390 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



August 



over 2,000,000 pieces of literature ; 

 had a correspondence of over 225,000 

 letters; published hundreds of articles 

 in the press and sent out lecturers 

 through the farming districts of the 

 east, it is apparent how organizations 

 of this kind can assist the government 

 in selecting a desirable class of set- 

 tlers. 



A project of great importance to 

 California is the reclamation of ap- 

 proximately 2,000,000 acres of land 

 in the great Sacramento Valley. The 

 climate conditions are far less extreme 

 than those in the desert regions. Here 

 the land is in huge holdings being 

 mainly devoted to grain or grazing, 

 but wherever irrigation has been prac- 

 ticed the results are remarkable. It 

 is the largest and most comprehensive 

 irrigation project which the govern- 

 ment has under consideration. Water 

 will be conserved by means of seven 

 huge reservoirs and distributed over 

 the valley, which is 250 miles long and 

 from 20 to 60 miles in breadth. Here 

 the problems of irrigation, reclama- 

 tion, navigation and drainage are all 

 closely connected ; for, with the stor- 

 age of waters, the crests of the spring 

 floods which have for years broken 

 the levees on the lower reaches of the 

 Sacramento River and destroyed mil- 

 lions of dollars worth of property will 

 be controlled. A movement fostered 

 by the River Improvement and Drain- 

 age Association of California, is now 

 under way to improve the navigation 

 of the Sacramento River and reclaim 

 1,000,000 acres of swamp lands. The 

 work calls for an expenditure of $24,- 

 000,000. Twice as much land will be 

 reclaimed as in the case of Zuyder Zee 

 project in Holland at less than one- 

 fourth the cost. The recommendation 

 of a commission of engineers consist- 

 ing of Major H. B. Richardson, Ma- 

 jor H. M. Chittenden and Mr. T. G. 

 Dabney, calls for a uniform system 

 of levees which shall confine the river 

 and cause it to scour and, consequent- 

 ly, deepen its channel. The extension of 

 the levees with connecting dikes in 

 i he overflowed lands will enable these 



lands to be reclaimed. The cost of 

 this work will be born equally by the 

 state of California, the Federal gov- 

 ernment, and the land owners. The 

 improvement of the Sacramento River 

 and the reclamation of the swamp 

 lands is of course in no way connected 

 with the irrigation project for the 

 Sacramento Valley under the Recla- 

 mation Act. The government's part 

 in the river improvement will be car- 

 ried on by the War Department while 

 the irrigation project comes, of course, 

 under the Department of the Interior. 

 But in both projects the commercial 

 organizations are lending great aid to 

 the movement. The whole state of 

 California is behind the river improve- 

 ment project, and without the united 

 sentiment which was brought out at a 

 meeting of representatives of all com- 

 mercial organizations of the state, the 

 united work would never have been 

 undertaken. 



The United States Senate and 

 House Committee on Irrigation re- 

 cently completed an extensive trip 

 through the west. The journey was 

 made for the purpose of visiting loca- 

 tions where irrigation works have been 

 begun or are planned under the Recla- 

 mation Act, and incidentally of gath- 

 ering first-hand information relative 

 to irrigation in general. The journey 

 was a distinctly strenuous one and the 

 members of the visiting committees 

 put in long and earnest hours (at their 

 own expense). Though the visit was 

 not official, much will result, as it was 

 an educational campaign on irriga- 

 tion, not only for the members of the 

 Senate and House Committees, but 

 for the residents of the regions vis- 

 ited. 



The intense and general interest in 

 the subject of national irrigation was 

 most enthusiastically demonstrated 

 everywhere. The citizens turned out 

 in great numbers to greet the visiting 

 legislators. The California itinerary 

 lasted eight days, beginning at Yuma 

 on the morning of June 8 and termi- 

 nating at Sacramento on the night of 

 June 1 6, when the party left for Reno 



