THE IREIGA TION A GE. 



295 



Geological Survey, and in charge of irriga- 

 tion matters, "at this action of Congress, 

 not so much in allowing the appropriation, 

 though we need that badly, but iu so de- 

 claring its temper in regard to this work." 



Senator Bard introduced the amend- 

 ment and along with Senator Carter and 

 other western friends of irrigation in the 

 Senate, urged its adoption. Senator Per- 

 kins, being on the committee having the 

 bill in charge, was in a position to assist 

 materially. In the House, Congressman 

 Needham and Kahn worked hard. Any- 

 thing pertaining to irrigation which is out 

 of the ordinary, has a difficult time of it 

 in getting through the House, where west- 

 ern representation is so comparatively 

 slight. 



''This work we are doing," continued 

 Mr. Newell, ' ; meets more than a western 

 demand, and it is a good sign for the West 

 that it does. All through the East there 

 is a demand for water gauging and stream 

 measurement by the government, for bas- 

 ing estimates in erecting manufacturing 

 plants proposing to utilize water power. 

 All this work which we have been doing 

 in stream measurement, surveys of reser- 

 voir sites and underground water flows in 

 the West has been stopped for lack of 

 funds, but I have now telegraphed to con- 

 tinue with it and it will go on at least un- 

 til the 1st of July." 



IRRIGATION ON A LARGE SCALE. 



One of the largest single irrigation sys- 

 tems in the world is conducted at Durango, 

 Mexico, where the largest cotton planta- 

 tion in the world is located. Chicago cap- 

 ital is interested in this company, of which 

 the following description is given by E. C. 

 Butler in the Chicago Record: 



This concern, otherwise known as the 

 Tlahualilo Agricultural company, was in- 

 corporated seven years ago under the laws 

 of Mexico, but quite recently has passed 

 under American and English control. The 

 stocks are owned in the United States and 

 the bonds, placed in England, have a reg- 

 ular quotation on the London stock ex- 



change. Four of the five directors of the 

 company are Americans James Brown 

 Potter, James M. Townsend and C. P. 

 Mackie of New York and William D. Bull 

 of Chicago. The English trustees are 

 Lord Welvy of Abington, a secretary of 

 the British treasury, and Henry P, Sturgis 

 of the Westminster bank of London. 



Mr. Mackie, who is the vice-president 

 and general manager, has arrived here from 

 one of his annual trips to Durango and 

 he gave me to-day some information con- 

 cerning the enterprise. The company op- 

 erates in the Laguna basin, located in an 

 immense plateau 400 miles wide by 600 in 

 length, hemmed in by mountains, and with 

 a general level of 4,000 feet above the sea. 

 It is knows as the Bolson de Mapimi, and 

 is one of the two great water-sheds of the 

 Sierra Madre io northern Mexico. In the 

 Bolson are some broad, shallow lakes, and 

 a few rivers, the largest being the Nazas 

 river, some 300 miles long. Some seventy 

 years ago the Nazas left the Cayman la- 

 goons to one side, and they finally degen- 

 erated into a mesquite wilderness, with a 

 deposit of fine detritus of great depth. 



Fifty years ago irrigation began. The 

 lowest level of the basin was 100 feet be- 

 low the Nazas river, and it was proposed 

 to irrigate 175 square miles of the 220 

 composing the basin. A dam was built at 

 a point where the river at flood was 1,500 

 feet wide. From this point was made a 

 main canal 39 miles long, 72 feet wide at 

 the base and six feet deep. This main 

 canal terminated in a distributing tank 

 and branched east and west, one branch 

 15 miles long and the other 13 miles, and 

 each about 30 feet wide and 6 feet deep. 

 A total of 546 miles of ditching was car- 

 ried through, including 400 miles of dis- 

 tributing canals and ditches. The total 

 excavation was some 8,000,000 cubic yards. 

 The work occupied nearly two years and 

 an army of 5.000 peons was employed. So 

 the Bolson de Mapimi, lying in the dry 

 steppes of Durango was redeemed. 



The company is thus conducting to a 

 successful issue one of the largest, if not 



