THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



141 



Congress and the Legislatures are re- 

 spectfully reminded that the farmers, the 

 bicycle riders (embracing about half the 

 population of the country) and the bicycle 

 manufacturers (representing many millions 

 of dollars) are a unit in demanding good 

 roads in every State in the Union. 



IRRIGATION REPORTS. 



In the list of irrigation reports that ap- 

 peared in the January issue of THE AGE, 

 by an oversight two of the earlier ones 

 were omitted. They are as follows: 



Keport of the Board of Commissioners 

 on the Irrigation of the San Joaquin, Tu- 

 lare and Sacramento Valleys of the State 

 of California, by Lieut. -Col. B. S. Alex- 

 ander, Major G. H. Mendell, and Prof. 

 George Davidson. Washington Govern- 

 ment print, 1874, pp. 90 and maps. Only 

 500 copies printed and now scarce. And 

 a report on the Irrigation and Reclama- 

 tion of Land for Agricultural Purposes as 

 now practiced in India, Egypt, Italy, etc., 

 by Prof. George Davidson. Washington 

 Government print, 1875, pp. 70 and maps. 

 500 copies printed and now scarce. 



Mr. H. M. Wilson says, in his paper on 

 American Irrigation Engineering, p. 138, 

 of these two reports that "they are two 

 of the mile-posts which mark the awaken- 

 ing of the people of California and the 

 country at large to the subject of irriga- 

 tion and the necessity of learning the best 

 methods of practicing it." 



A LUMBER TRUST. 



The lumber interests of the Pacific 

 coast have consolidated. The Central 

 Lumber Company of California, recently 

 organized, controls $70,000,000 of capital 

 invested in lumber mills, timber lands, 

 vessels and plants. It comprises prac- 

 tically all mill arid ship owners and every 

 wholesale and retail dealer on the Pacific 

 coast. The price of lumber has been ad- 

 vanced $2 a thousand feet already. 



KANSAS. 



The Valley State Bank of Hutchinson, 

 Kansas, suspended February 11. 



There are forty-five windmill irrigation 

 plants ai'ound Larned, according to E. E. 

 Frizell. 



John Edwards, of Larned, says the great 

 need of the Pawnee valley is a canning 

 factory. 



Kansas lawyers are trying to have the 

 State divided into two districts, each with a . 

 United States District Court. 



W. B. Sutton of the Kansas State Board 

 of Irrigation is very enthusiastic in re- 

 gard to the reclamation of the great plains 

 by means of pumps and windmills. 



Prof. A. R. Taylor of the Kansas State 

 Normal School is in Washington trying to 

 get Congress to pass a bill appropriating 

 part of the revenues of public lands to 

 the support of all State normal schools in 

 the United States. He is also trying to 

 aid in securing the passage of the Fort 

 Hayes bill, by which the State Normal 

 School of Kansas will be much benefited. 



The State Board of Irrigation of Kan- 

 sas has practically determined to locate an 

 irrigation plant at Hoxie and another at 

 Wallace. These plants are a part of the 

 seven remaining under the act of the 

 Legislature to be located. Chairman 

 D. M. Frost of the Board has been making 

 some tests of the underflow near Garden 

 City. By means of a pump, with a six- 

 inch supply and four inch discharge pipe, 

 he pumped 600 gallons of water per min- 

 ute from the well. Experiments will be 

 made by the Board for the purpose of dis- 

 covering whether or not it is possible to 

 exhaust the underflow in that well. 



H. V. Hinckley, of Kansas, the well- 

 known authority, presented an excellent 

 paper at the recent session of the Kansas 

 State Board of Agriculture upon the subject 

 of ' ' Underflow as Related to Irrigation De- 

 velopment. " He said the residents of the 

 plains are entirely correct in their view of 

 the underflow that it does flow and in- 

 sisted that too many canals have been built 

 where reliable water siipply is not a surface 

 supply. Pumping plants and gravity devel- 

 opments of the underflow furnish reliable 

 supplies which can lie guaranteed in ad- 

 vance of the investment, whether a few 

 thousand or millions of gallon a day. 



The name of the Kansas Mutual Life 

 Association has been changed. The or- 

 ganization will hereafter be known as the 

 Kansas Mutual Life Insurance Company. 

 This action was taken at a meeting of the 

 Board of Directors in February. This in- 

 stitution has entered upon the fifteenth 

 year of its business career. The present 

 officers of the company are as follows: 

 President, John P. Davis; vice-president, 

 W. M. Welcome; secretary. John E. Moon; 



