230 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



trict, irrigation and drainage investigations. The 

 pamphlet contains some sixty pages, exclusive of illus- 

 trations. The investigations and experiments have 

 been carried on for several years by the office of experi- 

 ment stations in co-operation with the state of Cali- 

 fornia. The plan followed in determining the rate 

 and amount of evaporation from soil surface was to 

 remove from a field 300 to 1,300 pounds of soil, place 

 it in a vessel as nearly as practicable in its natural 

 position, and by periodical weighings ascertain the loss 

 of moisture from the soil. The belief that soil should 

 be cultivated after it is irrigated is general among 

 western farmers and orchardists. By cultivation the 

 condition of the soil is improved and the available 

 moisture conserved, and the main purpose of Mr. For- 

 tier's experiments was to determine how much water 

 is lost by neglecting to cultivate after each irrigation. 

 It was arranged so as to bring out two points: (1) The 

 amount of water evaporated from the surface of soil 

 from the time water is first applied until it is fit to 

 cultivate, and (2) the losses by evaporation from culti- 

 vated and uncultivated soils which have been previously 

 irrigated. 



The conclusions reached are helpful as well as in- 

 teresting. The experiments showed that the conditions 

 having the greatest influence on evaporation from soils 

 are the quantity of water in the top soil, the temperature 

 of the soil and water, and the wind movement, and all 

 of these can be controlled to a large extent by the meth- 

 ods of applying water and by subsequent cultivation of 

 the soil. The application of the water in such a way 

 as not to wet the top soil decreases the quantity of water 

 in the top layer, and at the same time places the moist- 

 ure in the soil beyond the influence of wind movements, 

 and, to a considerable extent, beyond the influence of 

 the high temperatures of unusually hot days. The daily 

 variations in temperature almost disappear at a depth 

 of 1 foot, the decrease in temperature from the surface 

 down being very rapid on hot days. Saving may be had 

 by applying water at night, when the surface soil is 

 cool ; by applying it at sufficient depths to keep it from 

 coming in contact with the hot surface layer of soil, 

 and by frequent cultivation to maintain a mulch of 

 loose soil, which will prevent the excessive heat of sum- 

 mer reaching the moist soil, as well as destroying capil- 

 larity. 



The east is becoming more and more alive 

 Asked to to the possibilities of irrigation. A strik- 

 Encourage i Q g example of this fact is the speech of 

 Irrigation. President James W. Van Cleave of St. 



Louis on May 22 to the 1,200 delegates 

 to the annual convention of the National Association of 

 Manufacturers in New York. He declared the govern- 

 ment's irrigation projects in the west to be among the 

 nation's most important duties. 



"We can all see now that the national irrigation 

 law of 1902 bids fair to confer as vast benefit upon the 

 American people as did the free homes act which Presi- 

 dent Lincoln signed in 1862. Some of these benefits 

 have appeared already. Our reclamation service has dug 

 canals which would stretch from New York to (jalves- 

 ton, Texas, or to Lincoln, Neb. It has built 100 miles 

 of railway and has set up eight new towns', with 10,000 

 inhabitants, in what had been a desert. 



"Moreover, the work has just begun. Surveys have 

 been made covering an area as great as Massachusetts 

 and Connecticut. That region will soon be dotted with 

 the homes of resourceful and prosperous Americans. 

 The area which will be reclaimed will afford homes for 

 10,000,000 people. The members of this association 

 have a vital interest in this addition to our wealth and 

 power." 



Within the past month western papers 

 The Kansas- have devoted considerable space to the 

 Colorado decision of the United States supreme 



Decision. court as handed down in the opinion of 



Justice Brewer in the Kansas-Colorado 

 case. The suit was brought by the state of Kansas to 

 restrain the citizens of Colorado from diverting the 

 waters of the Arkansas river for purposes of irrigation, 

 the complainant alleging that numerous irrigation 

 ditches in Colorado had so reduced the volume of water 

 as to render a once navigable stream almost dry; to 

 diminish the manufacturing power; to lower by about 

 5 feet the surface of the stream and entirely cut off 

 water for irrigation in western Kansas. The reply of 

 Colorado was that it had exclusive right to the waters 

 flowing through the state, and refused to acknowledge 

 the navigability of the Arkansas at any time. 



The decision of the court is essentially a victory 

 for the defendant state, although it was found that the 

 flow of water into Kansas had been diminished, and that 

 portions of the Arkansas river valley had suffered. To 

 more than offset this loss is the fact that the diversion 

 of the waters has transformed large areas of Colorado's 

 lands from barren wastes to fertile fields. The amount 

 of water which Colorado may use, however, is limited 

 and the suit is dismissed "without prejudice to tne 

 right of the plaintiff to institute new proceedings when- 

 ever it shall appear that through a material increase in 

 the depletion of the waters of the Arkansas by Colorado 

 its corporations or citizens, the substantial interests of 

 Kansas are being injured to the extent of destroying 

 the equitable apportionment of benefits between the 

 two states resulting from the flow of the river." 



The most important feature of the decision, how- 

 ever, is the intimation that the national reclamation act, 

 under which the government is now spending some 



