THE IRRIGATION AGE 



VOL. XXII 



CHICAGO, JANUARY, 1907. 



No. 3 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



With which is Merged 



MODERN IRRIGATION THE DRAINAGE JOURNAL 



THE IRRIGATION ERA MID-WEST 



ARID AMERICA THE FARM HERALD 



THE D. H. ANDERSON PUBLISHING CO., 

 PUBLISHERS, 



112 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 



Entered at the Postoffice at Chicago, III., as Second-Class Matter. 



D. H. ANDERSON, Editor 



W. J. ANDERSON .. G. L. SHUMWAY 



Associate Editors 



ANNOUNCEMENT. 



"The Primer of Irrigation" is now ready for delivery. Price, 

 $2.00. If ordered in connection with subscription, the price is $1.50. 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE. 



To United States Subscribers, Postage Paid, f 1.00 



To Canada and Mexico 1.00 



All Other Foreign Countries 1.50 



In forwarding remittances please do not send checks on local banks. 

 Send either postoffice or express money order or Chicago or New York 

 draft. 



Official organ of the American Irrigation Federation. 

 Office of the Secretary, 309 Boyce Building, Chicago. 



Interesting to Advertisers. 



It may interest advertisers to know that The Irrigation Age is the 

 only publication in the world having an actual paid in advance 

 circulation among individual irrigators and large irrigation corpo- 

 rations. It is read regularly by all interested in this subject and has 

 readers in all parts of the world. The Irrigation Age is 22 yean 

 old and is the pioneer publication of its class in the world. 



Snake River 

 Valley. 



The three principal bodies of land capable 

 of irrigation in the Snake Eiver Valley of 

 Idaho make the grand total of about 

 2,050,000 acres. When reclaimed and 

 fully improved they will have an average value of at 

 least $50 an acre, or over $100,000,000, and can sus- 

 tain a population of 1,600,000 people in comfort all 

 the inhabitants of Nebraska. The climate of these 

 lands is fine, and Idaho is going to be one of the most 

 attractive home states in the West. 



Speaking of the national reclamation 

 Not Yet service now being conducted in more than 



Too Late. a dozen states and territories, under the 



direction of the United States Geological 

 Survey, Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada has 

 said: "The work has been done with quickness, with 

 efficiency, and with honesty; not a breath of scandal 

 thus far has tainted any of the work entered upon." 

 The reclamation fund collected has exceeded $30,000,- 

 000, and the results accomplished have been of great 

 benefit to the entire nation, but they are quite limited in. 

 comparison with the total to be realized when all the 

 projects now contemplated are fully developed. Senator 

 Newlands and many others see in this successful man- 

 agement of this public service by the Nation a warrant 

 for extending similar scientific direction of the gov- 

 ernment to its coal and other mines not lawfully ap- 

 propriated, and to the public timber domain. Had this 

 plan been done years ago the government would proba- 

 bly now realize enough revenue ' therefrom to bear a 

 large share, if not all, of its expenses. 



About 700,000 acres of land have been, 

 Washington- or are p ro j ec t e( j to be, irrigated in the 



, . - , states of Washington and Oregon, and it 

 is probable that in time the aggregate 

 will be 1,000,000 acres or more. The principal problem 

 is to make storage reservoirs, as the minimum flowage of 

 the supply streams is generally fully appropriated now. 

 But during the flush periods enough water wastes 

 down the river channels to reclaim all the land tribu- 

 tary to the streams capable of overflow by gravity 

 methods. These storage reservoirs are necessarily of 

 vast capacity and great cost and only through the 

 great good fortune of the National Reclamation serv- 

 ice will many of them be possible. Many of these en- 

 terprises will be described in detail from time to time 

 in THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



It may sound like "boom talk" to many 

 Not Boom who are not familiar with irrigated lands 

 Talk. to say that those who seek new homes 



can find some of the best opportunities 

 offered anywhere in America in the regions where the 

 rainfall is too light for successful farming and where 

 crops must be made by flowage from canals and ditches. 

 But the assertion is true, decidedly so. Almost with- 

 out exception irrigated soils are very strong and fer- 

 tile. By turning on the water just where the crops 

 need moisture their development goes forward un- 

 checked to maturity. The result is high-grade grains, 

 rich and luxuriant grasses and some of the most per- 

 fect fruits grown anywhere in the United States. 

 Where the water supply is sufficient crop failures are 



