THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



791 



The water is to be conveyed through the Leasburg 

 canal and delivered to the Dona Ana, Las Cruces, and 

 Mesilla Community ditches during the season of 1911. 

 '1 ne charge for water is fixed at 10 cents per acre-foot of 

 water delivered to the ditches. 



Six hundred applications for the right to appropriate 

 water have bean filed with the Territorial Engineer since 

 January, 1907. Previous to that time certain laws regu- 

 lating the use of water had been in the statute books of 

 Xew Mexico, but they were only developed and brought 

 into practical existence on the date mentioned. During 

 the last two years 285 applications to appropriate water 

 have been filed. The amount of water sought to be ap- 

 propriated by these filings covers something over M,000,000 

 acres. 



Hugo Seaburg of Raton and associates has acquired 

 from the Santa Fe Railway Company 98,000 acres in 

 Curry County. These lands lie northeast of Melrose and 

 the purchasers will develop them by boring for artesian 

 water and installing pumping plants and irrigation sys- 

 tem, colonizing, town-sites and establishing industries. 



Work on the reservoir for the Ranches Orchards and 

 Land Company has been begun and will be pushed as 

 rapidly as possible until Spiing, when a large iorce of men 

 will be engaged and the reservoir made ready for use at 

 the earliest possible moment. This is one of the biggest 

 improvements for the Taos Valley and brings under irriga- 

 tion a large and splendid tract. 



The prospectus of the Red River Land and Water 

 Company has been issued, setting forth the intention of 

 using 34,000 acres of land in northern Taos County. This 

 section, which is a continuation of the San Luis Valley of 

 Colorado, has never been opened up by a railroad or any 

 other development project. The land to be irrigated by 

 the enterprise is the first selection of lands under the act 

 of Congress, June, 1898. .The project has been approved 

 by the territorial engineer and construction work has been 

 commenced on the dam. 



C. C. Magenheimer. representing German capitalists 

 interested in the proposed merger of the irrigation land 

 companies of southern Colfax County, C. T. Irwin and 

 son, of Chicago, Sophus' Richards, General Manager of 

 the French Land and Irrigation Company; President 

 Cowan of the Maxwell Irrigated Lands Company, and 

 Captain William French of Cimarron were in Springer for 

 the purpose of looking over the Springer Ditch System 

 lands. The proposed merger will mean the irrigation of 

 100,000 acres of land. It will take in the Springer Ditch 

 System and lands, the French Land and Irrigation Com- 

 nany, the Maxwell Irrigated Lands Company, the Charles 

 Springer lands between Springer and Cimarron and a num- 

 ber of small holdings. 



A tract of 640 acres, four pumping plants each oper- 

 ated by a 25 H. P. Loomis Oil Engine, which lifts the 

 water 33 feet, is planned near Roswell. New Mexico by a 

 local rancher, who will demonstrate the feasibiliy of irriga- 

 tion by pumping. He expects to show the people of the 

 Pecos Valley that irrigation by pumping water is much 

 more simple and economical than has been supposed. 



MONTANA. 



A contract has recently been let for enlarging and ex- 

 tending the Sanders Irrigation canal at an expense of nearly 

 $100.000. 



Montana lands, approximating 204,000 acres were re- 

 cently designated by Secretary Ballinger of the Interior 

 under the Enlarged Homestead Act as being not suscep- 

 tible for successful irrigation. This land is located in the 

 northwest section of the state. 



terior will throw open to entry a number of new farms 

 on the Sun River irrigation project. The area for which 

 water will then be ready contains some of the choicest 

 land in the project, including, as it does, a part of the 

 lands formerly occupied by the Indian school. Some of 

 these farms are just outside of the limits of the new town 

 of Fort Shaw. The water right charge is only $20 per 

 acre, payable one-tenth down at the time of filing and the 

 balance in annual installments over a period of ten years, 

 without interest. 



WASHINGTON. 



Western capitalists recently organized the Klickitat 

 Valley Development company with a capitalization of 

 $750,000 to reclaim and irrigate 20,000 acres in the Camas 

 prairie country, fifteen miles northeast of Husum, Wash- 

 ington. Construction was begun above Glenwood on a 

 headgate and flume of seven miles. At this point the 

 canyon walls are steep and it is necessary to Hume the 

 water until the level of the adjacent country is reached. 

 Here, where the flume is 700 feet above the canyon bed, 

 an electric power plant will be installed, from which it 

 is estimated 40,000 horsepower can be produced. 



Secretary Ballinger is being flooded with telegrams 

 from prominent citizens of Pasco and vicinity asking that 

 funds be. set apart from the reclamation fund for the con- 

 struction of what is known as the Pasco irrigation project, 

 >vhich embraces 100,000 acres, lying east of the town of 

 Pasco. 



This project was examined by the Reclamation Service 

 in 1905 and turned down because of the unfavorable re- 

 port of the engineers, who found that on account of the 

 porosity of the soil, it would be necessary to line all 

 canals and a big storage reservoir in Washtucna Coulee 

 with cement. This, they held, would so greatly increase 

 the cost of the project that the land could not stand the 

 charges. 



Xot having been approved by the Secretary of the 

 Interior, this project, under the law, is not eligible to re- 

 ceive any allotment from the special $20,000,000 fund. 

 The fact that the Government is committed absolutely to 

 the Yakima project means, furthermore, that what money 

 is available from the regular reclamation fund must be 

 applied there, until that project is completed. 



The Pasco project, it is pointed out, differs from 

 West Umatilla in that the latter is the extension of an 

 existing project and as such is eligible to receive an allot- 

 ment. Moreover, unless the Government builds the West 

 Umatilla project immediately, it will forfeit its water right 

 in October. 



Suggestion has been made to the Chamber of Com- 

 merce, Ballingham, Washington, looking to the securing 

 ^)f government assistance in clearing cut-over timber 

 ' lands in the Puget Sound counties and putting them in 

 shape for immediate cultivation. Those who are back 

 of the movement claim that the Washington Delegation 

 in Congress should be interested and that the plan is 

 just as feasible and equally in line for progress with the 

 federally patronized irrigation projects. It is held by 

 those who favor the scheme that the Puget Sound dis- 

 trict will be put forward twenty-five years in development 

 if government assistance can be secured whereby any con- 

 siderable quantity of lands are made ready for the plow. 



Seven thousand acres of land are to be irrigated near the 

 town of Yelm. A meeting was held recently at Olympia and 

 money was raised to go forward with the preliminary 

 work. 



The Lower Yakima Irrigation Co. is negotiating with 

 the Pacific Light & Power Co. for the construction of 

 a transmission line to connect with the high-tension line 

 of the Pacific Co., to furnish electricity for the pumping 

 station of the Lower Yakima Irrigation Co. 



On Apr! 1, 1911, at 9 a. m., the Secretary of the In- The Whitestone Irrigation and Power Company of 



About 70,000 acres of a large tract withdrawn under the 

 Carey Act in connection with the Winnett Reclamation 

 project in the Flat Willow Country has been restored and 

 today is thrown open to entry. This is said to be a fine 

 bunch of land and will be soon taken up by settlers. 



