1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



271 



the use of man. Lake beds will be 

 drained and transformed into agri- 

 cultural fields, and thousands of miles 

 of ditches and laterals will distribute 

 water over the land. 



With the exception of a narrow 

 fringe on the northern and southern 

 borders of the state, Nevada lies in 

 a basin from which water escapes only 

 by evaporation. Humboldt River, 

 rising in the mountains which divide 

 Utah from Nevada, drains the entire 

 northeastern portion of the state, car- 

 rying its waters several hundred miles 

 to a wide basin near Lovelocks where 



During all the idle centuries of the 

 past these lands have been gathering 

 richness in the silt washed down from 

 the mountains, which has gradually 

 filled up the valleys and prehistoric 

 lakes, forming an alluvium of great 

 depth and fertility. 



The completed system of reservoirs 

 in connection with the Truckee-Car- 

 son project will assure an annual 

 water supply, even in low water sea- 

 sons of 800,000 acre-feet, besides a 

 portion of the streamflow which can- 

 not be stored. As the country be- 

 comes more thickly settled and land 



Job's Peak from Dressier Reservoir Site, California, showing one of the sources of water 



supply for the Truckee-Carson project. 



it spreads out in a large lake and 

 evaporates. The Truckee, Carson 

 and Walker rivers created by the melt- 

 ing snows of the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains in California, flow east 

 into Nevada where they, too, form 

 lakes which have no outlets. The 

 numerous mountain areas are subject 

 to storms, giving rise to torrential 

 streams which rush down the steep 

 slopes and pile debris out upon the 

 desert, into which the water sinks. 



values increase, the underflow of 

 streams and artesian water will add. 

 to the supply and increase the ir- 

 rigable acreage. Hydrographers, who 

 are thoroughly familiar with the water 

 supply of the state, believe that water 

 can be developed for the irrigation 

 of fully 1,600,000 acres of land. 



The marvelous manufacturing pos- 

 sibilities of the rivers in the shape of 

 latent horse power cannot be esti- 

 mated. The Truckee River alone hi. 



