138 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Charybdis of the advocates of Government irrigation 

 entirely. The private companies offered a resolution 

 in favor of enterprises under the Carey law. The 

 opposition proposed a resolution radically to the con- 

 trary. The resolution committee steered between the 

 two extremes. The following clause of the resolutions 

 of the convention is full of significance: 



"Resolved, That the co-operation of the State Land 

 Board and all commercial bodies of! the State of 

 Oregon is respectfully requested in this movement for 

 the advancement of the general welfare of the State 

 through the promotion of all irrigation projects. And 

 this association and all of its members pledge their 

 earnest support to any effort that may be made for 

 the reclamation of the arid lands of Oregon." 



The reader of the proceedings of this Oregon 

 State convention, will find in every address except 

 Williamson's, a defense of the Carey act and a determi- 

 nation to protect the interests involved in its execution 

 under the State contracts. Speaking for myself, an 

 engineer, commissioned by the State for professional 

 service in devising an important project in the Des 

 Chutes valley, I am certain, that the arid States will 

 reap a greater benefit of settlement and home-building 

 through any and every private enterprise whether it 

 be the Carey act or any other than by a "National" 

 system that can be manipulated by corrupt politicians, 

 who are in Congress "for what there is in it," for them- 

 selves. 



If irrigation, not simply irrigation schemes, but 

 actual irrigation, come by the way of the National act, 

 every correct citizen will gratefully hail it and do all 

 in his power to extend its blessings. But the sheep 

 and cattle pirates of the ranges will continually obstruct 

 the people's will and be aided by men like Williamson, 

 a thing impossible under the Carey act having State 

 protection, the only home rule wanted in any part 

 of the arid region. 



But I predict and warn our rulers, that only by 

 firmly establishing the administration of the National 

 System on the independence of the Geological Sur- 

 vey, in the agricultural or Hydrographic Bureaus, 

 can the National act be made to produce the results 

 for which it was designed. 



The Maxwells and the Williamsons must be locked 

 out of the management. 



The preceding article from the pen of Col. Al- 

 fred F. Sears, of Portland, Oregon, illustrates the 

 danger to be apprehended in the progress of enterprises 

 so necessary to our national growth, from the tempta- 

 tion it offers to the corrupt politician, always ready to 

 avail himself of the public necessity and the popular 

 passion, for his own personal ends. 



Col. Sears is late assistant general manager of the 

 Mexican Central Railway, was chief engineer of the At- 

 lantic Division of the Costa Rica Transcontinental Rail- 

 way, Inspector of Railways of the North of the Republic 

 for the government of Peru, chief engineer of the Irri- 

 gation Commission for the Department of Piura, Peru, 

 and has held many other position of importance under 

 this and other governments. He is therefore emi- 

 nently qualified to handle any subject bearing a rela- 

 tion to public works as associated with irrigation. 



A SELF ADJUSTING WEIR. 



The invention of a self-adjusting weir and head- 

 gate will interest all farmers who irrigate land, as well 

 as canal and ditch companies who transport and sell 

 water. Such a machine was recently invented by Mr. 

 C. C. Carlisle, now assistant State engineer of Wyoming. 

 The sweeping claims made for the invention, if sup- 

 ported by field tests of the weir, may cause an aban- 

 donment of all the inaccurate, expensive, and unsatis- 

 factory methods of measuring water now in vogue 

 wherever irrigation is practised. The inventor claims 

 for this module that it is: 



1. Simple in construction, comparatively inex- 



A man can often improve his manners by drop- 

 ping some of them. 



SELF ADJUSTING WEIR 

 AND HEADGATE. 



pensive, easily placed in position, occupies small space, 

 will not leak, and will be durable. 



2. Its discharge may be regulated as to volume, 

 will be uniform, and will not be affected by a rise or 

 fall of water in the source of supply. 



3. The exact discharge in cubic feet per second 

 or in miner's inches may be read at once upon a simple 

 scale. 



4. The module will not need watching and it will 

 do accurate work to its full capacity when a fall of an 

 inch is obtainable. 



5. It may be securely locked when set for any 

 desired discharge. 



6. Its use makes the common ditch or canal head- 

 gate superfluous because diversion and measurement are 

 .simultaneous accomplishments; and two expensive 

 machines, the water register and current meter, which 

 require great technical knowledge in their successful 



