THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



53 



manner of using these public lands in the West, which 

 are suitable chiefly or only for grazing. 



The sound and steady development of the West de- 

 pends upon the building up of homes therein. Much 

 of our prosperity as a- nation has been due to the opera- 

 tion of the homestead law. On the other hand, we should 

 recognize the fact that in the grazing region the man who 

 corresponds to the homesteader may be unable to settle 

 permanently if only allowed to use the same amount 

 of pasture land that his brother, the homesteader, is 

 allowed to use of arable land. 



TO STOP TRESPASSING. 



One hundred and sixty acres of fairly rich and well- 

 watered soil, or a much smaller amount of irrigated land, 

 may keep a family in plenty, whereas no one could get 

 a living from 160 acres of dry pasture land capable of 

 supporting at the outside only one head of cattle to 

 every ten acres. In the past great tracts of the public 

 domain have been fenced in by persons having no title 

 thereto, in direct defiance of the law forbidding the 

 maintenance or construction of any such unlawful in- 

 clusure of public land. For various reasons there has 

 been little interference with such inclosures in the past, 

 but ample notice has now been given the trespassers, 

 and all the resources at the command of the government 

 will hereafter be used to put a stop to such trespassing. 



In view of the capital importance of these matters, 

 I commend them to tho earnest consideration of the 

 Congress, and if the Congress finds difficulty in dealing 

 with them from lack of thorough knowledge of the sub- 

 ject, I recommend that provision be made for a com- 

 mission of experts specially to investigate and report 

 upon the complicated questions involved. 



The largest irrigation project in the United States, 

 and the third in scope in the world, has been launched 

 in Salt Lake City. Although local capital is largely 

 interested, the land to be reclaimed is along the Snako 

 river, in Idaho, and the tract is 271,000 acres in extent. 



The principal shareholder in the new company is 

 F. H. Buhl, of Sharon, Pa., who has purchased con- 

 trol. The other principals in the deal are S. B. Milnor 

 and Frank Knox, Salt Lake City capitalists, and I. B. 

 Perrine, a wealthy ranch owner at Blue Lake, Idaho. 



The scheme includes the building of two immense 

 canals, the development of horse power at Shoshone 

 Falls, and the building of an electric railroad forty-five 

 miles long from the Oregon Short Line railroad at 

 Shoshone to the two towns. The land is to be taken up 

 under the Carey act, and a contract for its reclamation 

 has already been made with the state of Idaho. 



The area to be recovered includes the tract which 

 was set aside a couple of years ago for a national park, 

 because of its beautiful scenery. Pressure was brought 

 to bear on the interior department to rescind the order, 

 and this was done. 



The Twin Falls Land and Water Company was 

 organized and arrangements entered into for the rec- 

 lamation of the land, but the project was left to slum- 

 ber until recently. A deal was closed today, however, 

 by which Mr. Buhl and his associates will put $1,500,000 

 into the project, building the two canals and making 

 valuable for agricultural purposes an area of land one- 

 third as great as the entire state of Rhode Island. 



Tinder the terms of the Carey act, this land must 

 be sold in tracts not greater than 160 acres each. 



TO HARNESS THE COLORADO. 



COLORADO RIVER WATERS MAY BE UTILIZED. 



One of the most ambitious schemes conceived by 

 prince, potentate or capitalist, now or ever, is an en- 

 gineering feat by which it may be practicable to harness 

 the great flow of the Colorado river as it passes through 

 Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California, utilize 

 the" water for irrigating vast areas of desert, and inci- 

 dentally create 200,000 or 300,000 acres of new land 

 by scientific guidance of the stream so that it will de- 

 posit its alluvium or sediment as desired by man and. 

 likewise create vast electrical power, says the Denver 

 News. 



The Colorado has never been considered a stream 

 whose waters could be utilized to a great extent for ir- 

 rigation, but Arthur P. Davis, who has spent several 

 months in a careful reconnoissance of the situation, 

 presents a plan of startling proportions. Mr. Davis is 

 one of the best known hydrographers of the United 

 States geological survey, and was detailed as chief 

 hydrographer of the isthmian canal commission. In 

 speaking of his recent reconnoissance, he said: "The 

 great Colorado river is the largest stream, both in 

 drainage area and discharge, that lies wholly within the 

 arid portions of the United States. It is formed by a 

 junction of the Green and Grande rivers, rising in 

 Wyoming and Colorado, respectively, in regions of 

 heavy rain and snowfall. Only a very small part of the 

 flow of the Colorado has yet been utilized for irrigation. 

 Through most of its courses this river and its tributaries 

 flow at the bottom of profound canyons, from which it 

 is impossible to divert them upon irrigable lands. If its 

 water could be fully utilized it would irrigate vast areas 

 of rich land." 



POWER IS LIMITLESS. 



Measurements made in Arizona show that the river 

 sometimes discharges as low as 3,000 cubic feet per 

 second. Its maximum discharge is unknown, but Mr. 

 Davis states that it probably exceeds 500,000 cubic feet 

 per second, or the incredible amount of 2,250,000,000 

 gallons per minute, enough to water 20,000 acres one 

 foot deep in twenty-four hours. 



The river is navigated for several hundred miles 

 from its moutli by flat-bottomed, stern-wheel boats, but 

 this is so difficult, owing to the shallow, changeable 

 channel, that wagon transportation is preferred 

 wherever it is possible. In times of high water the cur- 

 rent is very swift. 



The development of the mineral resources, in which 

 the country tapped by the Colorado is very rich, is 

 greatly hampered by the heavy cost of power and the 

 lack of transportation. Mr. Davis believes that this 

 proposed plan of storage reserves will completely solve 

 both transportation and mining. 



All the land that can be irrigated from the lower 

 Colorado can be regarded as having a semitropical cli- 

 mate where the growing season for most products con- 

 tinues the year round, the requirements for water, how- 

 ever, being probably double in the summer season over 

 those of the winter. It is believed that with proper 

 regulation the Colorado river will be able to furnish 

 a continuous stream of water for industrial use, varying 

 from 10,000 cubic feet per second in winter to 20,000 

 cubic feet per second in summer in dry years, and allow- 

 ing the great floods of wet years to speed on to the sea 

 as art present. This will be sufficient to irrigate 2,000,- 

 000 acres of land: 



A considerable portion of the valleys of the lower 



