THE IREIGATIOX AGE. 



975 



planning of irrigation work, especially those which were 

 financed by private capital. In order to get the water available 

 for irrigating land it was done along lines of least resistance 

 in the earlier days of irrigation enterprises, when capital 

 was scarce and timid and the whole proposition was much 

 in the nature of an experiment. Thus it came that instead 

 of concrete lined conduits or timber lined flumes rough 

 ditches were used for water channels, some of them crossing 

 through gravel or sand banks where a large amount of water 

 was lost in seepage. Then the irrigators taking their water 

 from those ditches naturally would just guess at the size 

 of distributing ditches and their grades, and would get, in 

 the usual order of things, too much water on their land. 



This early stage of the development of the irrigation era 

 was, however, necessary for the evolution of the scientific 

 stage, and the early errors of the pioneers point the way 

 for improvements so that we may look confidently into the 

 future to see the art of irrigation reach its pinnacle of 

 success. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE will spare neither pains nor ex- 

 pense to help along this splendid cause and will do everything 

 in its power to advance the progress in the arts of application 

 of the use of water in its relation to agriculture in its 

 broadest sense. 



Elsewhere in this issue appears an article 

 A Very describing a home-made leveling instru- 



Useful Device ment by which anyone of ordinary intel- 

 for Leveling ligence and education is enabled to run 

 and Grading. a line of levels for the purpose of irriga- 

 tion or drainage. The frame and method 

 described is not a new invention as a similar apparatus has 

 been in use more than fifty years ago in California, when 

 the discovery of gold and the development of placer mines 

 made the presence of water imperative ; and as civil engi- 

 neers were a scarce article then in the mountains, use 

 was made of the leveling frame described to lay out ditches 

 to bring the water sometimes miles across from some moun- 

 tain torrent. It was, however, done successfully, even though 

 the frame was occasionally made of hewn logs and the plumb 

 bob consisted of a stone and the string of the bark of some 

 young tree. 



There is no doubt in the mind of the editor that a 

 good leveling frame is a very handy tool around the barn- 

 yard or houses of the progressive irrigator, as by the in- 

 telligent and careful use of the same, the most advantageous 

 arrangement of ditching and their alinement can be de- 

 termined. 



The writer had occasion once while on a surveying ex- 

 pedition to make use of this device, hurriedly constructed, 

 on account of an accident happening to the level ; it was nec- 

 essary to complete a line of levels while there was no 

 opportunity of repairing the engineer's level, and the line 

 of levels was completed by use of this improvised machine. 

 When this line was checked later by an engineer's level 

 it was found to be practically correct, the difference being 

 very small. 



There will be another article in the August issue of this 

 paper showing a practical application of the device. 



It was recently reported that Judge Gary, 

 The Vital president of the United States Steel Corn- 



Point pany, is in favor of government control 



Is no of trusts and corporations, even to the 



Discrimination, point of vesting the government with 



power to regulate prices of commodities. 

 Such an extension of power seems a very great innovation, 

 so that it is difficult to make any forecasts of results. It is 

 true that the Interstate Commerce Commission at the present 

 time has practically the power to dictate to the transporta- 

 tion companies at what rates they shall sell their com- 

 modity (transportation), and yet in reality it seems to 

 be the function of the commission more to see that no 

 discriminating rates are charged and seeing that all citi- 

 zens are treated alike. This latter function is one which 

 truly belongs to the government, and which function should 

 have been extended long ago to all other principal commodi- 

 ties and necessities of the people. If, for instance, there 

 had been in existence a commission with power to make 

 the Standard Oil Company sell their oil at uniform prices 

 everywhere they could not have throttled competition by 

 underselling other oil companies to force them out of the 

 field. Likewise the packing trust would not have been 

 able to drive out all competition by underselling local butch- 

 ers and packers. It seems that this vital principle has been 

 overlooked heretofore when dealing with trusts ; and it 

 will be wise to extend the powers of the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission so as to give it authority to regulate 

 the prices of the principal commodities, first, by seeing that 

 no discrimination is practiced and that the cost of neces- 

 saries of life be determined by adding to the exact cost of 

 production a reasonable amount of profit. The principle of 

 justice should rule in all transactions of the government 

 with the people. 



Rain and air and sunshine are all essential for the rais- 

 ing of crops, but we must not forget that it also takes a 

 lot of hard work, of elbow grease, and some precipitation, 

 commonly termed perspiration. It requires efforts of no mean 

 size to win even on an irrigated ranch. 



Chips from Watch your neighbor and see how he is 



the Thinking doing things; observe results, and if his 

 Cap of methods prove more effective than yours 



the Editor. be wise and adopt his style. 



A farmer should consider himself a busi- 

 ness man and as such it is essential that he adopt a sys- 

 tem of accounting no matter how simple, but his account 

 book should show every dollar taken in and every dollar 

 expended. Just try it once and it will prove a great aid 

 to prosperity. 



Even naiure declines to give something for nothing; 

 the man who thinks he can raise crop after crop from his 

 Vn-i without restoring to it the substance each crop takes 

 out of the ground will soon find that he is mistaken and 

 will learn his lesson by sad experience. 



* * * 



The "Primer of Irrigation" is just the book for the 

 twentieth century farmer everywhere. It covers modern 

 methods of soil culture and irrigation fully and should 

 be in the hands of every progressive man interested in 

 getting his money's worth from the soil. 



* * * 



Every irrigationist should read THE IRRIGATION AGE, 

 which for more than a score of years has catered to his 

 interest and is still in the vanguard. Any subject relating 

 to irrigation, drainage, reclamation and kindred subjects is 

 fully treated in each issue of THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



* * * 



The most successful business man nowadays is the 

 farmer, especially the one whose land is irrigated ; he don't 

 even have to worry about the weather. 



