THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



NOTES FROM THE NORTHWEST. 



SPOKANE, WASH., Oct. 29. United States Senator 

 Samuel H. Piles, of Washington, gave out the sub- 

 joined statement in Spokane recently on the subject of 

 irrigation : 



"I consider the irrigation laws next to the home- 

 stead laws, and I shall make that subject my princi- 

 pal business at the next session of the United States 

 Congress. 



"Irrigation means so much for the State of Wash- 

 ington. It means the making of a beautiful garden 

 out of Eastern Washington and the people of this 

 section may rest assured that I will fight for their 

 interests in the matter of irrigation. 



"It is the most important of the present measures 

 being taken up by the government. There are such 

 great opportunities for irrigation in Eastern Wash- 



G. L. SHUMWAY, 



Associate Editor of THE IRRIGATION AGE, Nominated 

 for Congress to Represent the Sixth District 

 of Nebraska. 



ington that it is an issue here that can not be over- 

 looked. The homestead law gives the poor man a 

 chance to gain a home, and the irrigation law will give 

 the poor man the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful and 

 fruitful Jiome. 



"It expect to see the United States Government 

 get every dollar it has expended in irrigation returned 

 to it, and the results will be the making of beautiful 

 districts and a great increase in the production of the 

 different States." 



Dr. A. E. Baldwin, president of the Fruitland Ir- 

 rigation Company, near Kettle Falls, Wash., has sold 

 his interests to William and Melville Clancy and W. K. 

 Roberts, of Chicago, who will complete the big irriga- 

 tion ditch started last March. Three miles has been 

 dug and surveys have been made twenty-five miles 

 down the Columbia river, bringing 30,000 acres of 

 land in the upper Columbia valley under irrigation. 

 C. L. Smith, of Spokane, secretary of the Association of 



Commercial Clubs in the Inland Empire, says the land 

 is as fertile as any in the Northwest and that it is 

 capable of producing fruit of size, color and flavor equal 

 to any in the famous Yakima and Wenatchee valleys. 



D. C. Corbin, president of the Washington State 

 Sugar Company, declares that with irrigation works 

 in operation the Spokane valley will support 100,000 

 persons. Mr. Corbin expects to irrigate about 100,000 

 acres the coming year and as there are irrigation pro- 

 jects under way in other parts of the district, the farm- 

 ing population should be increased rapidly in the 

 next few years. 



J. W. Holmes, contractor of Portland, Ore., has 

 gone to Lewiston, Ida., southwest of Spokane, to re- 

 sume work on the Lewiston-Clearwater dam with a 

 70-ton steam shovel. He will work day and night 

 crews on the earth dam, which will be one of the largest 

 of its kind in the country. It is estimated there are 

 yet to move about 700,000 cubic yards of earth, entail- 

 ing a cost of about $150,000, the work to be com- 

 pleted in a year. 



Engineer Jacobs, of the government reclamation 

 service, begun work October 1 on the dam across the 

 Yakima river, West of Spokane, at the intake of the 

 Sunm'side canal. It will be 500 feet long, eight feet 

 high and will cost $30,000. 



The department has called for bids for the con- 

 sideration of a dam at Bumping lake, involving 182,000 

 yards of excavation, 960 cubic yards of concrete masonry 

 and 980 cubic yards of riprap and rock fill. The work 

 will cost approximately $100,000. Bids will be opened 

 by the reclamation service at Portland, Ore., November 

 15. 



A. M. Beck, president of the First National Bank 

 at Lewiston, Ida., Amos McAbee, of Priest River, Ida., 

 and W. G. Chaney, of Spokane, are associated in a 

 project to irrigate the lands in Squaw Creek valley, 

 near North Yakima, Wash., west of Spokane, where 

 they will sink thirty wells to secure water for 5,000 

 acres of land. The ditch work, it is announced, will 

 be completed by January 1, 1907. 



John and Alexander Mathews, of Texas City, 

 Wash., south of Spokane, have put into operation in 

 the Snake River a patented current water wheel, which 

 promises to revolutionize methods of irrigation. Water 

 has been supplied on the farm of W. H. Stuart the 

 last three months with satisfactory results. The 

 wheel is made of steel and is ten feet long with a 

 diameter of six feet. It is supplied with steel flaps 

 which catch the water and propel the wheel, which 

 makes ten revolutions a minute. It pumps a 2-inch 

 miners' stream up seventy feet. The wheel is placed 

 flat upon the surface of the water and is held in place 

 by a wooden frame, which allows the wheel to ad- 

 just itself to the depth of water, It is claimed that a 

 larger wheel will pump water to almost any height. 



H. C. Peters, a capitalist from Puget Sound coun- 

 try, who has bought the rights of the Palouse Ditch 

 Company, is in the country, south of Spokane, to 

 inspect the surveys, and announces that the ditch will 

 be built beginning early next year. The plans show 

 the work is feasible, he says, and when it is carried out 

 thousands of acres of land in the Palouse country 

 will be irrigated. 



The Arcadian Co-Operative Irrigation Company, 

 in which Floyd L. Daggett, mayor of Spokane, and a 

 mimber of Western Washington men are interested, 



