PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. 



IRRIGATING IN LOUISIANA. 



Louisiana is one of the states in which 

 irrigation is beginniug to be extensively 

 practiced. Her two chief staples, as every 

 one knows, are sugar and rice, and the 

 latter requires a great deal of water. The 

 Hall Farm is a large plantation that is soon 

 to have the largest irrigating plant in the 

 state, and will be in operation in time to 

 flood the early rice. Another plant is 

 that of the Jennings Planting Co. 



A tract of a thousand acres of fine rice 

 land has been opened up near Jennings, 

 La. , by the Jennings Planting Co. This 

 company will irrigate their own and neigh- 

 boring farms with the new irrigating plant 

 that is soon to be put in place. Work on 

 the canal is pushed rapidly along. In 

 some places levees 15 feet high have to be 

 built to raise the water to the point where 

 it will flow as desired. These Jevees are 

 built in preference to a flume. As to the 

 pumping plant, there will be a twenty-one 

 inch suction centrifugal Morris pump with 

 a capacity of 15,000 gallons per minute at 

 a lift of over thirty feet, the power being 

 furnished by a 180-horse engine. Besides 

 irrigating some 150,000 acres of rice land 

 of its own, the company will furnish water 

 to farms adjacent to the canal, and as fast 

 as possible the canal will be extended. 



But the most important project of all, 

 to the small farmers near Jennings, is the 

 company that was recently incorporated at 

 Jennings under the name of the McFarlain 

 Irrigating Co., Ltd. This company has a 

 capital of $100,000, of which $55,000 is 

 paid up, and they intend putting in a 

 plant with a capacity capable of irrigating 

 from 6,000 to 10,000 acres of rice, this 

 capacity to be doubled next fall. There 

 will be seventeen miles of main canals, 



with numerous branches and Interals. The 

 main canal will be 100 feet wide. 



With the aid of irrigation there seems 

 to be no limit to Louisiana as a rice pro- 

 ducer. In January last the Lake Charles 

 Milling Company, St. Charles, claim to 

 have broken the world's record in rice mill- 

 ing. They cleaned, polished, barreled and 

 pocketed 1321 sacks of rice in one day. 



MONTANA SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS. 



The regular monthly meeting of the 

 society was held February 12. 1898, in the 

 society's rooms, in Merchants National 

 Bank Building, Helena, Montana. The 

 meeting was called to order at 8 p. in. by 

 Yice-President F. J. Smith. 



The other members present were Messrs. 

 James H. Kerr, James S. Keerl. F. J. 

 Taylor, Finlay MacRae, John W. Wade, 

 T. M. Ripley and A. S. Hovey. 



The following applications for member- 

 ship were favorably considered and will be 

 voted upon by letter ballot: 



H. P. Clark, of Winston; E. I. Cantine, 

 Helena; W. S. Fortiner, Hamilton, and 

 the following of Butte: R. 1). Grant, D. 

 E. Holler, John MacGiuness, C. W. Clark, 

 B. C. Dunshee, C. F. Booth, R. T. White, 

 J.K-. Clark. A. J. Schumacher, C.H. Hand, 

 August Christian, Samuel Barker, Jr.. Max 

 Hebgen, H. W.Turner, Wm. E. Donovan. 

 Classified professionally, 7 are managers 

 and superintendents of mines, 4 mining 

 engineers, 2 civil and mining engineers, 2 

 civil engineers, 2 electrical engineers and 

 1 architect. 



The report of the trustees was read. 

 They approved the reports of the secretary 

 and treasurer; they recommended addi- 

 tional book cases for the library. A mo- 

 tion was carried to publish the proceed- 



