Jumbo started off for the train, saying that he had too* much of Saxwych, and that he should do as other boys do — go to sea. "Then I have to find out what you have not told me, Mr. Sam, 'r said the Inspector. "I'll excuse it," said Sam, "you are expected to do a little for your money." The two rooms were easily overhauled, but the "summer house, 'r as Sam called his cart shed, was a tougher job; skins, bones, bottles, rags and bits of metal — all tempting for fever microbes to use for temporary purposes. The pony van was there empty. It had not been cleaned inside, the bottom boards showed traces of lead marks, and some small shreds. THE IRR1 GA Tl OX A GE. 3. 1" of sheet lead in the bottom, but not a trace of blood, none of its cake of dirt having been disturbed by anything but lead. The police inspector who questioned the man, did not hurt his feelings in the least by asking him of what his "swag"' consisted that he hid it under a cloth in his van that day in particular? His answer was: "That is what I pay rates for, to keep you blues to find out;" and he put his tongue to bulge his cheek out at his inter- rogator "I have found out; it was lead," said the inspector. "Where did you get it from'?'' The man winked his eye and said. ' 'I have not got it now, it went to the melting pot — that's enough for you, and ends it. You blooming 'blues' look another way though the furnaces and crucicles are always going, for 'swag' gold and silver. You are afraid to tackle the big bugs, because they are big tradesmen, perhaps town-councillors and the like, but you are sharp on us if you get a chance. We cannot put any of you into better berths as those chaps have so many chances to do. If I were a villa-cove, you would not go into my coach house and nose about, though you knew that I kept a 'fence' running night and day." The inspector asked about Alton's hat that was lost in the wood. "About my cap, that was lost in the wood, you do not bother. Jumbo found the hat I winged it, and as I cannot swear it is mine. yon can have it. What a difference it makes, what you find, and who you are that finds something. If old 'money-grabber,' my landlord, Sir Josiah Rangstan, found out a bucket of water on his land, though he had stolen the land, or — w.hat's the same thing to those who are starved off the land — bought it of the County Council, as he has done the road waste, they call it, or the road to Moxbridge. That water would be his and his'ns forever; and if made into big water- works, he could charge the people fir his water, what he liked, or they might famish if they could not pay his rates. They are the coves you bow timidly to, though you know their big games at swag, and the devil roast those who can't get any." "Anything else about what was done in the wood where you found the hat?" "What was done there?" asked Slimy Sam. "A murder, just about the time you say you and your Jumbo were there, " "Is there any reward offered yet?" asked the man. "Yes, two hundred for the young woman alive or dead, or for the discovery of the murderer." "That's my blooming chance to have been so near and not in at the death, or in time to baulk the murderer before tried. For that, the best of the doing, you see, I should have got nothing, perhaps have been fined for trespass. The parsons are fly, they let wrong be done 322 THE IRRIGA T10N A GL. and get their rewards for running it down from the pulpits, instead of stopping it in time." The inspector had let the man talk, to find out by a stray word if Sam knew anything of the murder. His bait by which he hpped to get hold of Jumbo was put before the father. "Mr. Hay, of Langholme,has told me to offer you ten pounds if you will produce your Jumbo to give his evidence before the magistrates." "Ten pounds!" exclaimed the man. "Ten pounds for Jumbo, who was never worth a 'quid.' There! it's done! He is gone! and took my watch, that was his'n, till I took it from him. No guvener, the ten quid is lost. I have a little girl a beauty, when she laughs; up to every dodge I can teach her, and some I never thought of. Tell Mr. Hay, with my compliments — axing his pardon if he thinks I am rude — he shall have her in her Sunday togs, with clean face and hands, for five quids down this week, as I am hard up, to pay my rent, and that's to old money-grubber for sheds not fit to put pigs in, let alone a Christian, as I hope I am, and a better one nor him any day." "I will certainly tell him what you say,'' said the inspector. "Don't forget the offer for the boy; and anything you have forgotten now, send on tome in a letter, but do not ask for money; your reason- able expenses will be paid if it turns out to be true what you say and can prove." "There you are again, guv'ner. If I spoke God's truth itself, what would that count against a rich man's word? But I'll have a try after a little money somehow. May I crack a crib to beg for that two hundred pounds reward; and if I find the murderer, may I give him a topper to make him own up;"' "You may leave that for us to do; the reward will be yours all the same. You might put on the wrong hat or coat by mistake, if you missed getting hold of the culprit in a private dwelling or nabble the wrong head." Slimy Sam grinned, saying: ' %I know the law of things. You may feel safe from having to go and look at the pretty bricks -with a coat of arms of England always near; if you get a bit of paper and the price of the things you take with debtor on it, you're safe then." The inspector left him to make his report to Waxbridge. The man's statement about the lead was impudently consistent as some had been stolen from a house-top on the line of road he had gone. The police found the wholesale tradesman who dealt in old metal with the weight, etc., duly booked, but it had been melted, so that identity was stopped and no justice done. The inquiry at Saxwych so far, removed one conspicuous item of suspicion and made the contemplated searching operations of the police more circumscribed and definite near the scene of the crime. The game-keeper, at dusk, betook himself to the beer-house where THE Hi RIG A TIOX A GE. 323 he met many of his associates and some strangers, amongst whom was the sergeant of police now disguised as a travelling Sheffield- ware man, with a small pack of electro goods and some clasp knives, these latter suitable for the rough work of farm-laborers. The murder was the main topic of talk, but the keeper said "It will be time enough for me to talk of it when it is found out," and joined his companions at a game of cards. Nothing to help the policeman transpired; he left before the others, so as^not to be seen to enter "Langholme" farm, and also to watch, the Reaper leave and track him to his cottage, so as to be sure that he went no where else, before going home. MEN OF THE WEST. We sent you o'er the sun-lit sea — Men of the West — To carry peace and industry To war's unrest. Xo grateful homage found ye there. Nor honor due: A sullen land, with the threatening air, Admitted you. Ye faltered not at burning sun, Nor fever's might: Nor when you found the task begun A bitter fight. Ye toiled amid a people rude, with patient zeal: Nor lifted at ingratitude Th' avenging steel. A blighted land, that could not see The proffered light: Nor comprehend that liberty Of truth and right. They struck the hand that was their hope A cruel blow — The -hand that had not stooped to cope With such a foe. Ah! bravely then ye faced the blast And joyfully bled: And pefshed*. fighting to the last. Our gallant dead! We cannot weep at such a death: Nor toll the bell. While, with a deep exultant breath, Our bosoms swell. We trusted, and were not deceived — Men of the West: Ye fought and died as ye have lived — Your Nation's best. And ye. who live to toil anew, We trust as well As those who. faithful, toiled with you And, faithful, fell. —Charles C. Ballard. Union College, '99 in New York Mail and Express. THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. *"*~'*~'*"?»f»fi!i4'5 § .7n diversified farming- by irrigation lies lite salvation of agriculture. THE AGE wants to brighten the pagss of its Diversified Farm department and with this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pictures of fields, orchards and farm homes; prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns, hen houses, corn cribs, etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help us improve the appearance of THE AGE? FOR THE FARMERS. The Illinois Farmer's Institute proposes to inaugurate a "Little Bed School House'' campaign. Plans were laid recently for the most important work in Agricultural Education ever set on foot in the State, The Illinois Farmers's Institute is an organization under the laws for the pro- motion of Institute work among the farmers. The Farmer's Institute is a sort of University extension movement. It brings instruction in crop growing and live stock breeding, right to the farmer's door. The Agricultural Colleges are growing constantly and largely in attend- ance but only a tithe of the Agricultural population can go away to college, and hence instruction is being brought into farming communities where all may have a chance to take advantage of it. This work has been of remarkable growth and astonishing benefits. The Illinois Farmer's Institutevis corn- - posed of one member from each Con- gressional district and has a general supervision, over the work in this State. Three kinds of meetings are held — one State Institute annually and Congress- ional district, and Coiinty Institute. These latter"are usually held once a year, sometimes oftener. Great as is the work done by those meetings. it'has long been felt that they were not brought close enough to the people and at the last State meeting a committee was appointed to consider the plan of organizing Institutes in every township in the State, to be held once a. month except in the harvest months of July and August. This Committee devoted sometime to the study of the problem at a recent meeting at the Sher- man House. Those present were Col. Chas. F. Mills,. Springfield, Chairman; G. A. "Willmarth, Seneca, President of the State Institute: Amos F. Moore, Polo, and C. J. Linde- mann and W. K. Goodwin, Jr. , Chicago. An outline cf the plan adopted is as- follows: The Committee will request from the Presidents of the County Insti- tutes the names of the representative- active farmer in each township to organize the Institute. In case these men are not named the supervisor in each Township will be com- missioned'to put -the movement on foot. He will be requested to associate with him a school teacher in the Township, and one woman, who will- look after the Home Making part of the program. A constitu- tion will be drafted by a sub-committee (Messrs. Mills, Lindeman, and Mann) to- be used as a working basis. Another sub- committee (Messrs. Mills, "Willmarth, and. Goodwin) will draft a program of the topics for discussion for each month in the year which may be varied to meet local HE IRRIGATION AGE. 325 conditions.. Yet another sub-committee {Messrs. Mills. Moore, and Goodwin) will prepare a scheme of instructions that will facilitate the work of organizing and con- ducting institutes. It is proposed that one day of three ses- sions be taken in each^montli — the morning to be devoted to topics of especial interest the men, — the afternoon to l>e taken by to the women and evening reserved for young people. The interest of the rising generation will be enlisted by holding prize essay contests in each school on some subject connected with farm life, and the best essays written by a boy or girl respectively, will be read at the even- ing session of the Institute. Further aid in this work will be sought from the country school superintendents, the officers of county agricultural insti- tutes and the press of the state. It has been demonstrated that the program of the papers, discussions, debates, recita- tions and music rendered at Institutes are the most powerful factors yet applied for the improvement of the material and social welfare of the farmer and this new movement bringing the remifications of this effective educational system within the reach of all, the committee hopes will receive the most cordial support! PRACTICAL IRRIGATION— POTATO CULTURE AS PRACTICED AT GREELEY, COLO. Greeley has become famous and rich by raising potatoes. 10.000 cars yearly is only an average crop, these are grown by irrigation. How is it done? During the winter months the potatoes not large enough for market, are carefully sorted and only the best specimens of the kind being retained for seed. Those having deep eyes, or full of prongs, or growing small at one end. are discarded and fed to stock. The seed is then cut at planting time into sets, having from two to three eyes each. The ground is plowed deeper than for any other crop; planting is done with an Aspinwall planter manufactured at Jackson, Michigan, this planter being used by all. as other makes of planters does not give the satisfaction this does; it marks the next row, plants any required depth, does its own covering and plants each set a uniform distance from the other, generally about seventeen inches apart, in the row and the rows about thirty-eight inches apart. These rows are run on an incline so water can be run between the rows from one side of the field to the other. About the 25th of May seems to be the right time to plant the late crop, this brings the setting on, and growing time in August and September, when the nights are cooler than in July, which effects the earlier planting. Water should not be turned on until the tubers have attained the size of walnuts, if the weather is favorable so they continue to grow. They should thus have a light irrigation by furrowing out between the rows and turning water into each alternate row, and let it run down until it reaches the opposite end, then shut off, turn into next alternate row, etc., in ten days they can be again irrigated, taking the rows that were not irrigated before. In another ten days they can be again irrigated and if the weather be generally cool irrigate every row but in no case or at no time allow the vines to be sub- merged in water, this will cause the vine to scald and die. Three irrigations had ought to make a crop in any country, when the average rainfall is fifteen inches or more. Water should not be applied after the skin has once set on the tubes, as it has then commenced to ripen, and if irrigated will start a new growth instead of making the first one laiger. There are many minor details connected with potato culture, by irrigation that I will be glad to answer by simply enclosing stamp, which if here given, might make this article too long and tedious to those not interested. The crop of potatoes grown here annually, bring the farmers from two to four million dollars, according to price 326 THE 1RRIGA TION A GE. obtained; good potato land nicely located, •with water rights in good ditches is worth from $50 to $125 per acre. The American Tarn-worth Swine Record Association recently elected the following officers: President, Edwin O. Wood, Flint, Mich. ; Secretary, E. N. Ball. Hamburg, Mich. ; Directors, T. L. Ends- ley, Charleston, 111., John Fulton, Jr., Brownville, Ont., and F. H. Bankin, Jr., Flint, Mich. The Secretary reports the Association to be in a very prosperous condition and says that the Tamworth breed of hogs is growing in favor among breeders in the corn belt and throughout the United States and Canada. IRRIGATING THE GARDEN. The following regarding watering the garden is from the farm bulletin, ''The Vegetable Garden" by C. H. Greathouse, and is appreciable at this season. "But frequently dry weather continues so long that it is impossible to preserve sufficient moisture by tillage or any sort of mulching. It then becomes necessary to water the garden. Where there is con- nection with city water works the supply is ample and easily reached. In other locations various forms of cisterns and reservoirs are employed. When it is pos- sible the reservoir should be a few feet above the level, so that any part of the garden can be reached with a hose or a V shaped trough. The proper application of water appears to be very simple, but is in fact quite difficult. It is not unusual for an experienced person to sprinkle the garden every day or two and think he is relieving the drought. The effect of such treatment is likely to be harmful, especially if the sprinkling is allowed to leave a * crust about the plants. In watering, the earth should be thoroughly wet, so that the moisture will get to the lower and outer roots of the plants. In order to check evaporation after sprinkling, the surface should be broken as soon as dry enough to work. The watering should be re- peated when it is evident, upon careful watching, that more moisture is necessary. It must be remembered that the small, active roots, which take up moisture and plant food, are most numerous at the extremities of the large roots and at a distance from the stem. The water must be so given as to reach these small roots. The best time for watering is generally thought to be at evening, but Bellair says: 'In the spring, in the middle of the day, because the morning and evening are too cool ; in the summer, at evening because the days are so hot that a great part of the water given during the day would be evaporated immediately; in autumn, in the morning, because the nights are cold.' Mr. Saunders says : "Water at any time when the plants need it, and water thoroughly. When I am told that water- ing in the sunshine at noon will burn up my plants, I answer that the plants will certainly burn up iffl do not water them.'"" r §v ^* JP . PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. A CHANCE FOR SETTLERS. Donald Bradford, manager of the Mon- tana state and land commission, reports that the commission contemplat -s giving setilers an opportunity to buy wa:er with labor, in the Clark's Fork Valley district. This valley is in Carbon County and it is claimed ca,n l>e redeemed and made fertile by the construction of an irrigation ditch, such as it is proposed to build. The work of surveying the ditch is soon to be com- menced This section vras once surveyed but the survey was rejected so a new one will have to be made. Mr. Bradford estimates that there is enough land in the district capable of irrigation to make farms of ItiO acres each for forty families. The Daily Independent of Helena, Mont., gives the following account of the enter- prise and what is proposed: ''The plan of t*ie commission is to have the settlers construct the irrigation -system under state supervision and direction, the title to remain vested in the state, which will pay in warrants for the labor employed in the work and accept the warrants in payment for perpetual water rights. The charge for those rights is to be based on the actual cost of construction. The war- rants will also be accepted in payment for merchandise by Bridger merchants. The only interest of the state in the enterprise is to socure the settlement of the land, and to this end every assistance possible is to be given to the settler by the commission. It is the first time in the history of the country that a state has undertaken the management of the con- struction and maintenance of a system of irrigation for its 'arid ^lands. Should the experiment prove a success, as it promises to. it may become a prime factor in the future development and greatness of a state second to none in point of possi- bilities. 'The state arid land grant commission, to quickly inaugurate the building of homes in the state, has undertaken to con- struct a canal to reclaim several thousand acres of very fine land adjacent to the Clark Fork river in Carbon county/ said Mr. Bradford. 'It is hoped that a sufficient number of actual settlers may join this colony to build the water system and thus prevent the necessity for the employment of out- side labor, as it is the purpose of this commission to aid home-seekers in every way to secure and improve their homes at the least possible cost and without profit to any one for construction. As it will be seen in the accompanying form of certifi- cate, title to the canal remains in the etate and only the actual cost of construction, maintenance and operation will be charged. To prevent the settler from turning speculator in land, his water right pur- chased must equal in units the number of acres filed upon and in this connection it is deemed proper to suggest that eighty acres utilized to the best advantage will equal in net profits 160 acres farmed with hired labor. The terms of payment have been made easy, so that while the state is secured, the settler may easily meet his payments. The farmer will, as far as practicable, be employed in maintenance work and be given credit on toll charges. Construction, will begin June 1. and will be pushed to completion as rapidly as possible. It is desired that all the land shall be taken and appliances for water filed and teams and men ready to b?gin work on that day. Each farmer or purchaser of a water right will be given a section of the canal to build and will be paid by the yard of material at the ruling rate, which will be announced at the proper time. In the past, the only offer that has 328 THE IRRIGATION AGE. been made to the farmer of the semi-arid parts of the country has been to locate under a corporation ditch, purchase a iarm at a maximum price, pay a big price for the right to receive water, and then annually pay a perpetual rental of a couple of dollars per acre for the water that was necessary to the growth of his crops. Even with these expenses, the occupant of the irrigated farm made money and there has never been any trouble experienced in selling such lands. That being the case, the opportunities •offered by this irrigation proposition — the many advantages — are too apparent to require elaboration. If a farmer can make money when he has to buy his farm, buy his water right and then annually pay •a big price for his water supply, he cer- tainly cannot fail to make money when he secured his land without cost, does the work on the construction of the irrigation system and £ ets paid for it. and is then given water each year at just exactly what it costs the state commission to sustain the system.' " GREATER AMERICA ASSURED SUCCESS. Great as was the ultimate success of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha last year, it is a fact the management was sorely distressed up to the very day of its opening over a fearful pr. spect that its great buildings would not be filled, and indeed some of them were not filled until the exposition was well advanced. The Greater America Exposition, which will open at Omaha July 1. is faring better. Two months and a half before the opening day the great Machinery building was filled and applicants for space were receiv- ing short allowances. Over half the space in the Manufacturer's building had been disposed of, chiefly for live exhibits in which model factories are shown in active and actual operation and turning out products. Exhibits sufficient had been secured to fill the government building, including the war museum and displays made by the signal services and the other department of the government. The fine arts building was half full of hxhibits of s iperior worth and attraci iveness. Similar 1 rogress has been achieved in every other department. The liberal arts building will be occupied by the main colonial exhibits and is certain to be more than full. THE GIRL THAT BELIEVES IN ME. That simple, trusting lassie, The girl who believes in me. Th^re are some with greater beauty, Anp some that wittier be; But there's only one wee girlie That ever believed in me. She's never been to college, Knows not her A, B, C, Yet she has stores of wisdom Or she'd not believe in me. She's not an ancient lassie, Her ytars they are but tnree; Which, maybe, is the reason That she believes in me. — Ji an Lyull in Truth. WITH OUR EXCHANGES. SATURDAY EVENING POST. Ian Maclaren, who has done very little literary work for some months, has just written for The &iturd - X.'.xt month we hope to give portrait and sketch of one who may be termed the pioneer irrigationist of humid America — Dr. Clarke Gapen. of Madison, Wis. Dr. Gapen made such extensive irrigation experiments on the farm of the Kankakee insane asylum, during the time that he had charge of that institution, that he became famous as an authority on that subject. And there are many others whose portraits we hope to see in our pages later on. We have alwavs had a kindly All the Kay From feeling for the "Lone btar Texas. ~tate and this feeling was augmented when we received a crate of delicious Muscat grapes from Laredo, Texas. Mr. T. C. Xye. whose bright letters now and then have made him familiar to our readers, very kindly remembered us when his fruit was ripe and in consequence we had the'pleasure of eating grapes at this season of the year. Mr. Nye has demonstrated what profit there is in fruit and vegetable farming and is a lesson to farmers to engage in this character of agriculture. His onions are a source of pride and profit, but he can best describe them, so we will say no more. Later we hope to be able to secure fiom Mr. Xye photographs of his place. At present we can thank him heartily for his kindness. "The Through the various medical White congresses and associations Plague." and the newspaper reports of their proceedings, the public is gaining a great deal of information concerning tuberculosis or what was formerly called consumption. Medical congresses were held recently in Berlin. Germany, in England and in this country at which some of the most eminent physicians dis- cussed, this disease which they claim is the most deadly scourge of this generation and suggested measures for checking the "white plague. v It is only recently that the true cause and nature of this malady has been discovered by medical men and they are now anxious to so diffuse their knowledge among the com- mon people as to enable them to use sanitary measures which will check the disease. It is caused, so it is claimed by a germ or bacillus, which may be acquired in any number of ways. — so many in fact — that kissing, eating, sleeping, and in short any mingling with your fellows is fraught with danger. It is regarded as con- tageous. inasmuch as by being with tube rcu- lous patients you run the risk of inhaling the germs. Eminent authorities deny, however, that it is heriditary. The fact 332 THE, IIUtlGA TION A GE that domestic animals are pi-one to tuber- culosis and that they in turn infect humanity, has tuade the investigations of direct interest to dairy men, as milk is said to be one of the mobt common sources of infection. The dairymen of Illinois are vigorous in their denunciation of the investigations carried on by health officials among their cattle, some refusing to allow their cows to be examined. Secretary Wilson was in Chicago a week or so ago and was interviewed on the subject of tuberculosis, with special reference to the effect had upon the dairy interests of the country. He was of the opinion that the wholesale slaughter of cattle on the supposition that they might be tuberculous was unnecessary and unjust to the owners of the herd. He mentioned, to sustain his belief, the experience of New York state, and said that while he thought it right and necessary to have a rigid and careful examination of the milk sold to the public and of the cows pro- ducing it, he thought there was no need to kill a man's cattle unless they were manifestly tuberculus. There should be common sense used in everything of this nature. Every now and then there is great agitation over some medical dis- covery or theory. Anti-vivisection socie ties were followed by the anti- vaccination movement and when there are no other germs to fear we in Chicago still have the lake water to dread and read ever and anon the warning "Boil the Water." If this great crusade against consumption does no more good other than doing away with the filthy practice of spitting— now so common — of wearing long dresses, and, best of all, if it succeeds in giving us purer, cleaner milk, it will be worthy of the effort being made. One of the greatest economic problems of the day is that of the trust. Public opinion regards with alarm the increasing number and strength of these mighty combinations and means are being devised to legislate against them. To do away with trusts by law is as hard as it is to make prohibition effectual. You may succeed in making the laws, but the enforcing them is another matter. As long as poor human nature remains the same, some men will The Trust Problem. have more of this world's goods than others, and if a law is passed against the accumulation of too much wealth, men will find some way to avoid it. According to a recent article, the trusts are the out- growth of legislative measures against monopolies. To avoid that law, men formed "trusts" — that is, their different branches of business were not sold outright to one concern, thus giving that a monopoly and making it come within the grasp of the law, but were given in "trust." An evil worse than the first. Now and then a writer speaks a good word for the trusts. He says that men receive batter wages, work is more sure and the prices of com- modities less than when buying of small dealers. Perhaps, if let alone, the trusts will eventually kill themselves. Senator Warren, of Wyoming, in a recent inter- view on trusts said: "In the West the people are com- mencing to see that the trust business has been overplayed, it will cease to have its present terrors by the time the national conventions meet. What are the con- ditions, even today? Instead of new trusts being announced every day and stocks selling at fancy prices, we hear nothing more than the completion of some com- panies that had progressed so far that they cannot back out, and stock selling at lower prices. Trust certificates are not the investments they were a short time ago. The tendency toward combines and trusts stopped short because the buying public is no longer seeking industrial shares and stocks as permanent invest- ments. It was a fad, and like all fads it has been overplayed, and the people who supported them are tired of them. When business is good, times prosperous, and money plenty there is much interest and more or less excitement. The short time in which this fancy of running to trusts existed shows the healthy condition Of the public in regard to business. The ques- tion may be too far in the past to have any particular weight in the coming election." The industrial commission created by the late Congress and appointed by President McKinley has been giving much attention to trusts, but it is not probable THE I HUH; A TIOX A GK. 333 that it will recommend legislation to the 1 'ongress touching this question. Commissioner John M. Farquhar. one of the men on the commission representing the labor interests said: "If. instead of addressing memorials to Congress, people would build up a merchant marine by which the overpro- duction of America could be carried and sold to foreign countries there would be no cause for objecting to trusts in this country. In many cases the trusts have proved a benefit to the public at large. If the competition between rival cor- porations will lower prices the public is glad of it. There is one thing in the trust problem which should be remedied, and that is the enormous overcapitalization of corporations. It is responsible for more business depression in this country than anything else. The remedy for this lies with the state legislatures." We have been favored with a I"'8 letter from E. Rahib Raif, of Turkey Aleppo. Turkey, whe describes the progress, of irrigation in that part of the world and tells of the con tern elated improvements. The municipality of the city of Aleppo have decided at the instance of his Excellency Raif Pasha. Governor-General of the Vilaqet of Aleppo, to place the old cumbersome system of modern water elevators or "norias" by galvanized steel ones of im- proved make. He has written to this country for prices and catalogues from the leading dealers in such machinery. This will not be a question of one or two water wheels, but of many hundred, perhaps thousands, as it is intended to use this system throughout the whole area of Northern Syria, along both banks of the Orontes, Tigris and Euphrates, far into the great Syrian desert. This, the writer says, "will confer great oppor- tunities for cultivating and fertilizing those vast semi-arid regions which are at present neglected for want of proper irrigation.'' The motive power of the proposed water elevators will be the currents of ihe rivers themselves and the wheels must be. therefore, very accurately balanced, so as to revolve with the slightest flow of water. The irrigation movement is being carried on with such activity, that where there are no running streams from which to take water by the above method, pumping windmills are to be >-rected. the mills to be bought in this country. Twenty mills have already been ordered from the Aermotor Co. of Chi- cago, anl other large orders' are expected to be placed in the near future. Manufac- turers dealing in irrigating machinery of every description would do well to correspond. It is interesting to to hear of the strides made in the irrigation movement in distant countries, and we think that "it's a small world after all." One of our subscribers in Jamaica. Jamaica writes us that there are now on foot two or three schemes for irrigation on a la^ge scale on the island, and a gentleman from there is now on his way to California for the pur- pose of investisating the various methods of irrigating in use. with a view to adopting that most satisfactory. Two representatives of the Hard ''Grand Falls Irrigation & County. Improvement Company" sit- uated in Ward county. Texas, made us a pleasant call this week and told of some of the advantages and improvements of their section of the country due to irrigation. Thanks to the Grand Falls JWjr Era we have long been acquainted with the enter- prise, and "up-to-dateness.'' if we may so coin a word, of that locality, but it was pleasant to meet the promoters of irri- gation interests and hear of the induce- ments Ward county offers to homeseekers. We hope to give more than a brief mention of this favored locality next issue. A July issue without a mention Contrast. of the "glorious Fourth" would be like "the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out'' to use a hackneyed expression, and would more- over show a lame-liable lack of patriotism on our part. The contrast over last Fourth was great indeed and cannot better be shown than by quoting at length from the editorial appearing in the Chicago Ocean the day after the Fourth. "The Fourth of July had a wider cele- bration yesterday than ever before. A THE IRRIGATION AGE. year ago the display of the American Hag in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philipines would have provoked a fusillade of hostile bullets. A man who unfurled the stars and stripes in Havana or Manila then would have been imprisoned or shot. But yesterday the American flag was dis- played in all the cities of Porto Rico and Cuba, and in nearly all the commercial cities of the Philipines, as an emblem of peace. The celebration marked the extension of the field of rejoicing over what has been accomplished under the Declaration of Independence. No doubt there was as much Americanism in the Porcupine ditrict in Alaska, in Honolulu, in San Juan, and in Havana, as in Boston or Chicago. There may have been less of certainty,. but there was more of hope. The people of the United States, with 122 Fourth of July celebrations behind them, must feel keen pride in the cele- brations of yesterday among people new to their flag and in territory strange to thuir institutions. They must realize how, despite carpers and pessimists, the great cause of the republic still goes marching on." IT IS RAINING. It is raining, i-aining peaches, For the man who has the trees; It is raining, raining honey, For the man who keeps the bees. And the oranges are coming, in a heavy golden shower, And the milk and cream are pouring. This the children's happy dower. Down they come, the corn and barley. I loyal wheat, of life the staff; You would think 'twas raining money By the way the people laugh, It is raining, raining blessings, Water pure and daily bread: Glad the artizan shall labor, And the hungry shall be fed. — D. H. S. in The Fndtman's Guide. INDIVIDUAL IRRIGATION ENTER- PRISES. JOEL SHOMAKER. The modern farmer who has an individual irrigation plant is the most independent of all agriculturists in the arid west. He can apply the moisture to his crops when necessary, experiment with water duty and develop the science of irrigation to its proper position in the ranks of successful soil husbandry. The man with a ditch, wall, spring or pump at his disposal need not fear drouths, as the rainfall is within his grasp. His seedtime and harvest come with perfect regularity and though his home be located amidst the deserts of desolation he may open the floodgates of the rivers of plant food and let in the sun- shine of life to create an oasis of Eden, crowned with the bowers of paradise. One of the most common methods of obtaining an individual water right is the tapping of natural rivers and streams, flowing from the mountains of perpetual snow. Here the irrigation farmer becomes the master of all conditions, by surveying and constructing the waterway leading to his point of distribution. It is a well known law of nature that water will find its level, and if properly handled will form the power necessary for carrying its volume through unnatural channels to the terminal depository. By giving it a fall of only one- sixteenth of an inch to the rod it follows a gravity canal and soon makes a natural course. Many of the best farms of the western states are watered by the small ditches, taken from streams by the aid of dams of brush and stone, used to raise and divide the water. This system .prevails par- ticularly in the states of Montana, Idaho and Utah, but is more or less practiced in all small valleys. The ditches are constructed by running a plow two or more times along the proposed line and turning in the water which cuts its way. In most instances the gravity is so great that the ditches require but little attention in cleaning every spring. The original cost of such ditches varies from one dollar to one hun- dred dollars per acre under cultivation, and the maintenance expense is practically nothing. A mountain spring when opened and kept clean is one of the best and least expensive sources of water supply for the individual owner. This may be had in almost any canyon, by digging a few feet in the line of a seap coming from a higher watershed. In many instances such springs can be opened by sinking wells in the beds of dry canyon streams, where the underflow is reached and the water brought to the 336 THE I R RIG A Y76LV A GE. surface. The flow of a spring is often sufficient to parry in open ditches for miles, where one half will waste in seepage and evapora- tion, but the best and safest plan is to convey the water to the dis- tributing point in wooden pipes or flumes. An ordinary V shaped trough will deliver an immense volume if given sufficient fall, and the saving made in one year, will repay the outlay for timber and nails. In many sections of the west the streams run in deep banks, mak- ing independent gravity ditches an impossibility, by reason of the ex- pense. This objection can frequently be overcome by sinking wells alongside the stream, and cutting under channels or tunnels from the low water mark to connect with the wells. Water can then be raised by windmill, horse, steam or gasolene power to the surface and dis- tributed over the fields. Windmills may be made of common lumber, at very nominal cost, some farmers building them for $3 each, and re- quiring but one to lift sufficient water for ten acres. The underflow of streams is a very prolific source of supply for the independent owner of water. In some instances, particularly in Kansas and Colorado, the entire volume of a stream suddenly disap- pears from the surface, at certain seasons, and seeks underground channels, coming to the top again several miles below the point of disappearance. This water may be obtained by tunneling, on the gravity plan, to the bedrock which seldom goes more than ten feet in depth. In this way the streams are tapped and a portion of the flow diverted, the same as though the water was visible on the surf ace, the plan is not merely theoretical but is in practical operation at vari- ous places. Artesian water supplies many thousand independent farmers in almost every irrigated state. The wells are more numerous in South Dakota, Utah and California, but are valuable sources of moisture wherever used. The expense of sinking such wells does not exceed one dollar per foot when all labor is employed, and of course is much less if the farmer does his own work. Water from such wells has a much higher temperature and can be put upon early gardens before the mountain streams are warm enough to assist in germinating seed. The artesian water in some places is used for keeping an even tem- perature in stables, barns and chicken-coops throughout the winter, and is a very valuable assistant in the kitchen. In some of the districts favored by wind the homemade mills are often used advantageously by the individual farmer. Wells are sunk to tap the underflow of sheet water of a river bed or mountain current and by the aid of pumps the mills are made to lift water every day in the year. This may be stored in a reservoir and distributed over the fields as needed for irrigation. The reservoir can also be utilized for fish pond, boating place, watering pool for stock and other purposes THE IRRIGATION AGE. 337 which the inventive farmer may discover. When surrounded by trees it makes a nice summer resort for the family and neighbors. Sub- irrigation from adjoining streams or ditches is a favorite method adopted by some of the prosperous farmers in sections where such system is practicable. In the Grande Ronde valley of Oregon, all kinds of farm products, including sugar beets, are grown by sub- irrigation from the beds of streams. This system is possible along the lower river bottom where the i streams are sluggish, and by ar- ranging suitable dams or obstructions the under current may be in- creased and the farm be kept moist without any surface application of water. In other fields the water may be distributed over the surface of a higher tract and sub-irrigate a lower valley. One of the best and safest individual irrigation works is the sim- ple eastern reservoir, constructed either on the farm or in the moun- tains. This can be made for almost nothing but labor, which can be- expended when the farmer has an idle time. If the reservoir is built upon the farm it may be filled from streams already appropriated, by using the surplus during high water, which occurs in the spring, or the ditch may be kept open throughout the winter and the water stored. This plan will be generally adopted by those desiring inde- pendent water supply in every irrigated district, and is one of the methods of solving the scarcity problem in dry valleys. IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN KANSAS. The following extracts are from the sixth biennial report of the commissioner of forestry and irrigation for the state of Kansas for the period ending June 30, 1898. The matter on irrigation is so practical and so applicable, not only to conditions in Kansas, but to almost any section where irrigation is practiced, that we regret lack of space for- bids our quoting more extensively. The investigations carried on have proved that where water is plenty, the gasoline engine is the cheapest power for lifting large quantities of water, but the windmill as a general rule, is likely to be most economical for ordinary pumping. The value of the windmill has led to the construction of many home made windmills, especially in the states of Kansas and Nebraska, many accounts of these ingen- ious devices having appeared in agricultural papers from time to time. The Jumbo is perhaps the most familiar — but more of that some other time. The influence of a good example has caused one after another of Kansas farmers to follow the lead of his prosperous neighbor and re- sort to irrigation until now, in Western Kansas, it is practically uni- versal. For the benefit of those who are contemplating irrigation for the first time, we quote the following regarding the location of the reservoir, etc.: "People are apt to say, 'locate your reservoir on the highest part of the land you intend to irrigate,' and this is correct; but before you do this, be sure that you are not making a mistake in the selection of the land to be irrigated. The first consideration is the water, and the mistake is sometimes made by rushing ahead before the water supply is made sure of. Sometimes we think we will get plenty of water in a certain place when there is not, although there seems to be plenty of water within a short distance. If it is a well that you expect to get your water from, be sure that it has been tested thoroughly before you spend any time or money on a reservoir. One other important consid- eration is the lay of the land; and it is so important that it should be taken into account before determining the location of the reservoir. Land that is almost level is by far the most desirable. You will not only get more benefit from the rainfall, but also receive less injury from heavy, dashing rains, and it can be said that nearly level land is a saving of time, labor, and water, besides the great saving from wash- ing. It is not often that we will find ideal conditions ready-made. A fall of about one inch to 100 feet in the lateral ditch is plenty, while one and one-half feet to the mile will answer for a large ditch that is THE UllilGATlOS AGE 339 straight. Having determined on the location of the reservoir, the next question to be determined is, what is the present grade of the local ion ''. If it is found that the grade is about right, then you are ready to de- cide on the shape and size of the reservoir; but if the reservoir site is found to be much higher than desired, calculations should be made to drop the bottom of the reservoir lower than the usual one foot: and if the site is lower than it should be, soil that is of a gumbo na- ture should be hauled in to raise it. and calculations made to take all the dirt for the banks from the outside. SHAPE AND SIZE OF RESERVOIR. The reservoir that will give the greatest storage capacity for the amount of embankment required is the circular, and for a small^ res- ervoir it is much more desirable than the rectangular. If it is thought best to have a large one, it should be made oblong without being rec- tangular. The corners not only cause more work in the construction, but the shaps of the ressrvoir is objectionable, for the reason that the waves in such a reservoir have greater force. Irrigation with pumpad water so far in this state has been principally confined to small opera- tions: and on account of the evaporation being so much greater from a larga surf ACS thin from a small oas, aril as th? S33piga, little or much, will increase with the dimensions, small reservoirs are usually preferred. A shallow reservoir, on account of the increased tempera- ture of the water, will lose much more through evaporation. It is also claimed that warming the ground increases the seepage, and as warming the water, would to some extent warm the ground, the tend- ency of the shallow reservoir would be towards increasing the seep- age, though it may be that the difference in the pressure would make up for the increased temperature. There will be very little seepage if the reservoir is properly constructed. Circular reservoirs form 30 to 60 feet across, and holding about six feet of water, would be good di- mensions for ordinary use, and 60 by 80 or 100 feet would be good proportions for a larger one. The longer way should extend east and west on account of the prevailing winds. Of course, the deeper the water the less it will be affected by the wind. BUILDING A RESERVOIR. The first step, after removing any rubbish that may be in the way, is to lay off the ground large enough for the reservoir and one-half the banks. It has been found very difficult to prevent the seepage of water where the banks and bottom come together, and it is much better to make sure of it while there is a chance. If the grade will allow, it is better not to remove more than one foot of the top soil, except where it is found necessary to make the bottom level. Ten feet of the ground under the bank will require puddling with the 340 THE IR RIGA 77 OX A GE. v bottom, and the soil thrown out may be dumped close to the edge. After leveling the bottom it should be plowed, and the dirt thoroughly ground up by any tools that will do it most effectually. It should be then soaked thoroughly, allowed to settle for a day or two, or un- til it is safe to take horses or cattle in to puddle it. It should be worked down and packed so firm and smooch that a track would scarcely show. If the reservoir is very large, it may be found nec- essary to soak and puddle part of it and the next time it should hold well enough to give it a good soaking. If the ground is very open or porous, as it will be if sandy or gravelly, it will pay to draw in fire- clay or gumbo, which may be found in the bottom of some of the sags or buffalo wallows. After the start is made to puddle, it is best to stick to it closely until finished, if possible. As soon as the bottom is finished it should be given two or three inches of water to keep from drying out, and the filling in and puddling of the banks com- menced. The base of the dam or embankment should be nearly four times as wide as the embankment is high. A steady team will plow down a large part of the dirt required for the first and second packings. The first lot of dirt that is thrown in should not exceed ten inches, with the out edges slightly raised, so that a shallow trough will be formed around the entire pond. It will not be necessary to puddle the entire width of the embankment at the bottom except at the outlet. After the ten inches of dirt is puddled and packed, the outlet, which is usually made of plank, is placed in position, after the dirt is packed sufficiently to let it down so that it would lack about six inches of draining the reservoir. Much care will be required in packing the dirt about the outlet to prevent it from leaking. By taking two fence- posts that have been only haved, a very useful appliance can be made for packing the dirt in the embankment, or rather, in the trench. The trench can be made wide enough for two horses to walk abreast, and the two posts can be' fitted together at one end so as to form a V-shaped drag, and if fastened together firmly with one bolt where the two ends come together, and a few pieces of plank spiked across the top, it can be weighted down so as to be made very effective, not only in the trench, but also in finishing the bottom of the reservoir. A waste pipe should be provided, so that the water will not get a chance to run over the top of the bank, if neglected. The outlet flume should be so constructed that time will not be lost in operating it, or wateriest through leakage. A wooden outlet may be constructed from 2xl2-inch planks sixteen feet long. The gate should be made to fit tight, and be well cleated. One of the best methods of opening and closing is to use a bench- screw attached to a long support, with the nut on the upright standard. One other method is very handy and simple, and is very easily constructed and operated, and if care is TEE IRRIGA TION A GE. 341 used to prevent freezing, and the box is coated on the inside with coal-tar and rosin to prevent leakage and rot, it will give good satis- faction. The outer edge of the box should be sawed at an angle of forty-five degrees, and a door faced with leather should be hung at the top, using the same leather for the hinge. The next move is to get a blacksmith to make the arrangement for holding it in place, and to regulate the flow; and this can be done by taking a heavy strap of iron and bending it at such an angle as will allow of its being bolted on the outside of the box in such a way as to permit the raising of the door without interference. The strap of iron is intended as a sup- port for a rod which is made to screw into a thread cut in the support, and can be made to pull the door open and push it shut. The rod should be heavy enough to stand a good strong twist, or a bench- screw can be used if desired." THE GAIN OF WAR. Can powder burnt be shot again, Or sunken ships reclaimed? Will battlefields give up their dead. Or War make whole its maimed? And what will quench the fire of hate? And what will salve the smart? And who will fill the larder up And bind the broken heart? Xot cost of shell or prize of war Shall weigh the nation's cause, Nor count of men or smell of blood Shall give the nation pause; But what it loves and what it feels, The weight on heart and brain — To feed the starving, free the brave And rend the tyrant's chain — Shall nerve its arm and guide its aim And hold the balance true. And while a sacred emblem floats In Red and White and Blue To flaunt the sun and fringe the day And flame the very night, To show the world a hemisphere Where Might shall yield to Right. The nation strong, the nation bold — All passions swept away — Shall plant its flag on loftier heights And hold a nobler sway, Till earth shall see and feel the truth The raptured prophet saw, That Saxon Right by Saxon Might Shall' hold the world in awe. The smoke of war shall incense be From Freedom's altars flamed. And battlefields shall bloom as May To deck the dead and maimed, And love will quench the fire of hate And peace will salve the smart. And God will fill the larder up And bind the broken heart. —CLARENCE OUSLEY. BOTH SIDES.— MORE ABOUT THE CELEBRATED DAM CASE. Last month editorial mention was made of the decision reached by the Supreme Court regarding the International Dam Case— or, as it should have been — the Elephant Butte Dam case— the injunction prayed being to restrain the latter from being built, and we promised to give in this issue an article concerning the case by A. I. Barnes, of El Paso, Texas. Upon reading the above mentioned editorial, an advocate of the Elephant Butte Dam wrote to us, enclosing a clipping which practically contradicts Mr. Barnes' statements. The old say- ing goes that "One story's good till another is told." We intend giving our readers both stories, and publish therefore the short article by Mr. Barnes, followed by the clipping from the El Paxo Daily Herald. — ED. THE DECISION. "When the Associated Press Dispatches announced to the world on the morning of the twenty-third of May that the judges of the Supreme Court at Washington had rendered their decision in the celebrated International Dam case, probably in no other city of the United States was there so much interest taken in the bit of news as here in the city of El Paso. There was great rejoicing on the part of practically every one here because the decision had given our people the best assurance that the right was on their side in their claim that no person or persons should be allowed to take the water out of the Rio Grande to the detriment and damage of others having prior rights to that water. The readers of the AGE are no doubt familiar with this matter of the International Dam, how an injunction was gotten out to prevent the construction of a proposed dam at a point farther up the Rio Grande, how the New Mexican courts decided against the injunction, and how it was taken to the Supreme Court at Washington for final decision. Both the United States and Mexican governments spent considerable money in determining the proper site for the proposed International Dam, and a treaty between the two governments had been drafted whereby the dam was to be built. At this stage of the proceedings an injunction was gotten out praying that the parties engaged in building the dam in the same river at a short distance above El Paso be enjoined to desist from completing their work, which of course delayed the signing of the treaty until such time as the injunction case could be heard and decided. The injunction has HIE IRRIGATIOX AGE. 343 been sustained and the case remanded back to the lower court with the instruction that an official investigation be made as to the points covered by the injunction. The decision therefore opens the way for the two governments to now take up the consideration of the pending treaty: and before very long it is to be hoped that this great question will be finally settled. Advocates of the dam in the river above El Paso have claimed that the Rio Grande contained water sufficient for several reservoirs of the size proposed. Every reader of the AGE will remember that the last winter was a pretty severe one all over the United States. In fact, it was a record-breaker: and all will remember reading about the'enormous snows in Colorado, when trains became snow-bound and RIVER AFTER SPRING FLOODS. were lost to the outside world for days at a time. The Rio Grande has its source in that same state of Colorado, and one would naturally suppose that this year above all others there would be an abundance of water in the river. Permit me to show you that this is not the case, as the two photographs speak for themselves. One of the photos shows the river at the time of the usual spring-flood: the other shows the condition of the river as it is today, (May 25th), with not a drop of water in it, and no water in any of the canals or ditches here. Does this look like there would be enough water for several reservoirs'? Our annual spring-floods have come and gone this year, and the farmers in the valley, on both the American and Mexican sides, have had from one to two irrigations: and today, with no water 344 THE 1RR1GA TION A GE. for their growing crops, their condition is pitiable. This year will certainly be long remembered in this Rio Grande valley as one of a great scarcity of water. Furthermore, such a condition as this may be expected every year until some arrangement can be made by which the flood waters of the Rio Grande may be stored in a reservoir for purposes of irrigation and in this way restore to Mexico and to this part of the United States the rights which have been denied them through their having been deprived of water for their crops and animals." I. A. BARNES, El Paso, Texas, May 25, '99. THE OTHER SIDE. ' 'Inasmuch as the result of the Elephant Butte dam decision as handed down by the Supreme Court as briefly mentioned in dis- patches received here could not be clearly understood by the lay mind the Herald requested an expression of W. A. Hawkins, one of the attorneys representing the Elephant Butte dam company in reference to same and Mr. Hawkins stated as follows: Until the text of the decision of the Supreme Court has been substantially known to me I of course cannot be certain of what the complete legal effect is. So far as indicated in the synopsis of dis- patches and private telegrams received from our attorneys in Washington who argued the case before the Supreme Court the decisions of the courts of New Mexico are not however, reversed, but simply modified in one feature which would not now appear to be of any material importance and which modification should cut no figure with the building of the dam and the irrigation system connected therewith. The point which the dispatches indicates as being the only feature with reference to which the decisions of New Mexico are modified is this: It was claimed by the government that the con- struction of the dam and the storage of water thereby would sub- stantially interfere with navigation of the Rio Grande river near the gulf. This was one of the contentions of the government only, there being a half dozen others. All of the other contentions, it would appear from these dispatches, have been either against the govern- ment or considered immaterial. With reference to this one contention the reported decision would make the supreme court say in effect that in event it is established, as a matter of fact, that if the plans of the company would when carried out substantially effect the navigation of the river as that navigation exists then to that extent the company must be enjoined and the lower court is directed to determine that one question of fact, and to enjoin the company therefrom. There is no injunction to be issued against the building of the dam or the irrigation system connected therewith, but the effect will be, if the synopsis of decision can be relied on, simply to prevent the company after it may have constructed works from holding or diverting such water of the river as would if allowed to flow on substantially — THE IRRIGATION AGL. 345 contribute to aid irrigation. I therefore consider the decision of the Supreme Court as a substantial victory for our company as it will be impossible for the government to ever prove that the water to be utilized by this irrigation system would in any manner substantially aid navigation below here. In fact the navigation below here is farcical. A steamer makes occasional trips and only draws 28 inches of water for a short distance from the gulf, which waters are con- tributed to the Rio Grande by the Pecos, Concho, San Juan and other tributaries putting into the river hundreds of miles from here. In the trial of the case in New Mexico there was also a precedence made as to proving the river navigable in the territory which theory RIVER WHEN DRY. was backed up solely by an affidavit of Brigadier General Miles that sometime in the long past he had floated a raft of cotton wood poles from Canutillo to El Paso, and someone else had floated some tele- graph poles around a bend in the river during high water. There seems to have been an impression prevalent in El Paso if the Elephant Butte Dam company could be prevented from building its dam the better show would be given the International, which I regard as a serious error. For enough water comes down during periods of flood to fill several reservoirs, such as the International and the Elephant Butte dam. There is another feature to this matter and that is the Elephant Butte dam would be an actual existing thing at the present time and El Paso would have had a steady water supply if it had not been for this 346 THE IRRIGATION AGE. suit which has been largely prolonged by the citizens of El Paso. Ido not know whether the resources of the company have been impaired or not by the long wait pending the decision, but the telegrams from London still say go ahead with the work. The International dam is simply a dream. Congress may or may not assist in its building, but from our general knowledge of such matters it may well be doubted whether anything material will ever come out of this effort. I think it altogether more probable that El Paso would be likely to meet with more assistance in the con- struction of this particular dam by the English company, that her citizens have been trying to destroy, than she will ever meet from the government of the United States, and I now believe it would be to the best interests of the city to unite with one accord in favoring the building of the Elephant Butte dam. I have concluded to make the above statement with reference to the legal effect of the case simply because so many people have manifested a deep interest, by letter or personal inquiry. It is always objectionable for an attorney to undertake to outline the result until the text is before him. He may be mistaken and cause others to become so and renders himself liable to criticism, allowing his opinion to 1: e colored by his hopes in reference to his client's interests. But the above is the best light I can give on the subject and my opinion may be changed at seeing the full text of the decision. At present, however, it would appear reasonably certain that the above is Correct."—^ Paso Daily Herald. THE CAREER OF A TRAVELING TECHNICAL CORRESPONDENT. "Lodian the Irrepressible." — Locomotive Engineering, N. Y. July, 1896. It was in November, 1897, that the use of the words above quoted was first discovered by Lodian, when looking through back numbers of Locomotive Engineering in the library of the Teknicheski Cocie'te' (Technical Society) at Peterburg, Russia. When the words appeared (July, 1896, ) he was among the wilds of the borders of Manchuria and extreme eastern Cibiria ("Siberia"). Although never professing journalism as a meams of existence — and an almost unknown personality among press writers — still, Lodian has contributed so profusely to technical periodical literature on technics foreign during the past two decades, as to perhaps warrant these notes on — as some may think — a unique career of travel. They will afford an insight into the life of a traveling technical correspon- dent who, apart from his regular work as an inspection engineer, em- ploys his spare time lining for engineering and mechanical journals. When he made his first call in Noverrber, 1888, at The Journalist office 3ft its old abode on Nassau street, it was on the occasion of his return from his first tour, he made us a second call in 1893, after cir- cling round again, en route to the Pacific; and, rather curious to relate, both Porman and Lodian were traveling in India in the same year of 1895, crossing each other's lines, yet never meeting or hearing till re- cently of one another's presence in the far east. Lodian (Mex. Lodia) is riot a Russian, as is usually thought — although it is true that he is familiar wTith that language — but a regu- down-east yank — a New-Englander — with San Francisco as his home. Brought iup — or rather bringing himself up — as an engineer, Lodian's first trip abroad was to Latin America, early in 1885, to the old Peru viceroyalty. He thought — like many other deluded ones have thought — he was at once among "gold-mines," but soon got sad der and wiser. The mining properties being paralyzed by the insurrection, Lodian joined the disorganized command of Kaceres as a means of getting out of the country, and from a teniente-comandante was "jumped''(hazards of war) to the post of teniente-general (lieutenant-general), and in this capacity continued with Kaceres( or Caceres) — the"scarred Kaceres"— at the assault and taking of Lima (December 1, 1385). Proceeding to Chile, he crossed the Nevadas of the Andes, in April 1876, to Argentina, and spent two years in the Plata state en- gaged on mining and railroad work. Courtesy A. Foreman (the JourmtUst),-Ke\v York.] L. LODlAlS.c. e., in Tibetan-Himalayan costume. (print by F. Nap, Eurasion, Humayon, Kobero.'.;uta, THE IRRIGATION AGE. 349 Leaving Buenos- Aires by the Spanish mail in April, 1888— "glad to clear out of the fraudulent country" — he returned, after protracted touring in southwestern Europe, to the United States in November of the same year. After a few month's preparation, he returned to Europe in April, lsv