366 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



out bank accounts. He sought to give them employ- 

 ment at a time when their farms yielded little or noth- 

 ing, and thereby to lessen the burden imposed upon them 

 by the water payments demanded during the early years 

 of their settlement when other expenses were heaviest. 

 It appears now that in his effort to aid them, Mr. Newell 

 devised a system that the law will not recognize, did not 

 authorize or contemplate, and the plan is counter to the 

 views held by Secretary Ballinger. It is said that if 

 a system of co-operative construction is to be taken 

 up, congress must amend the Reclamation Act to legalize 

 a plan of this character. 



The service or the Government could not in any 

 way lose by this practice, and it can be predicted that 

 Secretary Ballinger will use all reasonable effort to have 

 the law so amended as to carry out the plan of Mr. 

 Newell. The work contracted for under that arrange- 

 ment was actually performed and the cost of the labor 

 was shown on the books. 



There are, to be sure, some features which should 

 be corrected by some generally established system as laid 

 down by an amendment, viz.: a regulated price for all 

 labor performed by individuals or teams. 



The scrip which has heretofore been issued will be 

 honored and settlers who have been paid in that form 

 will lose nothing. Scrip now in their possession is as 

 good as the day it was issued. The Secretary does not 

 intend to discredit any agreement entered into with the 

 sanction of his predecessor. His decision applies only 

 to future work. It is stated that Secretary Ballinger is 

 acting under the advice of the Attorney General, who 

 reported that there was no law for this co-operative sys- 

 tem of building government irrigation works. 



Having overcome every argument and ob- 

 Pueblo stacle that militated against its right to 



Seeking the Seventeenth Irrigation Congress, and 



Eighteenth with the keen support of every commercial 

 Congress. organization within its limits, Pueblo is 

 sending to the Spokane congress a dele- 

 gation of boosters to press its claim for the gathering 

 of 1910. Other cities have also marshaled their forces 

 for the conflict and there promises to be a most spec- 

 tacular fight over the selection of the place for next 

 year's convention. 



Logically the city of Pueblo is entitled to first con- 

 sideration. Those who attended the sixteenth congress 

 will remember the fight made at that time by Pueblo 

 delegates seeking to gain for their city the present meet- 

 ing. With commendable grace and courtesy, Pueblo 

 then stepped aside in favor of Spokane. 



Since 1908 Pueblo has grown. No more may the 

 argument of insufficient hotel accommodations be con- 

 sidered, for Pueblo is prepared to construct one of the 



finest hostelries in the country before the next conven- 

 tion. Moreover, she is ready to entertain next year's 

 visitors with all resources at her command. 



Pueblo's commercial organizations are powerful and 

 it may be confidently predicted that should the eight- 

 eenth congress be held in that city it will be eminently 

 successful and the entire country be aroused to the im- 

 portance of irrigation works and results. The movement 

 is growing; let the congress go to that city, where it will 

 be assured of greatest success Pueblo. 



To reclaim 180,000 acres of land in the 

 To Solve Rio Grande Valley at an estimated cost 

 Vexing of $8,200,000, is the task which is now en- 



Rio Grande gaging the attention of the Reclamation 

 Problem. Service on the Rio Grande River near 



Engle, New Mexico. This, it is stated, 

 will be the largest irrigation project in the world. 

 Some idea of the magnitude of this work, generally 

 known as the Rio Grande project, locally termed "The 

 Engle Project" and by other called the "Elephant 

 Butte" project, may be had from the fact that the huge 

 dam to be thrown across the Rio Grande will form a 

 lake or reservoir more than forty miles long, and capa- 

 ble of storing two million acre feet of water. This 

 project is a combination of two irrigation plans: (1) 

 The diversion dam at Leasburg at the head of the 

 Mesilla Valley. (2) The old Elephant Butte project, 

 originally undertaken by a local water users' association. 

 The Leasburg dam cost $200,000 and has been com- 

 pleted, and is now delivering water to the Mesilla Val- 

 ley. This vast irrigation work, larger than the famous 

 Assouan dam in the river Nile, Egypt, involves the con- 

 struction of a rubble-concrete dam, 1,150 feet wide at 

 the crest, 400 feet wide at the surface of the water, and 

 250 feet wide at bedrock. The base of this dam will be 

 set 65 feet below the bed of the stream. The water to be 

 impounded will form a lake approximately forty-five 

 miles long, from four to six miles wide, and about 175 

 feet deep at the lower end. 



That there will be more or less litigation over this 

 project at some future time is the opinion of those who 

 are well informed. The people of Southern Colorado 

 and northern New Mexico and the San Luis and the 

 Taos Valley claim a right to the water which is now 

 passing their lands, and they will undoubtedly make an 

 effort to control water from the streams arising in the 

 mountains surrounding the valleys in which their land 

 is located. 



It is stated that the Government has forbidden the 

 taking of water from these streams and it is predicted 

 long drawn litigation will result. The peculiar 

 features connected with the treaty with Mexico have 

 created unusual comment. We are not sufficiently 



