THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



369 



species of adobe soil that does not wash. The banks are 

 in as good shape now as they ever were. Superintendent 

 Jones states that he has seen water in a flood time going 

 over the bank of the ditch two feet deep and all the 

 bridges and culverts in the vicinity were taken out by 

 the flood. Yet when the water subsided the bank was 

 as sound and large as it had been before the overflow. 

 There is but little water lost by seepage after it is once 

 fairly started, the bottom being covered by a deposit of 

 slime and weeds, which forms while wet a "non-conduct- 

 ing" cover for the ditch bottom and sides. Of course, 

 there is the usual amount of water lost by evaporation, 

 but even that is a comparatively small amount. It is 

 estimated that when the water is running freely between 

 the dam and the reservoir that the total loss by seepage 

 and evaporation in the whole distance of thirty-five miles 

 is less than ten per cent. 



The Denver Suburban Homes & Water Company is 

 contemplating the construction of another large reser- 

 voir near Clark reservoir in order to enlarge its storage 

 capacity and has planned extensive improvements on 

 other reservoirs. Already .men are at work deepening 

 and enlarging the reservoir directly back of Mr. Jones' 

 home, on section sixteen, and when this work is com- 

 pleted the crew will be set at work on the other reser- 



One of the Flumes on Main Canal. 



voirs. It is also planned to replace one or more of the 

 flumes upon which the effects of the weather are begin- 

 ning to be seen, with pipe. Later in the season some 

 250 feet of the receiving end of what is known as the 

 Xoonan pipe line, the longest on the canal, will be re- 

 newed. 



There is no doubt but what the project under the 

 superior management of Mr. Jones has a successful fu- 

 ture before it. The soil is as fertile and productive as 

 any to be found in the State. I traveled over the entire 

 project thoroughly several times and nowhere was there 

 to be seen the least trace of alkali, and there is little 

 danger of developing it by over-irrigation. It is a well 

 known fact that newly-broken land upon which sage- 

 brush has been growing takes longer by two years to 

 reach as high a state of cultivation as does land on 

 which cactus alone grows. That is to say, land growing 

 cactus alone will produce as imich the first year after 

 reclamation as will land growing sagebrush the third 

 year after it has been broken and cultivated. The rea- 

 son for this is that sagebrush takes from the soil the 

 elements needed for raising crops, and the land must be 

 replenished before it reaches a high state of cultivation. 

 Cactus does not have this impoverishing effect. There 

 is no sagebrush on Clark colony land, nor on any of the 

 land along the canal. 



Of course, there are a few men fanning in Clark 

 colony on forty and eighty-acre tracts who are not mak- 

 ing it a profitable industry. But most of them are the 

 kind who would not make a success of agriculture any- 

 where the men who do not plow deep enough and whose 

 theory and working ideal is that crops should grow by 

 irrigation alone, and consequently they do not cultivate. 



Showing Construction of Pipe Line. 



But the man who goes at it scientifically and conscien- 

 tiously can undoubtedly "make good" on five or ten 

 acres. Unfortunately this year there was a shortage of 

 water owing to the fact that repairs were made on the 

 dam last fall, and while the work was being done it was 

 necessary to allow the water to flow through without 

 storing it. Then followed a "dry" winter, with little 

 snow, and there was insufficient water came down to fill 

 the lake. This was the first year in the four that Mr". 

 Jones has had charge of the property that a shortage has 

 occurred, and it is really almost a miracle what he has 



Where Cherry Creek Enters Castlewood Lake. 



been able to do by careful application of what little 

 water there was. Every farmer in the colony is able to 

 get water by eight o'clock in the morning during the ir- 

 rigation season, and it runs for him if he wishes it for_a 

 period of ten hours. As can be imagined, this system 

 requires a whole lot of attention. Mr. Jones starts out 

 to open the headgates at 3 :30 every morning. He trav- 

 els twenty miles or more before breakfast and then 

 starts on the same trip again, for the failings of the hu- 

 man race in general, especially the itching to get some- 

 thing for nothing, or even more of something than one 



