THE IEEIGATION AGE. 



REPORT OF IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS BY 

 SECRETARY WILSON. 



The portion of the report of the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture which deals with irrigation describes what the 

 Department has been doing during the past year, and in- 

 cidentally brings out many facts of general interest. 

 Interest in these investigations, which are a part of 

 the work of the Office of Experiment Stations, is con- 

 stantly increasing and has been stimulated during the 

 past year by the growing desire of the arid States for 

 laws and conditions which will secure the largest and 

 best use of the water supply, and in the humid region 

 by the drouth which prevailed throughout the middle 

 West in 1901 and in the 'South during the present 

 year. As a result, the requests for information and 

 advice have been more numerous than ever before, and 

 it was only through the increased appropriation made 

 by the last Congress that the department has been able 

 to comply with the demands made upon it. 



Eeferring to the need of better irrigation laws, 

 the Secretary says that no branch of the Department's 

 irrigation work has received 'more cordial recognition 

 than its studies of legal and sociological questions. A 

 number of the arid States are co-operating with the 

 Department in these studies and two have made special 

 appropriations to extend them. The question as to how 

 much of the water of Western rivers has already been 

 appropriated under State laws, the nature of the rights 

 which have been acquired, the conflict which exists be- 

 tween riparian rights and rights acquired \mder the 

 doctrine of appropriation, are some of the problems 

 which confront irri gators in these States. A settlement 

 of the rights which have become vested is needed to 

 show how much water remains for future appropriators 

 and to relieve farmers under existing ditches from 

 anxiety and give to a State a safe foundation for future 

 development. To the litigation over water rights within 

 States there has recently been added important suits 

 over interstate rights, the one of Kansas against Colo- 

 rado being the most conspicuous. The law providing 

 for the Department's investigations provides first of all 

 for an investigation and report on the laws affecting 

 irrigation and the rights of riparian proprietors. Under 

 this, an investigation of interstate rights is now going 

 on, the results of which will be watched with much in- 

 terest. 



The report of the Secretary brings out the fact 

 that drainage is becoming an important problem in the 

 older irrigated districts. Two drainage surveys were 

 carried on during the past year; one in the valley of 

 Kings Eiver in California, under the direction of Prof. 

 0. V. P. Stout, and another in' Colorado, which was 

 carried on by Mr. C. G. Elliott, agent and expert, 

 under a co-operative arrangement between the State 

 Engineer'^, office of Colorado and the Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations of the Department. The owners of lands 

 which have become swamped by too much water will 

 be encouraged by the results thus far secured, the Sec- 

 retary reporting that they show that it is not only pos- 

 sible to remove the surplus water and restore large areas 

 of land to cultivation, but that the water which conies 

 from these drains can be used for the irrigation of 

 other lands. 



The Secretary's report shows that much interest 

 is being given to irrigation in the humid States, espe- 

 cially in the South, where the irrigation of rice has 

 proven exceedingly profitable, and where important ex- 

 periments are being carried on to determine the value 



of irrigation as an aid to market gardening. The fact 

 that the Department has in' its employ a number of 

 irrigation engineers who harve had wide experience in 

 the West has resulted in a saving of large sums of 

 money to those who were putting in pumping plants. 

 This has been done by correcting a tendency to put 

 in pumps of too small capacity to be of any real service. 

 He also calls attention to the changes in farm 

 life and farm work which have come about through the 

 inventions of machinery and its extensive use by Amer- 

 ican farmers. The United States the greatest manu- 

 facturer and user of farm machinery in the world, and 

 the changes which have come about through their in- 

 vention have made almost as radical a revolution in 

 farming operations as has been wrought by the substi- 

 tution of machinery for hand labor in manufacturing. 

 Among the complex machines which the farmer has to 

 operate today are combined harvesters and threshers, 

 traction engines, automobiles, power machines for har- 

 vesting corn, for shucking the ears and shredding the 

 stalks, and recently dynamos operated by electricity 

 have been added to the agencies employed to do farm 

 work. These facts, in connection with the increasing 

 demand for more efficient labor-saving tools, the grow- 

 ing scarcity of farm labor, and the organization in 

 foreign countries of institutions for the systematic 

 study and improvement of farm machinery, make it, 

 in the opinion of the Secretary, important that we 

 should not longer neglect this field of inquiry, and 

 provision for carrying this out in connection with the 

 irrigation investigation is recommended in the Secre- 

 tary's report. In his estimates submitted to Congress, 

 the Secretary asks for an appropriation of $75,000 

 to continue the investigations in irrigation and agricul- 

 tural engineering. 



Colorado will get $3,000,000 for the arid land re- 

 clamation fund and work will commence in this state 

 next spring on the two great projects under the reclam- 

 ation law. This is the quiet hint that has gone forth 

 to irrigation experts and those interested in what Colo- 

 rado will get as its share of favors under the new law. 

 The report of Secretary Hitchcock, which was issued 

 last week, and which is so highly favorable to the pro- 

 jects under the new law and the supplementary reports 

 of Hydrographer Newell and others show that all doubt 

 as to the plans being carried out is now at an end. 



That Colorado will get a large amount of the 

 money that is to be expended seems certain. There will 

 be about $8,000,000 on hand when the experiments begin 

 next spring, and of this sum Colorado will get about 

 $3,000,000. It is pointed out that there have been seven 

 different sites recommended in all of the western 

 states. Of these, two arc in Colorado. They are the 

 Pawnee Pass and Gunnison sites, and it is now con- 

 sidered certain that both these projects will be favored 

 and utilized by the federal government. It is also felt 

 that Colorado offers greater advantages and has already 

 shown such advancement that two sites are needed in 

 this state. The surveys will be completed this winter. 

 Denver Tim-es. 



"Sympathy is the cheapest graft that ever looked 

 over the hill; its got every other con game skinned t.o 

 death, and a guy in a tight pull takes chances o' break- 

 ing his neck over it every time he opens his mouth." 

 From "The Ragged Edge" by John T. Mclntyre, 

 McClure., Phillips & Co. 



