788 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Reclamation Notes 



CALIFORNIA. 



Work on the irrigation system of the Madaline 

 Meadow Company is progressing rapidly and the canals 

 and ditches will carry water to several hundred acres 

 next season. A deal has been closed whereby the Mada- 

 line Meadow Company has secrued an additional water 

 supply from the head of the south fork of the Pit River. 

 In the Tule Lake reservoir this company has room to 

 store water to irrigate 100,000 acres. 



The San Joaquin Irrigation district has purchased a 

 half interest in the waters of the Stanislaus River, the pur- 

 chase price being $325,000. The San Joaquin Company 

 promoters are plannin^ an immense irrigation system, the 

 water to be taken out of the Stanislaus River, five miles 

 above Knight's Ferry and conveyed by canal system to 

 the corners of San Joaquin, Calaveras and Stanislaus 

 Counties, where a large reservoir site is being surveyed. 

 This system will irrigate 70,000 acres of land in the three 

 counties. 



Among the larger improvements mentioned in news 

 items is an immense irrigation system located on the 

 Piacenes ranch, twelve miles south of Hollister. The 

 main canals were completed recently and a big dam is i 

 course of construction. The reservoir is an extension of 

 the present irrigation system, which irrigates the lands of 

 Hollister Valley and is supplied with water from the 

 Pi<>cs and Benito Rivers by long canals, which were very 

 difficult to construct. 



.Sacramento has been favored with the location as a 

 natural site for the operations of the United States Farm 

 Lands Company with a capital of $30,000.000 and a num- 

 ber of subsidiary companies; among them being the Sac- 

 ramento Colonization Company with a capitalization of 

 $3,000,000, which was financed by the Kuhn Syndicate of 

 Pittsburgh, bankers, for $10,000,000. 



An important case in the Superior Court. California, 

 was recently disposed of when Judge M. T. Dopling 

 awarded the heirs of the late Byron D. Beckwith a judg- 

 ment against the Central Land and Irrigation Company 

 for $50,000. The Central Land and Irrigation Company 

 was the outgrowth of a project founded bv Mr. Beckwith 

 in 1900 to furnish water for irrigation in Glenn and Colusa 

 Counties. 



What is considered the most important single event 

 in the history of the Imperial Valley occurred when, at a 

 recent mass meeting of the water users of the Valley, it 

 was decided, with but one dissenting vote, in direct oppo- 

 sition with water attorneys employed by the Valky, to 

 proceed with, the organization of an irrigation district 

 under authority of the State law known as the Bridgeford 

 Act. 



The Covina Irrigation Company has decided to ex- 

 pend from $150,000 to $175,000 in the development of addi- 

 tional water, the shortage of water during the Spring sea- 

 son spurring the share-holders to a determination to bet- 

 ter supply the needs of the district. 



J. L. Slater and his associates are busily engaged in 

 taking options on Elder Creek and otherwise promoting 

 the big irrigation and colonization scheme proposed to be 

 carried out there. 'It is estimated that over 50.000 acres 

 will be brought under water by this project from the 

 Lourie reservoir. 



Irrigation systems and devices are to be features of 

 the first National Orange 'Show in the world, which will 

 be held in San Bernardino early in March 1912. It is in- 

 tended to make this an annual event hereafter. 



il. I). Graydon, Civil Engineer ot Portland, who is 

 also a promoter, has tiled on 45,000 inches ot water to be 

 taken from the Feather River for irrigation purposes, and 

 subsequently filed on 15,000 additional inches, which he 

 estimates will irrigate 250,000 acres. Water is to be car- 

 ried down the right bank of the stream for a distance of 

 fourteen miles, where it will be carried across the stream 

 by means of a siphon. 



Land owners from the -west side of the San Joaquin 

 Valley gathered recently in Merced to discuss plans for 

 the formation of a gigantic irrigation district, embracing 

 1,800,000 acres on both sides of the San Joaquin river and 

 extending from the Tracey & Lathrop railroad on the 

 north to a point two miles south of Summit Lake, a total 

 length of 125 miles, with a width of about 50 miles. 



A movement is to be started at Barstow, which will 

 spread over all that section of the Mojave desert that de- 

 pends upon the Mojave River for water, whereby the gov- 

 ernment will be asked to build an immense dam at the 

 head waters of the stream where the thousands of inches 

 of water now going to waste may be conserved. 



To make the bonds of irrigation districts more salable 

 assemblymen of Modesta introduced a bill in the California 

 House creating a commission, consisting of the Attorney Gen- 

 eral, Comptroller and State Engineer, whose duty it shall 

 be to investigate all irrigation districts about to issue 

 bonds. 



Hard Brothers, of Concord, have the contract for 

 grading work on the distribution system, Orland irrigation 

 project. The work involves the excavation of approxi- 

 mately 58.000 cubic yards of material The contract" price 

 is $10,738.20. 



COLORADO. 



By combining two irrigation projects in Montrosc 

 County, water for 35,000 acres will be secured one year 

 earlier than was expected. The Lillylands Irrigation Com- 

 pany met in Montrose recently and voted to accept the 

 proposition for consolidation with the East Paradox Irri- 

 gation Company. 



Unless the President, or Congress, or Secretary Ball- 

 inger' reverses the recommendation of the Army Engi- 

 neers, which favored the low survey for the high line canal 

 in Grand Valley, work on that project may be held up for 

 some time. It is said that the ranchers intend to fight the 

 decision of the engineers, as the use of the low survey will 

 practically annihilate the Stub, or Mesa County Irrigation 

 District. 



Important steps toward closing the contracts tor the 

 resumption of work on the irrigation system of the Denver 

 Reservoir Irrigation Company were taken recently when 

 an order was issued by Judge Allen in the District Court 

 authorizing the company to close contracts with represen- 

 tatives of the Franco-American Bank of Paris, under 

 which the French bankers are to furnish $2,000,000 toward 

 the completion of the enterprise of the Henrylyn Irriga- 

 tion System. Other reports state that those interested can 

 get no better offers from the foreign bankers than may be 

 obtained from institutions 'in the United States. The first 

 information, however, reaches us through the columns of 

 one of the leading daily Colorado papers and is likely to be 

 found correct. 



An injunction suit, in which the complainant attacks 

 the constitutionality of the Colorado statute under which 

 irrigation districts are organized, was recently argued in 

 the District Court at Colorado Springs before Judge John 

 W. Shefor. The breaking up of these districts would re- 

 sult in the loss of millions of dollars by the decreased 

 valuation of lands where the districts are located. For 

 this reason, the case is one of the most important heard in 

 a Colorado court in years. 



R. F. Millford of Grover will build a novel irrigation 

 system for his one-quarter section, to include a reservoir, 

 pipe line and pumping plant, securing his supply from 

 seepage water. This water will be conducted in ditches 

 from a covered pipe line into the Millford reservoir, 

 (Continued on Page 790.) 



