THE IRRIGA TION AGE. 175 



iiito the underflow, will stand a continual pumping of 120 miner's 

 inches of water by actual test. Another party secured 400 inches by 

 making the well larger and deeper. I therefore prophecy that the 

 day is coming when we will change our system of irrigation by run- 

 ning up stream until we get into the underflow, and do away with the 

 xlams. Some will probably hatve their headgates at the mouth of tun- 

 nels, where the mountains come to the river, in order to secure solid 

 masonry, keeping the canal back from the overflow. Others will 

 doubtless start from large wells, or crosscuts, back from the river, 

 doing away with dams and head-gates. 



The man who can invent a cheaper power, with a large pump for 

 raising large bodies of water, would probably give the greatest bless- 

 ing that an inventor could bestow upon the arid west, as it will do away 

 with many miles of canals, dams, head-gates, and damages by flood 

 water. While wa would desire more fall, we are encouraged to hear 

 Judge Kinney say the Nile, of Egypt, has only eight inches fall per 

 mile, and that in ancient times they made a grand success irrigating 

 that valley for 720 miles, including the desert on both sides. 



The second problem we have to contend with is a large amount of 

 sediment carried by the streams after they leave the mountains, as 

 the banks melt almost like sugar during a flood, filling up dams, res- 

 ervoirs and canals. However, it is as good as a coat of manure when 

 spread over the land, and the longer it is in cultivation the richer it 

 becomes, and needs no other fertilizing. At present the canals have 

 head-gates through which they allow flood- water to pass so as to keep 

 a channel open from the river, having a sluice-gate where they let off 

 the bottom, which is the heaviest of the flood-water, in order to save 

 filling up the canal. These floods only occur a few days during the 

 year. 



The people of Salt river valley have formed a district and are try- 

 ing to arrange to put in a mason dam on Salt river in a box canyon, 

 200 feet high, as a reservoir to store the flood -water and to catch the 

 underflow before it reaches the sandy valley. Owing to the high 

 freights we have not resorted to piping the water, but the time will 

 probably come when pipes will be largely used, possibly to syphon 

 water from the streams or underflow over the mountains, irrigating 

 lower valleys on the opposite side wherever there is sufficient fall. - 



