138 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



tant. The reservoir is 75 yards long by 

 70 wide, or 350 square yards, over an acre. 

 Its average depth is a little over 7 feet. 

 Have through dam two outlet pipes, or 

 gates, through which water is carried in 

 elevated ditches along and past the rows of 

 trees or plants to be watered. The soil 

 being a fine sandy loam with a red clay 

 foundation, in order to prevent wastage of 

 water along the ditches, I have found it 

 necessary to first plow out deep, right and 

 left, thus making a ditch below the level 

 where it is to be above it. This ditch is 

 then filled up with mud out of the bottom 

 of the storage tank, so as when completed 

 it will be fully 6 inches higher than the 

 land on each side to be watered. Bringing 

 water over this tank mud will run it to- 

 gether and make it as hard as cement, so as 

 to be practically no loss if water is to be 

 carried along any distance. This is very 

 important, since, when water is carried 

 over what may be called sandy knolls, a 

 large portion will seep through the porous 

 soil, and instead of doing good further on 

 will only do harm by wetting too much 

 where it is. The dirt out of which the 

 reservoir dam is built is taken out of the 

 center, giving a good depth for fish, below 

 the outlet pipe in the dam. The job of 

 building it was a good sized one, yet, tak- 

 ing all together it did not require over two 

 months for one man, a good team, a steel 

 beam, plow and a wheeled scraper to do it. 

 Had I been obliged to use only the ordin- 

 ary steel drag scrapers, the job would have 

 been more than twice as big. 



The suction pipe used is of 3-inch pip- 

 ing, and the discharge pump, coming di- 

 rect from pump on up over dam of reser- 

 voir, is 2? inch. In a good wind the mill 

 will pump all the water that the 2| inch 

 pipe will carry off under pressure from a 

 large air chamber. 



Buying at inside figures for cash, the 

 cost of mill, pump, piping and all neces- 

 sary fixtures put in position ready to start, 

 did not much exceed $250, there being over 

 600 feet <jf piping. Figuring all labor of 

 building tank, reservoir, and what it will 



yet require to fill up ditcnes, etc., read 

 for use at a fair value, will be about $250 

 more. Being able to irrigate from this 

 plant fully 30 acres, the cost for acre of 

 putting the water on will come to about 

 $17.00; actual cash outlay only $8.50. 



The intention is to always fill the reser- 

 voir in the spring of the year, when there 

 is both an abundance of wind and usually 

 also water. A drouth after this will no 

 longer have any terrors for us, should it 

 come, and when did we last have a season 

 when there was no drouth? It appears 

 that the coming successful man will not 

 only need a hoe, but will also need his 

 water hole handy from which to draw in 

 time of need.- 



MORE WATER. 



Aid has been asked of the government 

 to assist in carrying on the proposed irri- 

 gation enterprises in the West, and Capt. 

 Hiram Chittenden, of the corps of engi- 

 neers, U. S. A,, was sent by Congress to 

 make investigations concerning the mat- 

 ter. If the plan proposed is carried out 

 millions of dollars will be spent, and lands 

 in seventeen states and^territories will be 

 benefitted. The senators and congress- 

 men from almost every state west of the 

 Mississippi will unite in asking that the 

 government give aid to these enterprises, 

 claiming that as between the state and 

 nation the work falls more properly upon 

 the latter. 



Capt. Chittenden examined fire reser- 

 voir systems three in Wyoming and two 

 in Colorado and sums up his observations 

 on the sites as follows: 



"Laramie site, near the town of Lara- 

 mie, Wyo. , for storing the waters of the 

 Laramie and Little Laramie rivers and 

 possibly of the North Platte and other 

 streams. Available supply from the two 

 Laramies, 46,000 acre feet; estimated 

 cost for storing waters from the two Lara- 

 mies, $416,254.14; cost per acre foot, 

 $70.05; water now needed; cost of bring- 

 ing North Platte into basin, possibly as 

 much as $1,000,000; supply would add 



