304 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



sugar beets at the National Irrigation Congress, to be 

 held at Boise September 3 to 8. Similar organizations 

 in California, Utah, Washington and Idaho have given 

 the same notice, and the prospects are that the greatest 

 exhibit of sugar beets ever made will be shown on this 

 occasion. The raising of sugar beets has advanced more 

 rapidly than any other industry during the past few 

 years and promises to become a more important crop 

 than fruit culture in the near future. Idaho has built 

 five beet sugar factories during the past five years, cost- 

 ing $1,000,000 each, and two more are now under con- 

 struction. 



Among the social entertainments that have been 

 provided by the board of control, which will prove a de- 

 lightful surprise to the delegates attending the Four- 

 teenth National Irigation Congress, at Boise Septem- 

 ber 3 to 8, is the symphony concert, given Tuesday 

 night, September 4. Boise has a symphony club num- 

 bering fifty amateur and professional musicians. The 

 club has generously volunteered to entertain the visitors 

 with a concert that will be an unlocked for surprise, 

 affording an opportunity to the visitors to appreciate 

 the character of citizenship, education and refinement 

 to be found in Idaho's capital city. The concert will be 

 given at Riverside Park theater, which has a seating 

 capacity of 2,200. A classical program will be rendered. 



The Southern States bordering on the Atlantic 

 Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico have advised the execu- 

 tive committee that they will be represented at the 

 Fourteenth National Irrigation Congress by their most 

 expert engineers and scientific agriculturists. Those 

 States are more interested in reclamation than irriga- 

 tion. They are troubled with too much water and study 

 reclamation through drainage propositions. Their dele- 

 gates will submit drainage problems to the engineering 

 section, which will prove an interesting feature. The 

 Southern States contain millions of acres of valuable 

 land if proper methods can be found to drain them of 

 their surplus water. Much valuable information along 

 these lines will be obtained at the Boise congress. 



One of the most important features of the Four- 

 teenth National Irrigation Congress, which meets in 

 Boise, Idaho, September 3 to 8, is the section of the 

 work devoted to engineering problems. The Orpheurn 

 Theater has been secured by the board of control for the 

 use of the engineers. A stereopticon will be used in 

 which to illustrate many of the problems to be pre- 

 sented and discussed, the foremost engineers and irriga- 

 tionists of the United States taking part. Chief En- 

 gineer Newell and a large number of the district and 

 consulting engineers of the reclamation service, together 

 with the State engineers of the Western States, will be 

 present, and greater accomplishments are expected from 

 their discussions than have ever been obtained at any 

 preceding congress. Engineering problems that have 

 been considered impossible will be illustrated among 

 the accomplished facts, and the manner in which diffi- 

 culties have been overcome will be fully shown on the 

 canvas. This feature is attracting expert irrigationisl ^ 

 from all parts of the world. 



Some very interesting statistics are being compiled 

 by the State engineers and agricultural departments of 

 the sixteen States and Territories comprising the irri- 

 gated area of the United States. These will consist of 

 compilations of statistics relating to the amount of 

 water in the running streams, the amount additional 



that can be conserved through storage, and the number 

 of acres of land that are subject to reclamation through 

 irrigation. The showing will be a wonderful exposition 

 of the vast opportunities remaining in the West for 

 profitable investment of capitalists, for future immigra- 

 tion and home-making, for enlarged markets for manu- 

 facturers, for extending railroads and other means of 

 transportation, for building cities and creating busi- 

 ness. The figures given will be authentic and reliable, 

 and demonstrate to what extent the future holds for 

 irrigation enterprises. 



The delegates and visitors attending the National 

 Irrigation Congress, which holds its fourteenth session 

 at Boise, September 3 to 8, will be greatly impressed 

 with the wonderful crops raised by irrigation. At the 

 exposition to be held during the congress every variety 

 of fruits, grains, grasses, sugar beets and vegetate 

 crops will be on exhibition, coming from each of the six- 

 teen States and Territories named in the national 

 reclamation act. One of the great object lessons of this 

 congress is the showing of results; the other will be in 



An Irrigation Canal Denver & Rio Grande Railway. 



taking the delegates into the irrigation districts to show 

 in a practical way how the results were accomplished. 



Hon. Milton Whitney, chief of the bureau of soils, 

 Department of Agriculture, will be among the promi- 

 nent department officials of the government at the Na- 

 tional Irrigation Congress, to be held at Boise beginning 

 September 3. The investigations carried on by Mr. 

 Whitney's bureau are of the greatest interest to agri- 

 culture and horticulture in the irrigated areas of the 

 country. 



Hon. T. W. Lee, for many years general passenger 

 agent of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Rail- 

 road at New York City, has resigned his position and is 

 going to make his home in Idaho. He was invited to 

 attend the National Irrigation Congress, which is to 

 convene at Boise September 3, and deliver an address en- 

 titled "Why I Left New York City for Idaho." In ac- 

 cepting the invitation, Mr. Lee writes: "You will 

 readily understand this is rather a pertinent subject, 

 as I might have as good reasons for leaving New York 

 as many a gentleman had for entering Texas. However, 



