270 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



NEBRASKA NOTES. 



The irrigation association of Alliance proposes to 

 make a test of raising water with windmills for irrigat- 

 ing purposes as a part of their line of experiments. 

 Two wells will be put down and the pumps operated 

 by a large windmill. The result will be watched with 

 much interest, for if sufficient land can be irrigated 

 by that method to make it profitable a great many 

 will prepare to put in such plants. 



The farmers of Cherry county are making prepara- 

 tions to irrigate on a small scale this year by the use 

 of wind. 



The Standard Cattle Company of Ames has had 

 everything in readiness for the putting in of a large 

 sugar beet crop this year, conditioned upon the 

 granting of the ditch, and will now begin at once to 

 push the planting of about 700 acres. The ditch 

 will be about nine miles long, twelve feet wide at the 

 bottom at the start and twenty-eight feet wide at the 

 bottom where it empties into the Platte. The cost 

 will probably be about $15,000. It will run diago- 

 nally across the valley at a point at the foot of the 

 bluffs north of North Bend to a southwesterly direc- 

 tion, emptying into the Platte a couple of miles above 

 Ames. 



W. F. Cody evidently intends to carry out his views 

 on the irrigation question in a practical way. He 

 has a large force of men engaged in constructing an 

 irrigating ditch on his ranch at North Platte which 

 when completed will furnish water for 2,000 acres of 

 land. The land will be divided up into 80 acre 

 tracts and leased. 



There are about fifteen teams working on the Nine 

 Mile Canal, which was commenced last fall. The 

 canal when finished will be 20 feet wide on the bottom 

 and 20 miles in length, and will reclaim about 10,000 

 acres of land. B. F. Gentry is superintending the 

 work. 



There is quite a force of teams at work on the 

 Lawrence canal, hauling rock and riprapping the dam 

 at Reservoir No. 2, which, when finished, and the 

 reservoir filled with water, will make a lake covering 

 an area of about 400 acres and will average over ten 

 feet in depth. Theyafe also cleaning out the ditch 

 and preparing to turn the water in. This canal was 

 finished last season and will water about 1,500 acres 

 this season. Laterals are now built and land pre- 

 pared to water that amount. 



Water has been turned into the Winters Creek 

 ditch, Miniature ditch, Castle Rock ditch and Mitch- 

 ell, also several of the smaller ditches. Work is ex- 

 pected to commence on the Farmers' canal soon. This 

 is a high line canal on the north side of the river, 

 twenty miles is now completed, and when it is all 



completed will be 75 miles in length and will 

 water 75,000 acres ot land. 



COLORADO ITEMS. 



Colorado has 3,000,000 acres under artificial irriga- 

 tion. The farm products exceed $12,000,000 a year. 

 There are 1,500,000 cattle, 2,000,000 sheep. The coal- 

 fields cover 40,000 square miles. The supplies of 

 marble, granite and other building stone are inex- 

 haustible. 



It has been decided by the citizens of Grand Junc- 

 tion valley to memorialize Congress to build two 

 large canals for the purpose of reclaiming lands in 

 Western Colorado and eastern Utah. The estimated 

 cost of same is $5,000,000. 



The seepage from the High line ditch near Castle 

 Rock is sufficient to form quite a stream of water. 



S. W. Winn, general manager of the Syndicate 

 Lands and Irrigating corporation at Kansas City, 

 Mo., after returning from a ten days' trip inspecting 

 the farming operations and irrigating system of his 

 company in western Kansas, said that his obser- 

 vations were confined to Kearney and Finney 

 counties, where in one day's drive he had noticed 

 more than 150 windmills and reservoirs that were 

 being used to irrigate small farms of from one 

 to fifteen acres each, according the capacity. 



The season so far has not been calculated to lessen 

 the interest in irrigation. The thing for every farmer 

 in western Kansas to do is to put in a pumping plant 

 and bid defiance to drought. 



There are three full fledged irrigation plants in 

 Stafford county, Kansas. 



J. S. Emery, of Lawrence, Kan., national lecturer 

 on irrigation, says that he will be present at a mass 

 convention in Minneapolis, Minn., early in June, in 

 the interests of irrigation. With him will be Prof. 

 E. R. Moses, of Great Bend, Kan., president of the 

 Interstate Irrigation Association. Prof. J. E. Todd, 

 of Vermillion, state geologist, President McLouth, of 

 the South Dakota Agricultural College, Dr. Wm. 

 Blackburn, president of Pierre University, and other 

 prominent people will also attend. 



An irrigation convention will be held at Hoxie, 

 Kansas, on the llth of May. The whole country is 

 invited and several well informed speakers on the 

 subject of irrigation will be present. 



Irrigation would make of southwest Texas a verit- 

 able homeseeker's paradise unsurpassed for stock 

 growing and agriculture. 



