THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



311 



CORRESPONDENCE 



GREELEY, COLO., July 12, 1903. 

 EDITOR IRRIGATION AGE, CHICAGO, ILL, 



Dear Sir: I send you a few hints on "practical irri- 

 gation" which may be of value to some of your readers. 



Some of the necessary conditions to make irrigation a 

 success, are a good supply of water that will continue through 

 the months of July and August; land with a smooth 

 surface, that has a gradual fall of about six feet to the 

 mile; land prepared in a thorough manner for the seed 

 and one of the most essential conditions is the best seed 

 obtainable thorough cultivation and careful irrigation.' 



At the proper stage of development, as a general rule, 

 I will say the time to apply the water is when the crop is 

 making that which the crop was planted for. To illustrate : 

 Wheat, while it is making the head; corn, when the ears are 

 setting in; fruit while in blossom. In the case of root 

 crops, care must be taken not to soak too much while the 

 weather is extremely hot. Put a good stream in each al- 

 ternate row, and hurry through and shut out, as this will 

 be sufficient the first time over. In about a week water the 

 other rows in same way. Next time over if weather is get- 

 ting cooler, irrigate every row. 



Third Irrigation Every row may be watered, raising 

 in each row a small stream whereby it will take longer to 

 go through, consequently soaking the ground more thor- 

 oughly. JNO G. HALL. 



EMMETSBURG, IOWA, Aug. 5, 1903. 

 IRRIGATION AGE AND DRAINAGE JOURNAL, CHICAGO, ILL. 



Mr. Editor: Could you kindly put us in correspondence 

 with some parties who operate a dredging machine, and 

 oblige. Yours truly, 



NEARY & MENZIES. 



NEW CASTLE, COLO., Aug. 3, 1903. 

 EDITOR IRRIGATION AGE, CHICAGO. 



Dear Sir: When I wrote you in regard to my water 

 elevator I did not think very ' much about it, but as you 

 asked for an explanation of my invention, I answered your 

 request in rather a crude manner. My experience for the 

 past twenty-six years in the west and twelve years in 

 Arizona taught me that water is king and seeing so many 

 acres of the best of lands that could not be reached by canals, 

 I have constructed this very valuable machine. I can operate 

 it in wells where plenty of water can be obtained. It is so 

 built that it can be run by any kind of power, as the buckets 

 only run at their greatest speed 150 feet per minute. They 

 are built in sizes from one miners' inch to (1200) twelve hun- 

 dred or larger if desired. They are the best machine .known 

 for windmill power, as in case it should run slow and take ail 

 day to raise a bucket and it starts from the bottom full in 

 the morning and reaches the top at night it is a bucket 

 full just the same, when in a rotary or cylinder pump there 

 will not be a drop of water raised. Sand or muddy, makes 

 no difference with the elevator. No chains to break; no 

 hooks to give out and no wheels to break; not a cog in it; 

 one bucket just firmly bolted to another and would remind 

 one of a railroad running at an angle of forty-five degrees. 

 It is strong, durable and light draft. Since my short de- 

 scription in your May number, I have had a great number 

 of communications, all of which mention their seeing it in 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE, so I take this way to answer them. 

 Please find within one dollar for one year. There are a 

 number of more that I will send in a few days. Send mine 

 from May last to me at "New Castle, Colo. 



W. A. CONNER. 



17 RUTLAND SQUARE, BOSTON, MASS., July 30, 1903. 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE, 112 DEARBORN STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. 

 Gentlemen: Referring to the article in your June issue, 

 entitled "The Western Floods," I herewith enclose a pub- 

 lished letter which I wrote upon reading an article along 

 the same line, published in the Daily Live Stock Reporter, 

 and in addition to same I would like to suggest, inasmuch 

 as your paper is published in the interest of irrigation, that 

 it might be possible in large arid districts along rivers, which 



have their outlet into the Mississippi, to utilize underground 

 sand beds as reservoirs for irrigation water that is, from 

 sections having an abundance of winter snow or early spring 

 rains, the water could be sent underground, and during the 

 hot summer months be pumped to the surface for either irri- 

 gation or the purpose of watering stock on the western 

 ranges. On the other hand, this underground water might of 

 itself create never-ceasing springs which would not be af- 

 fected by the heat during the summer. 



I do not assert the feasibility of any of the suggestions, 

 but it seems reasonable enough to receive consideration by 

 those who are working to solve the flood problem. 

 Very respectifully yours, 



J. N. SWANSON. 



The following is the article referred to in Mr. Swanson's 

 letter : 



"Upon reading an article in a recent issue of your paper 

 entitled 'Rainfall and the Floods,' I am again reminded of 

 a thought that has come to me several times during the 

 last few years an idea which might be of interest to those 

 who are giving this problem serious consideration. I believe 

 it is worthy of investigation. 



"My suggestion is this: If the United States would 

 ascertain along rivers, brooks and feeders of the great Mis- 

 sissippi where there may be found deep underground sand 

 veins, containing little or no water, and sink to this sand 

 innumerable wells, setting them with large sewer tile, ar- 

 ranging it in such a way that any overflow or rise of water 

 in these small streams would find its way into these wells, 

 affording an underground outlet into these sand veins, many 

 of which would doubtless drink in an endless amount of 

 water, the great flood disasters would be partially obviated. 



"It is at once apparent that it would involve a heavy 

 expenditure of money to perfect such a system of wells to 

 produce any effect at the time of a heavy rainfall such as 

 recently visited Kansas, yet I believe there are enough 

 water-dry sand beds underground, were the wells numerous 

 enough, to drink in a great portion of this overflow. Any- 

 way it should greatly lessen the danger by diverting a part 

 of the water. 



"By thus diverting the water underground, it would also 

 afford an inexhaustible supply of water to the farmers living 

 in the districts having these drainage wells, as they could 

 sink their own supply wells to the same sand veins and 

 secure clear filtered water, obviating the necessity (which has 

 been the cry of late years) of making new and deeper wells 

 every year, the surface water having entirely disappeared. An 

 arrangement could also be made whereby these farmers could 

 use the same wells sunk for drainage purposes. 



"I submit the above for what it may be worth to those 

 who are interested in this problem." 



IT IS A SHAME. 



It is a shame to allow the fakirs to spring up and gull 

 the public every time an opportunity presents itself. Just 

 as soon as it became known that the government was going 

 to lend a hand in reclaiming the arid lands, so-called asso- 

 ciations sprang up advertising by circulars and otherwise 

 to direct homeseekers to vacant public land under the proposed 

 projects. These associations pretend that they are formed 

 to represent homeseekers and claim to possess inside informa- 

 tion. As a matter of fact these fellows are rank swindlers 

 and do not have any inside information. They do not 

 know what lands the government intends to irrigate, for 

 no one knows this, not even the department. They simply 

 defraud susceptible people and are taking fees ranging from 

 $50 to $100 for valueless service. They are sending people 

 onto lands that will never be irrigated either by the govern- 

 ment or by private enterprise and we know instances where 

 these sharks have pointed out to victims lands on hillsides 

 which could not possibly be irrigated. We are having too 

 much burlesque of the Maxwellesque order and it is time 

 for Uncle Sam to shut these scamps out of the mails. The 

 Field and Farm has refused to handle the advertising of 

 these fellows and therefore they do not like us a little bit. 

 Denver Field and Farm. 



