450 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



$460,284.86, which amounts to 270 per cent, gain on 

 the investment. One thousand horse-power would 

 cost $50 for each horse-power per annum, which for 

 five months of an irrigating season would cost $20.83 

 for each horse-power, or a total of $20,830. The cost 

 of the motor- tenders, oil, etc., would amount to $750, 

 making the total operating expense $21,586 for the 

 entire 12,614 acres, or $1.71 for each acre. 



Generating Electricity by Turbines. —Prob- 

 ably a more feasible proposition would be to harness 

 the streams of mountains, thus creating water-power, 

 with which to turn turbines for the operation of dyna- 

 mos. The pra(5licability of such transmission for not 

 only twenty or thirty miles, but even for 150 or 180 

 miles, has opened the way for this new and enormous 

 proposition. I^et us suppose a stream flowing from 

 the mountains down into a large broad valley or a plain 

 a hundred miles below. The water from this river is 

 perhaps sufficient to irrigate only one-half or one-third 

 of the plain, and all the rest is dead land. We will 

 presume, however, an underflow beneath this remain- 

 ing, or dead land, which can usually be found at a 

 depth of from twenty to fifty feet. This would fur- 

 nish an inexhaustible supply of good water for irriga- 

 tion could it be gotten economically to the surface. 

 The great bulk of the lowlands of the valleys adjacent 

 or tributary to the forest areas of the Rocky moun- 

 tains or the Sierra Nevadas are underlaid with this 

 water — a pradlically inexhaustible supply suitable for 

 pumping. Fuel, however, is often expensive, although 

 a 1 ,000 horse-power ele<5lric plant near Grand Junc5lion, 

 Colorado, is operated by burning slack coal costing 



