8 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



In a recent letter from Prof. L. G. Car- 

 Professor penter of Colorado, he informs us that the 

 Carpenter. reason he could not be present at the Irri- 

 gation Congress which convened at Sacra- 

 mento, Cal., was that he had been in some of the remote 

 parts of British Columbia, and in order to get back 

 to his work in Colorado, could not get around in time 

 for the congress. 



Professor Carpenter was missed in the delibera- 

 tions of the congress and it is hoped that he may not 

 become so closely identified with Canadian interests as 

 to keep him over the line for any considerable period of 

 time. He states that distances -are great in British 

 Columbia, and that possibilities there in an agricultural 

 and irrigation way are remarkable. 



the San Luis valley attain its greatest efficiency in hog 

 raising, and also take its place as the leading hog raising 

 district in the United States. 



The San Luis valley is indeed "the hog 

 "The man's Klondike," as a circular recently 



Hog Man's issued by the Denver & Rio Grand railway 

 Klondike." chooses to call it. Each season is wit- 

 nessing a large increase in the fattening 

 of hogs in the valley and there will continue to be an 

 increase for several years to come. The cause of this 

 is of course the ease, rapidity and fattening capacity of 

 barley and the field pea. Last season there were about 

 40,000 hogs fed .in the valley ; this year there will be at 

 least 75,000, while an estimate of 100,000 would not be 

 far out of the way. The production of an acre of 

 barley costs just about one-half of what an acre of corn 

 does and will fatten one-third more hogs. The cost of 

 production of an acre of peas does not exceed $1.50, only 

 aboiit a fifth of what it costs to cultivate an acre of corn, 

 and a fourth more hogs can be fattened on the produce 

 from the same amount of ground. Pea-fed hogs are 

 becoming famous throughout the country for the ex- 

 cellent quality of the bacon. It was not more than two 

 months ago that representatives of one of the largest 

 packing houses in the United States looked over the 

 San Luis valley to see if it would pay them to under- 

 take to turn out pea-fed hams and bacon. It would re- 

 quire, they stated, an annual purchase of 100,000 hogs 

 to make it a paying investment distributed over a period 

 of nine months. At the present time the selling of hogs 

 does not cover more than five months and should it be- 

 come essential to carry them through nine months it 

 would require extra labor and extra expense in the 

 harvesting of the pea vines for hay as the fields do not 

 last more than the five months. Even at that, hog rais- 

 ing in the valley would be immensely profitable. But 

 it will never reach its full capacity until there are bet- 

 ter transportation facilities. Hogs cannot at the present 

 time be raised a great distance from the railroad as the 

 shrinkage in transporting them eats up all the profits 

 and the greater part of the valley is untouched by a 

 railroad at the present time. When the contemplated 

 railroad extensions are made then mav we look to see 



The development boom in the far West 

 Seriously is giving the Reclamation Service a good 

 Handicapped, deal of concern at the present time. 



With every part of the intermountain 

 country enjoying a remarkable building boom, the 

 government finds itself seriously handicapped by its 

 inability to secure reasonable bids for constructing its 

 big irrigation works. The large contractors are all 

 loaded up with railroad work which wifi occupy their 

 attention for many months to come, while smaller con- 

 tractors have all they can possibly do to take care of 

 the local demands of cities and towns. 



Many of the contracts of the government have been 

 advertised several times without securing reasonable 

 bids. The government is confronted with the proposi- 

 tion of doing the work by force account or of postponing 

 it until there is an improvement in conditions. The 

 present time is most unpropitious for the government to 

 undertake doing the work itself. There is an unusual 

 scarcity of labor. Wages are from 40 to 60 per cent 

 higher than two years ago, while efficiency has been de- 

 creased rather than improved by the unlimited demand 

 for laborers. Owing to the remoteness of much of the 

 government work from cities and towns, labor is not 

 attracted thereto, and as a rule the government gets 

 only the leavings or the most undesirable class of labor- 

 ers. The steady and skillful workers are all busy. 



The costs of all kinds of material has increased 

 enormously. Take cement, for instance, which enters 

 so large in the construction of dams and headworks, 

 and for which the government is asking for hundreds of 

 thousands of barrels, it has been compelled to accept 

 bids at prices nearly double those paid two years ago. 

 Even at the present high price only a few manufacturers 

 are competing, and today the cement required for 

 Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas is shipped 

 from Chicago. 



Lumber has nearly doubled in price, and horses and 

 mules now cost fully twice what they did three years 

 ago. 



As an illustration of the material increase in the 

 cost of construction the following examples are cited; 

 In 1904 and 1905 the average cost of earthwork exca- 

 vation was about 13 cents per yard, and the contractor 

 executed the contract and furnished the required bond. 

 When he came to secure the necessary machinery, ani- 

 mals and labor, he found the work would cost so much 

 more than his bid that he threw up his bid and forfeited 

 his bond. On readvertisement the contract was again 

 let at 24 cents per yard, and the contractor is said to be 

 losing money at this price. ^3 



