THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



175 



completed its lines to Weiser and we are now to have 

 one of the best and cheapest light and water systems 

 of any town in the West. The coming of this electric 

 power means much in the way of industries, as there is 

 an abundance of power that will be used by manufac- 

 turing plants, and also for the pumping of water for 

 irrigation to the lands that are higher than the gravity 

 ditches. 



Another matter of great importance to this section 

 is the Malheur Government Irrigation Project. Work 

 will soon begin upon a great irrigation system which 

 will irrigate 200,000 acres of the finest land. Lands 

 that are suitable for general farming and fruit and will 

 support a population of many thousands of people. 



For any additional information concerning the 

 Weiser country address the Secretary of the Weiser 

 Commercial Club, Weiser, Ida. 



TROUBLESOME SAGEBRUSH. 



Destroying sagebrush is a tough problem for the 

 newcomer into irrigation districts. 



Much interest has been aroused in the various 

 parts of the west about the appearance of a new at- 

 tachment which can be used for cutting off the sage- 

 brush about four inches below the surface. 



The cut we are showing will be readily understood 

 with a little explanation. It consists of three parts. 

 Two steel blades and an upright. The latter is tough 

 spring steel, one-half inch thick, five inches wide and 

 thirty inches high. The front edge is sharp. Two 

 keen-edged blades or knives are bolted to the bottom. 

 These extend right and left like wings at a sharp angle, 

 and are thirty inches long. 



This attachment is tied to the pole of the 20th 

 Century Grader, a machine which is now very popular 

 in the irrigation districts for cutting and cleaning lat- 

 erals, and making shallow ditches. Also for land level- 

 ing, border making, road grading, seed bed making, 

 etc. 



People who have seen this attachment say it is just 

 the thing. "Now we can grade, level, ditch and cut 

 sagebrush with this one machine." 1 



The Baker Mfg. Company, 726 Fisher Building. 

 Chicago, 111., are sending out a brand new catalog full 

 of pictures, showing ditching scenes, giving articles on 

 farm drainage and irrigation work, and excellent arti- 

 cles on road grading, etc. This catalog is free, and 

 will be sent promptly to any inquirer. 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age, one year, and 

 the Primer of Irrigation, a 260-page finely illustrated 

 work for new beginners in irrigation. 



b""t 



Sim 



GARDEN CITY KANSAS 



VICINITY 



fcg 



BY K. H. FAXON. 



Springcoming in Western Kansas always means a 

 good deal, but it is probable that it never meant quite 

 so much as it does this year. In all the time that this 

 great Western Kansas country has been developing and 

 regenerating and growing in an orderly, systematic, in- 

 telligent and scientific way, once again, after the years 

 of crudeness and carelessness of nearly a generation ago, 

 there has never been quite the degree of hope and cer- 

 tainty ahead of it as now. 



The new order of things applies peculiarly to the 

 section of which Garden City is the capital. The word 

 capital is used advisedly. There is, as this writer has 

 heretofore pointed out in these columns, a scope of 

 Western Kansas territory that is abundantly resource- 

 ful, that is growing with a steady and certain speed, 

 that has a future which may be counted upon, and that 

 will witness the real expansion in the lower Arkansas 

 Valley in the next few years and of that domain is 

 Garden City the real capital. It is a little kingdom of 

 its own, this lower valley country, and the alfalfa and 

 the sugar beet, with the kindred and allied products, 

 to say nothing of ordinary agricultural crops, make the 

 country indeed wonderful, which enhances the town and 

 the very contiguous territory that are the subject of 

 these remarks. 



There has been much water in the Arkansas River 

 during the winter season. For the first time in the his- 

 tory of the Garden City region there was systematic 

 attempt made looking to winter irrigation. Concerted 

 action was taken. It was due, perhaps, to three factors 

 worth mentioning: The activity of the sugar factory 

 people, especially the general manager and the manager 

 of the land department; the persistent and untiring ef- 

 forts of a representative of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, who held meetings all over this 

 western country, and whose headquarters was Garden 

 City; and the fact that the leading newspaper of this 

 Western Kansas region of which Garden City is the 

 capital has conducted a campaign equally persistent and 

 unremitting. The abundance of water, the fact that 

 the season permitted such work, and the presence of so 

 many canals in the Garden City territory, made the 

 first real trial of winter irrigation a success. Thus the 

 25,000 acres and more of land adjoining Garden City 

 and available under the different projects for irrigation 

 go into use this spring well soaked and in a fair way to 

 produce enhanced crops and with the necessity for less 

 water during the drier season, when there may not be so 

 much water. It is probable that never again will the 

 Garden City country do without the fullest winter ir- 

 rigation. 



Thus, as a start, is the ground well prepared for 

 the season's work. Not only that, hut the acreage of 

 irrigable land is increased. Under the Garden City 

 reclamation project of the government there is approxi- 

 mately 10,000 acres available. Under the new pumping 

 plant of the United States Sugar and Land Company, 

 owning and operating the sugar factory, is an acreage 

 of something more than 5,000. Under Lake McKinnie 



