52 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



35,000 acres set to prunes, the estimated 

 yield being from 80,000 to 100,OCO pounds 

 dried, in one orchard of twenty-three 

 acres. 



It is reported that the Bellevue mine 

 has been disposed of to the Standard Oil 

 Company for $210,000. 



A colony of fifty people from Scotland 

 will locate in Grand Ronde valley. 



Many tons of chittim-wood bark are 

 shipped weekly from Halsey to San Fran- 

 cisco to be made into bitters. 



Oregon produced 80,000 bales of hops 

 the past season. If weather had been 

 better, and prices had warranted it. the 

 yield would have reached 110,000 bales. 



The total amount of wool in the grease 

 scoured by the Pendleton scouring mill the 

 past season was 2,171,504 pounds. The 

 amount of clean wool from this was 566,- 

 252 pounds. 



SOUTH DAKOTA. 



Farmers have been greatly encouraged 

 by the prospects of irrigation from arte- 

 sian wells, and are not nearly so anxious 

 to sell out as they were early in the fall. 

 Artesian wells are being bored in large 

 numbers, and an abundant flow of water 

 is invariably found at a depth of from 250 

 to 3CO feet. Irrigation will be tried on an 

 extensive scale during 1896. 



Work is progressing rapidly on the 

 Steimer & Shrader artesian wells. Brule 

 county will probably have a dozen new 

 artesian wells by spring, and quite a 

 number of irrigated farms next season. 



OschnerBros,of Kimball,say the outfit is 

 now being placed in position for the com- 

 mencement of drilling on the artesian well. 



Judge G. H. Carroll, of Miller, is an en- 

 thusiastic advocate of irrigation. 



Frank Morris of Tripp is selling irri- 

 gated land. 



A. E. Swan, of Swan Bros., of Andover 

 has gone to Forest City to make arrange 

 ments for sinking an artesian well for the 

 government at the Indian agency. 



An exhibition train bearing products 

 from the big irrigation farm near Mellette, 

 and from others in the State, is making a 

 winter tour of the East and South. 



The actual cost of irrigation in South 

 Dakota is fifty cents per acre. 



A report from Mellette says that F. R. 



Ryerson, of Spencer, Iowa, has purchased 

 W. W. Taylor's interest in the famous 

 Hunter irrigation farm. 



Johnson and Mahanna have completed 

 the six-inch artesian well on the county 

 poor farm, one and a half miles from Puk- 

 wana, and it is one of the finest wells in 

 the county. It is 925 feet deep and 

 throws a stream of water, clear as a crystal, 

 forty-one inches above the pipe. 



TEXAS- 



John Willacy, of Portland, has filed 

 with the County Clerk of San Pat- 

 ricio county, statements and estimates for 

 the construction of two enoriuous dams 

 across the Nueces river, one twelve miles 

 and the other twenty miles from Portland. 

 It is proposed to construct a canal from the 

 first dam to Portland. The same will be 

 under the control and management of the 

 Nueces Bay and Irrigation Company. The 

 upper dam will be operated by the Nueces 

 Valley and Irrigation Canal Company. It 

 also will consist of a canal of about 

 eight miles in length between the upper 

 and lower dams. As these dams will never 

 fail to fill less than four times a year 

 (owing to the enormous territory that the 

 Nueces river drains) it will be easily under- 

 stood that a very large body of land can 

 be irrigated therefrom. 



Laredo is to have in the near future 

 one of the biggest irrigation industries in 

 existence. Captain Wm. Anderson has at 

 last succeeded in enlisting capitalists in 

 New York and Chicago in the enterprise. 

 Mr. R. Walker, who has been operating 

 the coal mines under a lease, sold out his 

 entire interest to these people, they paying 

 him $1 1,000 for his unexpired lease. The 

 new organization has arranged to pur- 

 chase the entire Santo Tomas tract, con- 

 sisting of 43,000 acres of rich coal fields. 

 Preparations for irrigating these lands in 

 connection with mining are now being 

 made. 



Another big Texas irrigation project 

 has been formed in Maverick county, look- 

 ing to the construction of a canal leading 

 out from the north bank of the Rio 

 Grande, some thirty miles above Eagle 

 Pass, and extending down the river for 

 twenty-five miles. 



The San Antonio Irrigation Co. has 

 been incorporated to build a canal 25 



