THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



175 



WORK TO BEGIN. 



SECRETARY HITCHCOCK HAS APPROVED FIVE IRRIGATION 

 PROJECTS TO BE DEVELOPED UNDER THE 

 PROVISIONS OF ARID LAND RESER- 

 VATION ACT OF JUNE, 1902. 



After nine months of careful investigation the geo- 

 logical survey has decided upon and Secretary Hitch- 

 cock has approved five irrigation projects to be devel- 

 oped under the terms of the arid land reservation act 

 'of June, 1902. These projects are to be located at 

 Sweetwater Dam, Wyoming; Gunnison Tunnel, Colo- 

 rado; Truckee and Carson Rivers, Nevada; Milk River 

 and St. Mary's Lake, Montana; and Tonto Creek, 

 Arizona. Roughly estimated, they will make possible 

 the irrigation of 1,000,000 acres of land at a cost of 

 $7,500,000, an average of $7.50 an acre. As a matter 

 of fact, however, much of the area that may be reached 

 by water is unsuitable or unavailable for cultivation. 

 It is not expected that more than 60 per cent of the 

 total will be found worth irrigating, which will increase 

 the average cost to something like $12v50 an acre. The 

 cost is eventually to be paid by the owners of the land 

 reclaimed in ten annual installments. That is the policy 

 of the government. Much of the land is already in 

 the hands of private individuals, and undoubtedly that 

 which still remains will be taken up by settlers as soon 

 as the plans are made known, but the government will 

 require pledges that the cost of the reclamation will be 

 refunded according to the provisions of the law. 



The irrigation bureau of the geological survey will 

 encounter many complications and legal difficulties in 

 securing reservoir sites and rights of way, and the ri- 

 parian laws of the several states must be observed in 

 every particular. The agents of the government un- 

 derstand that the reclamation scheme is still in the ex- 

 perimental state and have been proceeding with the 

 greatest caution in order that the first step may be suc- 

 cessful and attended by no serious errors. In selecting 

 locations the first consideration is to insure a return 

 of the costs of construction to the government, which 

 depends entirely upon the availability of the land for 

 cultivation and the disposition of settlers to own or 

 occupy it. They will not venture vipon any estimate or 

 prediction as to the time required to complete the five 

 projects mentioned. They must feel their way and 

 modify their plans as difficulties and obstacles may de- 

 velop. 



Sweetwater Dam is to be located on Sweetwater 

 River at Devil's Gap, forty miles west of the town of 

 Casper and a similar distance north of Rawlins, Wyo. 

 The total area to be reached by irrigation is 100,000 

 acres, and originally it was supposed that nearly all of 

 it was susceptible of cultivation, but subsequent in- 

 vestigations have discovered large patches of alkali, 

 which will have to be eliminated from the estimates. 

 Detailed inspection will determine the exact amount of 

 lands that may be reclaimed and only those suitaWe for 

 agriculture will be included in the project. 



The Gunnison tunnel scheme is expected to reclaim 

 nearly 100,000 acres near Montrose in central Colorado, 

 but upon closer inspection this area will undoubtedly be 

 cut down. 



In Nevada it is proposed to divert water from Lake 

 Tahoe, California, and its outlet, the Truckee River, 

 into the Humboldt Valley, and supply settlers in the 

 vicinity of Reno. It is believed that nearly 200,000 

 acres may be reclaimed there. 



The Milk River project in northern Montana is 

 expected to reclaim nearly 500,000 acres in the vicinity 

 of Malta and Glasgow, but this enterprise is attended by 

 serious complications, because a part of the water sup- 

 ply comes from Canada. 



At Tonto Creek, eighty miles above Phoenix, Ari- 

 zona, immense impounding reservoirs are to be located 

 to provide a supply of water to irrigate about 200,000 

 acres in Salt River Valley, which is already thickly 

 settled. There is a; private irrigation system already in 

 operation, which makes it necessary for the government 

 to establish its 'source of supply at a higher level than 

 the canals already built. 



The land necessary for ditches and reservoirs, 

 which is now owned by private individuals, must be 

 secured by comdemnation proceedings. ^Public land 

 within the area to be irrigated cannot be entered except 

 under the homestead laws in tracts of not less than forty 

 nor more than 150 acres. When the plans are finally 

 decided upon the Secretary of the Interior is required 

 by the law to give public notice of the location of lands 

 to be irrigated, the number of acres that may be en- 

 tered by any one person, the charge per acre for the 

 water and the number of annual payments required. 

 No sale can be made to any but bona fide residents, at 

 least one-half of every entry must be irrigated, and the 

 reclamation charges assessed against the claim must be 

 paid before a patent can be issued. 



It is a well known fact that the large canals and 

 most of the smaller ones along Salt river, in Arizona, 

 take out all of the normal flow of the water of this 

 river, leaving its channel dry immediately below the 

 headgates of the canals. This condition of the river 

 bed, says a recent press bulletin by the United States 

 Geological Survey, continues sometimes for many miles 

 and then water again appe'ars in it, increasing in quan- 

 tity until it becomes great enough to be diverted into 

 another canal, when the same condition of the channel 

 again obtains. 



Similar conditions exist along Gila river, as along 

 many other rivers of the arid region where irrigation is 

 practiced. It is thought that a large portion if not all 

 of the water that appears in the river channels below 

 points where all of the water is diverted for irrigation 

 purposes is seepage water from the irrigated land. 



For several years the Hydrographic Branch of the 

 United States Geological Survey has been making in- 

 vestigations and collecting data in different parts of the 

 arid region for the purpose of determining the relation 

 existing between the quantity of water diverted for ir- 

 rigation and the quantity that returns to the channel of 

 the stream by seepage. Such investigations were made 

 in Salt River Valley during the summer of 1902, to 

 supplement data obtained in previous years. 



