178 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



there shall be as little waste as possible 

 to go off as seepage water. The surface 

 then should be thoroughly cultivated, un- 

 less otherwise protected from evapoi-ation 

 by alfalfa or other close-growing crops, 

 so as to reduce the loss of water from the 

 surface to a minimum and prevent there- 

 by the accumulation of salts at the 

 surface. 



The rise in the level of water in the 

 wells must be looked upon with uneasi- 

 ness and guarded against with great 

 care." 



The Division of Soils has invented a 

 device for determining the moisture con- 

 tent of soils through their electrical re- 

 sistance. A cheap modification of it has 

 been made, for use with irrigating plants, 

 which will not cost over $10, and as by 

 this the farmer can gauge the water con- 

 tent near the surface or at any desired 

 depth, and thus avoid undue accumula- 

 tion of water in the sub-soil, it would 

 seem well worth the price. 



About the middle of January a meeting 

 of the Farmer's Protective Association was 

 held at Phoenix, Ariz., and a new organi- 

 zation formed, comprising the "original 

 appropriators" of water in the Salt River 

 Yalley. The written articles of the asso- 

 ciation were signed by eighteen of the 

 farmers present and the next step will be 

 to file the articles with the county record- 

 er, thus becoming a legal incorporation. 

 The object of the association is to"defend, 

 support, protect and mutually aid" each 

 other in obtaining water for the purpose 



of irrigating the individual lands of the 

 members of the association. Only farmers 

 and land owners of Salt Eiver Yalley may 

 become members. Renters or owners of 

 land in Manicopa county to which water 

 was applied on or before 1880 are eligible. 

 Similar organizations should be formed in 

 other localities. 



THE DAM AT EL PASO. 



I. A. Barnes. El Paso, Texas, sends a 

 clipping from a local paper with reference 

 to the construction of the Elephant Butte 

 Dam, which says: 



"It it understood the Elephant Butte 

 Dam company is making active prepara- 

 tions to resume work and is contracting 

 for a considerable amount of foreign ce- 

 ment. This would indicate that the Eng- 

 lish company has reason to believe that the 

 decision of the Supreme Court will be fa- 

 vorable to the company." 



Mr. Barnes is of the opinion that the 

 "International Dam" project has received 

 a severe blow in the death of Minister 

 Romero, as he was more familiar with the 

 subject than it is likely his successor will 

 be. Mr. Barnes' letter was not intended 

 for publication, but we quote his closing 

 words as they echo the sentiment of many 

 irrigationists in other sections of the coun- 

 try besides El Paso : "I think the expan- 

 sion of a lot of waste flood waters into a 

 storage reservoir beats Philippine expan- 

 sion all to thunder, and it would be a great 

 deal more benefit to our own home agri- 

 cultural interests." 



