THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



233 



and depend on 'the direct influence of the capricious 

 clouds. Had til^ey come from the sunlands and landed 

 on the Pacific Coast and worked eastward the greater 

 part of the population and wealth of our country today 

 might be west of the Mississippi and the Indian ques- 

 tion confined to the Atlantic Coast. 



The law and engineering of irrigation as well as 

 agricultural chemistry have been so well handled in 

 other books that I confine myself to the actual handling 

 of the water on the ground a subject so large in itself 

 that it leaves no room for any other in a book of read- 

 able size. This will call for an amount of detail that 

 some may think needless. But beware how you think 

 any of the advice I give is overnice. There is no busi- 

 ness in which good work pays better and few in which 

 it takes so long to discover the loss from bad work, for 

 the loss is generally in time, labor and water as well 

 as in the quality or quantity of the crop. If you are 

 raising fruit it is the percentage of the first grade that 

 counts and the rest had better go to the pigpen than be 

 put on the market to injure the reputation of your 

 locality. 



CALIFORNIA PROMOTION COMMITTEE STATE- 

 MENT. 



The California Promotion Committee issues the 

 following statement : 



A remarkable condition as regards population 

 is shown by statistics gathered by the California Pro- 

 motion Committee within fifty mile radius of the two 

 largest cities of the state, as compared with the balance 

 of the state. In securing the data the committee has 

 used the figures of city clerks, postmasters, commercial 

 organizations and county assessors. According to the 

 best estimates California had on January 1, 1907, a pop- 

 ulation of 2,217,897. Of this 1,317,064 reside within 

 fifty miles of San Francisco and Los Angeles. 



Within fifty miles of San Francisco is a population 

 of 875,687, and within the came radius of Los Angeles 

 is a population of 341,377. These figures show that 

 for all the interior towns and cities and on all the farms 

 of the great state there are 1,000,893 people. 



According to the records of the postmasters in the 

 same areas the receipts for the year, 1906, in all the 

 postoffices within fifty miles of San Francisco amounted 

 to $2,357,481, and for the same area tributary to Los 

 Angeles the receipts amounted $1,101,712. 



The business done near the two centers, as shown 

 by the banking business, is also remarkable. The bank 

 deposits of the San Francisco fifty mile radius amount 

 to $373,234,742, and those in the same area adjacent 

 to Los Angeles amount to $106,613,908. The bank 

 clearings for 1906 amount to $2,134,254,146 in the San 

 Francisco area, and $576,689,367 in the Los Angeles 

 area. 



There are 2,857 factories doing business within 

 fifty miles of San Francisco, and 1,631 within fifty 

 miles of Los Angeles. To assist the people in transact- 

 ing their business there are 58,297 telephones in use in 

 the San Francisco area, with one company, and within 

 the Los Angeles area there are 45,551, with two com- 

 panies doing business. 



From these figures it will be seen that the tendency 

 of population is too great toward the urban centers, 



resulting in a congestion which would materially develop 

 the state were it scattered. The California Promotion 

 Committee is bending its energies toward the settling 

 of the interior of the State, and to this end has been 

 and is successfully inducing large land holders to sub- 

 divide their lands in order that new settlers may find 

 homes. 



TWIN FALLS COMPANY MAY TAKE OVER WOOD 

 RIVER PROJECT. 



The most wonderful success in the line of private 

 irrigation projects in the world is undoubtedly that of 

 the Twin Falls Company, Twin Falls, Idaho, Chicago, 

 111., and Pittsburgh, Penn. 



Along about 1902, J. B. Perrine of Blue Lakes, 

 Idaho, conceived the idea of irrigating the large tract 

 of land south of the Snake River, and enlisted the 

 support of engineers who pronounced the scheme feas- 

 ible. 



Mr. Perrine was laughed at by many of his friends 

 and associates, but after many months of hard work 

 he was able to interest capitalists in Salt Lake City, 

 who in turn secured the support of heavier capitalists 

 in the East, and finally Mr. Buell, the father of the 

 Twin Falls tract, came forward and advanced the money 

 for the development of a project which would irrigate 

 some 270,000 acres of land. This was accomplished by 

 building what is known as the Milner Dam, one of the 

 best structures of its kind in the country. During all 

 of this time Mr. Perrine worked faithfully to see that 

 the original plans were carried out, and while he en- 

 countered many obstacles, even after the money had 

 been secured, he has stood by the project and enlisted 

 the support of some of the strongest financial people in 

 the United States, so that today his company stands 

 at the head in acreage and financial support of all 

 private irrigation projects in the United States, if not 

 in the world. 



Great credit is due to Messrs. Perrine, Hollister, 

 Milner, Hurtt, Hayes, McCullom and Reed, and many 

 others who have stood by the proposition during all 

 of the vicissitudes of its development. This company 

 has recently opened up a large tract of land on the 

 north side of the Snake River and has established a 

 power house at Shoshone Falls, and are now preparing 

 to open up what is known as the Salmon River project, 

 lying south of and adjacent to the South Side Twin 

 Falls tract. It is rumored also that this great company 

 will take over the Idaho irrigation project which em- 

 braces a large acreage along the Little Wood River, 

 from which water for this project will be taken. 



This land extends from the foot hills of the Saw 

 Tooth Mountains up near Hailey, Idaho, down to and 

 around the town of Gooding, on the Oregon Short 

 Line. 



It was first brought to the attention of investors 

 by Messrs. Hernsheim and others. If this tract is 

 taken over it will increase the holdings of the Twin 

 Falls people to something considerably over 750.000 

 acres. 



Additional information concerning the Wood River 

 project will be given our readers in some future issue 

 of THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



