THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The Chino Ranch in California, on which is located 

 the well-known beet sugar factory, recently passed 

 into the control of Mr. C. H. Phillips, of San Luis 

 Obispo. Mr. Gird retains the use of the pasture 

 lands and the home ranch for one year. 



The Farmers' Institute of Finney County, Kansas, 

 will hold its next session, beginning January 29. It 

 has the reputation of holding very interesting meet- 

 ings, and the coming one promises to be even better 

 than usual. Judge J. W. Gregory, D. A. Mims and 

 G. S. Boyd of Garden City, are arranging the program. 



Senator Manderson has introduced a bill in the 

 senate granting to the State of Nebraska all the public 

 lands within that territory to be irrigated and re- 

 claimed. 



Texas is beginning to realize the advantage of a 

 diversity of crops and the reign of King Cotton is 

 nearly over. In the south-western portion they are 

 turning their attention to raising tobacco. 



At the coming session of Nebraska's legislature 

 Irrigation will be one of the chief subjects for con- 

 sideration. Something in the way of an act, giving the 

 State control of the irrigation canals and providing 

 for the intelligent prosecution of the work, is expected 

 to be enacted. Beet sugar will also be considered, it 

 being the hope of the manufacturers that the bounty 

 will be restored. At the outset of the session an ap- 

 propriation for the relief of the destitute in the western 

 part of the State will be made. 



A Farmers' Institute will be held in Billings, Mon- 

 tana, early in January. It is expected that Professors 

 Foster, Emery, Traphagen and Williams of the Agri- 

 cultural College will be present. 



Great Falls, Montana, has a macaroni factory 

 which cost $5,000. 



Gov. McConnell, of Idaho, has taken a good stand 

 on the irrigation question and will probably recom- 

 mend that something be done at the coming session 

 of the Legislature in regard to it. 



The General Electrical Company, which has the 

 contract for conveying electricity from Folsom Dam 

 to Sacramento City, in California, for use for power, 

 light and heat, has sub-let the contract for poles, and 

 work on the line will be commenced very soon. The 

 dam and canal are already completed and the power- 

 house is now being erected. 



A Horticultural Society is being organized in Mont- 

 rose, Colo., and they expect to set aside one day in 

 the new year for the first annual exhibition of the 

 county's products. 



The directors of the Tulare Irrigation district in 

 California have fixed the water rates for the coming 

 season as follows: For trees, alfalfa and vines $1.50 

 per acre for the first irrigation and 50 cents per acre 

 for each subsequent irrigation. For grain and pasture 

 75 cents per acre for the first irrigation. 



The commissioners of Mesa County, Colo., have 

 offered a bounty of $1.00 per ton for sugar beets raised 

 in that county and shipped to the refinery at Lehi, 

 Utah. Experiments with the sugar beet in Uncom- 

 pahgre valley have been very successful. 



Billings, Mont., is trying to secure a woolen mill. 



It is expected that an attempt will be made to have 

 the Montana Legislature pass a law giving a bounty 

 on beet sugar manufactured in the State. 



Prominent citizens of the Bitter Root Valley, Mont., 

 have recently held a meeting to consider the feasibil- 

 ity of the construccion of an irrigating canal to cover 

 the bench lands on the east side of the valley. 



Garden City, Kas., announces that it has secured a 

 canning factory. 



BOOKS AND MAGAZINES. 



A NEAT little book treating an old subject in a 

 new way is " Bread from Stones," translated 

 from the writings of Julius Hensel and other 

 German writers and published by A. J. Tafel, 1011 

 Arch street, Philadelphia. It covers the subject of 

 fertilization and advocates the use of stone meal or 

 ground stone, in place of the ordinary stable manure 

 or artificial fertilizers, claiming that it is not only 

 cheaper, but better, as the agricultural products 

 grown by its use are not only greater in quantity, but 

 better in quality. In the preface the publisher says: 

 " Is it not sound reason to believe that food yielding 

 plants grown on pure uncontaminated soil will be 

 wholesomer than those grown on soil saturated with 

 sewage and rotten manure from stables V" Price 25 

 cents. 



Wynkoop Kiersted, C. E., is the author of "The Dis- 

 posal of Sewage," published by John Wiley & Sons, 

 53 E. Tenth street, New York City. The matter is 

 treated from the standpoint of a practical engineer 

 and placed in concise and compact form before the 

 reader. One of the most interesting chapters is that 

 of the disposal of sewage by irrigation. No attempt 

 is made to disguise the fact that it is not a success. 

 It may be used to advantage by some-of the smaller 

 towns, but its great drawback is the necessity of irri- 

 gating only at certain intervals, while the sewage 

 must be disposed of at all times. Unless some ar- 

 rangement can be made to utilize the surplus, the 

 practice is not likely to become general. Price $1.25 

 postpaid. 



In the Law Book Review for the month of Novem- 

 ber, 1894, is to be found the following review by 

 Chief Justice Hayt, of Colorado, of the Work on Irri- 

 gation by Clesson S. Kinney, of Salt Lake City, Utah : 



" The author of this work has entered upon a com- 

 paratively new field of jurisprudence, and one here- 

 tofore unoccupied by any extended work upon the 

 subject. The earlier pages are devoted to a review 

 and description of the methods employed in the past 

 and present in growing crops by irrigation. The 

 chapters devoted to the description of the canals of 

 Egypt. South America, Mexico and Arizona, con- 

 structed and operated by prehistoric man, are replete 

 with interest. They furnish an additional evidence 

 of the truth of the adage, ' There is nothing new un- 

 der the sun.' 



" The stupendous system of irrigation of the upper 

 Nile, as the same is reconstructed by the author from 

 the ruins extant, furnish conclusive evidence that 

 engineering as understood at the present time has 

 made no material advance, so far as irrigation is con- 

 cerne.d, upon that of the ancients, of whose history 

 we are in ignorance except as the same may be gath- 

 ered from the ruins of the works constructed by 

 them. These chapters will be of great interest, not 

 only to every student of the law of irrigation, but to 

 many outside of the profession. 



"The common law of riparian rights naturally re- 

 ceives the attention of the author in the earlier pages 

 of the book, as it is only by a thorough understand- 

 ing of this that the reader can comprehend the law as 

 it is established in the arid regions of the west. The 

 leading principles are here given with sufficient full- 

 ness to answer the needs of the practitioner, and 

 they are supported by citations to all the leading 

 cases. 



