THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



139 



From the reservoir, which comprises about 7,200 

 acres, one main canal will lead to the northwest about 

 nine miles, then, swinging to the southeast twelve miles 

 will continue, with frequent laterals, in a general east- 

 erly direction. The main south canal will wind and 

 twist towards the southeast. These canals will outline 

 the regions which will be subject to irrigation. In 

 many places they will cross running streams by means 

 of inverted syphons under the stream beds, these syphons 

 to be built of steel and concrete. 



improvements in the town." In the same letter Mr. 

 Walters said : "We expect to be able to furnish water to 

 about 20,000 acres next spring (1906). Most of this 

 will be government land and what is known as Indian 

 Creek Flats * * * there will probably be con- 

 structed the large reservoir dam, 100 miles of main 

 canal, 500 miles of laterals and 1,000 miles of sub-lat- 

 erals with the necessary controlling and measuring de- 

 vices." 



Headquarters of the U. S. Reclamation Se'vice, Belle Fourche, S. D. 

 (Courtesy of L. H. Storgaard, Staff Artist of Dakota Farmei). 



There will be one hundred miles of main canals and 

 five hundred miles of branch canals and about one 

 thousand miles of smaller ditches. 



In the construction of the main dam this year, 

 800 men will be at work with hundreds of teams and 

 several big mechanical dirt moving machines. Engineer 

 Walters has promised that at least 3,000 acres can 

 receive the water this year, 30,000 acres in 1907, and 

 that the project will be completed in 1908. The rail- 

 roads have encouraged the project, making a half-rate 

 on all materials shipped in for the work, following 

 the general policy of railroads to develop all regions 

 tributary to their lines and make them populous, fer- 

 tile, and prosperous. 



In the Belle Fourche region there is already a pri- 

 vate irrigation system installed by English capital, built 

 in a temporary way. 



When this Belle Fourche project is completed it 

 will be turned over to the Belle Fourche Valley Water 

 Users' Association, organized among the land owners 

 through the region. On the basis of the original esti- 

 mate it will cost $34 per acre for each of the 85,000 

 acres comprising the Belle Fourche tract, to be paid 

 in ten annual installments. Mr. Walters has predicted 

 that there will be 10,000 settlers on the tract by the 

 time the water is ready to be turned on all of it in 

 1908. 



A town site has been platted on the gumbo seven 

 miles north of Vale postoffice, comprising one section, 

 640 acres. The proceeds of the sale of the town lots 

 and acreage are to be used for the public improvements 

 of the town -waterworks, sewerage, etc., if the legality 

 of the plat can be established by the Reclamation Serv- 

 ice. 



Concerning the town site Mr. Walters, engineer in 

 charge, has said in a printed letter of information about 

 the Belle Fourche project : 



"One section of land has been reserved for a town 

 ite, the lots in which will be disposed of by the Gov- 

 ernment at auction and the money used for permanent 



OUR EXPERIMENTAL FARM. 



With this issue THE IRRIGATION AGE presents the 

 first of a series of articles on its supplemental experi- 

 mental farm near Cadillac, Mich. A tract of sixty-five 

 acres has been secured on a lake one and a half miles 

 south of the city of Cadillac with the intention of mak- 

 ing experiments along lines formerly suggested in the 

 "Primer of Irrigation" and in the columns of this jour- 

 nal, whereby water may be advantageously delivered 

 to crops in humid and semi-humid sections of the 

 country. It is our intention during the first year to 



View of Virgin Stump Land near Cadillac, Mich., on which the 

 IRRIGATION AGE Supplemental Irrigation and Fruit Farm will be 

 developed. This tract comprises 65 acres, lying around the shore 

 of the lake. 



clear off a tract of ten acres, that is to say, remove the 

 stumps from ten acres of the level portion of this land, 

 and plant certain crops such as are usually raised on a 

 small truck farm. 



It is hoped that a reasonable degree of success 

 may be attained during the first year, and that we may 

 have a good story to tell of the work as it develops 

 from month to month. 



We are showing herewith a half-tone photo of the 

 land as it is today. It will be noted that there are 

 many stumps to be pulled on the level land shown 



