274 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



no parallel in the history of our coun- 

 try, a movement only limited by a 

 ca'pacity which cannot now be esti- 

 mated. 



As planned the Truckee-Carson 

 project will supply water to 385,000 

 acres in excess of the land irrigated 

 in Nevada at the present time. The 

 average value of irrigated land in the 

 United States is $47 per acre; the 

 acre to be irrigated by the Truckee- 

 Carson project will therefore add 

 $18,195,000 to the taxable property 

 of the state in land values alone. Ac- 

 cording to the census report of 1900 

 the average annual income from irri- 

 gated land is $15 per acre. On this 

 basis an income of $5,775, P r 

 annum will be added to Nevada's 

 agricultural wealth. The value of two 

 crops will exceed the cost of the en- 

 tire project by $2,550,000. That this 

 is a conservative estimate readily will 

 be seen when it is remembered that 

 irrigated potatoes in many portions 

 of Carson Valley now give returns of 

 $150 per acre. Experiments by the 

 Department of Agriculture show that 

 the Truckee and Carson valleys are 

 peculiarly fitted for the culture of 

 sugar beets, hops will yield abundantly 



and all the hardier fruits produce 

 crops of remarkable flavor and size. 



The mineral wealth of the state has 

 hardly been prospected. With added 

 transportation facilities and cheaper 

 supplies, mines which are now aban- 

 doned will be worked with profit, new 

 veins will be discovered, and markets 

 for farm and manufactured products 

 be increased. 



Of the possibilities now lying latent 

 in these sage brush plains no mind can 

 prophesy. Water is the mystical wand 

 which is to unlock this great store- 

 house of nature the magician who 

 wields it, the civil engineer, and where 

 but a few years ago death mocked the 

 daring pioneer and unknown graves 

 dotted the plain, the life-giving water 

 will be so regulated that neither 

 drouth nor flood shall bring want to 

 the settler ; churches and schools will 

 flourish, and the farmer will plant 

 his crops with the certainty of bounti- 

 ful harvests. From time immemor- 

 able irrigation has been synonomous 

 with higher civilization. It creates 

 loftier standards of living, makes 

 prosperous communities and content- 

 ed citizens. 



THE WATER LEVELS OF THE 

 GREAT LAKES. 



HP HE wat<er levels of/ the Great: Lakes 

 and the chagnes which have 

 taken place during the last few de- 

 cades are a matter of great public in- 

 terest. Lake carriers commonly be- 

 lieve that the lake levels have lowered 

 considerably and that the changes are 

 attributable to the deepening of the 

 connecting channels, and, perhaps, 

 also to diversion through the Chicago 

 Drainage Canal. The engineers of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey have been 

 investigating the in-flow to the Great 

 Lakes, while the U. S. Lake Survey 

 has measured the out-flow from the 

 lakes. It is found that when the rain- 

 fall on the lake surface is taken into 



consideration there is a material loss 

 or difference between the out-flow and 

 the in-flow. This loss is attributed to 

 evaporation from the lake surfaces. 

 In order to determine this more def- 

 initely a set of instruments for 

 measuring evaporation, wind velocity, 

 and the temperature of the air and 

 water, will be placed on Beaver Is- 

 land in the northerly part of Lake 

 Michigan. The instruments will be 

 placed near the village of St. James 

 and as they are near the center of the 

 width of the lake they will be fully 

 exposed to the wind and will give a 

 record of the rain-fall, wind direction 

 and velocity, and evaporation over the 



