THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



169 



Meldram, former surveyor general of Oregon, being 

 a Tartar whom they ran against. We have mentioned 

 Mr. Heney heretofore as a man whose zeal and ambition 

 for success subordinates his sense of justice to the citi- 

 zen. 



Further evidence in the case seems to indicate that 

 advance information was in Mr. Hermann's possession, 

 as to the limitations of a contemplated forest reserve. 

 How he obtained the information is not explained, but 

 it was brought out that he possessed it, and that he 

 advised "friends who understood" that to acquire leases 

 upon worthless lands to be included would enable them 

 to make an exchange, after the reserve was created, for 

 valuable "lieu lands" outside. Advance information, 

 leaking from the forestry department, apparently 

 proved a most valuable factor in aiding in the pillage 

 of our American forests. 



A news item of March 21 says: "Five carloads of 

 land seekers left Lincoln, Neb., last night for the North- 

 west Territory (Canada) and Burlington officials state 

 they can hardly secure cars for the crowds going thence." 

 Yet in the sand hill area of Nebraska 97 per cent of the 

 claimants have abandoned their section homesteads be- 

 cause of unreasonable restrictions and spies, and the 

 famous North Platte Valley only fourteen hours from 

 Denver and eighteen hours from Omaha is calling for 

 settlers and paying unheard of wages for men to aid 

 in the construction of her immense irrigation works. 



And here in the West is a territory, as large ap- 

 proximately as all the United States east of the Mis- 

 sissippi, upon which settlement is denied. Mr. Pinchot 

 has felt called upon to make a defense of this segrega- 

 tion, and a supply of his photographs with his explana- 

 tions that do not explain, have been published broad- 

 cast, especially in those parts of the United States least 

 affected. The inconsistencies are too apparent to those 

 who have an acquaintance with local conditions. 



"Only those lands chiefly valuable for the produc- 

 tion of timber, or the protection of waterflow are in- 

 cluded in national forests," is an illustration, for in 

 the West it is known that millions upon millions of 

 acres included in forest reserves are as barren of timber 

 and timber possibilities as the peaks of the Hymalayas. 

 We also know that the act of June 11, 1906, to which 

 he refers, is a joke as a home-maker, for red tape and 

 humiliation imposed are beyond that which most of us 

 will probably endure. 



And the carefully fostered opinion molding, that 

 the men who attacked the land and forestry poli- 

 cies, as they have been recently administered, are in- 

 spired by any except the purest motives, is a new and 

 rare function of government. Assassination of charac- 



ter, spies, suspicion they are fitting companions. One 

 who is under the shadow of the great gambling institu- 

 tion, the Stock Exchange, sees sinister things in all 

 the world, but Carters, Heyburns, Mondells, Rosses, 

 Goudys and their kind possess intelligence nurtured in 

 fairer climes. The balsam laden atmosphere of the 

 West makes statesmen ; and attacks of penny-a-liners or 

 bureaucratic two-by-fours alike will prove unavailing. 



GOVERNMENT BUYING CANALS. 



Phoenix, Ariz., March 29. It is now understood 

 that the Grand, Maricopa and Salt River Valley canals, 

 on the northern side of the Salt River Valley, will pass 

 into the control of the reclamation service on May 15. 

 The Arizona canal will be joined under the same man- 

 agement at a later date. The larger part of the money 

 paid by the government for the north side canals has 

 gone to the Arizona Water Company, which held a 

 large majority of the stock of the several corporations. 

 The minority stockholders, nearly all farmers, will re- 

 ceive $78,000. This sum is now on hand in the local 

 offices of the reclamation service, in the shape of indi- 

 vidual checks, and will be turned over by Engineer in 

 Charge Hill. 



In a way the reclamation service already is in con- 

 trol on the Arizona Canal, as Engineer Hill has started 

 work with about 100 men on an enlargement of the 

 waterway to a capacity for at least 80,000 miners' 

 inches. At the present time it is doubtful if it would 

 carry half of its rated capacity of 40,000 inches. The 

 work now being done is above the Granite Reef diversion 

 dam site, with the expectation that the great canal will 

 be utilized to carry the flow of the river at low and 

 medium stages around the construction works in the 

 river bed. Real estate prices have jumped with the pros- 

 pect of assured irrigating water, and farming lands are 

 now rated at twice the prices asked last year. 



A NEW SPRAYING CALENDAR. 



The experiment station of the Iowa State College 

 has just issued Bulletin No. 89, which is a spraying 

 calendar dealing with orchard and farm crops' enemies. 

 It treats of the various fungus diseases and insect pests 

 of the orchard and smuts of barley, wheat and oats. 

 The various formaula have all been tried and can be 

 safely used. Some of these are for the use of bordeaux 

 mixture, paris green, the various arsenical poisons, kero- 

 sene emulsions and the formalin treatment of wheat 

 and oats. In every case they have been tried and there- 

 fore can be safely used with benefit. 



This bulletin may be obtained by applying to C. F. 

 Curtiss, director of experiment station, Ames, Iowa. 



Send $2*50 for The Irrigation 



Age one year and 

 The Primer of Irrigation 



