THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



369 



plies the productive value of an acre of land increases 

 the sum total of wealth in the world instead of chang- 

 ing the distribution of wealth already produced. Every 

 man who adds to the total of wealth in the world by 

 production deserves well at the hands of his fellow men. 

 Among the list of these in years to come the name of 



Prof. 0. L. Waller, who has had charge of much 

 government work in this connection, says to the Inland 

 Farmer of Spokane : 



"The state of Washington is now entering upon 

 an era of agricultural settlement and development which 

 is destined to make it one of the foremost irrigated 



View of Beet Sugar Factory, Billings, Mont. 



W. G. Conrad will rank high, and of all the productive 

 enterprises in which he has engaged in the past with 

 profit to himself and advantage to the state, none will 

 reflect greater credit on his name, or be a source of 

 more pride to his posterity, than the land and irriga- 

 tion project at Conrad, which will change 100,000 acres 

 of desert into the sites for happy homes and waving 

 fields of grain. 



TO TEACH IRRIGATION. 



Washington State College Will Take Up A Timely Study. 



commonwealths in the United States. 



"The completion of this development will involve 

 the expenditure of millions of dollars in canals and 

 ditches and still a greater number of millions in level- 

 ing and grading the land for the application of water. . 

 To tens of thousands of people- who do this work the 

 problems of irrigation will be entirely new, and to leave 

 them to learn all its lessons by experience will involve 

 the loss of large sums of money in mistakes and in 

 the inauguration of wasteful and improper methods of 

 distributing water, which will tend to retard both pres- 

 ent and prospective development of the state." 



The State College of Washington will teach irri- 

 gation as a special subject. The program for the com- 

 ing year will cover the entire subject, including the 

 building of reservoirs and ditches; the measurement 

 and distribution of water; time to irrigate and best 

 methods of application. 



VAST INCREASE IN LAND VALUES. 



Section That Sold Decade Since *t .tn,ooo Now Worth $760,000. 



Another view of Main Lateral from Billings Land and Irrigation Co. 's Canal 



KENNEWICK, Wash., Sept. 18. Frank Dudley 

 says he purchased section 36 here ten years ago for 

 $11,000. The land is now worth $760,000; in fact, it 

 could hardly be purchased at this figure. The com- 

 parison of actual figures is one of the most remarkable 

 demonstrations of the wonderful advance in land values 

 that has yet cropped up in the Kennewick district. 



Mr. Dudley lives at Niagara Falls, N. Y.. and is 

 here on a visit. He was heavily interested in the old 

 canal company that failed in the panic of 1894 and 

 started to build the town of Kennewiek. Section 36. 

 on which the principal garden tracts are now located, 

 was purchased by him at $11,000, and after the com- 

 pany's failure the tract was acquired by the Northern 

 Pacific Railway Companv, which completed the irriga- 

 tion canal and so'ld lands at $75 per acre. This was 

 less than three years ago, and the garden tracts are 

 now selling at $400 to $800 per acre. About 400 acres 

 are embraced in the garden section. 



Mr. Dudley is an expert fruit man, and his opin- 

 ion is that the garden lands will be worth $1.000 to 

 $1 ,500 .per acre within three vears. He was astonished 

 at the wonderful fertility evidenced. 



