NEWS AXD NOTES 



513 



product being used to blanket the reserva- 

 tion levee and to protect the banks below the 

 sluiceway. The dam has since been com- 

 pleted. 



In July a flood of 150,000 second-feet 

 passed over it. Both the dam and the levees 

 which for miles protect the bottom lands 

 held their own. This fact confirms the judg- 

 ment of the officials that the Colorado River 

 could be controlled and the bottom lands 

 protected from floods, and irrigated. 



The Laguna dam is patterned after weirs 

 which have been successfully operated on 

 erratic rivers of the Old World for half a 

 -century, and the levees are of the type which 

 experience on the Mississippi River during 

 the past sixty years has proved to be the 

 best. 



During June the contractors laid 14,000 

 cubic yards of masonry on the Roosevelt 

 dam, Salt River irrigation project, Arizona. 

 The masonry was all laid on the south side 

 of the gap through which the water is still 

 flowing from the reservoir. The south end 

 of this part of the dam is at an elevation of 

 169 feet. Near the gap the elevation is 135 

 feet. The water in the reservoir is no feet 

 deep. The Government cement mill was 

 operated twenty-five days, burning 11,500 

 barrels and grinding 12,000 barrels of ce- 

 ment. The south canal is completed and 

 work is being pushed on the eastern canal. 

 Work is progressing favorably in concreting 

 the sluicing tunnel. 



The Gunnison Tunnel, Uncompahgre Val- 

 ley irrigation project, Colorado, was ad- 

 vanced 510 feet during June, and but sixty 

 feet then remained to be excavated between 

 headings. There was a great scarcity of 

 labor and the heavy ground in the tunnel 

 required timbering in both headings. The 

 daily flow of water remained practically con- 

 stant, amounting to 1,126,000 gallons in the 

 east portal and 3.400,000 gallons at west 

 portal. Sixty-five feet of concrete lining 

 were placed in the tunnel and the concrete 

 portal at the west end was built and 200 feet 

 of concrete lining placed in the portal cut. 

 The flow of water in both the Uncompahgre 

 and Gunnison rivers during the month at- 

 tained the greatest volume of which record 

 has been made. 



The tunnel has since been cut through ; 

 the workmen met and shook hands. 



A contract has been entered into by the 

 project engineer of the North Platte proj- 

 ect. Nebraska-Wyoming, on behalf of the 

 Government and the Platte Valley Tele- 

 phone Company for telephone service in con- 

 nection with the North Platte project for a 

 period of six years, from July i. 1909, to 

 July i, 1915, in continuation of an existing 

 contract which expired July i, 1909. Twenty- 

 five telephones are provided for in the con- 

 tract, besides two exchanges and other 

 services. 



The Secretary of the Interior has ap- 

 proved a contract entered into by F. E. 

 Weymouth on behalf of the United States 

 with the Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District 



and the Payette-Boise Water Users' Associa- 

 tion, which provides for the use by the Gov- 

 ernment of the canals and laterals of the 

 Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District in the 

 reclamation of certain lands belonging to 

 the Payette-Boise project, Idaho, and for the 

 adjustment of expenses of operation and 

 maintenance of the canals and laterals be- 

 tween the respective parties. 



The United States is given the right to 

 enlarge or extend the existing canals or lat- 

 erals of the Nampa-Meridian Irrigation Dis- 

 trict, the title to all enlargements or exten- 

 sions to vest in the United States. 



The lands involved consist of about 50,000 

 acres lying within the boundaries of the 

 above-named irrigation district and below 

 their canal. 



& % % 



Five Billions for Development 



Mr. Arthur Hooker, secretary of the board 

 of control of the National Irrigation Con- 

 gress, will present a resolution for the ap- 

 proval by that organization at its seventeenth 

 session in Spokane, August 9 to 14, memori- 

 alizing Congress to issue three per cent gold 

 bonds running 100 years, to the amount of 

 $5,000,060,000, or as much thereof as may be 

 necessary, for the following specific purposes : 



One billion dollars for drainage of over- 

 flowed and swamp lands, thus reclaiming an 

 area equal to 100,000 square miles. 



One billion dollars for the reclamation by 

 irrigation of 40,000,000 acres of arid and 

 semi-arid lands, now partly or wholly waste. 



One billion dollars to construct and im- 

 prove deep waterways, to develop thousands 

 of miles of territory now without adequate 

 transportation facilities. 



One billion dollars for good roads and na- 

 tional highways, for the lack of which the 

 loss to the farm area of the United States is 

 approximately $500,000,000 annually. 



One billion dollars for forest protection, 

 reforestation and conservation of the forest 

 resources, thus assuring timber and lumber 

 supplies for centuries to come. 



Says Mr. Hooker, in explaining the plan : 

 "Congress will not be asked to appropriate a 

 penny. The returns from the improvements 

 would pay off the bonds. The Government 

 would simply act as a banker, as it does now 

 for the various irrigation projects. The bond 

 issue would provide ample funds as required 

 to carry out the work in the several divi- 

 sions, at the same time giving the best pos- 

 sible collateral to those investing in these 

 securities. Government figures bear out the 

 statement that there is enough good land 

 overflowed in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, 

 Nebraska, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 Mississippi and Maine to make an area as 

 large as the state of Missouri, or more than 

 ^4,000.000 acres, while in the eastern, cen- 

 tral and western states there is more than 

 as much more, or about 100,000,000 acres in 

 all. At a conservative estimate of $25 an 

 acre, the sale of this reclaimed land would 

 justify the expenditure of $2,500,000,000, or 



