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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



STANISLAUS COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Picture a dreary stretch of grain fields, unrelieved 

 by trees and with nothing to vary the monotony save an 

 occasional farmhouse or string of mules whose progress 

 could be traced by huge clouds of dust. Such was 

 Stanislaus County, Central California, ten years ago, 

 when irrigation and the wonders it has wrought were 

 but a dream. 



Nearly twenty years ago a few far-sighted individ- 

 uals realized that the dusty grain fields might be trans- 

 formed into a vast garden with the aid of water, and 

 organized the Modesto Turlock Irrigation districts. A 

 diverting dam was built on the Tuolumne River ; canals 

 were dug across the district, and the new era seemed at 

 hand. 



At this point the anti-irrigationists, composed of 

 the large land owners, content to let well enough alone 

 and fearing the taxation that would compel them to 

 open to settlement the large holdings, stepped in and 

 began litigation, which threatened to postpone, indefi- 

 nitely, the dawn of the new era of progress and pros- 

 perity in Stanislaus County. The case was hard fought 



however, as the result of the untiring efforts of those 

 who successfully fought for irrigation in the dark days 

 of Stanislaus. 



In early days one of the banner wheat counties of 

 California Stanislaus County is now nearly to the top 

 of the list as a fruit and dairy county and before many 

 years will lead all others. This wonderful transforma- 

 tion is due entirely to irrigation, and other communities 

 in the semi-arid regions of the United States could well 

 follow the example of "Sunny" Stanislaus. 



THE BELLE FOURCHE PROJECT FROM AN EN- 

 GINEERING STANDPOINT. 



The first essential for an irrigation project is a 

 body of land that requires irrigating, that, is one which 

 produces no crops or only partial crops, due to lack of 

 sufficient moisture, land which with the moisture sup- 

 plied, has the other elements of fertility to such a de- 

 gree ;Lhat the product therefrom would be bountiful. 



The second essential is a supply of water from 

 which may be procured the required moisture. 



The third essential is the engineering feature by 



Dam of Modesto Turlock Irrigation District, California. 



and after the expenditure of large sums by both sides, 

 the case was carried through the various state courts to 

 the United States Supreme Court which decided in 

 favor of the districts. 



The work of completing the system then began 

 with renewed vigor and four years ago last April the 

 water was at last turned into the ditches and the day 

 of the large wheat farmer was gone, and to take his 

 place came the intensive farmer, the twenty-acre man. 

 There are still a few of the old-time wheat ranches in 

 the irrigation districts, but thev are gradually passing 

 away and in a few years will be but a memory. 



During the days of litigation and uncertainty busi- 

 ness of all kinds was practically at a standstill, land 

 values dropped to almost nothing and it looked for a 

 time as if the county would never be able to recover 

 from the stagnation into which it had fallen. Turlock 

 was but a village and Modesto a typical, dusty country 

 town in those days, quite unlike the bustling, modern 

 little cities of today. 



Four or five years ago, the man who predicted that 

 Stanislaus would in a few years be a fruit and grape 

 center, with two canneries and need for more, and that 

 the county would be fourth among the counties of the 

 state in the value of its dairy products, was laughed at 

 as a visionary fool. All these things have come to pass, 



which this water is controlled and applied to the land as 

 needed. 



Sometimes these may appeal to one in a different 

 order, as the presence of a large body or stream of water 

 might cause a search to be made for land to which it 

 could be applied, or there may be such spectacular 

 features connected with the engineering works as to 

 draw undue attention to themselves and to cause one to 

 overlook the fact that these features are only a means 

 to an end, that of producing crops. 



In the southwest corner of Butte County, western 

 South Dakota, is a valley of rich soil, some twenty-five 

 miles long by eight or ten miles wide, containing ap- 

 proximately 100,000 irrigable acres. This sx>il varies 

 from a light sandy loam to a heavy loam and rich black 

 gumbo. It is almost entirely free from alkali, and 

 through actual workings on settled farms of some 20,- 

 000 acres is found to be very productive. Especially 

 is this so of the lower bottoms of the Belle Fourche 

 River, and along the small creeks which flow into the 

 river, these localities receiving and retaining the more 

 moisture. This special productiveness is an indication 

 of what may be expected of the upper lands when they 

 are supplied with moisture. 



Flowing considerably nearer the southern than the 

 northern side of this valley is the Belle Fourche River, 



