208 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



acter, and many miles from the river, depriving true 

 riparian owners in Kansas of the water to which they 

 are entitled for the benefit of non-riparian owners in 

 Colorado. This is the whole gist of the suit." 



The convention was attended by delegates repre- 

 senting a large number of counties, and the subject of 

 irrigation before it attracted a great audience of persons 

 interested in the matter personally. 



The association's annual meeting will be in Gar- 

 den City in October, and all irrigation companies, cities, 

 commercial clubs and counties will be entitled to rep- 

 resentation. 



WYOMING LANDS WITHDRAWN. 



On April 25 the commissioner of the General Land 

 Office has issued orders temporarily withdrawing from 

 entry in connection with proposed irrigation enterprises 

 about 368,000 acres of public land located in the Buffalo 

 and Lander land office districts of Wyoming. 



DECISION IN SALT RIVER VALLEY RESERVOIR 

 CASE. 



The Secretary of the Interior, on April 24th, de- 

 cided the various points in the controversy among land 

 owners in the Salt river valley in Arizona, over the 

 terms on which thry may secure water from the big 

 reservoir the Government is to build above Phoenix. 

 The Government having decided that when the reservoir 

 shall be built, present owners shall have the preference 

 to water, a dispute arose among those affected as to 

 whether the Government should deal with them as in- 

 dividuals or as a community. The Secretary has de- 

 cided in favor of the community idea. He also holds 

 that there shall be no preference on account of the 

 age of accrued water rights, but directs that all land 

 holders shall stand on the same basis in securing water 

 from the reservoir. Expenses of maintaining the work 

 will be distributed in proportion to acreage, and mort- 

 gages must be given to secure the repayment to the 

 Government of the funds expended in the construction 

 of the works. 



The ruling in this case establishes important prece- 

 dents. The proposed reservoir is expected to irrigate 

 200,000 acres of land available for growing citrus fruits. 



We shall have something to say about this decision 

 in a future issue. ED. 



ACCLIMATIZING WHEAT. 



Plants, like animals, may become accustomed to 

 certain peculiar environments and thrive fairly well. 

 Mr. Fred Bond, State Engineer of Wyoming, in his last 

 official report describes some experiments made in Colo- 

 rado and Wyoming to grow wheat without irrigation. 



In 1886 Mr. Robert Gauss advanced the theory that 

 wheat could be acclimatized and made to thrive under 

 the arid conditions of Colorado, and some years later 

 began conducting experiments to test his theory. In 

 1896 he planted some improved Fife wheat, but secured 

 at harvesting time but little more than seed enough for 

 the following year. This seed was planted and the ex- 

 periment continued each year with better and better 

 results. In the spring of 1902 Mr. Bond obtained a 

 pint of this seed and planted one-half near Cheyenne at 

 an altitude of 6,050 feet above sea level, and the re- 

 mainder near Buffalo. Johnson county, at an altitude 

 of 4,700 feet. From' the harvest of the first lot Mr. 

 Bond obtained 9% pints, a yield of nineteen fold, and 

 from the second lot 2iy 2 pints, or about forty-three fold, 

 although there had been no irrigation of either lot. 

 The effective precipitation at Cheyenne had been 6.38 

 inches and at Buffalo 4.90 inches. Wyoming Industrial 

 Journal. 



CAPTAIN PORTER'S SUB-IRRIGATION SCHEME. 



A SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CAL.., EXPERIMENT. 



"I have always cussed the gopher," remarked Cap- 

 tain Porter, while eating his lunch in Balcom's grocery, 

 "but I don't do it any more; the gopher is my friend, 

 and I am in hopes of training him to do systematic 

 work in a way I have discovered him to be useful. He 

 beats the band. 



"That the gopher is a most indefatigable pest I 

 have had reason to know, for what that rat left un- 

 done to my young fig and orange trees, likewise to my 

 pet beet patch, was not worth mentioning. 



"There was one particular one that multiplied him- 

 self into a regiment of sappers and miners, so it seemed 

 to me, and every morning an investigation disclosed 

 a fine tree lying over on its side, or a choice beet pulled 

 down to the top of its leaves 



"I studied the habits of the rascal, and finally hit 

 upon a plan to utilize his extensive underground oper- 

 ations. I saw him several times, but as he could easily 

 dodge a bullet or a load of shot, I could not exter- 

 minate him by the weapons of war. Hence the idea 

 that occurred to me as the only way to get rid of him. 

 By running a ramrod into the ground here and there, I 

 found that there was not a spot of ground two feet 

 square that was riot crossed by a branch of the net work 

 of tunnels my gentleman had constructed for the pur- 

 pose of reaching succulent roots. 'So,' said I to myself, 

 'if I can find and stop up the outlets I will have him 

 sure.' They were found and hermetically sealed with 

 broken cobbles and earth. Then I turned the hose into 

 the upper end and emptied a three thousand-gallon 

 tank of water into the runways. 



"I persevered for several days, to the great benefit 

 of the young trees and beets by a novel method of sub- 

 irrigation Mr. Gopher emigrated to a dry climate, I 

 presume; at least I have never had any more com- 

 plaints to make against him, but I hope he will come 

 back and do some more tunneling. This might not 

 work on a large scale, nor in a prairie dog village, for 

 there are some runways that would exhaust the Missis- 

 sippi river and a few of its branches before any appre- 

 ciable diminution of rats would be noticed. However, 

 the waste energies of nature are being utilized to so 

 great an extent, that I expect soon to hear of 'trained 

 gophers' for tunnel work in sub-irrigation schemes." 



