THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



119 



railroad companies whose interests it seeks to advance. 

 The general line of attack is to denounce the citizens of 

 the West as land grabbers, or land pirates, and that the 

 lands of the West are being stolen in wholesale quanti- 

 ties by land speculators. These articles lose their weight 

 when it becomes known that their source of inspiration 

 is the land department of a railroad company which 

 wishes to sell its land and put all other owners having 

 lands to sell out of the market. 



The Boston Herald of January 23 contains the 

 following report of a meeting of the Commercial Club 

 of that city : 



The reclamation of arid lands was discussed at the 

 meeting of the Commercial Club in the new Algonquin 

 Club house last evening, it being the 314th meeting. 

 Professor F. H. Newell, chief engineer of the reclama- 

 tion service of the government, was the guest and only 

 speaker, his remarks being supplemented by stereopticon 

 views. There were forty-five members present, Presi- 

 dent Lucius Tuttle occupying the chair. 



The dinner over, President Tuttle introduced Pro- 

 fessor Newell with one of his famous brief bitt pertinent 

 talks, declaring that the irrigation of the West is one 

 of the most important matters which have come before 

 the country since the Louisiana purchase. 



Professor Newell first called attention to the act 

 of June 17, 1902, and explained that the money to be 

 used in reclaiming the arid lands conies from those 

 states in which the work is to be done. "It is to the 

 direct interests of the commercial and business men 

 of the East," said he, "to build up in the West homes 

 for men who will purchase from the East nearly all of 

 the necessaries of life. Every article used from the 

 cradle to the grave will naturally be bought in the 

 East. 



"The government is the owner of the land to be 

 reclaimedand it owns now over one-half of California, 

 95 per cent of Nevada and 90 per cent of Arizona. It 

 would be the worst of policies to abandon that land 

 when, by spending a few dollars, it could be made val- 

 uable and productive. The barrier to this productive- 

 ness is the aridity, and this can be removed by irriga- 

 tion, and all of the money expended by the government 

 will be returned to its treasury by the states in which 

 it is used." 



Among the lantern slides shown were some illus- 

 trating the relative rainfall in the different parts of the 

 country, and in comparing the size of the rivers, East 

 and West, the lecturer said that if the Charles River 

 was out in the West it would be nationally known as 

 one of great size. He said that Colorado has the largest 

 area of irrigated land to-day, and the irrigated soil is 

 capable of producing wonderful crops. 



The great enterprise having for its purpose the 

 reclamation and settlement of 271,000 acres of land 

 in the Snake River valley, Idaho, was finally and for- 

 mally launched yesterday afternoon. A strong control 

 in the Twin Falls Land & Water Company passed from 

 the Milner to the Buhl-Kimberley syndicate, so-called, 

 and within the next few hours bids will be sought for 

 the construction of the big dams above the Twin Falls 

 and the more than eighty miles of canals that will 

 supply water to the lands from the Snake river. These 

 canals and the laterals from them through the lands 

 will aggregate something like 1,000 miles in length, 

 and not a stop will be made until the monster under- 



taking has been rounded out and the beautiful level 

 valley has been peopled with thousands of prosperous 

 and happy inhabitants. 



To accomplish all this will require the expenditure 

 of from $1,500,000 to $5,000,000, but with such men as 

 Frank H. Buhl, the multi-millionaire iron operator of 

 Sharon, Pa., and P. L. Kimberley, the wealthy mining 

 operator of the same place, and their associates, as well 

 as Colonel S. B. Milner and others of this city, the 

 chance of failure or delay is believed to be remote. 



Since last Monday morning Messrs. Buhl and 

 Walter G. Filer have been going over th'e details of the 

 undertaking, and yesterday the deal with Col. Milner 

 and his associates, which involved the transfer of con- 

 siderably more than one-half of the 100,000 shares in 

 the company, was closed and the reorganization of the 

 board of directors took place. F. H. Buhl was made 

 president; Walter G. Filer, vice-president and general 

 manager ; M. B. DeLong of Sharon, secretary and treas- 

 urer; these, with P. L. Kimberley and S. B. Milner, 

 completing the board. 



Manager Filer said he could say little about the 

 details of the undertaking at this time. Bids would be 

 sought at once for the work outlined above, and opera- 

 tions would begin at the earliest possible moment. 

 Things will be made to hum when once he gets them 

 started, and before the year is over a great change will 

 be wrought in the section where the company has de- 

 cided to build up what they believe will prove to be 

 the greatest commonwealth in the state of Idaho. 



Messrs. Buhl and Kimberley both expect to leave 

 for the east again to-day, to return a few weeks later. 

 Salt Lake Herald. 



AN IRRIGATION EXHIBIT. 



It is pleasing to hear that among the exhibits to 

 be made by the Government at the St. Louis World's 

 Fair is a miniature irrigation system copied after the 

 great Ontario plant in Southern California. The 

 hydrographic bureau of the Geological Survey, which 

 is to produce the exhibit, could not have found a plant 

 which illustrates so strikingly the economical possibili- 

 ties of irrigation. The Ontario system not only takes 

 all the water from the San Antonio river for irrigation 

 purposes, but it utilizes the water under heavy pressure 

 for generating electricity for lighting and power pur- 

 poses. 



With the announcement of these facts comes an inter- 

 esting story of the experiences of the Ontario Colony. 

 In the early days of the colony there was thought to be 

 an ample water supply in the mountains to meet all 

 requirements, but with the lessened rainfall of the last 

 few years, and the need of additional acreage, this 

 co!on\ - , in common with all Southern California, found 

 it necessary to resort to heroic measures to develop an 

 additional water supply. It was found that there was 

 plenty of water in the earth to be reached by drilling, 

 but pumping from deep wells was expensive, so it was 

 decided to compel the river to furnish the power to 

 pump the wells. It was necessary to conduct water 

 from the river a short distance around the foothills in 

 a ditch to a point where it would have a drop of 700 

 feet to a power house. The minimum horse power 

 which this fall develops is estimated at 400, while the 

 maximum is 1,200. Even the smaller amount is suf- 

 ficient to pump all the wells, light the houses and 

 streets of the colony and meet such demands for power 

 as now exist. The fact that the electric plant, as well 



