184 



THE IEKIGATION AGE. 



west. The general rule as to the amount of gasoline to de- 

 velop a horse power per hour is one pint. 



This rule works very nicely in the lower altitudes, but 

 when the engines are placed high in the mountains it is a 

 well known fact that they will not develop the horse power 

 which they will lower down. 



The atmosphere at sea level has a pressure of about 

 fifteen pounds per square inch. The higher the altitude, the 

 less pressure, and, accordingly, less density. At 9,000 feet 

 elevation it is about one-half as much. 



If an engine which was developing 10 horse power at 

 sea level would be placed at an elevation of 9,000 feet, it would 

 probably develop not more than about 7 horse power. To 

 genetrate 10 horse power at 9,000 feet altitude, an engine 

 with the air ports one-half as large again and a cylinder as 

 much larger would be required by local conditions. This is 

 because the air is one-half as dense, and, accordingly, one-half 

 more of it must be used in evaporating the same amount of 

 gasoline. If the same amount of air were to be used as at" 

 sea level, it would be seen that the mixture would be so rich 

 that powerful explosions could not result. The question 

 naturally arises, if the mixture is so rich, why not use less 

 gasoline? As the minimum amount of fuel per horse power 

 is one pint per hour, to use less would be cutting down the 

 power supply. Instead, one-half more air must be compressed 

 to equal the same amount as it would at sea level. No gen- 

 eral rule can be established to fix the size of the air ports 

 in high altitudes. The method I use is to consult the United 

 States Weather Bureau, finding the mercury column pressure 

 and compute the density of the atmosphere on this report. 

 We can give them a guarantee that an engine will develop 

 the rated horse power and feel perfectly safe in doing so. 

 Yours truly, F. G. RICKER. 



Agent Foos Gasoline Engine Co. 



Blairsburg, in Hamilton county. Length, twenty-six miles. 



EDWARD E. Fox, C. E., 

 Webster City, Iowa. 



TOMAH, Wis., February 28, 1903. 

 D. H. ANDERSON, Chicago : 



Dear Sir Yours of February 19 received. My experience 

 in drainage work is not very broad. I have eighty acres of 

 swamp land and, during the dry seasons we had in 1895, 

 1896 and 1897, I cleared forty acres and seeded it to timothy 

 hay, which did well until the wet seasons came, that we have 

 had since. In 1858 I did some ditching and it heloed me in 

 drying out the land so I could cut the hay. My land lies 

 at the head of our drainage district and next to the hilly 

 country. The soil is a black muck and clay, which is true of 

 quite a large portion of the entire district. There is one 

 piece of a peat marsh that was cleared, ditched and tiled ; it 

 also lies at the head of one of our laterals ; it has proved a 

 success, as almost every kind of crop has been raised on it, 

 particularly onions, which have done well. By the use of the 

 ditch, which is a living stream, the owner can irrigate as 

 well as drain his land. We now have our organization 

 nearly completed. It is nearly two years since work was 

 first begun by our organization. Yours Respectfully, 



W. S. FRYER. 



STANLEY, Ky., March 17, 1903. 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE AND DRAINAGE JOURNAL: 



Gentlemen Enclosed find $1.00 for my subscription for 

 your valuable paper, IRRIGATION AGE AND DRAINAGE JOURNAL.^ 

 I have been ditching and tiling for the past eighteen years 

 and would not be without your valuable paper for five times 

 its cost. I saw an inquiry for ditching machines in your 

 last number by Mr. Milton S. Dewey, Mazon, 111. I have 

 had some experience in this line. For tile ditching, I think 

 the Buckeye, perhaps, the best. I have one - machine; 

 it really does more than the firm claims, though it does not 

 finish ditch to grade for tile; I would dispose of this one 

 just for this reason and buy a Buckeye in its place. The 

 - machine is built at . 



P. S. I will try and get you some subscribers for your 

 paper. I know I can. Trusting this will be of value to 

 some one and wishing success to THE IRRIGATION AGE AND 

 DRAINAGE JOURNAL, I remain 



Yours respectfully, E. H. KOERNER, 



Civil Engineering, Ditching and Tiling Contractor. 



WEBSTER CITY, IOWA, February 25, 1903. 

 Dear Sirs: 



Surveys are now being made by Edward E. Fox, civil 

 engineer, for the "Farley Ditch." 



It starts at the Iowa river, near Alden, Iowa, runs 

 through Hardin, Franklin and Wright counties, and heads at 



Our Tacoma corrspondent, writing under date of April 

 I, has the following to say about the Twin Falls Land & 

 Water Company : 



The greatest irrigation project in the United States and 

 the third largest in the world has been started in Idaho. 

 It is under the management of a corporation originating in 

 Salt Lake City. The plan contemplates an expenditure of 

 almost $5,000,000 and reclamation of 271,000 acres of the 

 best agricultural lands in the great Snake River Valley and 

 southern Idaho. The principal shareholder in this enterprise 

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

 Sharon, Pa., who is the president He is associated with P. 

 L. Kimberley, another wealthy man, and Walter G. Filer, 

 a financier from the same city, who is the vice-president. 

 They have three western men, familiar with irrigation and 

 canal building, in the syndicate. These are Col. S. B. Milner 

 and Frank Knox, bankers of Salt Lake City, and I. B. 

 Perrine, a wealthy Blue .Lake (Idaho) rancher. H. B. De 

 Long, of Sharon, Pa., is the secretary and treasurer. 



A tract of land as large as the state of Rhode Island 

 is to be brought under ditch and made ready for farming 

 and fruit raising. The lands were formerly set aside for 

 a national park, because of the wonderful scenery. By 

 an arrangement with the state officials, who are taking 

 advantage of the Carey act of 1894, making a donation of 

 1,000,000 acres of arid lands to each state that will con- 

 struct canals and have the lands reclaimed, the great part will 

 become a garden of small farms and vineyards. The enter- 

 prise includes the construction of two irrigation canals and 

 laterals that will have a combined length of over 1,000 miles. 

 The main canal will be sixty-nine miles long and eighty 

 feet wide at the bottom. 



The Twin Falls Land & Water Company is the title of 

 the new corporation. It is the purpose of the new com- 

 pany to harness the Shoshone Falls and develop power for 

 operating an electric railway extending forty-five miles from 

 the city of Shoshone, to cover the country to be brought 

 under cultivation by means of two large canals. One canal 

 will be taken from the north side of the river and the 

 other from the south. The road will connect with the Oregon 

 Short Line at Shoshone. 



Under the provisions of the Carey act, only 160 acres 

 of this land may be held by one man. The company 

 plans to have smaller holdings than this, and many of the 

 farms will be of the twenty-acre Utah class! The country 

 is particularly adapted to fruit raising and general mixed 

 farming, as practiced by the Mormons of that district. Al- 

 falfa is the chief forage plant and grows to perfection. The 

 country is also a choice spot for growing prunes, peaches 

 and similar fruits. 



The construction of these canals and laterals will prob- 

 ably require a period of five years' hard work. When com- 

 pleted, the system will be the most perfect in existence in 

 the irrigated world. It is planned to have electric car lines 

 reaching every farm and orchard, and, when the country 

 is settled, to secure the rural mail system. Public telephones 

 and all modern conveniences are to be added to the com- 

 forts of making homes. Many settlers are located on their 

 lands, awaiting the coming of the water ditch. 



Several carloads of graders' implements have been 

 shipped from Tacoma to the ooint on the Snake river where 

 construction will begin. Nelson Bennett, the Northwestern 

 railroad builder, has secured the contract for constructing 

 works to the value of over $2,000,000. Hundreds of men are 

 to be engaged in the work, which will be pushed as fast as 

 possible until every acre of the large tract has been placed 

 in touch with the canal. Water rights are to be sold to 

 actu?l users at reasonable rates. 



Our correspondent at Ellensburg, Wash., states that there 

 is a strong prospect that the Highland canal, which has 

 been under consideration Tor some time, will be commenced 

 this summer. The project is to be backed by eastern capital 

 and will water from forty to fifty thousand acres and will 

 require an outlay of something like half a million dollars. 

 The people of Ellensburg and vicinity have looked forward 

 to the consummation of this project with great interest, as 

 all the land to be irrigated will be tributary to the city 

 and will promote business in the city to the extent of thou- 

 sands of dollars. The representative of eastern capital has 

 been in Ellensburg for several months and met with the 

 usual difficulties in securing the assistance of the various 



