952 



THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



for the crop. If the plan is a success, it is probable that a 

 larger acreage will be attempted next year. 



The Secretary of the Interior has awarded contract to 

 the Midland Bridge Company of Kansas City, Missouri, 

 for furnishing material and erecting a highway bridge at 

 Elephant Butte in connection with the Rio Grande irriga- 

 tion project, New Mexico. According to the terms of the 

 contract the work is to be completed within 95 days after 

 notice of award. The contract price is $5,667. 



The following dispatch was received by the Reclamation 

 Service from the District Engineer at El Paso, Texas : 



"Main track completed into Elephant Butte today. Six 

 carloads material and supplies will go over road tomorrow. 

 This will enable hastening the work." 



The completion of this railroad branch is of farreach- 

 ing importance, as it marks the beginning of active con- 

 struction of the Eagle Dam, the most imposing and im- 

 portant structure yet planned by the Reclamation Service. 

 This dam is to be built in the canyon of the Rio Grande 

 about 100 miles north El Paso. It will be 265 feet in height, 

 1,400 feet long on top, and will contain 440,000 cubic yards 

 of material. It will create the largest storage reservoir in 

 the world, having a capacity of 2,538,000 acre-feet and flood- 

 ing 48,000 acres an average of 62 feet in depth. Spread over 

 the surface of Rhode Island and Delaware it would cover 

 both states more than a foot deep. 



In addition to the big dam four diversion dams will 

 be required, one of which, the Leasburg, is now in operation 

 and is supplying water to 20,000 acres in Mesilla Valley in 

 New Mexico. Several hundred miles of main canals and 

 laterals will be required to distribute the water over the 180,- 

 000 acres included in the project. 



Especial interest attaches to this project by reason of 

 the interstate and international features involved. Before 

 work could begin a treaty was made with Mexico to insure 

 to that country a continuation of her prior water right, and a 

 special act of Congress was required in order that Texas 

 might enjoy the benefits of the Reclamation Act. The com- 

 pletion of this work will settle forever the controversy be- 

 tween the United States and Mexico and between Texas and 

 Mexico over the rights to the use of the water of the Rio 

 Grande. 



The Valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico is one of 

 the most fertile in the United States. This stream carries 

 an enormous amount of rich sediment which is of high value 

 as a fertilizer. Abundant proof of this is to be found in the 

 fields which are said to have been in cultivation for more 

 than a hundred years in cereal crops, without any perceptible 

 diminution in annual yields. The public lands are with- 

 drawn from entry until the irrigation works are completed. 



OREGON. 



The Thompson-Hartman Company of Portland, pro- 

 moters of the irrigation project from West Stayton to Turner, 

 have a large force of men and teams at work. They expect 

 to have between 800 and 900 acres under irrigation by June 

 1st. This certainly means much to Turner. 



Another reclamation project is about to be undertaken 

 in Umatilla County and 20,000 acres more of arid and semi- 

 arid land are to be brought under profitable cultivation. The 

 undertaking is known as the Camas Creek, though the lands 

 to be reclaimed are in the Butter Creek Valley. 



Great progress is being made in the preliminary work 

 on the west side extension of the Umatilla irrigation project. 

 The force at work on the test pits for the dam has been 

 doubled, and they are now at work on a site about a mile up 

 the river from the place originally selected for the dam. 



Of the great irrigation enterprises that are reclaiming 

 thousands of acres of soil near Weiser mention is especially 

 due the work of the Crane Creek Irrigation Company. This 

 company is engaged in constructing an irrigation system that 

 will deliver water to 22,000 acres of land almost immediately 

 adjacent to Weiser. 



filed a suit in condemnation of a right of way through the 

 property of Lucy J. Kearns. It is claimed that the defendants 

 in the case want about $500 per acre for land that cannot 

 possibly be sold for more than $150 per acre at the present 

 time. 



One of the greatest irrigation sections ever planned near 

 Sumpter, Oregon, is being discussed. It is said to be the 

 solution of the problem of irrigating the vast territory of 

 lower Powder River valley by submerging a large portion of 

 the smaller Sumpter valley. The carrying out of this project 

 would involve the buying up of nearly all the farm lands in 

 the small Sumpter valley to secure a right of way to use it 

 as an immense storage basin for holding water. 



The enginers in charge of the Umatilla irrigation propect, 

 Oregon, reported that all field work in connection with the 

 proposed west extension would be completed by the end of 

 May. Investigation at the various dam sites indicate that a 

 reasonably economic structure can be built providing rights 

 of way are not exhorbitant. Preliminary plans will be com- 

 pleted so that a final decision can be made probably by the 

 middle of the summer. All the farms in the fourth unit, 

 opened to entry on March 22, have been filed upon, and only 

 five remain unentered under the third unit. Receipts on 

 account of water right charges have been very satisfactory, 

 there being few delinquents. During April water was 

 diverted from the Umatilla river with few interruptions, and 

 on the last day of the month the water reached the spillway 

 lip of the Cold Springs reservoir, which was entirely filled. 

 Sufficient water is now being diverted from the river to main- 

 tain the level in the reservoir and to supply irrigation needs. 



UTAH. 



The maintenance and operation charges for 1910 on the 

 Carlsbad irrigation project have been paid on the entire 

 area, except for 94 acres, and water for the present season 

 has been delivered continuously since March 27th. There is 

 more land under cultivation on this project this year than 

 ever before, and there has been a large increase in the acreage 

 planted to cotton, due to the phenomenal success of last year, 

 when as high as $90.00 per acre was realized from this crop. 

 The cutting of the first crop of alfalfa is now under way. 



On May 15th Ft. Sumner and vicinity was visited with 

 a heavy downpour of rain, the precipitation measuring about 

 an inch. This practically assures a bumper crop and a fine 

 range this summer. 



Application has been made to the territorial engineer, 

 Charles N. Miller, by Tumcumcari promoters through Her- 

 man Gerhardt as their representative, for the right to dam 

 Pajarito canyon, eight miles west of that city for irrigation 

 purposes. Diversion and storage dams will be built to hold 

 60,000 acre feet of water, with an irrigating capacity of 30,000 

 acres of farm land, truck gardens and for domestic use. 



Construction work on the Meloche dam is progressing 

 rapidly, fully one-third of the concrete for the dam's cement 

 core having been laid and the earth embankment filled in as 

 rapidly as progress on the cement work permits. 



One of the biggest private irrigation enterprises in the 

 southwest is under way at Terra Amulla. The famous Terra 

 Amulla land grant comprises some 500,000 acres of rich 

 virgin soil, thousands of acres of fine irrigable lands, meadow 

 lands, grazing, mineral and timber lands, located principally 

 in Rio Arriba county in northern New Mexico and running 

 over into Archuleta county in southern Colorado. 



Forty men and teams have been put to work on the Ham- 

 mond-Farmington canal in San Juan county. 



The Stayton irrigation project recently took another step 

 toward the completion of the system when the promoters 



Dr. R. Heermann of Roswell, received a twenty-horse- 

 power Venn-Severin crude oil engine with which he will 

 start something new in the line of land development in the 

 Pecos valley. He will endeavor to pump water from a depth 

 of eighty feet and irrigate his farm of 160 acres. Pumping 

 water from such a great depth will be watched with great 

 interest by the people along the Pecos. If successful, Dr. 

 Heermann will be a rival for honors with the first man who 



