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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Government; RECLAMATION NOTES 



Private 



Under this heading the IRRIGATION AGE will here- 

 after run reports and news relating to irrigation proj- 

 ects both government and private gathered from the 

 various sources at its command. Readers of the AGE are 

 requested to assist the editor by sending reports of local 

 projects, new organizations or progress of outlined work 

 in their vicinities. 



COLORADO 



SWINK COMPANY INCORPORATES. 



Articles of incorporation of the Swink Ditch & Res- 

 ervoir Company, one of the largest irrigation systems in 

 the Arkansas valley, and of the Apishapa Development 

 Company, an auxiliary company, were filed recently at 

 Pueblo, Colo. The Swink company is incorporated with 

 a capital stock of $1,000,000. It will operate in Otero, 

 Pueblo, Huerfano and Las Animas counties and will have 

 headquarters at Rocky Ford. The incorporators are: 

 George W. Swink, Homer E. Brayton, and John H. Voor- 

 hees. The directors for the first year are: George W. 

 Swink, Lewis Swink, Schuyler O. Swink, Lorenzo C. 

 Swink and Hiram A. Dawley. In addition to a large sys- 

 tem of canals, the company has five reservoirs. 



The Apishapa Development Company is capitalized 

 for $100,000 and is empowered to own lands, build ditches 

 and otherwise develop the properties. Directors are: 

 George W. Swink, Lewis Swink and Schuyler O. Swink. 



Details of the work by which water from Boyd Lake 

 is to be carried to 8,000 acres in Weld and Larimer coun- 

 ties, are about completed. The project will require a 

 pumping plant to lift water from the lake into a receiving 

 basin, and a 4,000-foot pipe line will carry the water to 

 ditches built around the high land. From these ditches a 

 siphon to cost $15,000, will take the water across the 

 valley to other high ground in the Oklahoma country. 



Engineers, working under direction of an irrigation 

 company formed of local capitalists, are said to be mak- 

 ing surveys along the Purgatoire River in Colorado, with 

 a view to extensive operations. 



Reports from Greeley, Colo., state that a petition will 

 be presented to the commissioners of Larimer county to 

 establish a new irrigation district of 6,000 acres on Okla- 

 homa Hill, to receive water from Boyd Lake by cen- 

 trifugal pumps. Part of the district will probably extend 

 into Weld County. 



A syndicate of Colorado Springs capitalists has pur- 

 chased a one-half interest in the Farmers' Irrigation Com- 

 pany of Silt, Western Slope. The system will be enlarged 

 so that 4,000 acres of land owned by the Antlers Orchard 

 Company will have water. The total improvements now 

 under way will cost $400,000 when completed. 



The Valley Irrigation Company is surveying and 

 drawing plans for the building of a reservoir in Smith 

 canon, about twenty-five miles south of La Junta. Pres- 

 ent plans include a dam eighty-five feet high and a 

 reservoir that will hold sufficient water to irrigate 35,000 

 acres of land tributary to La Junta. 



The Two Buttes Company has concluded negotia- 

 tions with the Colorado State land board for the con- 



struction of a canal along the line of Baca and Browers 

 counties in that state. It is reported that the company 

 will expend nearly $350,000 in the reclamation of 23,000 

 acres. Settlers on the tracts involved are offered a water 

 supply at $35 per acre. 



Several farmers in Otero County, Colo., have brought 

 suit against the Twin Lakes Land & Water Company, 

 charging mismanagement of the affairs of the Bob Creek 

 or Colorado canal in this district. Plaintiffs assert that 

 the company has been selling water rights beyond the 

 capacity of the canal, that the priority of right is not 

 observed, and that in other ways the company has vio- 

 lated the articles of agreement. 



Steps toward the formation of an irrigation district 

 at Garry, Colo., have been taken and it is reported that 

 the organization is nearly completed. It is planned to 

 construct the Big Beaver reservoir, surveyed about three 

 years ago, and to reclaim about 30,000 acres. The com- 

 pany is said to have arranged for the sale of bonds aggre- 

 gating $50,000. 



Among the newly formed irrigation districts in Colo- 

 rado is that known as the Denver Suburban Irrigation 

 District, involving holders of land along the English High 

 Line Canal. Organization is being perfected to regulate 

 the use of water and about 60,000 acres are affected. 



Property owners in the Denver-Municipal-St. Vrain 

 Irrigation District, near Greeley, voted almost unani- 

 mously in favor of the proposed district. The property 

 holders will vote bonds and work of construction will 

 begin to provide irrigation for southwestern Weld County, 

 heretofore considered only a mining district. Within 

 sixty days, it is said, a big force will be put at work 

 building 100 miles of ditch for the Denver-Greeley Valley 

 Irrigation District, for whose water system $2,000,000 in 

 bonds has been voted. 



WASHINGTON 



INDIANS REFUSE TO SELL. 



The reclamation of 120,000 acres of land on the 

 Yakima Indian reservation under the Wapato project is 

 to be delayed indefinitely because the Indians refuse to 

 sell their land as provided by the Jones act. The Reclama- 

 tion Service has completed all the preliminary work and 

 is now ready to begin actual construction on the canals 

 and laterals, but nothing can be done because the Indians 

 refuse to comply with the law. Of the 120,000 acres of 

 irrigable land under the project, only about 10,000 acres 

 are in the hands of the whites, having been sold under 

 Indian heirships. This leaves 110,000 acres still in the 

 hands of the Indians. While the exact amount that must 

 be signed up will be fixed by proclamation of the secretary 

 of the interior, yet it is well understood that this amount 

 must be the greater portion of that to be irrigated. 



Michael Earles, president of the Hanford Irrigation & 

 Power Company, in which Seattle capital is heavily in- 

 terested, recently closed a deal for the purchase of 11,000 

 acres of land from the Northern Pacific Railway Com- 

 pany in Benton county, eastern Washington. The deal 

 means that the present electric power and pumping sys- 

 tem of the Hanford company, in which $750,000 is inter- 



