856 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



good to Governor Harmon to have this class of representa- 

 tion. 



The man Bohm posed at a number of the Irrigation 

 Congresses as the personal representative of the Governor 

 of Ohio, in fact, emphasized his position as personal repre- 

 sentative so strongly that it caused laughter among those 

 with whom he came in contact. At any rate, it is considered 

 a matter of very poor taste for Bohm to talk about Gov- 

 ernor Harmon for the presidency in view of the fact that 

 he is holding a position under a Republican Administration 

 which was secured for him by an acquaintance, (whom he 

 has never taken the trouble to thank for the kindness). 



A few such representatives as this throughout the coun- 

 try would do Governor Harmon more harm than good, and 

 we would suggest to him that he call off some of these 

 would-be "personal representatives" and place his campaign 

 in the hands of men of 'more mature judgment and better 

 political sense. 



THE LOWER YELLOWSTONE IRRIGATION 

 PROJECT. 



The Secretary of the Interior has issued the following 

 order for the purpose of relieving the present situation on 

 the Lower Yellowstone irrigation project, Montana, pending 

 the issue of public notice modifying the notices heretofore 

 issued : 



A stay of proceedings looking to the cancellation of 

 entries or water-right applications because of failure to 

 make payment will become effective as to all water-right 

 applications subject to public notices heretofore issued upon 

 the payment of $1.50 per acre on or before March 31, 1911, 

 subject, however, to compliance with the conditions of a pub- 

 lic notice to be heretofore issued making a building charge 

 which shall be between $53 to $55 per acre. Such stay of 

 proceedings shall remain in effect until further announce- 

 ment by means of a public notice or otherwise. Water will 

 also be furnished for the year 1911 to others, upon the filing 

 with the project engineer of proper applications subject to 

 the terms of this order and upon the payment of the sum 

 of $1.50 per acre under the conditions herein provided. No 

 water will be furnished in any case unless the holdings of 

 the applicant for water shall have been conformed to the 

 farm unit shown on the approved farm unit plats. 



Upon failure to make payment as herein required on or 

 before March 31, 1911, the entry or water-right application, 

 or both, as the case may be, which would otherwise be sub- 

 ject to cancellation will be promptly canceled without fur- 

 ther notice. 



All applications for water rights filed under the provi- 

 sions of the notices heretofore issued and for which the 

 payment necessary to avoid cancellation shall have been 

 on or before March 31, 1911, shall be continued! in effect 

 under such prior notices, and water-right applications may 

 be filed on or before March 31, 1911, under the provisions 

 of the public notices heretofore issued if accompanied by 

 the payments required thereunder and shall be entitled to 

 continue under the terms thereof. 



The intent of this order is to permit all persons who so 

 desire to obtain the benefit of the former building charge 

 of $42.50 per acre by making the necessary payments on or 

 before March 31, 1911, or by filing new water-right applica- 

 tions accompanied by the necessary payments on or before 

 that date; and that all other persons under the project who 

 desire to be furnished with a water supply shall pay in ad- 

 vance the sum of $1.50 per acre and be subject to the condi- 

 tions of the public notice to be hereafter issued. 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age 



One Year and 



The Primer of Irrigation 



Cloth Bound 



DAMS ON SAND FOUNDATIONS: SOME PRIN- 

 CIPLES INVOLVED IN THEIR DESIGN, AND 

 THE LAW GOVERNING THE DEPTH OF 

 PENETRATION REQUIRED FOR 

 SHEET-PILING* 



All textbooks on the subject of dams which the writer 

 has had occasion to examine emphatically discourage the 

 idea of attempting to construct permanent dams on any kind 

 of foundation other than solid rock bottom, although most 

 of them contain one or more illustrations of the types which 

 ;>re generally designed for construction on alluvial soils, such 

 as firm beds of clay, or deep strata of cemented gravel (com- 

 monly called "hardpan"), or on sand, provided the conditions 

 are such as to permit the construction of a curtain, or cut- 

 off wall, of sheet-piling, or a core-wall of masonry or of 

 clay puddle, so as to penetrate a firm stratum of denser 

 material. 



The frequent failures of sheet-pile dams, on the "bot- 

 tomless" sand beds of Western streams, have served merely 

 as the basis for warnings, and not as incentives to study 

 and investigation, on the part of the authors of the standard 

 books on the subject of dams, which the practicing engineer 

 consults for information and precedents. 



Many crude brush and log dams were constructed, and 

 maintained successfully for long periods of years, on these 

 "bottomless" sand beds, by practical and resourceful pioneers 

 who had no theories or precedents other than the example 

 of the beaver. 



The operations of British engineers in contending with 

 sand, during the construction of the large Government irriga- 

 tion works in India, furnish some expensive precedents for 

 the expenditure of unlimited funds ; but, our pioneer western 

 irrigation surveyors were confronted with the problem of 

 coping with streams having apparently bottomless beds of 

 shifting sands, with funds which were generally limited to 

 the few dollars which the pioneer settlers could" borrow on 

 their personal characters and future prospects, because their 

 "desert" homesteads, which now rank among the finest farms 

 in the country, were in those times practically worthless as 

 collateral security. 



The writer has spent most of his life in the sandy 

 regions of the West, and has had occasion to seek informa- 

 tion on practical methods of dealing with treacherous sand, 

 as a young engineer whose ambitions were involved in the 

 successful solution of such problems ; therefore after several 

 years of professional familiarity with it, the term, "quick- 

 sand," has less terror for him than it ordinarily arouses. 



The following paper is submitted for the consideration 

 of those who have occasion to deal with such problems, not 

 in the sense of establishing authoritative rules, but with the 

 hope of arousing discussion, from which it may be the 

 writer's privilege to learn things which have not been brought 

 out in his own experience. 



Seepage, Percolation, and the Movement of Underground 

 Waters. The velocity of flow which occur in seepage, perco- 

 lation, or in the forced flow of water through sand, gravel, 

 clay, loam, or other pervious materials, are affected by co- 

 efficients of capillary attraction and frictional resistance. 



The effects of these forces are co-existent, but not iden- 

 tical, and they vary inversely as the sizes and proportion of 

 the interstices between the particles of the alluvium. In 

 fine clay, therefore, in which the interstices are of infinite- 

 simal size, it is almost impossible to force an appreciable 

 flow of water through a thickness of a few feet. If water 

 finds passage, however, through any point of variable density, 

 or any fissure or shrinkage crack, a barely appreciable trickle, 

 under pressure, will rapidly disintegrate and abrade the clay. 

 and, as the stream thus increases in volume, will quickly 

 undermine or destroy any structure which may be dependent 

 on the density of the clay for its stability. 



In the case of sand or gravel, with relatively large in- 

 terstices, the forces of friction and capillary attraction offer 

 less resistance, and therefore water may be forced through 

 them with an appreciable velocity of flow. 



In any alluvial soil in contact with, or subject to the 

 pressure of, water, a movement of water through it is in- 

 evitable, whether it be the infinitesimal progress of seepage 

 through fine clay, percolation through sand, the flow through 



*A paper by Arnold C. Koenitt Proceedings American Society of 

 Civil Engineers, Vol. XXXVII, p. 32. 



