330 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Irrigation Congress is each year doing more and more 

 toward formulating public opinion and in directing the 

 course of our national legislature. There can be but 

 one result from a gathering of this kind, formed of 

 highly intelligent and influential citizens whose utter- 

 ances are. the result of years of experience and study, 

 and that is to bring about a reformation or betterment 

 in the practice of reclamation. The national govern- 

 ment must of necessity take heed of the ideas promul- 

 gated in the institution and where necessary modify 

 existing laws or revise the method of administering 

 them. Each session of the congress more strongly em- 

 phasizes the fact that it is becoming a critical body and 

 that it is a chautauqua whose expressions are to be the 

 governing and guiding principles of reclamation work 

 both national and private. No better example of this 

 can be had than the Fifteenth Congress just ended. 



As the great districts of the arid west are 

 Storage of being constantly reclaimed irrigationists 

 Water. are realizing more and more the necessity 



for storing and conserving the flood wa- 

 ters for irrigation purposes. This has become such a 

 prominent part of the work that engineers are now 

 turning their attention more to the laying out of plans 

 for reservoirs and the means of bringing water into 

 them than to taking water from streams. The time is 

 past when the irrigation farmer depends upon the rivers 

 to fill his ditches. He now looks for property which is 

 irrigated from reservoirs where are stored the waters 

 which formerly swept down the valleys in the early 

 spring and fall. And this system of reservoirs is in 

 many ways superior to the manner of obtaining water 

 from streams. It does away with the litigation incident 

 to the taking of water from rivers and streams, especially 

 where two or more companies are receiving their supply 

 from the same source, no question of priority being in- 

 volved. It also does away with the danger from wash- 

 out -from spring floods and should a season of drouth 

 come and the streams run dry the agriculturist is as- 

 sured of his water supply. The construction of these 

 reservoirs must of necessity be a matter of private enter- 

 prise for some years to come. It is true that the national 

 government has taken some action in the matter but 

 the practical development of national enterprises is al- 

 ways slow and looks more to the development of new 

 areas than to the adoption of measures to better the 

 conditions' of already partially developed regions. So 

 the onus of the work falls on the private corporation in 

 cases where river supply has already done something 

 toward the reclamation of a section. It is indeed doubt- 

 ful if any section has developed its irrigation possibili- 

 ties to their full capacity and the only way in which it 

 can be done is by the construction of reservoirs for -the 

 conservation of the waters which now go to waste. 



There are at the present time many fertile districts 

 still barren which can be reclaimed by the application 

 of water; but the only way in which water can be put 

 on the land is by the saving of the rainfall in the flood 

 times of the year and the application of it when need- 

 ful. Probably no section of the United States better 

 illustrated what may be done by the impounding of 

 water than the northern part of Colorado. This sec- 

 tion has proved as fertile as any in the world and was 

 the first section of the state to be irrigated. As the 

 number of settlers increased each year it was found that 

 the water supply of the streams was insufficient, so the 

 construction of reservoirs was begun. The number of 

 these has increased each year and they proved the salva- 

 tion of a large acreage which otherwise could not have 

 been reclaimed. The reservoirs are filled during the 

 non-irrigating season from October until May and 

 when the streams run dry in the hot summer months 

 the waters from the reservoirs can be easily applied. 

 The prediction that the future of irrigation lies in the 

 conserving of the water supply is undoubtedly true. 



The Sunnyside, Wash., Water Users' As- 

 Sunnyside sociation has presented to Secretary of 

 Valley the Interior Garfield a memorial setting 



Memorial. forth the ideas of that association as re- 

 gards the Sunnyside irrigation project 

 now under way. It is needless to say the memorial also 

 voices the grievances of the settlers and members of the 

 association. There are seven paragraphs of which con- 

 sideration is asked. Practically all the land \inder the 

 project is private property and it is shown that the con- 

 ditions of irrigating the public domain do not obtain. 

 Nor is there any shortage of water which the government 

 has been asked to remedy. It was understood when the 

 water users' association was formed in 1906 that the 

 government would install pumping plants to water cer- 

 tain lands lying below gravity flow. Now the engineers 

 in charge of the project have apparently seen fit to 

 decide that no pumping plants would be installed and 

 have told the settlers that the only way to obtain such 

 plants was to club together and construct them, leasing 

 the water right from the government. The association 

 maintains that the settlers are not financially in a posi- 

 tion to do this and that the erection of plants can only 

 be made by capitalists or corporations who can then 

 charge settlers an extortionate price for water. The 

 second point brought out by the memorial is in regard to 

 the laterals. It was understood that the government 

 would pursue a policy of building and maintaining (or 

 of maintaining where already built) a system of laterals 

 leading to or as nearly as possible to each forty-acre 

 tract. On the lands possessing water rights from the old 

 company it would not be economical or feasible to 

 build new laterals nor would it be an easy matter to pro- 

 portion the cost of laterals on the new lands among the 



