262 



THE IBBIGATION AGE. 



dent Roosevelt has handled the situation, has been able 

 to secure what he wanted in the way of a candidate for 

 President, it is reasonable to presume that he will be 

 successful in "putting over" Mr. Pinchot, provided, of 

 course, that Mr. Taft is elected. It is the impression 

 of many who have studied the situation carefully that 

 the Republicans will have the fight of their life this 

 year in order to elect Mr. Taft, and there will be no 

 certainty of either Mr. Garfield or Mr. Pinchot being 

 in until after the votes are counted. 



In a recent letter from California in 

 which the non-publication of the proceed- 

 ings of the last irrigation congress held 

 at Sacramento in that state was men- 

 tioned, the writer states that he has made 

 inquiry concerning the matter and learns that the 

 reason the report has not been published is that the 

 funds were exhausted before the committee reached 

 that part of their work, and owing to financial troubles 

 and other matters they have not, up to now, secured 

 money for the publication. 



The Sacramento people, however, state that the 

 matter is in hand and will be taken up in July, and 

 there is fairly good reason to believe that the publica^ 

 tion will be issued. 



It is particularly unfortunate that a report of ae 

 important a congress as that held in Sacramento should 

 be held out of print for so long a time. 



The writer, who was secretary of that congress, 

 secured the best stenographer obtainable and a tran- 

 script of the complete proceedings of the congress was 

 in the hands of the local committee and ready for 

 publication in less than twenty-four hours after the 

 day of adjournment. It is safe to say that never in 

 the history of the congress has a complete transcript 

 been ready within thirty days after the adjournment. 

 It appears to us that the people of Sacramento are not 

 awake to the fact that they are loosing an opportunity 

 to advertise their town and California generally by the 

 publication of this report. 



It is feared by many that when this report ap- 

 pears it will be looked upon as ancient history. 



In this, our July issue, we are presenting 

 The Art of the second installment of "The Art of 

 Irrigation. Irrigation," by T. S. Van Dyke. The 



subject treated in this chapter is "The 

 First Mistake," in which Mr. Van Dyke very clearly 

 explains the methods of applying water to the land. It 

 will be seen from a perusal of this article that Mr. 

 Van Dyke thoroughly understands his subject and our 

 readers may, in each succeeding chapter, look for val- 

 uable hints and suggestions on this important subject, 

 the art of irrigation. It will be seen that the illustra- 

 tion described in chapter two is rather small and does 



not clearly show points brought out in the article. It 

 was intended to have had this illustration larger, but 

 through an error it came out in its present form. By 

 referring to the illustration, however, as the article is 

 gone over carefully, a fairly comprehensive idea^ may 

 be had of the points discussed by Mr. Van Dyke. 



While in the West recently the editor 

 Vale, made a trip by wagon of about one 



South Dakota, hundred and thirty miles through the 



Belle Fourche Valley and later on 

 through the Spearfish and other valleys lying between 

 the towns of Belle Fourche and Deadwood, S. D. Dur- 

 ing this trip a stop was made over night at the new 

 town of Vale, which is located about seventeen miles 

 eastwardly from Belle Fourche, illustrations of which 

 are shown in our article on the Belle Fourche project. 

 While there the writer was introduced to Mr. M. W. 

 Read, cashier of the Vale Bank, who gave some very 

 interesting facts concerning the development of this 

 infant town. He stated that it was the general im- 

 pression that the principal town of the Belle Fourche 

 Valley would be determined by the railway company 

 that would first reach this rapidly developing section, 

 and as a result all of the buildings which have been 

 erected in Vale have been put up with a view to moving 

 them over night to whatever point may be decided upon 

 by the railway company. It is rumored that all of the 

 buildings in Vale are on runners so that teams may 

 be hitched to them and drag them to the new point 

 in case the location is not too far away from its present 

 site. Some of the best informed people are inclined 

 to think, however, that Vale will mark the site of the 

 future metroplis of the lower Belle Fourche alley, and 

 judging from the location of the town, and its beau- 

 tiful surroundings it is not unreasonable to believe that 

 Vale will eventually be the commercial center of that 

 particular section. As an illustration of the growth of 

 business in the town of Vale we will quote from a 

 statement issued by the Belle Fourche Valley Bank of 

 that town of which Mr. Read is cashier. On June 20, 



1907, -which was the day the bank opened, the deposits 

 were something over $8,000, and on the same day, 



1908, the bank statement shows a deposit of over 

 $60,000. When it is considered that this country was 

 struggling along with the nearest bank some fifteen 

 miles away up to one year ago and that it now has 177 

 accounts, one may form some idea of the rapid de- 

 velopment of that section. Mr. Read is a typical 

 Western booster and a photograph of his bank appears 

 in this issue. We are also showing in this issue an 

 illustration of the Butte County National Bank of 

 Belle Fourche, of which Mr. W. B. Penfold is cashier. 

 Considerable valuable data was secured by the writer 

 from Mr. Penfold on his recent visit to Belle Fourche, 



