NEWS AND NOTES 



397 



reservoir, as will also the lakes them- 

 selves. 



To accomplish this it will be neces- 

 sary to build a concrete dam forty feet 

 high at the outlet of Brook Lake. From 

 Long Lake to Brook Lake is a distance 

 of several miles, and the average fall 

 of the land is eighteen inches to the 

 mile, hence the necessity of a high dam 

 to raise the level of the upper lakes and 

 fill the coulee. When the dam is com- 

 pleted several hundred acres of mead- 

 ow land at the upper end of Brook Lake 

 will be overflowed, and before the 

 project can be carried out this must be 

 purchased. 



This, together with the cost of the 

 dam, makes the project too expensive 

 for the present undertaking, and the 

 dam will be made only ten feet high. 

 At this height it will give gravity flow 

 for the entire district during the earlier 

 part of the season, and the auxiliary 

 pumping plant will be used after July. 

 The land to be irrigated is ten miles 

 below Brook Lake, hence about fifteen 

 feet lower in elevation. During the dry 

 season it will be necessary to lift the 

 water sixteen feet. 



When the big dam is completed there 

 will be a natural water power avail- 

 able, and this is to be developed. It will 

 be used to light the town, which is to be 

 established by that time, to operate the 

 cannery and perform any other work 

 that may be required. The cannery and 

 a drying-house are to be built next year 

 to take care of the surplus products of 

 the district. 



The pumping plant will be located at 

 the mouth of the main ditch and will be 

 operated by an eight-horsepower gaso- 

 line engine. The pump will have a ca- 

 pacity of lifting thirty-two cubic feet 

 of water a minute, which is estimated 

 sufficient to irrigate three thousand 

 acres. It will cost $7,000. The capacity 

 of the plant will be increased in 1909. 



«r' «? «r' 



Big Project for Palouse Country 



FOUR thousand acres of land near 

 Hooper, Whitman Co., Wash., 

 south of Spokane, to be known as Pa- 



louse Orchards, owned by the Palouse 

 Irrigation and Power Company, head- 

 ed by H. C. Peters, president, and L. H. 

 Marsh, secretary, will be put under irri- 

 gation within the next twelve months, 

 and it is expected that five hundred 

 acres of this will be ready for this year's 

 crop. 



Water for the new district will be 

 taken from the Palouse River, which 

 will be tapped by a canal four miles 

 above Hooper, and brought down one 

 mile below the town, whence a wooden 

 flume twenty-four by thirty inches will 

 carry the water one mile farther down 

 the river to the tract of five hundred 

 acres that is to be watered at once. 

 Later a large flume will tap the canal 

 at the same place as the small one and 

 will be led across to the north bank of 

 the river to carry water down to the 

 other tracts that are to be put under 

 the ditch. 



Palouse Orchards is unlike any 

 other irrigation project in the North- 

 west. Instead of one large and con- 

 tinuous tract on one or both sides of 

 the river, it is a series of tracts lying 

 between the river and the high hills on 

 either side, no one tract containing 

 more than five hundred acres. The land 

 extends down the river ten miles, and 

 is close to the base of steep hills and al- 

 most surrounded in patches by the 

 ragged arms of the cliffs that jut out 

 into the valley. The land is volcanic 

 ash and the climate is similar to that 

 of Wenatchee, "the home of the big 

 red apple." 



Ample water flows in the Palouse 

 River at the dry season to water all of 

 the land that is to be put under the 

 ditch this year, and perhaps all of the 

 four thousand acres, but the Palouse 

 Irrigation and Power Company, which 

 is promoting the project, will not take 

 any chances on a shortage in water 

 supply. Rock Lake, which is ten miles 

 north of Hooper, is to be turned into a 

 vast reservoir and its waters used in the 

 irrigation project. 



This will be accomplished by build- 

 ing a dam across Rock Creek, the lake's 

 outlet. It will require $1,500 to build 

 a dam to raise the water !n the lake 



