110 



THE IRRIGATION AG-B. 



of Arizona, which is now given over to cactus, sa^e- 

 brtish and tin cans. There is very little Government 

 land ; almost every acre has been already taken up, but the 

 owners will pay for the work in ten annual installments 

 of $2 an acre. At the end of that time they will own 

 the reservoir and the whole irrigation system, while the 

 money will be turned back into the fund to be used for 

 the new storage project which has been surveyed on 

 the Verde River, and still another on the Gila at San 

 Carlos, where the engineers say 200,000 acres can be 

 reclaimed at the small cost of $2 an acre. 



There is a new feature in the Salt River reservoir, 

 the possibilities of which have not yet been fully de- 

 termined. The release of the water from the reservoir 

 into the irrigating canals will generate at least 10,000 

 horse power of electricity, which Ur. Newell says may 

 lie used to pump water over 40,000 acres more of the 

 desert, and cause it to blossom as the rose. This feature 

 has not yet been developed, but it contains almost un- 

 limited possibilities. 



In Colorado the Gunnison River flows through a 

 narrow canyon 2,000 feet deep. This canyon has al- 

 ways been regarded as impassible because of the swift 

 current and the rocks, which have crushed every boat 

 that has ever struck them. But A. L. Felloes, one of 

 the engineers of the reclamation service, and an assist- 

 ant made the passage by using their ordinary camp hair 

 mattresses as rafts. They carried their food and extra 

 clothing in rubber bags, and by floating, swimming and 

 climbing succeeded in getting through the canyon and 

 locating a point where a tunnel twelve feet in diameter 

 will be bored through the granite cliffs for a distance of 

 six miles into the Uncompahgre Valley, on the other 

 side of the ridge. This will be the most remarkable 

 engineering feat that has been undertaken in recent 

 years. 



The water of the Gunnison River, being conducted 

 through this tunnel, will be spread over 100,000 acres of 

 desert, which is now worthless, but which will have a 

 value of $300 and $400 an acre as soon as it can be ir- 

 rigated. The contracts were let October 5. Work was 

 begun November last. The entire cost of the undertak- 

 ing will be $2,500,000, which the owners of the land 

 thus irrigated will pay in ten years at the rate of $25 

 an acre in annual installments. 



This is the great horticultural district of Colorado. 

 It is 4,000 feet above sea level and produces hardy 

 fruits of all kinds and of most excellent quality. 



Snake River, in Idaho, is to be harnessed at a cost of 

 $1,820,000- about six miles from the tracks of the Ore- 

 gon Short Line railroad, near a town called Minidoka. 

 On November 15 work was begun on an enormous 

 dam 2,000 feet long and fifty feet high, which will back 

 up the water so that it can be brought out into the val- 

 ley above and given sufficient fall to reclaim about 70,000 

 acres of public lands. That tract is now a desert without 

 a living thing except sagebrush and cactus, hut as soon 

 as water can reach it it will produce anything in the, 

 way of plants, trees, fruits and vegetables anything 

 that will grow in New York State or Ohio. The entire 

 area to be benefited is public land, and it is all open to 

 homestead settlement in tracts of forty, eighty, 120 and 

 160 acres, without cash payment, but it must be paid 

 for at the rate of $2.60 an acre for ten years. There are 

 plans in the geological survey for the extension of this 

 improvement until the Snake River has been made to re- 

 deem several hundred thousand acres of desert. 



There is a big project down in the Pecos Valley of 

 New Mexico, which is fairly well settled by farmers and 

 ranchmen, who have not been successful in their private 

 irrigation schemes, because the soil is underlaid by solu- 

 ble gypsum, which absorbs the water and allows it to es- 

 cape through underground passages. The owners of 

 these enterprises have fought the plans of the irrigation 

 bureau fiercely until a few weeks ago, when a flood 

 washed away their dam and their ditches. Now they are 

 begging the Government to hurry up and do something 

 lest they lose their peach and apple orchards, which now 

 can not be reached by water until the irrigation system 

 is restored. If they do not get water on that land 

 before midsummer, hundreds of thousands of dollars' 

 worth of fruit trees will perish. Dr. Newell and his men 

 are working as rapidly as they can, and will put in a 

 system that will reach about 10,000 acres to start with, 

 at a cost of $280,000, near the town of Roswell, on the 

 Santa Fe railway. It will be the first step of a com- 

 prehensive system to include the entire valley of the 

 Pecos, which resembles Salt Lake Valley in Utah. It 

 has a deep, rich soil, capable of producing unlimited 

 crops of melons, sugar beets, berries, fruits of all kinds, 

 root crops and alfalfa, and the climate is one of the best 

 in the United States. It is a natural health resort, 

 particularly for consumptives. Nature, unaided, will 

 cure tuberculosis while you wait. About half the land 

 is vacant, and belongs to the Government. It is open to 

 homestead entry, but settlers will have to pay $28 an 

 acre, in ten annual installments, for the irrigation sys- 

 tem. 



For several years negotiations and surveys have 

 been going on for an international dam in the Rio 

 Grande River near the city of El Paso, which is needed to 

 store the water to irrigate about 50,000 acres on both 

 sides of the Mexican boundary. But it loons as if the be- 

 nevolent scheme would have to be abandoned, as the engi- 

 neers can not find a foundation for the dam. They have 

 been boring everywhere that a dam could possibly be 

 placed, and have gone down eighty-six feet into the sand 

 without striking bottom. They say that, even could a 

 dam be built, the storage lake would be so wide and so 

 shallow that more water would be sucked up by the thirsty 

 atmosphere than could be utilized for irrigation. They 

 have recommended an entirely^, new plan, with a dam 

 at Engel, about eighty miles north of El Paso, where all 

 the water that falls within a wide drainage basin can 

 be stored and three times the area of agricultural land 

 can be reclaimed by it; that is, about 150.000 above and 

 50,000 acres below El Paso. 



A big dam is being built in the North Platte River 

 at what is known as "The Devil's Gate," about twenty 

 miles above the town of Casper, Wyo., at a cost of $2,- 

 500,000, by which about 100,000 acres of desert land in. 

 Nebraska can be redeemed. It is mostly public land, 

 open to homestead seekers, and settlers are already go- 

 ing in rapidly. The engineers expect to get water on 

 most of the land within two years at a cost of $25 an 

 acre, which must be paid by the settlers in ten annual 

 installments. This project illustrates the advantage of 

 having irrigation plants built by the Federal Govern- 

 ment. It would be impossible to find water in Nebraska 

 to reach the land in question, while all that is needed 

 can easily be caught and stored over the border in Wyo- 

 ming. 



These six projects have been commenced, and rapid 

 progress is being made upon them. 



