NEWS AND NOTES 



715 



the branch line of the Chicago Northwestern 

 Railway through the project. This railroad 

 will pass through the new Government town 

 site which will be opened for the sale of 

 town lots shortly after the completion of this 

 project. 



At the present time about fifty Indian and 

 thirty Government teams, with sufficient force 

 of laborers, are engaged on excavation work 

 in connection with the canal system of the 

 Blackfeet project, in northern Montana. A 

 gang of twenty-five men is doing rock work 

 on the same project. 



During September construction work was 

 continued on the Jocko and Mission divi- 

 sions of the Flathead project, Mont., includ- 

 ing the building and placing of wooden turn- 

 outs, bridges, etc. The excavation for the 

 "K" canal headworks was completed. At 

 Poison excavation work on first-unit canal 

 continued and good progress was made for 

 the first unit. The tunnel force is now 

 grading at the power-house site at the lower 

 end of the tunnel. 



In connection with the farm-unit work, 

 sixteen square miles have been mapped, 

 eighty miles of secondary levels were run, 

 and three farm-unit township plats were com- 

 pleted. Much interest was displayed in the 

 auction sale of the Government town sites at 

 Poison and Dayton, the prices secured av- 

 eraging two to three times the appraised 

 values of the lots. 



During the month of September the con- 

 tractors on the Roosevelt dam, the prin- 

 cipal engineering feature of the Salt River 

 project in Arizona, laid 7,800 cubic yards 

 of rock, bringing the dam to eighty-three 

 per cent of completion. 



Active work on the concrete construction 

 of the Shoshone dam, Wyoming, was re- 

 sumed on September i. This structure is 

 now 181 feet above bedrock, leaving 147 feet 

 to be built. 



With the completion of many large struc- 

 tures and the approach of winter the fidd 

 force of the Reclamation Service is being 

 rapidly reduced. A number of experienced 

 men are resigning to accept private employ- 

 ment; others are going on furlough, and few, 

 if any, new employees are being taken on, 

 excepting in the lower grades. 



Owing to favorable weather conditions, 

 construction work on the Klamath project, 

 Oregon-California, proceeded rapidly durmg 

 September. Three gangs of foreign laborers 

 were shipped in from Portland to make up 

 for scarcity in the local supply. 



During September the drainage work on 

 the first unit was completed, and the force 

 of men was transferred to the south end of 

 Clear Lake, where work was commenced on 

 the dikes. The site has been cleared of 

 rocks, the surface plowed, and a cut-off 

 trench under the earth portion of the em- 

 bankment has been excavated. 



The Salt River project, in Arizona, is 

 eighty-two per cent completed. On the 

 great Roosevelt Dam the most important en- 



gineering feature and one of the largest struc- 

 tures of its kind in the world is within fif- 

 teen per cent of completion. 



The cement mill operated by the Reclarna- 

 tion Service was run twenty-six days, with 

 an output of 13,023 barrels burned and 8,901 

 barrels ground. Good progress was made on 

 the transmission line and substations. 



l£ngineers throughout the country, and es- 

 pecially those engaged in irrigation develop- 

 ment in the West, have been greatly inter- 

 ested in the progress of the construction of 

 a remarkable dam across the Colorado River 

 near Yuma, Ariz. 



This enormous structure, nearly a mile in 

 length, nineteen feet in height, and 246 in 

 width up and down stream, was built by 

 force account by the Reclamation Service. It 

 rests upon the quicksands of the turbulent 

 Colorado River, and is the only structure of 

 its kind in this country. 



Since its completion many prominent en- 

 gineers of the United States and several 

 from other nations have visited the site. 



The erratic stream has several times spent 

 its fury in vain against the obstruction which 

 man has placed in its channel, but the severe 

 tests which the dam has withstood are evi- 

 dences that it was built to stay. 



Mr. Arthur P. Davis, chief engineer of the 

 Reclamation Service, left Washington early 

 in October to inspect the work on the 

 Truckee-Carson project in Nevada. From 

 there he will proceed to points in California, 

 and during November will be with the 

 United States Senate Committee on Irriga- 

 tion, Hon. Thomas H. Carter, chairman, in 

 the trip through Colorado, Utah, Nevada, 

 California, Arizona, and New Mexico. 



Writing from Fallon, Nev., under date of 

 October 10, he said : 



"I am delighted with the outlook on the 

 Truckee-Carson project. Many of the set- 

 tlers have made excellent showings, and they 

 are sufficiently scattered to serve as dern- 

 onstrations of' all the different types of soil. 

 No one can hereafter honestly say that the 

 natural conditions here are not favorable. 

 Many farmers have raised from nine to ten 

 tons of alfalfa, and all fruits that have been 

 tried have succeeded well. Within a few 

 years it will not be possible to buy average 

 land with water right at less than $100 per 

 acre in this valley." , m .. 



The project engineer on the North 1 latte 

 project, in Nebraska, reports a most suc- 

 cessful irrigation season for 1909. Notwith- 

 standing the newness and extreme length of 

 the main canal and lateral system, the de- 

 livery of water was made in ample quan- 

 tity to each settler without a single dis- 

 astrous break. 



It is a pleasure to travel over the newly 

 reclaimed lands to view the bountiful har- 

 vests The crops arc all made, potatoes are 

 being dug, the corn has ripened, and wheat 

 and oats are in the stack _ awaiting the 

 thresher On the whole, the yields have licen 



