128 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



acres of the finest land in the arid district 

 of eastern Washington. Contractor E. C. 

 Burlingame has a force of 150 men at work 

 on the canal and expects to have it com- 

 pleted by June 1. The cost of this under- 

 taking is $40,000, or about$l,000 per mile. 



The land has not been put on the mar- 

 ket and will not be ready for sale until the 

 ditch is completed. It is understood that 

 the company will divide the lands into ten 

 and twenty-acre tracts and sell only to ac- 

 tual settlers who will build homes and lo- 

 cate at once. The price for land and water 

 is reported to have been set at $25 an acre. 

 No more than thirty acres will be sold to 

 any one man, and that on the condition 

 that the land is to be improved within a 

 specified time. The element of specula- 

 tion is to be completely eliminated, as 

 none but home builders are wanted on the 

 lands. 



Kennewick was an important place a few 

 years ago when the first irrigation canal 

 was built by an eastern company. Many 

 homes were constructed and thousands of 

 acres of land homesteaded or purchased 

 from the promoters. The great Columbia 

 hotel, one of the finest in the northwest, 

 was erected at a cost of probably $500, 000, 

 and everything went with a boom and 

 whoop. The ditch company failed and 

 everything was lost. 



Town lots are selling at fabulous prices 

 and a new boom has struck the place. 

 Lumber yards and grocery stores are being 

 established, and in a short time a complete 

 transformation will be witnessed. Many 

 tents are pitched on the grounds occupied 

 by the town site. Saloon men are contom- 

 plating filing applications for licenses, and 

 other places of business will soon be 

 opened. The town is on the west side of 

 .the Columbia river, opposite the present 

 railway division at Pasco. The nearest 

 town is "Prosser, but most of the supplies 

 are purchased at North Yakima or Puget 

 Sound cities" 



WORK FOR IRRIGATION. 



There never was a time when the needs 

 of a national law governing irrigation was 

 more thoroughly appreciated than at pres- 

 ent. Prominent met* who were opponents 

 to the idea are now heartily in favor of it, 

 and are enthusiastic workers to secure the 

 passage of a bill to reclaim the arid lands 

 of the west and also to provide against 

 disastrous contingencies in the seuii-arid 

 sections where farming is now followed. 



President Roosevelt is a stanch support- 

 er of the idea, and in his first message 

 recommended the early passage of a bill 

 that would redeem the millions of acres in 

 the west. This land must be settled in 

 time. The rapid growth of urban popula- 

 tion is a menace to the country, and can 

 only be corrected by making other sections 

 more desirable and attractive to prospect- 

 ive settlers. 



The success with which small farmers 

 have practiced irrigation has convinced the 

 skeptics that the same system may be ap- 

 plied to arid land on a larger scale. We 

 know of farmers who have produced enor- 

 mous crops on lands in certain districts 

 where the rainfall was less than two inches 

 per annum. One farmer grew two crops of 

 corn in one season and secured a yield of 

 13 bushels per acre; another grew Irish 

 potatoes worth $250 per acre, and planted 

 sweet potatoes on the same land the same 

 season, realizing $275, or a total of $525 

 per acre in one year. This land, prior to 

 irrigation, would produce nothing but 

 scrub mesquite bushes and cactus. This 

 statement is not exaggerated in the least. 

 It is on record. 



Several bills for securing government aid 

 in this great project are no\r before con- 

 gress. The idea is losing ground in that 

 body, however, because of interest in other 

 measures. A press dispatch from Wash- 

 ington states that the advocates of the riv- 

 ers and harbors bill fear that they will not 

 be able to secure the appropriation desired 

 and are working to have the measure on 



