THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



115 



St. Mary Project, Montana. 



Mr. Cyrus C. Babb, engineer in charge of the St. Mary 

 project, Montana, arrived recently in Washington, where he 

 will be in consultation for a few weeks with the department 

 regarding progress of work. 



"This project," said Engineer Babb, "in many particulars 

 has given the Department as much trouble as any of the 

 other irrigation projects now in hand. There are not only 

 engineering stumbling blocks, but legal and international ones 

 as well ,and they are not all settled yet. 



"The area to be reclaimed, from 150,000 to 200,000 acres, 

 is located in the Milk River Valley in northern Montana. 

 The water to irrigate the same will come mostly from the St. 

 Mary River, a stream rising on the eastern slopes of the 

 main range of the Rocky Mountains. 



"Construction work on the 25-mile canal connecting the 

 St. Mary River and Milk River was authorized by the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior just a year ago this month. Specifica- 

 tions were prepared and bids asked for construction, involv- 

 ing the expediture of over a half a million dollars. July 31, 

 the time appointed for opening bids, only one was received, 

 and as it was considered too high by the engineers it was 

 rejected by the Secretary. At the time of rejection the Secre- 

 tary authorized the reclamation engineers to proceed with the 

 construction by day labor and by force account, as it is called. 



"Machinery for this purpose was immediately ordered and 

 purchased. This included two steam shovels, traction engines, 

 dump wagons, steam rock drills, etc. 



"Considerable preliminary work was done during the year 

 sixty miles of telephone line was built. A saw millj planer 

 and matcher were installed at the foot of the St. Mary 

 lakes. Logs for the saw mill were obtained along the upper 

 shores of the lakes on the Lewis and Clarke forest reserve 

 and delivered to the mill, where they were sawed into lumber 

 to be used in the construction work. The St. Mary canal is 

 located on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation, and during the 

 fall the experiment was tried of employing the Indians on the 

 construction of a portion of the canal. 



"The results were fairly satisfactory. The Indians while 

 working with their horses on the scrapers did reasonably well. 

 Their horses were hardly heavy enough, however, for plough 

 teams. It was also difficult to get them to work as plough 

 and scraper holders. The Reclamation Service was handi- 

 capped in not having experienced foremen who had been 

 on extensive canal work before and who at the same time 

 could handle the Indians. 



"The Indians are strictly up-to-date people, for in the 

 middle of the day they all went on a strike for higher wages. 

 They were working the regular eight-hour day. The strikers 

 threatened those that wanted to continue the work 'that their 

 homes would be torn to pieces, their horses run off, etc. A 

 conference was held between the engineers and the principal 

 chiefs. They were shown that the work was given to them 

 mainly for their benefit; that if they would not go back to 

 work white help from the outside would be obtained. A 

 slight increase in wages was allowed. 



"The Indians finally went back to work, but shortly after- 

 ward they began to drop off gradually and go home. Cold 

 weather was setting in and they could not be held. Nego- 

 tiations are now on foot with certain railroad contractors 

 for the construction of the upper fifteen miles of canal by 

 contract. 



"Lower Milk River Valley in. Montana is well adapted 

 to irrigation if a sufficient supply of water at all times could 

 be obtained. 



"In the vicinity of Chinook and Harlem are some small 

 irrigation canals that during certain years net their owners 

 good profits. 



"For instance in 1905 a number of the ranchers under the 

 Harlem canal average three tons of hay per acre on 160 

 acres of land. The hay sold from $10 to $15 a ton. The 

 net receipts were from $4,000 to $5,000. One rancher there 

 with about 1,000 acres under cultivation netted over $25,000. 

 These are results that can be obtained in the Milk River 

 Valley in Montana under irrigatiop. The principal crops 

 now are hay, oats, potatoes and other hardier vegetables. 

 Very extensive grazing areas are located both north and 

 south of the valley. The Great Northern Railroad traverses 

 the entire length of the valley." 



The Roosevelt Dam. 



"The great gates for the Roosevelt dam, Salt River irri- 

 gation project, Arizona, are on the ground and ready to be 

 installed as soon as the water permits," said Mr. Louis C. Hill 

 of the United Reclamation Service this morning. Mr. 

 Hill, who is supervising engineer for Arizona and southern 

 California, is in the Washington office for a few days on busi- 

 ness. The Salt River project in Arizona, which is now in 

 course of construction, is already world-famous for its won- 

 derful engineering features and the new and unique devices 

 which have been introduced. The gates, which are to be 

 installed in the tunnel driven around. the dam for the purpose 

 of regulating the flow from the reservoir in accordance with 

 the needs of the irrigators in the valley some seventy miles 

 below, were designed by Engineer F. H. Teichmann. 



"There are six gates," said Mr. Hill, "arranged in pairs, 

 so that it is necessary for two gates to fall at once in order 

 to prevent the operation of the system. Each gate covers an 

 opening about 5x10 feet and operates under a pressure of 

 about 800,000 pounds. They are the largest gates in the 

 world operating under a head that anywhere near approaches 

 this figure. 



"On account of the salt contained in the water it has 

 been necessary to make all faces in contact and the rollers 

 on which the gate operates of special bronze, in order to sus- 

 tain the enormous pressure. A large number of experiments 

 were made to determine a bronze of suitable composition. 

 After the composition had been selected it was necessary to 

 increase its strength by hammering the face under a heavy 

 steam hammer. 



"A unique lifting device for operating the gates .was 

 designed by O. H. Ensign, electrical expert. It consists 

 of hydraulic cylinders operating under a pressure of 700 

 pounds per square inch, the operating mechanism being han- 

 dled from the power house several hundred feet from the 

 gates by means of electric motors operating the necessary 

 valves. The position of the gates at any time is indicated 

 to the nearest inch by an indicating device at the switch- 

 board in the power house, so that at any time by a glance at 

 the indicator the superintendent in charge can tell the position 

 of the gates and the quantity of water flowing through. 



"These gates were manufactured by the Llewellyn Iron 

 Works, Los Angeles, Cal., shipped by rail to Mesa, and then 

 hauled by wagons sixty miles to the dam. A large number 

 of pieces weigh about 16,000 to 20,000 pounds, and special 

 wagons were necessary to transport them. It was necessary 

 to use sixteen to twenty-two animals in order to haul these 

 loads up the heavy grades. 



"When the machinery reached the dam it was unloaded 

 by the great cableways used in the construction of the dam, 

 and carried by the cableways to the mouth of the shaft just 

 above the location of the gates in the tunnel. Here derricks 

 handle the machinery, letting it down the shaft to the chamber 

 built to receive it 100 feet below. 



"As soon as the present flood is over the tunnel will be 

 closed at each end and the work of erecting the gates will 

 be begun. During the time these gates are being placed in 

 position the entire river will flow over the Roosevelt dam and 

 the contractors will practically have to cease work." 



The Secretary of the Interior is asking for proposals for 

 building the Pathfinder dyke situated about forty-five miles 

 southeast of Casper, Wyo., and involving 170,000 cubic yards 

 of earth excavation and 16,000 cubic yards of rip rap. 



Sealed bids will be received at the office of the United 

 States Reclamation Service, at Crawford, Neb., until 2 p. m., 

 February 27. The engineer at Crawford will furnish all 

 particulars. 



The Secretary of the Interior today awarded a contract 

 to the Expanded Metal and Corrugated Bar Company, of St. 

 Louis, Mo., for furnishing 1,800,000 pounds of steel bars for 

 reinforcing concrete in connection with the Tieton project in 

 Washington. 



The bid of the above firm was $38,315.99. 







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 copies of Irrigation Age m ailed, 



