454 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



NEW MEXICO. 



Work has commenced on the dams and reservoirs of the 

 Arroyo Honda, five miles south of Santa Fe, for the reclama- 

 tion of 10,000 acres at an estimated cost of $350,000. Three 

 concrete and steel dams will be built. 



Mimbres valley farmers have entered into a contract 

 with an Ohio gas engine company for a modern pumping plant 

 sufficient to irrigate 12,000 acres. It is reported that other 

 farmers in Luna county are planning similar irrigation. 



O. A. Meinzer of the United States Geological Survey 

 has expressed the opinion after careful investigation that 

 nearly the entire Estancia valley may be irrigated by pump- 

 ing. Great interest has centered in his work, and it is re- 

 ported that farmers are busy in perfecting business organiza- 

 tions to install pumping plants. 



The Springer Ditch Company recently secured a tem- 

 porary injunction against the French Land and Irrigation 

 Company at Las Vegas, preventing the latter from taking 

 water from the Cimmarron and Ponil rivers and Carizozo 

 creek. The Springer company complained that the defend- 

 ant had appropriated all the water from these streams in vio- 

 lation of its prior rights. 



Land owners in the Portales valley have arranged for 

 the installation of a pumping plant sufficient to irrigate 12,- 

 000 acres at once and to be doubled in capacity when de- 

 sired. It is claimed that nearly 150,000 acres in this section 

 of the state may be irrigated by the deep-well system, and 

 that the success of work at Portales will result in similar 

 installations in adjoining counties. 



Unprecedented floods in the northwestern part of the 

 state resulted in immense damaee to two irrigation projects 

 early in the present month. The Black Rock dam of the 

 government's Zuni irrigation system was damaged, and H. F. 

 Robinson, a reclamation official, states that $100,000 will be 

 reouired to reoair the damage. The dam of the Bluewater 

 Development Comnany was also partly destroyed. Resulting 

 floods caused great loss of property to settlers on both 

 projects. 



WASHINGTON. 



Farmers in the hill lands of Cowiche valley are ex- 

 perimenting with pumps for irrigation purposes and it is 

 claimed that about 2,000 acres will be reclaimed by this 

 method if experiments are successful. > 



The second filiner this year has been made on the Big 

 Klickitat river and tributary streams for irrigating the Horse 

 Heaven country in Klickitat, Benton and Yakima counties. 

 J. E. Blackmore of Seattle filed on over 2,000 cubic feet. 



Inasmuch as the government has postponed work on the 

 Big Bank reclamation project, land owners are planning to 

 irrigate by pumping. F. B. Keighy is sinking a 295 foot well 

 and if successful his example will be followed by numerous 

 other settlers. 



It is reported that a syndicate of New York bankers has 

 taken a large part of the $500,000 bond issue of the Burbank 

 Power & Water Company, of Seattle, and that the company 

 is now in a position to prosecute its outlined work near the 

 junction of the Snake and Columbia rivers in eastern Wash- 

 ington. 



Contract has been awarded to Mr. D. H. Traphagen, of 

 Seattle, Washington, for the construction of that portion of 

 the distribution system under the Tieton project on Naches 

 Ridge,, Washington. The work involves the excavation of 

 117,700 cubic yards of material. The estimated contract price 

 was $31,500. 



The affairs of the Adrian Irrigation Company, in which 

 H. W. Mangold and fellow Socialists, of Spokane, planned 

 to open a colony on the Rochdale plan, have been thrown into 

 the superior court in a suit in which Mangold charged bad 

 faith on the part of his associates and asks the court for a 

 judgment of $100,000 damages against the company. 



Reports from Spokane announce that the Arcadia Irri- 

 gation Company is defendant in a suit instituted by Andrew 

 Thompson in which he asks return of money paid on a five- 

 acre tract because the company has failed to keep its agree- 

 ment. The Arcadia Irrigation Company is successor to the 

 Arcadia Orchard Company. 



The Republic Orchard Land Company of Minneapolis, 



under the management of Colonel I. R. Beery, will soon make 

 improvements on its large tract of land near Goldendale. 

 A camp will be established and a corps of workmen will 

 develop and plat the lands. Power will be obtained from 

 the Little Klickitat, by which water will be pumped on the 

 upper lands. 



Engineer Walter H. Graves, of Portland, in charge of 

 the Pasco irrigation project, is making preliminary plans 

 for the system which will deliver water to many arid acres 

 at the lower end of the valley. So far 5,000 acres have been 

 secured and water will be pumped to them from the Columbia 

 and Snake rivers. It will be on the land, according to the 

 promoters, in time for the spring planting next year. 



Contract has been awarded by the Secretary of the 

 Interior to Mr. H. W. Hawley, of Seattle, Wash., for the 

 construction of Sulphur creek wasteway channel and struc- 

 tures in connection with the Sunnyside irrigation project, 

 Washington. The work includes the construction of 4J4 

 miles of channel involving about 225,000 cubic yards of 

 excavation, and the placing of about 1,600 cubic yards of rip 

 rap. The contract amounts to $65,062. 



Since the commencement of the Arcadia Irrigation Com- 

 pany's ditch, which will irrigate lands between Loon Lake 

 and Spokane, all farmers having ditches running out of the 

 lake have closed them. It is supposed that all bog land 

 owners will oppose the present move, as they claim that as 

 Judge Hanford ruled they must close their ditches they have 

 a right to open up if the Arcadia company does. The ques- 

 tion will undoubtedly be put up to the courts. 



Frank McKean, general manager of the Rainier Power 

 Company of Seattle, has secured control of power plants 

 along the Columbia river from which 45,000 horespower will 

 be developed. He has secured a contract on the lower 160 

 feet on the Chelan river at the Chelan Falls, paying $150.000. 

 It is estimated that 15,000 horsepower can be developed at 

 this point. A large body of land is also included in the 

 contract, which will be put under irrigation. 



The Tieton water users are considering the advisability 

 of assessing a tax of $20 per acre to raise $400,000 for the 

 purpose of aiding the government in prosecuting work on 

 the Bumping Lake dam. It is reported that Secy. Ballinger 

 advises that this money will be accepted if raised in this 

 way and that work will proceed with rapidity whereas 

 present funds will not allow the completion of the dam for 

 many months. The government expects to complete Unit 

 No. 1 of this project this year. 



L. M. Rice, chief engineer and general manager of the 

 Klickitat Irrigation & Power Company, announced that the 

 sum of $2,000,000 has been pledged for the immediate com- 

 pletion of the project on which his company has been work- 

 ing for the past five years. This sum will allow the con- 

 struction of vast reservoirs on the Klickitat river at the 

 base of Mt. Adams, the erection of an electric power plant 

 near Mabton and the erection of smaller pumping plants at 

 Pasco and Coyote. It is predicted that within a year water 

 will be supplied to more than 200,000 acres and that when 

 the system is complete an aggregate of 500,000 acres will 

 receive water from this project. Water will be carried 

 through ninety-one miles of main canal and pipe line. 



Workmen in the employ of the government are building 

 a large dredge at the Sunnyside canal in the Yakima valley, 

 west of Spokane, on the lines of a special design prepared by 

 the Bucyrus Company of Milwaukee, which sent one of its 

 head men to Sunnyside, Wash., to examine the work before 

 submitting a bid. The present water supply is inadequate 

 for the irrigation of the rapidly growing Sunnyside project 

 and it was decided to increase the capacity of the canal, 

 which is now 600 second-feet, to a maximum of 1,080 second- 

 feet, and increase of 70 per cent. An excavator was put to 

 work on the upper bank of the canal just above the Harvey 

 place. Below this point the canal is sufficiently narrow to 

 permit the use of one which travels the bank because the 

 boom can reach across and dump the dirt on the lower side. 

 It is a slow process, because a road has to be made for the 

 machine, the capacity of which is only 500 cubic yards per 

 eight-hour shift. Many important advantages could be gained 

 by a floating dredge, so the construction of one was com- 

 menced two months ago. Twenty-one men are now at work 

 on it, and it will require six engines to operate it. Steam 

 will be provided by two large boilers. This work will in- 

 crease the irrigated area from Parket to Prosser and beyond, 



