142 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



must be expressed in a moneyed valuation reaching at least 

 a hundred million of dollars, which will assuredly justify the 

 cost of the work required to bring about these results. It 

 should, moreover, be considered that, while the estimated cost 

 of all the work, if suddenly imposed on the country, would 

 prove a burden too heavy to be borne, yet, when distributed, 

 as it can and ought to be, over a series of years, the load, 

 while endurable at the beginning, will continually grow lighter 

 as the improvement progresses." 



In 1906 Mr. Nurse, acting as engineer of the department 

 of public works, prepared a report to the governor of Cal- 

 ifornia which contained so many points pertinent to the sub- 

 ject under discussion that we cannot refrain from quoting a 

 few paragraphs: 



"Importance of River Improvement. California's devel- 

 opment and prosperity are particularly dependent upon the 

 systematic improvement of her navigable waterways, not 

 alone as a protection against excessive transportation charges, 

 for products and supplies by improved commercial facilities, 

 but as the essential factor in the reclamation of over 1,000,000 

 acres of extremely fertile land and placing it in a position of 

 assured safety from overflow. 



"The great central valley of California consists of a de- 

 pression between the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range moun- 

 tains nearly 400 miles in length and about 35 miles in width. 



"The plains land of smooth surface within this depres- 

 sion aggregates fully 14,000 square miles, about fifteen per 

 cent of which was subject to overflow before operations for 

 reclamation and drainage were begun. 



"The marvellous fertility of the irrigated and reclaimed 

 portions of these lands, built up from 'an agricultural cream 

 washed from the bordering mountains,' has been demonstrated 

 in long-continued and astounding productiveness. 



"Nature has liberally blessed California in providing 

 waterways for the interchange of commodities and the cheap 

 transportation of her products from this vast area. 



"The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, the drainage 

 ways of this great interior valley, have navigable lengths of 

 about 260 miles for the Sacramento from the north, and 

 about 200 miles for the San Joaquin from the south, to a 

 common outfall in Suisun, San Pablo and San Francisco bays. 



"Skirting these great bays are navigable estuaries and 

 rivers, as Alviso and Suisun sloughs, and Napa, San Rafael 

 and Petaluma rivers, upon which the important commerce of 

 rich interior valleys is conducted through the various craft 

 adapted to their navigation. 



"Bordering these inland waterways lies the highly pro- 

 ductive land of California. 



"No freight monopoly can be long sustained if these 

 valuable water facilities be improved and maintained free from 

 obstruction. 



"Notwithstanding the vast importance of our many 

 natural watercourses, nearly all of which need improvement 

 in the interest of navigation and drainage, the state of 

 California has spent less than half a million dollars in their 

 rectification and improvement, and the national government 

 less than one million dollars for the multifarious needs of 

 commerce on the Sacramento and Feather rivers." 



"These sums are small in comparison to the last decade 

 of river and harbor appropriations and expenditures by Euro- 

 pean countries in the development of less important water- 

 ways and their associated interests. 



"No state in the Union is more deeply concerned in the 

 improvement of her waterways than is California. 



"The national grant of over a million and a half acres of 

 overflowed land to our state, carrying with it a legal obliga- 

 tion for its reclamation, was made in 1850. 



"The state, in turn, shifted the responsibility for reclama- 

 tion to individuals by a gift of these lands a sort of bid or 

 bribe for release from its assumed obligations. 



"The government and state have, since shifting this re- 

 sponsibility to individuals, permitted arid encouraged hy- 

 draulic mining to wash down mountains of material, to find 

 lodgment in the channels below, thus interrupting (in in- 

 stances almost destroying) their navigability and reducing the 

 flood-carrying capacity of many of our rivers to such an ex- 

 tent that restoration and improvement must be accomplished 

 to make further reclamation practicable. 



"It is true that landowners have in certain ^piecemeal 

 tracts succeeded in protecting the higher and less 'frequently 

 submerged portions from overflow by continually adding to 

 levee heights to keep pace with the ever-rising flood plane 



that followed channel filling. But by far the larger area of 

 our lowlands, embracing the great basin inside the rim of 

 higher lands skirting the rivers, is yet open to overflow, and 

 unless material aid be extended by the government and state 

 in restoring, rectifying, and deepening our damaged rivers, 

 the project of reclaiming and adding fully 1,000,000 acres of 

 these fertile overflowed lands to the agricultural and indus- 

 trial wealth of our country is certainly a doubtful, if not an 

 impossible, task." 



A Business Problem. 



The arrival on the scene of the pneumatic pipe dredge 

 having removed the greatest drawback to the successful ac- 

 complishment of the work of economical dredging and trans- 

 portation of dredged material, there still remains the ques- 

 tion of financing the proposition, and that, after, all is the 

 point towards which all moves should center. And it should 

 be easy. If the legislature of California can by legal enact- 

 ment establish a drainage district, can authorize the trustees 

 to issue bonds against that district and can levy and collect 

 taxes on the land for the purpose of paying interest on the 

 bonds and eventually retiring them, they should get busy 

 without wasting any more precious time. The Chicago drain- 

 age canal is an object lesson of a public enterprise financed 

 in that way. If the constitution of California does not give 

 the legislature the power necessary, the matter is certainly of 

 sufficient importance to justify an amendment to the consti- 

 tution. Once more we repeat that it is childish folly to sit 

 down and wait for the state and federal government to supply 

 the funds. They won't do it. "Providence helps those who 

 help themselves," and the same is also true of the state and 

 the nation. Bui you must first help yourselves. 



THE OXFORD HOTEL, DENVER, COLO. 



The Oxford Hotel, Denver, Colo., an illustration 

 of which is herewith shown, has always been a popular 

 stopping place for Eastern tourists as well as the 

 Western people. This hotel is headquarters for a large 

 number of men who are interested in the develop- 

 ment, under irrigation, of sections in Colorado. 

 Wyoming, western Nebraska, and New Mexico, and 

 if one is looking to find people of this class while in 

 that beautiful city it would be well to make inquiries 

 at "The Oxford." 



The Oxford Hotel, Denver, Colo., Headquarters of Men Interested in Irrigs 



This hotel is conducted by Messrs. Hamilton and 

 Brooks, of the Hamilton-Brooks Company, known 

 throughout the West as high grade hotel men who are 

 thoroughly acquainted with every detail of their busi- 

 ness. 



Our readers who are visiting Denver will find 

 every convenience at "The Oxford," which is located 

 only one-half block from Union station on Seventeenth 

 street. 



