THE I RBI GAT I OX AGE. 



399 



ago. under orders from Secretary Jefferson 

 Davis, reported that "a large portion of 

 the surface of the desert formed of lacrus- 

 tine and alluvial clay, is capable of sup- 

 porting a luxurient growth of vegetation. 

 It is nearly of the same composition as 

 the alluvial bottom land of the Colorado, 

 which is covered with a growth of mes- 

 quite, cottonwood, and willows and grass. 

 Good crops of corn, beans and melons are 

 raised close by." Another writer said 

 that >: a sufficient supply of water to irri- 

 gate the Colorado desert would cenvert a 

 hopeless waste, which is a terror to 

 travelers and the home of the honored 

 toads and rattlesnakes, into the most 

 productive state of the union." 



It may pay to watch the reports, of the 

 water gauges on the Colorado. 



MORE SALT. 



A Utah paper has the following to say 

 regarding the salt works about to be open- 

 ed up in that state: 



There will be two independent salt works 

 in full operation this year, and it may be 

 truly said that this fact is due to the form- 

 ation of the salt trust, which now .virtually 

 controls the entire salt output from Xephi 

 on the south to Corinne on the north. 



While the trust has succeeded in buying 

 nearly all the salt plants in the State, and 

 has thus been enabled to demand a price 

 for that product in advance of what it sold 

 for many years, the combination, it would 

 seem, has not been without its good effects 

 for some people. Owing to ruinous com- 

 petition in years gone by. the price of crude 

 salt was forced down as low as 60 cents a 

 ton some years ago, and it is said that in 

 some instances it even sold for less. And 

 so it went on until one of the most import- 

 ant industries of the State was badly crip- 

 pled, and many of those producing salt 

 went out of business. 



IRRIGATION INVESTIGATION. 

 San Francisco* Chronicle: Elwood Mead, 

 late of Wyoming, has been Territorial, and 

 subssquently State Engineer of that State 



for many years, until his resignation, quite 

 recently, to accept the position of expert 

 in charge of irrigation investigations in the 

 Department of Agriculture. Mr. Mead's 

 labors in Wyoming have given him a 

 national reputation, and his translation to 

 a broader field is a natural result of that 

 work and is in the interest of all irrigated 

 America. Mr. Mead is doubtless an able 

 engineer, quite competent to deal effect- 

 ively with engineering problems, but it is 

 not merely as an engineer that he has won 

 reputation. His important work in Wy- 

 oming has been the development of a sys- 

 tem of water control, satisfactory, we be- 

 lieve to all good citizens, and its presenta- 

 tion to successive legislatures, in language 

 so clear and simple, that convictions and 

 action inevitably followed. As the re- 

 sult of his labors the problem of water con- 

 trol has been solved, in Wyoming, so com- 

 pletely that there has been but one ir- 

 rigation suit begun in that state during the 

 past ten years. 



A petition has been prepared and in due 

 time will be presented to the Secretary of 

 Agriculture requesting that Mr .Mead's first 

 formal work for the department may be to 

 investigate and report upon irrigation in 

 California, with the understanding that 

 sufficient help be given him to enable the 

 report to be completed and printed before 

 the next meeting of the California Legis- 

 lature. It is believed that the facts which 

 he will collect and the conclusions which 

 he will draw will form a basis upon which 

 all interested can unite in formulatimg 

 legislation which will cause irrigation 

 waters to be properly and economically con- 

 served and distributed, and an end be 

 made to the disastrous litigation which is 

 preventing the development of the state 

 and is costing more than the construction 

 of the works which it concerns. The water 

 problem in California can never be justly 

 dealt with until we know the volume of 

 water discharged by each stream, the claims 

 upon it. adjudicated and not adjudicated, 

 the possibilities of profitable increase upon 

 each stream by storage of winter waters, 



