210 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of water available. After forming rough borders by means 

 of four plow furrows thrown together to form a ridge, 

 a disk or spring-tooth harrow is run lengthwise of the 

 lands. The borders are then crowded with a V crowder 

 and usually a. leveler is run transversely to the borders 

 to round them off. The land then receives a heavy ir- 

 rigation and when dry enough to work is again disked 

 or harrowed and seeded. Such borders when first made 

 have a base of about 3 feet and a height of 1 foot, which 

 settles to about 9 inches. The length of the borders or 

 lands varies from one-eight to one-fourth mile. 



The farmers on the Roswell Bench on the south side 

 of the Boise River in Idaho make the levees 66 feet apart 

 and 300 to 1,300 feet long, depending chiefly on the 

 topography of the land. The land is first leveled with 

 scrapers, then plowed and harrowed, after which the 

 borders are marked off and thrown up by plowing two to 

 four furrows with a heavy plow. Before seeding, a home- 

 made planer is dragged lengthwise and crosswise of the 

 lands in order to fill up the hollows by cutting off the 

 high places. The cost of preparing land in this way and 

 seeding varies from $10 to $30 per acre, depending upon 

 the roughness of the surface. 



One of the great advantages of this method is that it 

 enables one man to use a large stream of water and ir- 

 rigate a large area with a minimum of labor. The size 

 of streams used in the Rillito Valley in Arizona varies. A 

 head of about 100 miner's inches is turned into a plat of 

 land 30 feet wide, and takes one to three hours to reach 

 the lower end, 660 feet distant. Two men working 

 twelve hours each, with this head of water, will irrigate 



SO to 600 miner's inches. In using a head of 500 inches 

 it is customary to divide it among five lands. With such 

 a head it is not unusual for two men working twelve- 

 hour shifts to irrigate 80 acres in twenty-four hours. 

 (Continued in April Issue.) 



Fig. o. Carpenter's Spirit Level Attached to a Tripod. 



in twenty-four hours 12 to 15 acres, at a cost of 20 to 25 

 cents per acre for each watering. In the extensive alfalfa 

 fields belonging to the Butterfield Live Stock Company, 

 of Weiser, Idaho, the head ditch has a capacity of 150 

 to 500 miner's inches, divided into three or four streams, 

 and permitted to flow down as many lands until the soil is 

 moistened to a depth of several feet. Each field receives 

 three such waterings in a season. On the alfalfa fields in 

 Yolo County, Cal., the natural slope of the land is about 

 1 foot in 400. On the shorter lands the head used is 

 seldom less than 6 cubic feet per second, but three and 

 four times this quantity is often applied to the longer 

 lands. On fields well laid off, with good border gates 

 and border levees, two men can irrigate 20 to 40 acres in 

 twelve hours, the area within these limits depending 

 chiefly on the size of the irrigating head. In Imperial 

 Valley, California, the size of the head used varies from 



IDAHO LAWS GIVE SECURITY. 



Engineer Eagleson Approves State Plan for Handling 

 Its Resources. 



Idaho is today looked upon as the model state in 

 the matter of handling its natural resources and it has 

 the best irrigation laws yet devised, giving absolute se- 

 curity to both the home-builder and the capitalist, is the 

 belief of E. G. Eagleson of Boise, formerly surveyor 

 general of Idaho, as expressed at a recent meeting of 

 civil engineers of the state when the Idaho Society of 

 Engineers was organized. Mr. Eagleson's remarks at- 

 tracted great attention from engineers interested in irri- 

 gation. After summarizing the history of irrigation 

 throughout the world from ancient to modern times, he 

 said in part: 



"At the present time there are about 100,000,000 acres 

 of land irrigated in the world, and about 16 per cent of 

 that amount is in the United States. It is estimated that 

 about 60,000,000 acres can be reclaimed in the United 

 States at moderate cost. However, increased population, 

 higher land values, cheaper materials, higher duties of 

 water and more efficient devices will undoubtedly increase 

 this amount in a few years to at least 75,000,000 acres 

 and possibly to 100,000,000 acres. 



"Of all the arid states and territories, Idaho will 

 probably reclaim more acres by irrigation than any other. 

 It is estimated that about 6,500,000 acres can be reclaimed 

 in the state, which is about 11 per cent of all the irrigable 

 lands in the United States that can be reclaimed at 

 moderate cost. About 5,000,000 acres of Idaho lands lie 

 in the Snake River basin above the Huntington Canyon, 

 and now support nearly 200,000 population. Egypt irri- 

 gates practically the same area and supports upon it 

 7,000,000 people, an average of nine hundred to the square 

 mile. In irrigated Italy, the population averages 800 to 

 the square mile, while in India as many as 1,200 subsist 

 on the products of 640 acres. All these countries are 

 poorly supplied with timber, fuel, mineral, forage and 

 water power, while Idaho has more than its share of these 

 natural resources in and adjoining its irrigated areas. But 

 counting for Idaho a family of four to each 10-acre tract, 

 her irrigated area will have a population of more than 

 2,500,000 inside of thirty years. All this seems more than 

 probable if the rapid manner in which Idaho lands are 

 being appropriated under the various United States laws. 



"Since the granting of the first Carey act segregation 

 about ten years ago, there have been appropriated under 

 this law 2,478,856 acres, the reclamation of which is esti- 

 mated to cost $67,750,000. Private enterprises are re- 

 claiming 139,000 acres at an estimated cost of $2,780,000. 

 Eleven irrigation districts are improving and extending 

 their systems to embrace 346,000 acres, a large part of 

 which was desert, at an estimated cost of $1,730.000, 

 making a grand total of $72,260,000 being expended under 

 authority of the state. 



"The withdrawals under the United States reclamation 

 act for the Minidoka and Payette-Boise projects amount 

 to 480,000 acres, the reclamation of which is estimated to 

 cost something over $13,000,000. Perhaps 20 per cent of 

 all this work in the state has been completed and the 

 total expenditure on all irrigation projects of the state 

 amounts to about $30,000,000. 



"Idaho is today looked upon as the model state in 

 the matter of handling its resources. It has the best irri- 

 gation laws yet devised, giving absolute security to both 

 the home-builder and the capitalist. Not a bond or water 

 contract has ever failed to be paid and no home has 

 ever been lost on an Idaho project through any unfair 

 exaction of the capitalist or failure of the law. Capital 

 is invited to come here and its stay is so protected that 

 it deals fairly and satisfactorily with the people." 





