THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



449 



the geological survey to make such statements, and that then 

 there could be made temporary withdrawals of the land 

 needed to preserve these water-power sites until Congress 

 could act. 



"The order revoking the withdrawal of 1,500,000 acres 

 was made in April. Sufficient information was procured 

 from the geological survey to permit an order withdrawing 

 the land upon which were water-power sites in May, and 

 this withdrawal covered about 300,000 acres, instead of 

 1,500,000. 



"The form of the new order of withdrawal was such 

 that it set aside all filings and entries of any kind which had 

 been made prior to its going into effect, and, as a matter 

 of fact, not one single filing has been attempted on any of the 

 water-power sites since the original order of withdrawal in 

 January, 1909. 



"The story as to the 15,000 acres in Montana circulated 

 bv publication in the newspapers, when presented by Gover- 

 nor Pardee, was reduced to 158 acres near the Missouri 

 river in Montana, or four tracts of forty acres each, and now 

 turns out, from examination of the records, that these filings 

 were refilings of entries made ten vears before ; that the re- 

 filings were made on the llth of June, 1909, more than two 

 weeks after the withdrawal of the water-power sites in 

 Montana, and that the four tracts of forty acres each filed 

 upon have no water-power sites on them at all. 



"It further appears from a report of the director of the 

 geological survey that the order of withdrawal of January, 

 1909, was hastily made by townships and by reference to in- 

 adequate maps ; that it included large areas not within miles 

 of any river or stream, and that it failed to include many 

 valuable water-power sites in the immediate vicinity. 



"From the same reliable source it is learned that under 

 the withdrawals made by your department from time to 

 time, beginnin" in May last, there are now withheld from set- 

 tlement awaiting the action of Congress, fifty per cent more 

 water-power sites than under previous withdrawals, and 

 that this has been effected by a withdrawal from settlement 

 of only one-fifth of the amount of the land. 



"In connection with the same charge, weight has been 

 given to the fact that you have declined to carry out the 

 contracts made by the reclamation service with homesteaders 

 and entrymen by which certificates were issued to entrymen 

 for work done and material furnished with a view to enlarge 

 the projects of the reclamation bureau. You brought up 

 the question of the legality of such certificates in a cabinet 

 meeting, and were directed to submit it to the attorney- 

 general. That officer has, very properly in my judgment, de- 

 cided that it is at variance with an explicit prohibition in the 

 reclamation law to issue such certificates. The fundamental 

 mandate of that law is that no project shall be entered upon 

 until there is money enough in the reclamation fund to pay 

 for the project or the part thereof contracted for. 



"The certificate system is in fact a system for borrowing 

 labor and material and making the government a debtor to 

 intending settlers a system that is inhibited by law and can- 

 not but result ultimately in disaster. Of course, those who 

 have accepted such certificates for labor and material in good 

 faith oueht to be recompensed, and I shall ask from Con- 

 gress at the next session especial relief for them. Meantime, 

 the work of reclamation should be carried on wherever funds 

 are available with all the dispatch possible, and I am assured 

 that this is being done. 



"I hope that after you have made personal investiga- 

 tion of all the reclamation work and looked into the finances 

 of the undertakings, you will be able to make a report to 

 Congress showing exactly what has been done, what ought to 

 be done, and what additional legislation, if any, is needed 

 and oueht to be passed to further this great and important 

 work." 



PLEA FOR NEW MEXICO. 



Speaker at First National Conservation Congress Awakens 

 Interest in its Boundless Resources. 



FARMERS' NATIONAL CONGRESS. 



Announcement and preliminary program for the Twenty- 

 ninth session of the Farmers' National Congress, to be held 

 at Raleigh, N. C, indicate that many able speakers will be 

 present and that visitors may expect instruction and wide 

 information from the addresses. Sessions will be held No- 

 vember 3-9. Information as to accommodations, etc., will 

 be secured bv writing B. Cameron, President, Stagville, or 

 George M. Whitaker, Secretary, 1404 Harvard St.. Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



Called upon for an extemporaneous address before the 

 Seattle Conservation Congress, W. A. Fleming Jones, sec- 

 retary of the New Mexico Conservation Commission, spoke 

 briefly but glowingly of the historical as well as the future 

 commercial interest that must center in the southwest. In 

 part he said : 



"There is probably no section of the United States, Mr. 

 Chairman, that is less known, in the east, and in other sec- 

 tions of the country, than the territory of New Mexico, and 

 certainly none that is more frequently misrepresented. 



"A feature of New Mexico that is much misunderstood 

 and misrepresented is the character of our native popula- 

 tion. We have practically none of the peon class and a very 

 large number of our native citizens own their own farms and 

 ranches that have been in the same family for generations. 

 They are scrupulously honest, and a courteous, peaceful and 

 law-abiding people, and much better fitted to enjoy full citi- 

 zenship than many of the imported denizens of the slums of 

 our great cities. 



"We have vast areas of irrigable land, and with our 

 347 days of sunshine in every year and the most equable cli- 

 mate in the world we can and do produce every crop in 

 abundance that can be produced in our latitude. Our al- 

 falfa fields cut from four to six crops in a single season, 

 running from eight to ten tons to the acre. The reclama- 

 tion service is engaged in constructing in the Rio Grande 

 valley one of its largest projects at a cost of upwards of 

 $8,000,000. The reservoir when completed will store a four 

 years' supply of water and will reclaim 210,000 acres of land 

 140,000 acres in New Mexico, 45,000 acres in the state of 

 Texas, and 25,000 acres in the Republic of Mexico, the whole 

 cost to be repaid by the owners of the lands. 



"The history of our commonwealth is one of which all 

 New Mexicans both of Spanish and Saxon blood are justly 

 proud. Before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock 

 the padres had traversed the deserts of the southwest and 

 olanted missions in the towns of the various tribes of Indians, 

 and before a Saxon had set foot in New England, Juan de 

 Onate had firmly established European civilization at Santa 

 Fe. The whole territory is rich in memories of great names 

 and heroic deeds; in relics of the Conquistadores of the 

 American nioneers ; the Santa Fe trail and the Indian wars. 

 Back of all these stretches a prehistory in which the imagi- 

 nation is lost. In Pajarito Park, some thirty miles from 

 Santa Fe, are thousands of ruined homes of the forgotten 

 people whom we call, for lack of a more descriptive and 

 scientific name, the Cliff Dwellers." 



MEASURING WATER. 



The following, credited to the Pelton Water Wheel Com- 

 pany, gives a simple explanation of a method by which any 

 one of ordinary intelligence can easily and accurately measure 

 the water of a stream or ditch. 



Select a stretch on a stream or ditch which will afford 

 as straight and uniform a course as possible, avoiding pools 

 and obstructions to the normal flow. If the water is at any 

 point carried in a flume it is better to measure at this point. 

 Lay off a distance of, say, 100 feet; measure the width of 

 flowing water at about six different places in this distance, 

 and obtain the average width ; likewise at these same points 

 measure the depth of the water at three or four places across 

 the stream, and obtain the average depth. Next drop a float 

 in the water, noting the number of seconds it takes to travel 

 the given distance. From this can be calculated the velocity 

 of the water in feet per second. The cubic quantity is the 

 product obtained by multiplying the average width in feet 

 by the average depth in feet by the velocity, which (in feet 

 per second) will give the flow of the stream in cubic feet per 

 second. From the figures so obtained it is advisable to de- 

 duct about twenty-five per cent, as the surface velocity of 

 water is in excess of the actual speed velocity. 



Send $2.50 for the Irrigation Age 1 Year, and the 

 Primer of Irrigation. 



