THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



297 



made to yield, in some instances, as high as $1,200 au 

 acre. The immense superiority of the plan is, there- 

 fore, evident at once. 



Passing northward a distance of about 200 miles, 

 we come to Bear Lake and its tributary streams. The 

 northern end of Bear Lake is a useless swamp, known 

 as Mud Lake. By the use of canals intercepting the 

 streams emptying into this swamp and conducting the 

 water to Bear Lake proper instead, together with a 

 drainage canal intersecting the same, new soil will be 

 reclaimed and the efficiency of Bear Lake as a reser- 

 voir will be improved. 



Separated from the Bear Lake region by a divide, 

 the basins and valley of the Blackfoot branch of the 

 Snake Eiver in south Idaho, at an elevation of 6,100 

 feet above sea level, will be utilized for" impounding 

 the winter and flood waters of the Blackfoot River, and 

 a channel run a distance of twelve or fifteen miles 

 over the divide, whereby such water will be dis- 

 charged into the Bear Eiver near Soda Springs. Idaho. 

 A canal thirty miles in length will intersect the Bear 

 River below this point, and, skirting the western edge 

 of Cache Valley along about the 4,800 foot contour, 

 will furnish water to a large area of land in its vicini- 

 ty. Issuing from Bear River canon, between Cache 

 and Salt Lake valleys, a large canal will extend in 

 a southerly direction along the 4,500 foot contour, con- 

 necting at a suitable point with the main channel, al- 

 ready described as issuing from Spanish Fork canon 

 and directed northward. 



The cost of this great work is roughly estimated 

 at about $5,000,000. The United States Government 

 stands ready to devote the necessary sum of money to 

 this project, as presented to the Reclamation Service, 

 as soon as the practicability of the system in detail has 

 been mathematically demonstrated . by the engineers 

 now engaged in that campaign, and-lhe present water 

 users and canal companies have themselves acceded to 

 the plan in the manner required. A water users' as- 

 sociation is being formed to carry out the latter meas- 

 ure, and it is with this body of representative men 

 alone that the negotiations can be carried on by the 

 Government. Their pledge 'will be required for the 

 repayment of the $5,000,000, and the entire enterprise, 

 when put in motion, will fall under their supervision, 

 superseding the separate canal companies now in the 

 field. 



The water users' association will have an arduous 

 task before it in order to gain a basis upon which to 

 deal with the Government, for the support of the 

 canal companies and water users must be won, their 

 old rights and privileges abandoned for the new and 

 their undertaking secured for the repayment of the 

 loan. The farmer, however, is assured of a safe in- 

 vestment, for he pays only when the' water is deliv- 

 ered, and that in sufficient quantity to meet all de- 

 mands. The sum advanced is to be repaid in ten an- 

 nual installments, without interest, and is secured by 

 the lien of the water users' certificate upon his land. 

 Such old canals as may prove available \mder the new- 

 scheme will be bought of the old companies, but in 

 any event the rights and property of former owner* 

 will, of couse, be respected and due compensation is 

 promised to those which must be abandoned in order 

 to come into the new system. 



The canal companies, it has been authoritatively 

 stated, will be compelled to take common ground with 



the water users, and make over their powers to the as- 

 sociation, with whom the Government will deal when 

 their organization has been completed. It is not clear, 

 at this time, upon what basis individual water users 

 will be assessed for the repayment of the Government 

 loan. Those using the water at greater distances from 

 the main channels, or reservoirs, it is said, will be 

 taxed more than those near at hand, the ratio being in 

 proportion to the expense of the intervening work of 

 construction. 



An incident of this mammoth project concerns the 

 permanent preservation of the Great Salt Lake^as well 

 as saving vast quantities of water lost to the State 

 through evaporation from its surface. In this regard 

 it is suggested that the area of that lake may be readily 

 reduced to tworthirds of its present size by making use 

 of existing conditions. At this time the lake is in- 

 tersected' by what is known as the Lucin cutoff, the 

 railroad embankment of the Southern Pacific, which 

 cuts off about the northern third of the area of the lake. 

 If proper alterations can be made upon the Lucin cut- 

 off, this third can be entirely isolated and left to dry 

 up. The water then all finding its way through the 

 ground and through rivers to the remaining two-thirds, 

 the latter will be indefinitely well supplied and evapo- 

 ration diminished in the same proportion. 



In short, the scheme comprises not only the acqui- 

 sition of millions of acre feet of water now going to 

 waste and its proper distribution and use, but also the 

 concentration of the underflow and the contraction of 

 the surface area of evaporation. 



It is true that this great system of irrigation of 

 the high lands will, in the course of time, necessitate 

 the introduction of a co-extensive system of drainage 

 for those on the lower level, but the great benefits ac- 

 rruing justify the expense, and it is not believed that 

 any legal barrier could be raised by the lower users, 

 even if so disposed, which would be sustained by the 

 courts. 



One of the remarkable benefits which would fol- 

 low in the wake of the institution of this system of 

 irrigation would be the development of enormous water 

 power in the 3,000 foot fall from Strawberry Valley 

 and from the Blackfoot basin into Bear River. This 

 power would be appropriated by the water users the 

 same as the agricultural properties of the water, for it 

 nas been announced that no corporation can legally 

 be entitled to become a shareholder in the organization. 

 Power plants could be erected at suitable points by the 

 association and electricity transmitted to the water 

 users for the operation of their machinery and -farm 

 iTYiplements. 



Arriving at this stage of the propaganda, one may 

 be pardoned for lapsing into visionary predictions of 

 the future, when the most distant farms will be con- 

 nected by electric tram cars with markets and facto- 

 ries, and when tbe only thing lacking to make the 

 "Promised Land" a vertiable Utopia will be the advent 

 of passenger cars in which madame, the farmer's wife, 

 may visit town arrayed in all the splendor and finery 

 of an alderman's wife without the fear of ruining her 

 best gown?, which has heretofore imposed upon her the 

 indignity of making the dusty journey in her oldest 

 calicos and least perishable wearing apparel. 



The Irrigation Age One Yea.r and The Primer 

 of Irrigation. $2.00 



