THE IRRIGATION AGE 



VOL. XXI 



CHICAGO, DECEMBER, 1905. 



No. 2 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



With which is Merged 



MODERN IRRIGATION THE DRAINAGE JOURNAL 



THE IRRIGATION ERA MID-WEST 



ARID AMERICA THE FARM HERALD 



THE D. H. ANDERSON PUBLISHING CO., 

 PUBLISHERS, 



112 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 



Entered at the Postoffice at Chicago, 111., as Second-Class Matter. 



D. H. ANDERSON ) Edi 

 W. J. ANDERSON ] tait< 



ANNOUNCEMENT. 



"The Primer of Irrigation" is now ready for delivery. Price, 

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A monthly illustrated magazine recognized throughout the world as 

 the exponent of Irrigation and its kindred industries. It is the pioneer 

 journal of its kind in the world, and has no rival in half a continent. It 

 advocates the mineral development and the industrial gro.wth of the West. 



Interesting to Advertisers.' 



It may interest advertisers to know that The Irrigation Age is the 

 only publication in the world having an actual paid in advance 

 circulation among individual irrigators and large irrigation corpo- 

 rations. It is read regularly by all interested in this subject and has 

 readers in all parts of the world. The Irrigation Age is 10 years 

 old and is the pioneer publication of its class in the world. 



The citizens of Boise, Idaho, where the 

 Boost for Fourteenth National Irrigation Congress 

 Boise. will be held in 1906 (probably during 



September) , are already at . work on 

 plans for entertaining the delegates. Elsewhere in this 

 issue will be found an article outlining some of the 

 plans. It is exceeding fortunate for Boise that she has 

 such men as Messrs. Gwinn, Booth and Shubert, all of 

 whom are boosters and good workers. Mr. Booth, who 

 will act as assistant to the secretary, is president of 

 the Boise Chamber of Commerce and a man fully quali- 

 fied to handle his end of the work. Mr. Gwinn is one 

 of the leading citizens of Idaho and his -selection as 

 executive chairman was an exceedingly fortunate one. 

 Mr. Shubert is the best known hotel man of the State 

 and will lend valuable assistance in arranging for the 

 entertainment of the delegates. Everyone interested in 

 irrigation and the development of the West should 

 "Boost for Boise" and the Fourteenth National Irriga- 

 tion Ccingress. 



The traveled foreigner is very apt /to 

 *' temper his admiration for things Amcri- 



. , j can by the observation that for the most 



"part they are unfinished and crude. The 

 wave of interest in agricultural engineering, and irriga- 

 tion in particular, which has swept over this country 

 in the last few years has naturally fostered the idea 

 that America was outstripping the old world in the 

 magnitude and number of her irrigation projects. A 

 comparison of the work already completed, or under 



way, in foreign countries, with the numerous plans now 

 being worked out in the United States, seems to show 

 that in this particular field Americans are followers 

 or imitators and not leaders or originators. 



Even in the magnitude of the work the palm must 

 be awarded to India and Egypt, while if consummate 

 finish and judicious water distribution are considered, 

 the laurels go to Italy and to her engineers. In the 

 great plains of northern India over 40,000,000 acres 

 are irrigated, which a generous estimate shows to be 

 over ten times the area reclaimed by irrigation in this 

 country. Indian plains that now support a population 

 of 800,000 inhabitants were formerly absolute deserts. 

 The Ganges canal, which was opened over fifty years 

 ago, now has a length, including its tributary canals, 

 of 10,000 miles. In the State of Mysore a 'reservoir 

 is now under construction which, by means of a masonry 

 dam 142 feet high, will enclose a valley containing over 

 2,000 square miles. The Assuan dam in Egypt, which 

 project it is estimated will be completed by 1908, at 

 a cost of $31,000,000, will form a lake more than 100 

 miles in length, and will make possible the growing in 

 the Nile basin of two crops a year instead of one. 



However, now that the Federal Government has 

 undertaken the reclamation of the desert wastes of the 

 West, it is hoped the work will no longer warrant the 

 assertion recently made by an international authority 

 that irrigation works in America "are often rude and 

 of a temporary nature, the extensive use of timber 

 striking a foreigner from the old world" and deploring 

 the lack of well devised systems of water control. 



