THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



949 



institute workers in arranging their work may have in 

 mind the date of this meeting, and so arrange that it 

 may be possible for all who are interested to attend. 

 Very truly yours, 



JOHN HAMILTON, 

 Farmers' Institute Specialist. 



ELECTRIC IRRIGATION BY THE NORTHERN 

 COLORADO POWER COMPANY. 



THE pumping of underflow and seepage water, from wells 

 for irrigation purposes throughout the northern part of 

 the state of Colorado and southern Wyoming has been car- 

 ried on with increasing popularity during the past eighteen 

 months. 



The Northern Colorado Power Company has a large steam 

 power plant of 15,000 horse power capacity located in the 

 center of the northern coal fields, twenty miles from Denver, 

 from which several hundred miles of transmission and dis- 

 tribution lines are carried throughout a splendid agricultural 

 country. 



The pumping s very largely done by individual farmers 

 who have installed motor driven centrifugal pumps operated 

 by electric motors, which supply water from wells, averaging 

 in depth from fifteen to twenty-five feet, and for tracts of 

 land varying from eighty to six hundred and forty acres from 

 a single well. 



There is a pronounced underflow underlying the entire 

 northern part of the state, east of the mountains, stretching 

 out from the foot hills towards the plains, and twenty feet is 

 the average depth at which water is found in dependable 

 quantities. 



The first years efforts to secure the adoption of electric 

 drive for irrigation work was purely a matter of education, 

 as the average farmer looked upon the use of electric current 

 as something suitable for the manufacturing industries in the 

 city, for the lighting of city homes, and for general uses in 

 the city, but had not considered its use in the light of a pos- 

 sible advantage for use upon the farm. 



Practically one hundred plants are now in operation on 

 the Northern Company's lines, irrigating about sixteen thou- 

 sand acres of land, most of which lying above the ditch was 

 formerly considered of very small value as agricultural lands 

 and was purchased at prices ranging about twenty dollars per 

 acre, but by the installation of the pumping plants has been in- 

 creased in value to two hundred dollars to two hundred and 

 fifty dollars per acre. 



The farmers making use of motor driven pumps are very 

 enthusiastic regarding the results which they receive and next 

 to the low cost which they experience in carrying on the irri- 

 gation work by this means the tremendous advantage which 

 they claim to be secured by being able to irrigate on the 

 very days and hours which they deem best, and with just the 

 proper amount of water, is of the greatest value to them. 



Other than pumping from wells, use is made of pumping 

 water from ditches, streams and reservoirs to lands above the 

 ditch and many land owners who control water rights have 

 found it advantageous to dispose of their ditch right to other 

 parties and pump the underflow at a profit to themselves. 



A considerable number of plants have been installed where 

 pumping has been done from marsh or swamp lands. Here 

 the work has been found to be doubly advantageous by drain- 

 ing the lowlands and reclaiming the swamps, which were of 

 no value previously, and by raising the water to the table 

 lands above, effecting a double service by one pumping. 



On the system used by the Northern Colorado Power 

 Company the electric current leaves the power house at a pres- 

 sure of 44,000 volts and is carried to the numerous sub-stations 

 located in the towns throughout the territory, where it is 

 stepped down to 2,300 or 6,600 volts for local distribution. 



The power company supplies the commercial and municipal 

 demands in some twenty cities and towns and carries on its 

 poles connecting the several towns low voltage wires, from 

 which extensions can be made at any point to connect up the 

 individual farmer's plants. 



Usually 2,300-volt motors are installed and these average 

 about twenty horse power each. 



Current for this work is sold on the basis of a "fixed 

 charge" of one dollar per horse power per month, for the irri- 

 gation months of May to September inclusive, plus a charge 

 of three cents per kilowatt hour for the current consumed as 

 measured by an electric meter. 



Under the conditions the cost to the farmer for electric 



service and for interest and depreciation on his pumping plant 

 will amount to from $1.00 to $2.00 per acre foot when water 

 is being raised through a 25-foot lift, the variation depending 

 upon the load factor under which the pumping is carried on, 

 together with local conditions, such as efficiency of apparatus 

 used and the type of equipment installed. 



During the past two years it has been found that one acre 

 foot of water is an average of the amount which had to be 

 pumped in excess of rainfall for the average crops raised in 

 the territory supplied. 



As soon as the farmers installed the motor driven pumps 

 for irrigation purposes they began to find all kinds of use for 

 the electric power upon the farm and farmers in northern 

 Colorado generally use the electric current for house and barn 

 lighting, feed chopping, for stock feeding which has been in- 

 creased tremendously during the past year for the operation 

 of milk separators and for driving the suction milking machine, 

 for running the small repair shop upon the farm, for shearing 

 sheep and for operating the threshing machine at harvest time. 



Experiments are about to be made in adopting the German 

 method of plowing some of the large farms, by means of the 

 motor driven drums and cables on gang plows, which it is be- 

 lieved can be successfully and economically done. 



The pronounced success secured in the furnishing of elec- 

 tric energy for the purposes enumerated, has demonstrated to 

 both the consumer and the power company the value of this 

 class of business, and has encouraged the building of lines to 

 cover the tremendously increased territory so that the terri- 

 tory of Northern Colorado will be practically cobwebbed with 

 electric feeder lines when the work now under way is brought 

 to a final completion. 



Grazing Examiners for 

 National Forests 



A new Government position is disclosed by the announce- 

 ment by the U. S. Civil Service Commission of an examination 

 which will be held February 23 and 24 to find three grazing 

 examiners for the Forest Service. The positions will pay 

 a salary of $1,200 a year at entrance. 



The announcement specifies that the applicants must be 

 men, at least twenty years old, and possessed of at least one 

 season's experience in handling range stock, together with 

 at least one year of technical training in specified botanical 

 studies. 



The establishment of this position is in line with the 

 objects which the Department of Agriculture has always had 

 in view in its management of grazing on the National Forests. 

 It is not merely seeking to prevent cattle and sheep from 

 doing damage to forest growth and watershed conditions, 

 as they graze on the herbage which is yearly produced in 

 the open forests, parks, and high mountain meadows within 

 the National Forests. Range-fed stock are a matter of de- 

 cided importance to the American people in these days of 

 rising prices for food products and diminishing supplies, in 

 proportion to population, of livestock, and therefore Secretary 

 Wilson intends that every acre of National Forest range 

 shall be made to produce as much forage as it is capable 

 of doing, consistently with the carrying out of the other 

 purposes for which the National Forests are maintained. 



Ever since the Forest Service took over the management 

 of the National Forests, it has been studying the range prob- 

 lem along with its regulation of grazing. In the beginning 

 it was confronted with the fact that a very large part of 

 the range had been badly abused and depleted through the 

 competition of rival owners before any restrictions had been 

 put upon them, and by overcrowding and bad methods of 

 handling stock. Its supporting power had in consequence 

 been greatly reduced, and was steadily declining. To enable 

 overgrazed areas to recuperate, and to prevent the exten- 

 sion of overgrazed conditions 1 to new areas, the amount of 

 stock to be allowed on the forests was everywhere carefully 

 prescribed. The results were then observed, and if it ap- 

 peared that there was still over-use of the range, the num- 

 bers permitted were cut down still further. On the other 

 hand, where recuperation has taken place the allowance ol 

 stock has been correspondingly increased. 

 (Continued on page 958.) 



