PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. 



OUTLOOK IN EASTERN OREGON. 



THERE is good promise of several important ditch 

 enterprises being pushed ahead in eastern Oregon 

 during the winter. This is especially the case around 

 the town of Ontario, located in Snake River valley 

 and on the Oregon Short Line railway. Last winter 

 some heavy work was done on the upper section of a 

 canal to take water from the Owyhee river and convey 

 it on to the rich lands of the valley. A section of five 

 miles has been nearly completed. This section takes 

 the water out of the canon on to the higher level 

 land. The firm of Kiesel, Shilling & Danilson, doing 

 general merchandise business in Ontario, have lately 

 taken a contract to build the second section seven 

 miles long, seventeen feet wide on the bottom and 

 three feet deep, with the sides the usual slope of one 

 to one. 



Along that section reside about thirty families, who 

 have filed on lands which they must get water on to 

 for the purpose of proving up. The men have con- 

 tracted to do the canal construction and take their pay 

 in canal stock, thus making the canal and the com- 

 pany cooperative in ownership and operations. This 

 will prove a great boon to these farmers who, because 

 of the stringency of the times, could not secure their 

 lands. The mercantile company furnish these farm- 

 ers with goods and take their pay in canal stock. The 

 third section of five miles has been let to J. T. Clem- 

 ent. This section will be thirteen feet wide at the 

 bottom and three feet deep. This canal, seventeen 

 miles long, will cover many thousand acres of land of 

 excellent quality and in time it will be extended north- 

 ward across Malheur river by means of a high flume, 

 and then onward to cover the bench lands on the Ore- 

 gon side of Snake river, a distance of twenty or thirty 

 miles. Four years ago Kiesel, Shilling & Danilson 

 planted fifty-three acres of their 320-acre fruit ranch 

 in fruit trees, and the coming season will see much 

 fruit on the trees. They have their land laid off in 

 forty acre lots, part of which are seeded to alfalfa, 

 timothy and other grasses, and it is surprising what 

 good crops these lands produce, and only a few 

 months ago it was the home of sagebrush, lizards 

 and toads. 



Mr. Wilson, who owns part of Ontario town site and 

 valuable lands near, is getting ready to construct a 

 canal fourteen miles long to parallel the Owyhee 

 canal, but on lower ground. Both these canals are to 

 have water running through their entire length early 

 next April. Just over the Snake river in Idaho the 

 Payette and other ditches are in good shape, thou- 



sands of fruit trees are being planted this fall, and 

 more will be in the spring. Surveyors are busy run- 

 ning lines looking to the extension of the high ditch 

 from Fayette river to Weiser and the country around. 



NORTH PLATTZ, NEBRASKA. 



This canal takes its water from the North Platte, 

 north of Southerland, Lincoln county, Nebraska, and 

 wastes into the North Platte, north of that city. The 

 canal is about 25 miles in length and 32 feet wide at 

 the head. The soil between the North and South 

 Plattes in this portion of Lincoln county is as well 

 adapted to raising potatoes as the land in the vicinity 

 of Greeley, and there were in the neighborhood of 200 

 cars of potatoes raised under the North Platte canal 

 last season. The farmers are just commencing to 

 grow alfalfa, which does as well in Nebraska as in 

 Colorado. The company owning the North Platte 

 canal also own several thousand acres of land along 

 its line, which they are cultivating, building houses 

 and placing a tenant on each 80 acres. Just north- 

 west of North Platte Mr. W. F. Cody and Mr. Isaac 

 Dillon own several thousand acres of land. They 

 have just commenced to build a new ditch about 7 

 miles in length to irrigate the greater portion of this. 

 About 12 miles northwest of North Platte Messrs. 

 Paxton and Hershey own about 4,000 acres of land, 

 which they expect to improve in the near future, cut 

 it up into 40 and 80-acre tracts, and place tenants on 

 the land to raise crops. The Irrigating Convention 

 that was held at North Platte last month appears to 

 have awakened considerable interest in the subject, 

 and if the contemplated improvements are made in 

 the vicinity of that town, the face of the country will 

 be changed in the next two years. 



IRRIGATION FROM WELLS BY WIND POWER. 



[EXTBACT8 PKOM AN ADDRESS BY I. L. DIF.BEM OF KANSAS.] 



My well is 13 feet deep and 18 feet in diameter, and 

 I generally have 5 or 6 feet of water in it. If I were to 

 put in another plant I would put down points instead 

 of digging a well, and save expense. The pump I use 

 has an 8-inch cylinder, with a 12-inch stroke, and is 

 run by a 14-foot windmill, and in an ordinary wind 

 makes from 38 to 42 strokes per minute, pumping 2) 

 gallons per stroke, or 100 gallons per minute. To 

 make a success it is necessary to have a reservoir to 

 save the water until there is sufficient to irrigate with. 

 In irrigating any kind of a crop it should be done as 

 quickly as possible, so as to make the least water go 



