9 o 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



CANALS. 



Arizona. The announcement is made that the contract to 

 construct 110 miles of canal, with a dam 150 feet high, at Horse- 

 Shoe Bend, Verde river, 60 miles northeast of Phoenix, has been 

 given to P. B. Langdon& Co., of Minneapolis, Minn. The land to 

 be brought under irrigation amounts to several hundred thousand 

 acres and will add materially to the cultivated area of Arizona. 

 Two million dollars are to be expended, and the work will prob- 

 ably be accomplished in eighteen months. The capacity of the 



canal will probably be 57,000 miner's inches Chief Justice 



Baker recently made an examination of Salt river and the 

 various headgates therein, all the way to the Arizona dam. 

 His object was to obtain personal knowledge of the amount 

 of water in the river and its distribution to farmers on 

 both sides, so that in case any legal questions should hereafter 

 arise in his court concerning irrigation he may have a practical 

 understanding of the issues involved. 



Colorado. The Fort Morgan canal has finally been turned 



over to the farmers, who are now in full control The Mount 



Lincoln Land & Water Company has been sending out to the 

 landholders under their survey a circular letter and form of con- 

 tract for their consideration, and if a sufficient expression of 

 interest is manifested in the enterprise by these people, the 

 work on the High Line canal will be at once commenced and 

 pushed to a finish. The cost of the canal will not be less than 

 1600,000, and the ditch will be operated by the High Line Mutual 

 Irrigation Company upon the same principle and basis as the 

 Grand Valley Irrigation Company, but it will be built by the Mt. 

 Lincoln Land and Water Company upon certain considera- 

 tions, viz: That a sufficient number of landholders under the 

 survey will contract to take stock in the irrigation com- 

 pany. The survey covers 110,000 acres of land not covered by 

 other canals; perhaps 75,000 acres are tillable. The promot- 

 ers of the enterprise say that there will be no hitch in its con- 

 summation if once they are assured of co-operation of the land 



holders An encouraging amount of work has been and is 



being done on the High Line canal, better known as the "Ster- 

 rett ditch." This canal draws its supply of water from Brush 

 creek, and empties it into Cedar creek, after which it is again 

 taken out at a point lower down the stream. The canal is com- 

 pleted to a point two miles north of Cedar creek. The work of 

 making the canal to a width of twelve feet on top is being 

 pushed as rapidly as possible, and it will be enlarged afterwards 

 as the needs of the community demand. A ditching machine is 

 being used in this work which will make two miles of ditch per 

 day one foot in depth and four feet wide. A number of parties 

 here in town and in the surrounding country have located land 

 under this canal and are working out their water rights. This 

 arrangement offers a splendid opportunity for a man of small 

 means to secure a water right in return for labor. There are 

 thousands of acres of as good land as is to be found anywhere, 

 under this canal, and the terms are reasonable upon which both 

 water and land can be secured by parties seeking homes. This 

 canal, as surveyed, covers an immense tract of fertile soil, which 

 is within a few miles ot an abundant supply of dry pine timber 

 and also near this town. 



California. Plans (except for the head works) for pomplet- 

 ing the main canal of the Modesto District to the present termi- 

 nus of the canal have been received. The engineer estimates the 

 cost of this work (headgates excepted) at about $137,000. It is 



largely composed of expensive fluming Col. Adolph Wood, 



of the Arrowhead Reservoir Company, says: " We expect to 

 have completed in about three months two tunnels, one 6,000 feet 

 and the other 2,000 feet in length, and the entire system will re- 

 quire several tunnels, as we propose to carry the headwaters of 

 the Mojave river across the drainage- area into the valley. We 



are now gauging our rainshed, which is about forty miles in ex- 

 tent, and four camps are at work in a thorough system of meas- 

 urement, so that we may know just how much water to depend on 

 and just how large to make the capacity of our works. These 

 important matters have been overlooked too much in California 

 either through the cupidity of land boomers or lack of knowledge, 

 and I fear the present dry season is going to prove a disappoint- 

 ment to many who have bought land with an assurance of water 

 supply which they are not going to realize. This season is an 

 excellent opportunity for Southern California to ascertain the 

 'duty' of perennial streams in time of greatest need, and this 

 will, in a great measure, shut off future misrepresentations about 



the supply of water." The South Riverside Land and Water 



Company has decided to dig a canal to draw water from Lake 

 Elsinore. It will be 2,200 feet in length and will cost about $7,500. 



The Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company is putting in a 



division gate at the head of the canal. The work is in charge ot 

 the Superintendent, assisted by the Superintendent of the Ana- 

 heim Company The Grapeland irrigation district reports a 



flow of about two hundred inches of water in the company's tun- 

 nel. The tunnel is being run in a side canyon from Lytle creek, 

 through an intervening hill and under the bed of Lytle creek, in- 

 tending to tap, not the water of the creek but the underflow of 

 the canyon. Water was secured before the creek was reached, 

 and now this heavy flow has been secured and the tunnel has not 

 yet reached bed rock into several hundred feet. The tunnel is 

 about 1,200 feet in length and connects with five or six miles of 

 stone-paved ditch that will conduct the water to the district. The 



amount expended on the tunnel has been about $15,000 This 



is an unusually dry season, and 200 inches now means consider- 

 able more than at any other season. If this strike has been made 

 without tapping or diminishing the surface flow of Lytle creek it 

 will prove one of the most important events in the history of ir- 

 rigation in this part of the State. 



Idaho. We learn that the survey of the Crook Irrigation 

 Company's ditch has been completed. When the estimates are 

 submitted the landowners who are interested in the enterprise 

 will be able to form some idea of what the cost of water is going 

 to be under the proposed system. 



Nebraska. The supervisors at a late meeting held in Fre- 

 mont decided to build the Reynolds waterway Culberson 



The Solomon & Crews ditch is furnishing an abundance of water. 

 The ditch was constructed late last fall by private enterprise, tap- 

 ping the Frenchman river, and lately the water was turned in at 

 the head gate, reaching the east end within the corporate limits of 

 Culberson within a short time, and the water is now being utilized 

 to irrigate hundreds of acres of land in the valley The con- 

 tract has been let for the construction of the irrigation ditch 

 south of the Elkhorn river by the Elkhorn Irrigation Company 

 and work will begin in a few days. The contract provides for the 

 completion of the ditch by Nov. 1. 1894. It will irrigate one of 

 the prettiest sections of the country, comprising over 90,000 

 acres. 



. Wasatch There are about 2,000 acres of land unpro- 

 vided with water that could be covered by a canal taken out of 

 the Provo river near the bridge on the Park City road. By the 

 building of this canal the wealth of Wasatch county would be in- 

 creased $100,000 within the next few years, besides furnishing 

 employment for a number of the citizens and homes for a hun- 

 dred or so more families. A company is being organized to 

 undertake the work. 



Wyoming. The Brockway ditch enterprise has been incor- 

 porated under the title of the Fetterman Canal Company. Active 

 work has begun and will continue all summer, the force at work 

 being increased as found necessary. 



