THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



149 



Under the heading, "An Expert Investigation," the 

 Charleston News and Courier of recent date, has the 

 following: 



A paragraph in the News and Courier yesterday 

 noted the fact that Mr. Elwood Mead, chief of the Irri- 

 gation Investigation Office of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and Mr. C. S. Elliott, a drainage 

 expert, had arrived in the city from Washington to in- 

 vestigate the region hereabouts, with a view to the devel- 

 opment of the rice industry. Their first move, it was 

 added, would he to take a trip up the Cooper river yes- 

 terday to inspect the lands about the headwaters of that 

 stream, which, it is believed, would be rendered much 

 more productive and valuable by a proper system of 

 drainage; and Mr. Mead will also ascertain later whether 

 there is any practicable way to provide the rice planta- 

 tions with an ample supply of fresh water. 



We regard the investigation as of so great impor- 

 tance to Charleston and to this general region of the 

 State that we desire to call especial attention to it, and to 

 suggest that the representatives of the agricultural and 

 other business interests of the region should co-operate 

 with the experts heartily and in every way to enable 

 them to make their work as comprehensive and thor- 

 ough as it can be made in the time they may have to 

 devote to it. The area which might be improved and 

 employed in rice culture alone is very large, and it does 

 not nearly comprise all the lands that coxild be redeemed 

 by proper drainage, and made vastly productive for 

 other equally or more valuable crops by such drainage 

 in connection with a modern irrigation system. We do 

 not think it is at all amiss to say that there are thou- 

 sands of long idle acres between Charleston and the 

 Santee river, without considering those southwest of 

 the city, which could be converted into farms that would 

 rank with the most profitable ones in the county, if only 

 they could be dried and watered as they should be for 

 agricultural purposes. And the cost of putting them in 

 that condition should not be either prohibitive or dis- 

 couraging. Experience with similar lands in other sec- 

 tions has proved that the whole expense of their re- 

 demption has been recovered in the crops of a single 

 year or of a very few years at most; and an increase of 

 a hundred fold in the market value of large tracts 

 immediately following the first steps in their develop- 

 ment has not been a rare occurrence. The story of the 

 recent redemption of the marshes of Louisiana and of 

 their sudden advancement to a leading place among the 

 farms of the country reads like a fairy tale, and even 

 more wonderful things have been accomplished on the 

 plains of the more western States by the irrigation of 

 their arid soil. 



It is certain that the swamp lands of this region can 

 be drained, and as certain that those which lie about 

 the headwaters of the Cooper and Wando and Ashley, or 

 a large body of them, can be irrigated as well, and in 



large part by the same system of canals that would drain 

 them. We are not disposed, of course, to. try to antici- 

 pate the findings of the experts who are now investigat- 

 ing the subject, and shall await their verdict with great 

 interest, but we feel assured beforehand, from informa- 

 tion that has been printed in past years, that they can- 

 not fail to be impressed with the favorable conditions 

 of the district between the city and the Santee for both 

 drainage and irrigation purposes. 



Our hope is that, while the experts are here, they 

 will be kept well employed in the important work they 

 have undertaken, and will receive all the aid they need 

 to make their investigation thorough and general. They 

 have come into the field very modestly, without any her- 

 alding or beating of tom-toms; but, in our opinion, it 

 has been long since this region has received any visitors 

 who were capable of rendering it more valuable service. 



A correspondent at Fort Collins, Colo., sends us 

 the following: 



"Two financial deals in water have just been made 

 public here, the first of local interest and the other 

 involving the entire Rio Grande valley below Wagon 

 Wheel Gap. Former Governor Ben Eaton sold a three- 

 fifths interest in one of his reservoirs on the Cache la 

 Poudre for $100,000 cash, representing a profit in less 

 than five years of $90,000, aside from the amounts re- 

 ceived each year from water, estimated at $100,000 

 more. 



"Hay Sayer of Denver visited the State Agri- 

 cultural College yesterday regarding the details of a 

 dam which he and Richard Broad intend building on 

 the south fork of the Rio Grande river about fifteen 

 miles below Del Norte. The dam will be very small 

 in structure, being located in a narrow canon a short 

 distance above South Fork station, on the Creede branch 

 of the Rio Grande road, below Wagon Wheel gap. Its 

 cost will probably be less than $5,000, but it will im- 

 pound a vast amount of water. The site has already 

 been chosen, but the filings in the land office will not 

 be made until some time next week. The estimates of 

 the college people place the value of the dam at $250,- 

 000. 



"The engineering department of the college ex- 

 pressed surprise at the carefully prepared plans made 

 up by Mr. Sayer, who lays no claim to being highly 

 skilled in work of this sort. 



The announcement of the plan to build the dam 

 will probably cause a rush of locations in the vicinity 

 of the south fork, which drains an enormous area of the 

 San Juan mountains in Rio Grande county and is in 

 reality the main feeder for the Rio Grande, which is 

 quite a sturdy stream below the junction, especially dur- 

 ing the early summer." 



The next great irrigation project under the Carey 

 act will throw open 45,000 acres of rich land in Routt 

 county. After the land is irrigated under this act it m&y 

 be sold to settlers in lots of any size up to 160 acres, at 

 fifty cents an acre. The proceeds go to the State fund 

 for desert lands. The irrigation company receives its 

 remuneration from the water rates, which must not ex- 

 ceed a yearly charge of $12.50 an acre. The route will 

 be along the Snake river from the middle of the north- 

 ern part of the county to the Godiva ridge. The main 

 canal will be forty-nine miles long arid the first section, 

 twenty-five miles, will be forty-five feet wide at the sur- 

 face and thirty-five feet at the bottom and five feet deep. 



