710 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



INCIDENTS AND IDEAS OF THE CHICAGO LAND 

 SHOW. 



A land show if it draws at all brings together a host 

 of men and women who believe in keeping their ideas 

 brightened up. It can be said for the exhibition which 

 has been held in Chicago recently that it was a success 

 in spite of bad management. The exhibits from the newer 

 sections of the country were excellent and varied. Every- 

 thing tended to show that the agricultural class in the 

 west is far ahead of that in the older localities. The 

 modern idea of getting better results from the soil was 

 manifest in many ways. 



The irrigated farms of all the younger states gave of 

 their abundance to illustrate what can be gained by in- 

 tensive methods of agriculture. The fruit and grain ex- 

 hibits were something to arouse pride. The methods of 

 irrigation which were so comprehensively set forth were 

 instructive to all. In this the machinery manufacturers 

 divided honors with land owners. 



The exhibits from Arizona were not a whit behind 

 those of the other new states. Great interest was mani- 

 fested by visitors in the famous Yuma district, where the 

 Colorado river is an important factor. That stream is the 

 Nile of the Yuma territory. Along the lower courses of 

 the great stream has been formed a narrow strip of fertile 

 soil in the midst of desert conditiSns and as the annual 

 summer overflow is rich in fertilizing sediments it has 

 kept up a sort of perpetual top dressing. The result is 

 a body of land equal in fertility to that of Egypt, but of 

 less extent, in a climate like Egypt's. Irrigation now 

 takes the place of the summer overflow, but the fertilizing 

 elements held in suspension by the stream are carried in 

 the water of the canals and left upon the land. The prob- 

 lem indeed of the engineers has been to prevent the Colo- 

 rado silt from choking the canals and covering the young 

 crops as with a blanket, but this has been solved by 

 "settling basins," while it is certain that enough remains 

 in the irrigating waters to maintain the productiveness of 

 the land unimpaired under the most severe cropping. 

 Investigation by the University of Arizona demonstrated 

 that four average acre feet of Colorado river water at 

 Yuma carried sediment enough to make a layer of soil 

 about one-quarter of an inch thick. On basing their com- 

 putation upon the use of three acre feet of this water they 

 found that the fertilizing value of this material, if bought 

 in the market, would be about $9 per acre. Where such 

 conditions prevail cultivation can never impoverish, but 

 actually enriches the soil. "The knowledge," Professor 

 R. H. Forbes of the University says, "is as old as human 

 history, that river irrigating sediments increase the pro- 

 ductiveness of the land," and they found 4.8 pounds of 

 nitrogen in one acre foot of water from the Colorado, and 

 28.1 pounds from the Gila, which flows into the Colorado 

 just below Yuma. So they found in Egypt long ago that 

 the red Nile floods from Abyssinia were more valuable 

 than those from other watersheds tributary to that river. 



The Colorado Desert will be remembered by all who 

 have gone into California by the Sunset Route of the 

 Southern Pacific. One of the most desolate spots on the 

 globe is the gateway to the bloom and the beauty of South- 

 ern California, yet perhaps the greatest single example of 

 the triumph of irrigation in our day is seen in this for- 

 bidding desert. 



Imperial Valley is the delta of the Colorado river in 

 the extreme southeastern part of California and extending 

 over the border into Mexico. Here, on both sides of the 

 line are more than a million acres that probably once 

 formed the bed of the ocean, an extension of what is now 

 known as the Gulf of California. This has been filled up 

 by the vast deposits of the yellow river, the head of the 

 gulf being in the neighborhood of Yuma, sixty miles in an 

 air-line from where it is now. It was a daring private 

 enterprise which undertook to put water on this land, and 

 would have been an ideal task for the Government itself. 

 Engineers had long realized that water only was needed 

 to convert this arid desert valley into a productive agri- 

 cultural area, but it was not until January 1, 1902, that 

 surveyors were on the ground mapping out a system of 

 irrigation. One year later 2,000 settlers had arrived. By 

 January 1, 1904, 70,000 acres were in cultivation; the set- 



tlers had increased to nearly 10,000, the railroad, the tele- 

 graph and telephone had come in; many homes were 

 building, several towns starting, a national bank was do- 

 ing business and stores were serving the new community. 

 It reads like a tale from the Arabian Nights, but it is 

 absolutely true. Irrigation does transform the desert. 

 There are now in that wonderful valley 3,947 farms cov- 

 ering 731,520 assessed acres, and the total assessed valua- 

 tion of the valley is $7,161,382. The value of the products 

 produced this year exceeds $2,000,000, and its development 

 has but just begun. It is wonderfully productive and, 

 with its abundant water supply, yields crops the year 

 round. The growing season never ends. 



The first uses of the land are generally to grow 

 barley. The land long unstirred responds more rapidly 

 to higher priced crops after a year or two of cultivation. 

 Alfalfa quickly follows barley, and the tremendous growth 

 of this forage plant makes stock raising a prominent in- 

 dustry. Eight tons to the acre is called a low' estimate 

 for alfalfa, and this brings usually $10 per ton when ship- 

 ped out of the valley. 



Hogs are fed on barley and alfalfa and 3,000 have been 

 kept on a single farm of 320 acres, the bulk of the acre- 

 age being in alfalfa. Where the latter grows all the year 

 as here, cattle thrive, and the dairy is profitable. Many 

 head of fine stock have been brought into the valley, and 

 creameries have multiplied. 



Figs, apples, dates, oranges and cotton raised in this 

 valley were seen at the Chicago Land Show, together with 

 a multiplicity of other agricultural products. Washington, 

 Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming 

 had exhibits and supplied statistics which were no less 

 interesting than those of California. 



HITS CARELESS FARMERS. 



Secretary Wilson declares that many farmers in the 

 west are using too much water, being inclined to rely too 

 much on water and not enough on cultivation. ' The dif- 

 ference between the good farmer and the poor is just 

 as conspicuous in these regions as it is anywhere else. 



COMPLIMENT TO A JUDGE. 



It. is a great compliment to Oregon that the judicial 

 opinion handed down by Judge King, one of her supreme 

 justices, is one of two decisions used by Judge Clayberg 

 in his lectures on mining and irrigation law at the law 

 school of the University of Michigan. 



NEW PUMP CATALOG. 



F. E. Myers Bro., of Ashland, Ohio, have issued a new 

 Power Pump and Cylinder catalog No. P-ll, which illu- 

 strates, describes and lists their new and improved line 

 of goods. This catalog is well illustrated and will be sent 

 free upon request. 



WORK ON DIVERSION DAM COMMENCED. 



The Ambursen Hydraulic Construction Company of 

 Canada, Ltd., which is the Canadian company, affiliated 

 with the home company in Boston, Mass., has commenced 

 work on the diversion dam for the Canadian Pacific Rail- 

 way on the Bow river, near Bassano, Alberta. The dam 

 will be 51 feet high and 720 feet long, and is provided 

 with a movable crest. There is no ledge rock of any 

 character in that vicinity, and the dam, although it has 

 to pass a flood of 100,000 second feet, will be built on a 

 foundation consisting of from 3 feet to 5 feet of cemented 

 boulder gravel, overlaying a bed of deposited clay, from 

 15 feet to twenty feet thick supported on sand of an 

 unknown depth. Under these conditions the design of 

 the dam is especially made with reference to prevention 

 of underscour from the overfall. 



Send $1.00 for The Irrigation Age, one year, and the 

 Primer of Irrigation, paper bound, a 260-page finely 

 illustrated work for new beginners in irrigation. 



