1916] EURAL EN-GINEERING. 285 



Report on Pit River basin, E. G. Hopson and O. W. Peteeson (Cal. Cooper. 

 Work, Dept. Int. U. S. Reclamation Serv., 1915, Apr., pp. HO, pis. 19). — This re- 

 port deals with investigations made in 1914 and 1915 by the U. S. Reclamation 

 Service and the State of California, acting in cooperation, of run-off, storage 

 possibilities, lands, irrigable areas, present uses of water, and power develop- 

 ment possibilities of an area including 6,000 square miles in northeastern Cali- 

 fornia which consists of both mountainous and plateau country. 



Among the conclusions from, this investigation are that in the Pit River basin 

 there are about 180,000 acres of potentially fertile, irrigable land, of which 

 about 40 per cent is now fully or partially irrigated. Of the areas now irrigated 

 only an insignificant proportion is well developed agriculturally, due in large 

 part to unregulated water supplies and to unsatisfactory drainage conditions. 

 Lands in Fall River Valley can be advantageously irrigated by pumping, the 

 supply being practically inexhaustible, while lands adjacent to and in the 

 vicinity of Hat Creek, that are not yet irrigated, can be readily irrigated by 

 direct diversion without storage. Irrigation development in the Pit River 

 basin will not seriously interfere with future power development in or below 

 the basin, or with the navigability of the river. Floods in the Sacramento Valley 

 can not be controlled by storage in the Pit River basin. 



Silver Lake project: Irrig-ation and drainage, J. T. Whistler and J. H. 

 Lewis {Oreo. Cooper. Work. Dept. Int. U. S. Reclamation Serv., 1915, Oct., pp. 

 179, pis. 27). — This report, prepared in cooperation with the State of Oregon, 

 deals with the irrigation and water-power possibilities of the Silver Lake 

 region, Lake County, Oreg., together with the reclamation of Silver Lake and 

 Paulina Marsh by drainage and pumping. 



"The features to which this report has special reference are: (1) The irri- 

 gation of lands about Silver Lake and Fort Rock by storage of about 60,000 

 acre-feet of water at Thompson Valley, into which diversion canals from Sycan 

 River and Long and Coyote creeks will divert the spring run-off from these 

 streams. ... (2) The reclamation and irrigation of about 9,000 acres of 

 Paulina Marsh by storage on lower Buck Creek at the Emory reservoir site 

 and a drainage canal through the marsh to Silver Lake ... (3) The pos- 

 sible development of summer power on Silver Creek from Thompson Valley 

 storage for use in pumping to reclaim part of Silver Lake bed ; in pump- 

 ing from ground water to supply additional lands in Fort Rock Valley ; and in 

 pumping from Ana River Springs for the irrigation of about 20,000 acres of 

 land in Summer Lake Valley. . . . 



" Conditions for the development of the proposed project to irrigate 48,600 

 acres are exceptionally favorable to development by stages. . . . 



" Considerations of available water supply, extent of irrigable lands, and 

 possibilities of irrigation by economic use of water, together with careful culti- 

 vation of land and distribution by rotation, have led to adopting for the pro- 

 posed project a water duty of 1 acre-foot delivered per acre of irrigable land. 



" The soils over the larger portion of the project appear to be those of old 

 lake beds and terraces. They are generally free working loams that readily 

 mulch, yet with fine enough material in the subsoils to have good water retain- 

 ing capacities. Chemical analyses show them to be reasonably fertile in phos- 

 phorus and potash and to have medium nitrogen content. The alkali content 

 is comparatively small." 



It is estimated that the mean run-off for lower Silver Creek for the past 12 

 years is 40,400 acre-feet. 



Irrigation experiments, G. K. Kelkar {Dept. Agr. Bombay, Ann. Rpt. Expt. 

 Work Surat Agr. Sta., 191S-U, pp. 36-38).— In irrigation experiments with 

 54530°— No. 3—16 7 



