THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



341 



PRACTICAL IRRIGATION. 



JNO. G. HALL, GREELEY, COLO. 



In treating various subjects under the head of 

 practical irrigation, I am requested to speak of the 

 failures as well as the successes of our Greeley farmers, 

 as failures teach success as well as success itself, so I 

 will take for my subject, "Growing of Trees." 



Thirty-three years ago, when the colony was first 

 established by Horace Greeley, and the first ditches were 

 taken out, and irrigation beginning to prove a suc- 

 cess, thought and energy were of course turned to the 

 planting of trees. This in a measure is all right, espe- 



aid of artificial watering, ranging in price from fifty 

 to two hundred and fifty, the trees become an expensive 

 luxury, and farmers are cutting them out as fast as 

 possible to render the land productive, as a single row 

 of trees will render unproductive a tract equal to 

 eighty acres, that would produce from $100 to $200. 



When a new canal is taken out it is generally sug- 

 gested that trees be planted on the banks to beautify 

 and be self-watering. This is a mistaken idea, as 

 trees along canal banks as well as laterals are a very 

 expensive luxury, because there must be labor done 

 on canal banks as well as laterals, and it is slow, 

 expensive work chopping through and dealing with 

 green trees along your ditches. So in an irrigated 

 country plant trees around your buildings only for 

 best results. 



C. G. ELLIOTT, C. E., 



EXPERT IN DRAINAGE INVESTIGATIONS. 

 U: S. DEFT. OF AGRICULTURE. 



cially around dwellings and out-buildings, and there 

 they are a necessity for comfort and ornamentation. 



Land was then cheap and water plenty. Very 

 few ditches and plenty of snow to furnish late water. 

 Trees were planted on both sides of laterals, running 

 through farms and along fences, the cottonwood variety 

 being in the majority of cases planted. Thirty years 

 passed and these twigs or cuttings stand today from 

 fifty to one hundred feet high, rendering unproductive 

 on each side of them the ground equal to the height 

 of the trees. 



. Now that the land becomes so valuable by. the 



CONTRIBUTIONS THANKFULLY RECEIVED. 



A friend of THE IRRIGATION AGE who received 

 the following letter permits its to publish a copy. We 

 do so without comment: 



GEORGE H. MAXWELL/ 

 Executive Chairman 

 The National Irrigation Association, 



1707 Fisher Bldg., Chicago. 



August 18th, 1903. 



DEAR SIRS : Last month I sent you a reprint from 

 the Arizona Republican giving account of our final 

 success in the organization of the Salt River Water 

 Users' Association, thus adjusting local complications 

 enabling the Government to build the great Tonto 

 Basin Reservoir. 



That work done I have returned east to take up 

 the campaign for the repeal of the Desert Land Act, 

 the commuta'tion clause of the Homestead Act and 

 the Timber and Stone Act, under which the public 

 lands are being absorbed by speculators, to the exclusion 

 of actual settlers, at the rate of over 5,000,000 acres . 

 year. 



Funds are urgently needed for our correspondence 

 and press bureau in this campaign. Public sentiment 

 must be awakened. The commercial interests of the 

 country who want a dense population in the West can 

 not afford to be apathetic. May we not have prompt 

 remittance of your dues? Yours very truly, 



GEORGE H. MAXWELL, 



Executive Chairman. 



Farming in Colorado, Utah and 

 New Mexico. 



The farmer who contemplates changing his loca- 

 tion should look well into the subject of irrigation. 

 Before making a trip of investigation there is no 

 better way to secure advance information than by 

 writing to those most interested in the settlement of 

 unoccupied lands. Several publications, giving val- 

 uable information in regard to the agricultural, hor- 

 ticultural and live stock interests of this great west- 

 ern section have been prepared by the Denver & 

 Rio Grande and the Rio Grande Western, which 

 should be in the hands of all who desire to become 

 acquainted with the merits of the various localities. 

 Write S. K. Hooper, G. P. & T. A., Denver, Colo.. 



