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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



visit this delightful territory. Side trips will be made 

 to various points of interest throughout New Mexico, 

 and all who attend the congress should make it a 

 point to visit the old town of Santa Fe, which is rich 

 in history and quaint sights. Santa Fe is only a short 

 distance by rail from the main line of the Atchison, 

 Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, and is well worth a visit. 

 We hope to present a lot of good illustrations of New 

 Mexico in our September issue. 



Our readers will pardon us for so often 

 Our Growing mentioning the splendid growth of the 

 Circulation, subscription list of THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



We are anxious that they should realize 

 how well the paper is being received and know that it 

 is growing stronger every day. We have added to our 

 list within the last thirty days almost 1,000 new, 

 yearly paid-in-advance subscribers, and advertisers who 

 are not patronizing our columns should consider care- 

 fully this growth. There is no doubt but that every 

 subscriber whose name is placed on our list is a pos- 

 sible buyer of machinery and all classes of goods used 

 by the home builders in the west. This applies par- 

 ticularly to the manufacturers of general farm ma- 

 chinery, irrigation devices, gasoline engines and pump- 

 ing machinery and manufacturers of vehicles of all 

 kinds. At our present rate of growth our subscrip- 

 tion list should be increased by the end of the year 

 at least 10,000 copies over what it was in December, 

 1907, and when that number of new readers have be- 

 come acquainted with the paper and the valuable 

 matter which, is presented to them monthly we have no 

 doubt but that we can double our list in the year 1909. 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE is anxious to bring its list up 

 to a point where it may offer advertisers a paid, yearly- 

 in-advance subscription list of 50,000 copies, and this 

 will be brought about, no doubt, within a reasonable 

 time. 



A special representative of THE IRRIGA- 

 North Platte TION AGE recently visited the North 

 Irrigation Platte Valley in western Nebraska and 

 Project. eastern Wyoming and arranged while 



there to have an article prepared, with 

 suitable illustrations, covering the work of the United 

 States Reclamation Service on this project which com- 

 prises all of the work on the North Platte River ex- 

 tending from the town of North Platte, near the 101st 

 meridian to a point where that river enters the state 

 of Wyoming from Colorado at the 107th meridian, a 

 distance which measured by the river is about 500 

 miles. The project lies about 100 miles north of 

 Cheyenne and is reached from the north by the Chi- 

 cago, Burlington & Quincy and the Chicago and North- 

 Western railways and from the south by the Union 



Pacific and Colorado Southern railways. It is also 

 reached by the Burlington railway from the east. In 

 the easterly portion of the land to be reclaimed by 

 this system the rainfall is at times sufficient to grow 

 crops, while in the westerly section extreme arid con- 

 ditions are found. According to the last census within 

 the drainage basin of the Platte river is found the 

 largest area of land irrigable by one stream in the 

 United States and the value of the improved agricul- 

 tural land is no doubt as high as that of any other sec- 

 tion with the possible exception of the highly cultivated 

 fruit lands in California, Colorado and Washington. 



The elevation of the North Platte project varies 

 from about 3,500 feet to something over 6,000 feet. 

 That portion lying within the boundaries of the state 

 of Nebraska being about 4,200 feet, or about 1,000 feet 

 lower than Denver 'city, while that lying in Wyoming 

 varies from about 4,000 to 6,000 feet, the greatest ele- 

 vation being about equal to that of the city of 

 Cheyenne. 



Mr. Shumway of Scotts Bluffs, who will prepare 

 matter concerning this project for us and secure pho- 

 tographs to properly illustrate it, has long been a 

 resident of that section and has given considerable 

 time and study to the various methods of irrigation in 

 western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. Mr. Shum- 

 way was one of the pioneers in the valley lying south 

 of the North Platte and is what is known as a "sand 

 hiller" or "soddy," although it may not be out of place 

 to state that his home, which is the finest dwelling in 

 Scotts Bluff, bears no indication of his primitive 

 struggles or undertaking. 



While in the North Platte Valley recently 

 Reclamation the editor of this journal learned that 

 Service Secretary of the Interior Garfield and 



Meeting. officials of the Reclamation Service, 



Messrs, Newell, Director, and Davis, 

 Chief Engineer, have been making a general tour of 

 the west to investigate the various projects now under 

 construction or nearing completion. The party was 

 taken care of by the different railway lines over which 

 it was necessary to travel to reach these projects, and 

 the Burlington railway acted as host over that portion 

 of territory covered by their lines in western Nebraska 

 and eastern Wyoming. Mr. Eustes, Passenger Traffic 

 Manager of that system, accompanied them on their 

 trip over all of the projects along or adjacent to the 

 line's of that railway and it is reasonable to suppose 

 that much valuable information was secured by the 

 Secretary and his assistants on this trip. During the 

 time of their visit to the North Platte project in west- 

 ern Nebraska a meeting of the engineers in charge of 

 the various projects throughout the west was held at 

 the town of Mitchell, which is the headquarters of the 



