THE IKKIGATIO.N AGE. 



183 



impressed one witness that he stated that a manufacturing 

 city along the Columbia could be supplied with all needed 

 power by this system and all the power be generated from 

 the current. The machine is absolutely efficient where the 

 turbine would be entirely useless, and is much more effective 

 under conditions guaranteeing turbine efficiency than the 

 latter. 



In the February issue of THE IRRIGATION AGE, on page 

 no, the paper by J. C. Stevens, on "Nebraska Water Supply," 

 makes mention of the country adjacent to the Niobrara river 

 as being uneven and not adapted to gravity irrigation. This 

 method would solve the difficulty for such regions and con- 

 ditions, as the placing of a plant sufficiently large to generate 

 electric power for a number of pumps would permit the 

 placing of pumps at such salient point as might best and 

 most efficiently subserve the requirements of the situation. 

 This feature would enable a combination of farmers to 

 place a large hydraulic motor for community use to generate 

 electric power and each have his own pump of the special 

 design accompanying the motor, for exclusive use on his own 

 ranch. Any individual who has had experience in irrigation 

 will see the vast advantage accruing from this, as it makes 

 him master of the situation so far as regards his own prop- 

 erty. 



Being deeply interested in the question of irrigation and 

 knowing whereof I speak must be my apology for trespassing 

 upon your valuable space. I may be pardoned for adding 

 that in my estimation no owners of arid land having recess 

 to water should wait the advent of the gravity system so 

 long as so efficient a method is open to them and subject to 

 their own control. Respectfully yours, 



W. H. BOOTHROYD. 



CEDARBURG, Wis., March 21, 1903. 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE AND DRAINAGE JOURNAL: 



I was somewhat surprised to find the answer 

 to my letter of March 24th came from Chicago, as I sent 

 it to Indianapolis, Ind. Well, I suppose Mr. Billingslea, 

 the veteran editor of the Journal, has joined the great army; 

 well, that's the lot of all of us. *You ask me to write some- 

 thing concerning the object of drainage in my part of Wis- 

 consin. I must say that I am not a writer far the press 

 something I never did before, only on rare occasions, for I 

 have had no schooling, my school days being spent among 

 the Indian boys and girls a poor place to learn to read and 

 write, was it not? Nevertheless, I will give you a rough 

 outline of what has been accomplished in this part of the 

 state by tile draining since I commenced in 1885. Should 

 I want to put the whole matter in a nutshell, I \yould say 

 that the farmers in an early day hardly knew what tile looked 

 like; now there are miles of them in the ground and giving 

 good satisfaction, but this \vould hardly explain the situa- 

 tion here, therefore I will give you a rough outline of the 

 land in Ozaukee and Washington counties. All this land is 

 rolling, plenty of fall on most of the land, but low places 

 are numerous ; that is, a kind of slough running in width 

 from twenty to eighty rods, some places whole sections of 

 black ash and tamarack swamp. The subsoil on Lake Mich- 

 igan as far as Sheboygan county varying from ten to twenty 

 miles in width, has very heavy clay soil. This clay does not 

 let the water down quickly enough in the spring ; tile drain- 

 age makes it porous and loosens the surface, which allows 

 early seeding; this it has accomplished in this part of the 

 state and the farmers know it, and drain every year as much 

 as time and money will permit. When I started, in 1885, 

 people did not know anything about drainage. For three 

 years I preached tile, tile drainage, distributed literature, 

 showing how to lay out ditches (here the Harris level came 

 handy, The DRAINAGE JOURNAL helped me a great deal in 

 furnishing printed matter. The first tile were laid on my own 

 farm, and when I got the Bowling Green traction ditcher, I 

 thoroughly drained ten acres in ten days, ditches thirty feet 

 apart. The next year twenty acres, having all the low land 

 drained before the fall. I pxit in for two neighbors 1,400 rods; 

 the next season I drained twenty acres for another neighbor; 

 no paying crop had grown on this twenty acres for many 

 years; it was drained at an expense of $130 and the first 

 crop paid all the expense of draining. In 1895 I drained 

 loo acres at an expense of $450, and the man for whom the 

 work was done said : "I have made double the cost on first 

 crop," and another neighbor, who had lost his barley crop 

 of 1,600 bushels, asked me what to do. I looked at the land 

 and told him he must have a drain of eight-inch tile running 

 through the whole length of the acres, or about 100 rods ; 



it was put in at an expense of $100. Result, next year he 

 tnrashed 1,800 bushels of good barley from this land, where 

 the year before he had very little. These are special cases 

 selected to give you an idea of what has been done by tile 

 draining here. Not one dissatisfied person who went at 

 the work properly. Great stress must be laid on that word 

 "properly." If 1 should write all my experiences during 

 these years, it would fill a book of no small size. I am only 

 sorry that the factory cannot be kept running, as the farmers 

 now realize the importance of tile drainage, and in all prob- 

 ability will have more wet seasons than heretofore. One 

 point more I wish to mention and then you can put this 

 scribbling in the waste basket or pick out such as you think 

 of value to the public. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE AND DRAINAGE JOURNAL has advo- 

 cated for years drain from three to four feet deep ; not- 

 withstanding this, my experience says "Don't;" on heavy 

 clay soil a four-foot drain is simply useless. I followed the 

 advice of the journal, and four years after I put one on 

 top of the other as an experiment in a field of corn when the 

 water stood two feet high for days ; we dug down to the 

 tile, opened them, when the water, of course, went away at 

 once. But it was an eyesore for me, and, what was worse, 

 a poor advertisement for tile drainage when my neighbors 

 pointed to the water on top of the drains ; so, you see, the old 

 German saying, "Man wird Greisse aber nicht weise."** 



HENRY MEYER. 



1. Mr. Myer is in error. Mr. Billingslea, when we last 

 heard from him, was, we are glad to say, well and pros- 

 perous. 



2. "Man grows old but not wise." 



POCATELLO, IDAHO, March 6, 1903. 

 EDITOR IRRIGATION AGE: 



Dear Sir Your favor of some time ago, advising me 

 that you had been recently informed of my interest in irriga- 

 tion in this section and asking me for the particulars of the re- 

 organization of our company, received. 



Will say that the old Idaho Canal Company was organ- 

 ized in 1889 and subsequently secured control of the Idaho 

 Falls Canal Company, and constructed and has in operation 

 about seventy-five miles of canals and laterals, and later- 

 made a contract with the United States goverment to furnish! 

 them with 15,000 miners' inches of water for irrigations 

 purposes on the Fort Hall Indian reservation. The gov- 

 ernment paid the company $90,000 for a water right and! 

 37^2 cents per inch for the annual rental. 



The construction properties were bonded for $300,000. I 

 made an original purchase of $75,000 of the bonds and later 

 purchased the balance of the $300,000, in order to protect the 

 investment I had already made. I foreclosed the mortgage 

 and took possession of the property January 10, 1903, and 

 have deeded the same to the Idaho Canal & Improvement 

 Company. This company now owns over 350 miles of canals 

 and laterals, and before the season is over will be capable 

 of having 80,000 inches of water. 



The lands to be irrigated will be mostly around Idaho 

 Falls, Idaho, where they are building a large sugar factory 

 this season. 



We charge nothing for a water right, and on the part of 

 the canal, at present constructed, charge from 50 cents to 

 $1.00 per inch for water, according to the distance it has to 

 be carried. 



There seems to have been an erroneous idea existing 

 among the members of the last Congress of the United States 

 that I was going to bring this water down to Pocatello, and 

 that is the reason they marked the lands upon the settle- 

 ment down to $10 per acre for the arid land. Of course, you 

 know and I know that it was out of reason and caused me to 

 abandon my plans for bringing the water to Pocatello. This 

 is liable to work a great hardship on this city, for the reason 

 that the present legislature passed a law that is going to 

 restrain the building of canals, and in my judgment will 

 practically prevent the building of canals in the upper Snake 

 river valley. 



I did not receive a copy of the paper that you said you 

 sent me, but would be pleased if you would send me a copy 

 and mark it "personal," as I am interested in this class 

 of journalism. Very truly yours, J. H. BRADY. 



CHICAGO, April 3, 1903. 

 EDITOR IRRIGATION AGE: 



Dear Sir Considerable dissatisfaction has been aroused 

 among users of gasoline engines in the high mountains of the 



