148 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The people of the south side of the Platte river in 

 Scotts Bluff county, Nebraska, met in Gering during 

 the middle of August and organized the Gering 

 Canal Company, for the purpose of constructing a 

 canal commencing in Wyoming about three miles 

 west of the Nebraska State line, and building a ditch 

 to the lower end of Creighton valley, in Scotts Bluff 

 county, making the ditch about fifty miles long. 

 ^Martin Gering, W. S. Peters, F. M. Sands, George 

 Lawyer, E. P. Cromer, Wm. Bensley, Ed. W. Sayre, 

 G. Dickenson and Frank Beers were elected direct- 

 ors, and George. H. Lawrence, engineer. 



It is estimated that not less than twelve hundred 

 irrigation pumping plants have been put into opera- 

 tion in the western half of Kansas the current year. 

 This represents a good big practical step in the right 

 direction and will produce valuable results. 



The Lincoln (Neb.) Call says: "A little less 

 politics, a great deal less talk on the silver question, 

 and more, infinitely more, horse-sense discussion of 

 the irrigation question." 



At a late meeting of the Northwestern Nebraska 

 Irrigation association a committee was appointed to 

 correspond with other irrigation associations, boards of 

 trade and others interested, to arrange for a meeting 

 for the purpose of drafting a bill on the subject of 

 irrigation which will cover the legal necessities of the 

 entire State. 



B. F. Williams of Douglas, Michigan, is putting in a 

 pump to irrigate a fruit farm, obtaining the water 

 from a creek near by. 



Mr. G. M. Munger of Eureka, Kansas, is construct- 

 ing an extensive irrigation plant to water about five 

 hundred acres, principally orchard, in which the fruit 

 trees are beginning to bear. 



Kansas expects to have a display of her farm, field 

 and orchard products, grown by irrigation, at the 

 National Congress in Denver. It may be made per- 

 manent. 



An Ellensburgh, Washington, business man is fit- 

 ting up a capacious room in which to keep a perma- 

 nent exhibit of the products of Kittitas county. It is 

 a laudable undertaking and public spirited in the 

 highest degree. 



The contract for the construction of the Middle 

 Ditch, Yakimacounty.Washington, has been awarded 

 to Peter Costello. The estimate of cost, as furnished 

 by Engineer Owens of North Yakima, is $136,748.10. 



Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, has over one hun- 

 dred and fifty miles of ditches, which irrigate many 

 thousands of acres. 



Each of the three political parties in Kansas has 

 an irrigation encouragement plank in its platform. 



The only farms in Nebraska where crops did not 

 burn are irrigated. A press dispatch from Omaha 

 says that on such places corn is "green and luscious," 

 while across the road, on unirrigated places, nothing 

 is left. 



The people of Brown county, Texas, are consider- 

 ing a proposition made by a California irrigation 

 company to furnish a system of irrigation ditches. 



The Chamber's Lake ditch, in Larimer county, 

 Colorado, is a success. A large quantity of water 

 being drawn from the Laramie river to the Cacha la 

 Poudre via Chamber's Lake. The mountain cut was 

 a very difficult piece of scientific engineering. 



The Castle Rock (Colorado) creamery is now turn- 

 ing out something more than 2,090 pounds of butter 

 and the same quantity of cheese each week. 



Australia stands first among the wool producing 

 countries of the world, and they are now beginning 

 to take an active interest in irrigation. 



A flow of artesian water has been the result of a 

 bore of 260 feet, about six miles from Tammany, 

 Idaho. It has taken two months to sink this well, 

 some of the strata being extremely hard. The well 

 is on the premises of Mrs. Dowd, an energetic busi- 

 ness woman, who intends to put out 200 acres of hops 

 next season. 



The matter of irrigation is being most enthusiasti- 

 cally and practically investigated in Buffalo county, 

 Nebraska. 



Yakima Valley, Washington, has felt the effects of 

 the hard times very little. The State fair is to be 

 held at North Yakima during the last week of Sep- 

 tember. 



SOME RECENT BOOKS. 



Mr. Clesson S. Kinney, of Salt Lake City, Utah, has recently 

 published, through W. H. Lowdermilk & Co., of Washington. 

 D. C., an impressive work entitled, " A Treatise of Irrigation 

 Law." J. G. Sutherland, of Utah, writing of the work, says: 



" Mr. Clesson S. Kinney has given the profession a very useful 

 book in his treatise on ' Irrigation.' I have looked through it 

 with considerable study. The author has evidently prepared the 

 work for use in that extended area of our country which he de- 

 nominates as the arid and semi-humid region the area where 

 the soil is naturally fertile, but is practically unproductive until 

 water can be artificially supplied. He has sketched the general 

 history of irrigation. But irrigation presupposes a supply of 

 water. Therefore the author's work is mainly devoted to the dis- 



