THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



139 



from these plans and purposes fully realized, we may 

 well conjecture what will be the status of the citizen- 

 ship of Colorado and of all the other Western states. 

 That a very large percentage of the area of these 

 reserves could not be classed as forest by any sane 

 mind; that an exceedingly small percentage only could 

 in any wise serve to conserve waters for our streams; 

 that the factor of growth or reproduction of our for- 

 ests is of very doubtful practicability; that the fea- 

 ture of protecting the forests while but little needed 

 at most has grown to be but a mere incident in con- 

 nection with the business or administration of these 

 lands ; that the leasing of the grazing lands, coal lands 

 and doubtless later all mineral lands, and in fact the 

 entire public domain except such occasional pieces as 

 the service may choose to adjudge suitable for farming 

 purposes is but the outgrowth and expansion of the 



THE PRACTICAL DESIGN OF IRRIGATION WORKS, by W. G. 

 Bligh (D. Van Nostrand & Co., New York), is a work which 

 fills a want long felt by a number of engineers of high stand- 

 ing, who have in late years been called upon to take up the 

 design and construction of important irrigation works. It 

 should also prove a valuable and interesting reference work 

 to those trained in irrigation work. The author's experience 

 under the Italian government, and his travels in Egypt, Amer- 

 ica and other countries where irrigation is practiced make him 

 a competent critic in this branch 'of the engineering pro- 

 fession. 



The author takes up and treats separately each branch of 

 the construction of irrigation works, gives complete rules 

 and formula? in very case, using profusely, drawings and cuts 

 to illustrate his text. His chapter on "Weirs" is the first 

 instance in which we have seen weirs treated separately from 

 dams, which is a real improvement in this work over others 

 similar to it, the two structures being, in practice, independent 

 of each other and often entirely different in construction. 



The author gives some very clear and concise criticisms 

 on various works, in each case explaining his criticism fully, 



TURKEY DAY AT MAYWOOD COLONY (CORNING, CALIFORNIA). 



Corning enjoys the distinction of being, by far, the biggest turkey shipping station in California. Turkey herds range from 500 to 2,500. 

 Average selling price at Corning, Plucked and drawn, is 24c a pound. The turkey is an 8-month crop and highly profitable. 



forest reserve regime and an extension of that ob- 

 noxious landlordism over nearly the entire West are 

 facts which, when clearly understood, cannot fail to 

 arouse the stubborn resentment of every true Ameri- 

 can, be he of the East or of the West. 



The soil of this state and all its appurtenances 

 should go to the people of the state, as "has been the 

 case in the other states. If the conditions pertaining 

 to the productiveness of the soil are different, those 

 different conditions should be met by giving the settler 

 an equivalent, and instead of 160 acres, let it be 1,600 

 or at least a sufficiency; only possess the people of the 

 state with their rightful ownership of the soil, and 

 permit our citizens to be the owners of their homes, 

 not tenants ; and banish from us forever the curse of 

 foreign landlordism. To make a good citizen and a 

 patriot, let him be the owner of the soil an American 

 of America. 



and where he finds fault with construction or design gives a 

 practical solution of the difficulty according to his ideas. His 

 criticisms on the Shoshone dam and the Minidoka canal head 

 regulator should attract those interested in the construction 

 of works of their class. W. T. LOVF.LL. 



We wonder how it is that the department is so 

 severe on the country papers and will not allow them 

 to give a friend a copy regularly and send it through 

 the mails, when they are allowing the forestry bureau 

 to send out franks to every newspaper in the country 

 for transmission to the Washington office copies of 

 papers containing puffs of the service? That is just a 

 stinking little pieec of .swelled head business, and we 

 opine that there is no warrant in law for the distribu- 

 tion of these franks. The Irrigator would like to call 

 the attention of Senator Fulton to the matter, and 

 ask him where there is anv statute giving such an 

 abuse of the franking privilege to any man, or any 

 set of men ? Oregon Irrigator. 



