1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



35 



views, taken in 41 states and territories 

 and in man}* foreign countries. The 



tions were sent out, 

 copies were printed. 



of which 237,000 

 Besides these, 23 



mailing list of the Bureau has increased press bulletins and reprints of 14 publi- 

 75 per cent. Eighteen new publica- cations were issued. 



RECONSTRUCTION OF THE YAKIMA 



VALLEY CANAL 



AN INTERESTING PRIVATE IRRIGATION EN- 

 TERPRISE IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. 



BY 



ARTHUR W. DRAKE. 



THE Yakima Valley Canal Com- 

 pany has completed during the 

 past summer an enlargement of the 

 Yakima Valley Canal. In the work of 

 this enlargement a very definite step 

 was taken toward the use of more per- 

 manent materials and toward the con- 

 servation of water during transit from 

 the river to the land to be irrigated. 



American irrigation works are not 

 known for their permanence ; very few 

 of them have claims to prominence from 

 being products of the best engineering 

 skill, but on the contrary are more often 

 famous for being constructed of lumber, 

 loose earth, with simple \veirs and dams, 

 all subject to decay or likely to be dam- 

 aged at any time of unusually high 

 water. 



Structures of this class are not to be 

 too severely condemned ; on the con- 

 trarjr, their builders deserve much credit, 

 for frequently a brush dam and the 

 crudest of canals is all that is possible 

 with the funds at hand. Success at- 

 tained by these small structures leads to 

 more permanent works and frequently 

 larger canals, to irrigate more land. 

 Gradual development through the build- 

 ing of small works, improving and en- 

 larging these, and frequently by build- 

 ing other canals, is the most successful 

 and permanent. Some very peculiar 

 anomalies are met with in the West, 

 where the best-built canals are operated 

 with difficult}- or financial loss, while 

 the farmers' ditch, built by rule of thumb 



and inefficient in many ways from an 

 engineering standpoint, is a successful 

 enterprise. 



The improvements at Yakima have 

 been carried out as the result of several 

 years experience with the canal in ques- 

 tion. The canal, known as the Yakima 

 Valley Canal, w 7 as built in 1894, with a 

 capacity of 37 cubic feet per second, to 

 irrigate 3,000 acres. Water is taken 

 from the Naches River on the south side 

 of the stream, and for the first eight 

 miles of its course follows along the side 

 of a basaltic bluff. The original canal 

 had a flume nearly eight miles long, in 

 some places 90 feet high. This flume, 

 in the six years of its life, has proven 

 expensive to keep in repair. Settling 

 of the foundation started leaks which 

 soon would wash out great holes, engulf- 

 ing large sections of the woodwork. 

 One such place swallowed up 60 feet of 

 the flume, and in reconstruction a truss 

 across the soft ground was found neces- 

 sary. 



A portion of the canal winds around 

 a steep, gravelty bluff, and here large 

 quantities of water were lost and man} r 

 accidents from washouts occurred, caus- 

 ing considerable expense, not only in 

 repairing, but in damages paid to farm- 

 ers owning land along the base of the 

 bluff. 



The increased value of land in the 

 Yakima Valley and the consequent in- 

 crease in value of water rights warranted 

 the enlargement of the canal. So in 



