THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



211 



Success in Underflow Pumping 



Experiments Near Denver Prove Satisfactory and Open 

 Wide Field for Reclamation Work. 



A Colorado banker's prophecy is about to come true: 

 Six years or more ago Mr. Gordon Jones, one of the 

 leading bankers of Denver, made the statement in a 

 public address that the time was then not far distant 

 when the lands in Eastern Colorado, at that time devoted 

 principally to stock raising, would be cut up into small 

 tracts, each tract being irrigated and cultivated to the 

 highest state of perfection by the up-to-date scientific 

 farmer. 



This prophecy, given as a result of keen foresight 

 based on a practical knowledge of existing conditions, is 

 about to be fulfilled. For months experiments have been 

 conducted in Eastern Colorado by a company of Denver 

 business men. These experiments have had to do with 

 the bringing to the surface of the underground waters in 

 order to utilize them for irrigation purposes. True, under- 



View of engine bouse and flume, showing distance water is lifted 

 above the ground before being deposited in the flume. 



flow waters found in other parts of the country have been 

 harnessed and put to good use, but in Colorado this work 

 is new. 



About a year ago the question was first agitated 

 among Denver business men. The responses were few, 

 but finally enough men were interested in order to un- 

 dertake the experimental work. This work was com- 

 menced in M&y of last year in the Bijou Valley in El- 

 bert County, Colorado, the center of the region known as 

 the "dry farming" section. 



In Eastern Colorado the rainfall averages from 14 

 to 17 and probably 20 inches per year. This amount of 

 moisture is insufficient, however, for growing crops. It 

 means that each year thousands and even millions of acre 

 feet of water fall on this land and is allowed to go ab- 

 solutely to waste. In fact, a former State engineer says 

 that for the district east of Pueblo in the region of the 

 Arkansas River 27,000,000 acre feet of water go to waste 

 each year. 



These Eastern Colorado lands are traversed by num- 

 erous creeks, varying in size, but practically all dry 

 streams eleven months out of the year. Investigations 

 have, however, shown that these creeks, although dry on 

 the surface, are veritable living streams underneath the 

 sand beds. This is due to the peculiar formation of the 

 country. The fall along all of these streams is rapid and 

 the water runs quickly off the land, gathering in the 

 creeks and gullies. Here the surface formation is sand, 

 varying in depth from three to ten or fifteen feet. Through 



this the water sinks rapidly until it strikes a bed of 

 gravel. This gravel rests on top of what is known as the 

 "first hardpan." This may be a bed of shale rock or 

 merely a layer of blue clay, "hydraulic cement" as engi- 

 neers sometimes term it, but at any rate it is impervious 

 to water and here is found the living waters of the dry 

 creeks of Eastern Colorado. 



How best to reach this water, how to lift it onto the 

 ground, how to construct the wells necessary, are prob- 

 lems now being solved, and in the interesting work now 

 going on these questions are being answered. 



The first work in the Bijou Valley, where conditions 

 exist similar to those that must be solved in all parts of 

 Eastern Colorado, consisted in the digging of a large 

 well or sump. Work was commenced along east Bijou 

 Creek, the hole being dug about 50 feet from the creek 



View of ditch about 1,000 feet from pumping plant. 



bed. Plow and scraper were used as the excavation 

 opened was not less than a large hole, ten feet wide and 

 thirty-feet long. 'Keep at it 'til you reach water," were 

 the orders. This was done. Clay soil was encountered in 

 the first two feet of digging. Then came sand and four 

 feet further, or at a depth of six feet from the surface 

 the first water was encountered. 



How to hold back the sand was now the question. 

 Tests were made which showed that about six feet of sand 

 must be conquered before the gravel could be reached. It 

 was then decided to sink perforated pipes and pump 

 through these. This was done, two 6-inch pipes being 

 sunk to bed rock, which at this point was found to be 

 about twenty feet from the surface. 



Connections were then made and water brought to the 

 surface in sufficient quantities to indicate the presence of 

 the underflow waters. In this pumping a 6-inch centrifugal 

 pump and 12 H. P. gasoline engine were used. While the 



