164 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



CANAL NOTES. 



Arizona.. There is talk of reviving the Antelope canal near 

 Tacua D. M. Munroe has been appointed assistant con- 

 struction engineer on the Big Gila dam Four-fifths of the 



stock of the Highland Land and Water Co. is owned in Basle, 

 Switzerland, and Swiss colonists will settle the lands under the 



leadership of Julius Bernoulli The enormous dredger of the 



Consolidated Canal Co., at Mesa, is at work and has a capacity 

 of a million yards in twelve months. A local paper gives the fol- 

 lowing description of it: 



" This dredger is a desert curiosity. Measuring 46 feet in width 

 by 86 feet in length, it weighs 200,000 pounds and carries 175,000 

 pounds of machinery. Yet it draws only V/ 2 feet of water and 

 stands about that height above the surface. The boiler registers 

 60-horse power and drives a 50-horse power engine. The crane by 

 which the dipper or digger is forced to do its work measures 

 eighty feet in length and weighs probably fifteen tons. Four men 

 operate the huge monster at an expense of about $50 for every 

 twenty-four running hours." 



The canal is 8 miles long, 45 wide on the bottom, and the aver- 

 age depth of excavation required is 20 feet. 



California. The directors of the Modesto irrigation district 



will advertise for bids for completing their main canal The 



directors of the Turlock district will soon advertise for bids to 



complete their main canal The Oakdale Irrigation Co. will 



partially rebuild their dam on the Stanislaus river A Chicago 



company with a capital of $1,000,000 has been incorporated for the 

 purpose of acquiring of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company a 

 40,000 acre tract of land in the San Joaquin valley and placing it 

 on sale, under the name of " The Land of Sunshine Company." 



Colorado. Men who rent irrigated farms are to be met every 

 day in Lamar. Most of them are from the so-called rain-belt 

 regions, and they are good farmers The new 1,000 acre reser- 

 voir west of Eaton has been completed. It will water an entire 

 township Work is about to be commenced upon the enlarge- 

 ment of the Greeley and Loveland canal. It will be enlarged so 



as nearly to double its present irrigating capacity Land in 



the vicinity of Grand Junction which was sold two years ago for 



$10 an acre, recently sold for $200 an acre planted in orchard 



Farmers of Mesa county have at last decided to buy the big irri- 

 gating canal. They pay $40,000 in 6 per cent, twenty year bonds. 



At Fruita, land which a few years ago could be had for 



nothing now sells for $50 an acre for orchard planting. Some 



Leadville parties paid $3,500 for 80 acres recently Mesa 



county has over 1,000 miles of irrigation ditches High water 



the coming spring will find the Avoca irrigating plant fully pre- 

 pared for it Work on the People's reservoir at Fort Collins 



is nearly completed Joseph A. Osner, of Denver, has com- 

 menced work on the tunnel and ditch of the Loveland and Gree- 

 ley Canal Company Senator Galloway, of Bed Rock, Colo., is 



constructing a dam across the Dolores river for the purpose of 

 obtaining sufficient water to irrigate a large body of land lying 



along that river. The dam will cost $20,000 The Naturita 



Canal and Reservoir Company, of Shenandoah, have a force of 

 men at work constructing an irrigation ditch in the Dolores 

 mountains Careful estimates place the first cost of construct- 

 ing the system of ditches, reservoirs, laterals, etc., now in use in 

 the Poudre valley alone, at not less than $1,500,000 and the annual 

 outlay for repairs, additions and management amounts to a 

 princely sum. The system extends from near the canyon of the 

 North fork to where the Poudre river forms a junction with the 

 Platte, a distance of about fifty miles, and covers a strip of coun- 

 try that is twenty miles wide in places. ' 



Idaho. The Prosser Falls Irrigation Company is putting in 

 flume to water about 4,500 acres of fertile soil. Three water 

 wheels, larger than those at Tacoma or Spokane, are being put in 

 at the river bank, about a quarter of a mile from the depot, and 



from them is being constructed a flume ten by twelve feet in size, 

 about 400 feet long, into which the water will be raised by these 

 mammoth wheels one hundred feet above the river level. The 



plant will soon be put in readiness for operation W. P. 



Trowbridge, the engineer, has prepared for the owners of the 

 Ridenbaugh canal maps of Boise valley showing the entire irriga- 

 tion system of Ada and Canyon counties, giving the elevations 

 and other valuable data The parties interested in the con- 

 struction of the new ditch on the north side of the Payette river 

 were notified to appear before the State Land Board and present 

 argument on their petition for a relinquishment of about 5,000 



acres of state lands located under the proposed canal The 



Boise City and Nampa canal will be deepened and new head gates 



and weirs are to be constructed A. J. Wiley, who has charge 



of the immense Bruneau dam and canal enterprise, owned by the 

 Owyhee Land and Irrigation Company, says the prospects of the 

 company for 1894 are very bright. The great dam on the Bruneau 

 river is, he says, in excellent condition, discharging over its long 

 crest an immense volume of water. The canyon work has been 

 completed, making one of the finest and strongest pieces of canyon 

 canal work in the West. The dimensions are as follows: Bottom 

 width, 30 feet; top, 48 feet; depth, 6 feet; with a capacity of 26,000 

 inches. The steel head gates are in place ready to admit the 

 waters of the Bruneau as soon as the lower portion of the canal is 

 completed. 



Kansas. Among the irrigation plants in course of construc- 

 tion in Kansas, probably the most extensive is that of Mr. G. M. 

 Munger, of Eureka, Greenwood county. He is constructing a 

 reservoir which will cover about 160 acres with water. This is 

 done by building a dam 2,800 feet long and thirty-eight feet high 

 at greatest height. The water will be raised by two compound 

 steam pumps, the water cylinders of which are twelve by fifteen 

 inches. Each pump has ten-inch suction and eight-inch dis- 

 charge. These pumps will elevate the water to a height of 

 sixty-five feet, delivering it on the highest part of Mr. Munger's 

 farm. The estimated cost of the plant complete, including 

 ditches for distribution of the water, is $15,000. 



Nebraska. The city council of Kearney voted $60,000 of bonds 

 to the Kearney Canal and Water Supply Company. The canal is 



to be widened to 85 feet on the bottom When the Nine Mile 



canal is finished in Cheyenne county, Bayard will be in the center 

 of the best irrigated portions of the Platte valley. 



New Mexico. The large dam at Hard Scrabble has been 



completed The Model canal at Farmington is being enlarged. 



The Mcjunkin canal at Farmington is being extended 



The Pecos Valley Co., at Eddy, have 121 miles of main canal, 273 

 miles of laterals, and 900 miles of sub-laterals, a total of 1,294 

 miles. 



Utah. Utah has 3,000,000 acres of arable lands, watered by 

 1,000 miles of canals. One canal, that of Bear river, cost 

 $2,000,000. The irrigated lands produce annually 6,000,000 bushels 

 of grains. There are over 3,000,000 cattle, and the mines in 20 

 years have produced $150,000,000 in gold and silver. 



Washington. At Prosser a canal eleven miles in length, to 

 serve 3,000 acres, is under construction. A pumping plant lifts 

 15,000,000 gallons daily for irrigation use, besides serving the town 



and giving power for an electric plant At Seattle, A. H. 



Dawson and others are sinking an artesian well for irrigation 



water in the Sunnyside district The Kittitas valley canal will 



be built this year The Oregon-Washington Irrigation Com- 

 pany has completed arrangements for constructing reservoirs in 

 the Blue mountains for the storage of water for use in Asotin 



county Okanogan county will not lag behind. A move is on 



foot to improve 60,000 acres by means of irrigation The We- 



natchee, Pine Mission and Brown flats are likely to be watered by 

 a ditch starting at Peshastin creek and running along the south 

 side of Wenatchee river. The surveys have been completed. 



