78 



THE IRRIGATION AOB. 



REORGANIZATION. 



The Bear Valley Company will be reorganized in 

 the interests of its stockholders, or it will fall into the 

 eager and capacious mouth of a party of wreckers. 

 The air is full of rumors about the latter possibility, 

 but it is to be hoped that this additional calamity will 

 be spared the irrigation industry. The foreign stock- 

 holders have committed their interests to James 

 Gardner Clark, and the New England stockholders 

 are now conferring with that gentleman. The out- 

 come is awaited with deep interest by the entire 

 world of irrigation. 



IN WESTERN NEBRASKA. 



AN INTERESTING PROJECT. 



An interesting work of reclamation is now under way 

 on the Mojave plains, or desert, along the Mojave 

 river in California. It is north of the mountains in San 

 Bernardino county. The diversion of the water will 

 be accomplished by a novel plan. It will be done, we 

 are informed, by means of a box-flume extending 

 diagonally across the river bed for a distance of 1,600 

 feet; the bottom of this box-flume is fourteen feet 

 below the surface. The bed of the river at this point 

 consists of gravel and sand largely gravel and this 

 is underlaid with a clay formation, which is from 15 to 

 28 feet below the surface an average of about 25 

 feet. This entire body of gravel and sand, 25 feet 

 thick by 1,600 feet wide, is full of water, and as the 

 river bed has a fall of 19 feet to the mile, and as the 

 river bed is always full of water with a stream flowing 

 on the surface at all seasons of the year, and as the 

 water shed above this point consists of about 400,000 

 acres of mountains, with an elevation of from 5,000 to 

 9,000 feet and a further area of foothill territory, 

 covering about 800,000 acres, the underflow of the 

 river at this point must be very great. This is 

 evidenced also by the fact that the Mojave river at a 

 point 40 miles above these headworks has a surface 

 flow in mid-summer of about 10,000 to 12,000 inches. 

 To secure this entire flow of water a sheet pile dam is 

 to be put down extending across the river just below 

 the box-flume and reaching down to the clay forma- 

 tion. This will shut off the underflow and force the 

 entire current into the box-flume and from thence 

 into the canal. 



Water power, railroads to the neighboring iron 

 mines, town sites and other agencies of development 

 are talked of in connection with the project. 



Work will soon be commenced at Saguache, Colo., 

 on a storage reservoir for which the legislature appro- 

 priated $30,000. The site selected covers an area of 

 169 acres. About two miles of main ditch will also 

 be built. 



THE AGE is indebted to A. B. Wood, editor of the 

 Gering Courier, and George H. Lawrence, C. E., for 

 the following carefully prepared statement of the 

 amount of construction work done upon canals head- 

 ing in Scotts's Bluff county, Neb., during 1893. 

 These canals are taken from the North Platte river. 

 The figures do not purport to be exact in every case, 

 but are approximately correct: 

 Castle Rock Irrigation Canal and Water Power Co., 



completing ditch $7,000.00 



Lawrence Canal and Reservoir System 1,625.00 



Mitchell Irrigation and Canal Co 3,000.00 



Ramshorn Irrigating Ditch, new 5,000.00 



Enterpiise Ditch Co., enlarging and new headgate 4,320.00 



Winter Creek Canal, enlarging and new headgate 3,068.00 



Central Irrigating Co., new headgate and enlargement .. 2,000.00 



Minatare Canal and Irrigating Co., enlargement 2,000.00 



Farmer's Canal Company, headgate and construction, 



new 10,000.00 



Chimney Rock Canal Co., extension ], 000.00 



Nine Mile Canal and Irrigation Co., new work construc- 

 tion 1,000.00 



Alliance Irrigation Company, new work construction 3,000.00 



The year has been one of great progress, putting 

 each of the old canals on a permanent basis by the 

 building of new headgates, and enlarging to the 

 necessary capacity. Aside from this, the new con- 

 struction has been very gratifying considering the 

 stringency of the times. Two new canals have been 

 begun and gotten well along. Viewed from what- 

 ever point, the total of $43,013 expended this year 

 is to say the least reassuring. 



A BIG NEBRASKA COMPANY. 



Articles of incorporation of the Midland Irrigating 

 and Land Company have been filed in Douglas 

 county, Neb. The incorporators are well-known 

 business men of Omaha, and include Isaac Coe, Levi 

 Carter, John Brant, Nathan Shelton, Frank Murphy, 

 J. E. Markel, and ex-Senator Alvin Saunders. The 

 capital stock is fixed at $1,250,000. 



IRRIGATION NEWS. 



The board of commissioners of Weld county, Colo., 

 has decided that several canals are liable for taxation 

 only to the extent of the " unsold beneficial interest 

 therein," and has readjusted the assessment of several 

 years past. 



The Rio Grande Irrigation Company has been in- 

 corporated by E. J. Reed, B. T. McKeys and G. A. 

 Anderson, of Deming; capital stock, $1,000,000. The 

 charter calls for a canal line beginning on the Rio 

 Grande river at White Rock cafton, west of Santa 

 Fe", New Mexico, and skirting the foothills of the 

 valley on the east side of the river and running south 

 150 miles. This is the second charter that has been 

 taken out covering practically the same territory, and 

 a conflict over the right of way is expected to arise. 



