8 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of relief from national legislation lies in fche great 

 organization set on foot at Los Angeles, and they are 

 heartily co-operating with it. So also will the men of 

 Nebraska, who assembled in a splendid convention at 

 North Platte, December 19, and perfected plans for 

 a systematic campaign. 



Most of the western railroads have been 



Railroads . . 



and the generous and persistent friends of 

 Irrigation. } rr ig a ti n development. Of course their 

 motive is selfish, for railroads exist for business rather 

 than philanthropy. They realize that their future 

 earnings will be measured by the number of new 

 families who make homes along their lines, and that 

 this in turn depends upon the number of acres re- 

 claimed in their territory. The Union Pacific has been 

 a very constant friend of those who are helping on the 

 irrigation idea, and so also has the Sante Fe. The 

 lines of both these railroads traverse arid wastes of 

 tremendous proportions, the settlement of which 

 would have a very pleasing effect upon their balance 

 sheets. The Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in 

 Nebraska has been another ally of the cause. Some 

 of its officials, in their private capacity, have gone be- 

 yond simple moral support and invested largely in 

 irrigation works in Kansas and Nebraska. The only 

 exception observed among western roads is the Rock 

 Island, one of whose representatives, at its head- 

 quarters, in Chicago, is still fighting " irrigation non- 

 sense " and insisting that any part of Kansas is suitable 

 for farming without the artificial application of water. 

 Whether this man is sincere or not will make little 

 difference to the unfortunate settlers who may be 

 deluded into the hopelessly arid portion of Kansas 

 lying west of the 97th meridian. Years of heroism 

 and hardship have demonstrated that without water 

 that is a starvation belt. And it is little short of crim- 

 inality to impose upon innocent purchasers a sort of 

 land that must be paid for in children's hunger and 

 women's tears. 



One of the most important developments 



Interest 



in. Small of the new year will be the renewed inter- 

 ment*. egt j n gma ii individual irrigation plants 

 throughout the arid region. This interest is now most 

 prominently manifested in Kansas and Nebraska, 

 where the chief dependence for water is upon under- 

 ground supplies, but it is certain to extend through- 

 out the West, as manufacturers of pumping machinery 

 extend their knowledge of the requirements of the 

 public. The trouble has been that these manufactur- 

 ers have had only the most meagre appreciation of the 

 field open to them in this direction and have expended 

 neither money nor thought in preparing to meet the 

 widespread demand. There was a good display of 

 pumping machinery at the World's Fair, but a woful 

 ignorance on the part of manufactu: ers of everything 

 essential to the intelligent use of their appliances in 



A New 



the work of irrigation. They could not calculate 

 either the cost or capacity of their plants as applied 

 to specified situations. They had no notion of the 

 amount of water required for the irrigation of differ- 

 ent crops, or of the nature of the water resources to 

 which their machinery must be applied. Elsewhere 

 in this number of THE AGE Mr. B. A. McAllester, 

 land commissioner of the Union Pacific Railroad, 

 groups more interesting facts about windmill irriga- 

 tion than we have ever seen before in one article. It 

 answers a multitude of questions. 



Howard V. Hinckley, who was elected 



J ' 



consulting engineer of the Kansas Irri- 

 g at j on Association at the Wichita con- 

 vention November 23, is a native of Massachusetts. He 

 graduated from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 

 1876 and was admitted to membership in the American 

 Society of Civil Engineers in 1883. He entered the 

 service of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1877 as draftsman, 

 and after numerous promotions has for twelve years 

 been in charge of the chief engineer's office of the en- 

 tire system, at Topeka. In connection therewith he 

 has been assigned such specialties as bridging, inter- 

 locking, terminals and water supply. His experience 

 in irrigation dates back to the Ws, when he helped 

 build the first irrigating canal in Massachusetts, and 

 thirty barrels of irrigated cranberries per acre (some 

 of which sold as high as $44 a barrel) were raised, 

 which resulted in the cranberry "boom," which has 

 hardly yet died out in New England. In connection 

 with his railroad service Mr. Hinckley has studied ir- 

 rigation and water supply throughout the Western 

 States and in Mexico and has been an extensive col- 

 lector and reader of irrigation literature. He has ar- 

 gued in favor of more extended irrigation before the 

 American Society of Civil Engineers and elsewhere. 

 Many compliments have been passed upon his success 

 in enthusing the Great Bend (Kan.) convention last 

 August. In September he addressed the Salina (Kan.) 

 Inter-State Convention. At the Los Angeles Inter- 

 national Congress he prepared and delivered the 

 reports on permanent organization and the " Wright 

 Law " inspection trip, both of which were unanimously 

 adopted. At the Wichita (Kan.) State Convention 

 (for which he did a large share of the preliminary 

 work) his topic was: "In Arid Kansas and the Way 

 Out." At every one of these conventions Mr. Hiuck- 

 ley has called the attention of the States to the fact 

 that the Government in its investigations has helped 

 those States that had helped themselves, and that their 

 first step should be to provide for their own irrigation 

 departments. The following extract, from the Los 

 Angeles address, is in Mr. Hinckley's own words: 



We advise eacli State which embraces any part of the arid 

 domain, and which lias not already provided for irrigation su- 

 pervision and engineering, to do so at its next legislative session 

 and to vigorously prosecute the work of investigating the extent 



