990 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Reclamation Notes 



CALIFORNIA. 



In accordance with the terms of the Bridgeford Act, 

 under which the Oakdale district was organized, bonds 

 to the amount of $1,175,000 were sold recently, the suc- 

 cessful bidder being Henry M. McDonald of Los 

 Angeles. 



The Sacramento Valley Irrigation Company recently 

 sent several carloads of tents, camp equipments and im- 

 plements to Delevan, where the big construction work is 

 to be done. This indicates that active work will begin at 

 once and that hundreds of men will be employed in that 

 vicinity. 



A contract was let recently by the firm of Smith & 

 Mizener, the owners of the Orchard Dale Rancho sub- 

 division in the Whittier district, for an auxiliary pumping 

 plant which is to be in operation the first part of July. 

 This gives the subdivision one of the most complete as 

 well as dependable water systems in southern California. 



Several demonstration farms will be established on 

 the Jacinto and Packer units by the Sacramento Valley 

 Irrigation Company. The work on these farms will in- 

 volve the seeding of alfalfa and the planting of trees. 

 This work will be in addition to the contracts let for the 

 construction of canals and laterals, requiring the, moving 

 of more than 1,000,000' cubic yards of earth. 



J. W. Woodward, a director of the South Joaquin 

 irrigation district, was in Stockton recently and an- 

 nounced that the matter of the confirmation of the pro- 

 ceeds in connection with the recent irrigation bonds and 

 their validity is now in the Supreme Court and a decision 

 will be given within sixty days. 



The Reclamation Service has completed a mile and 

 a half of the main canal on the California side of the 

 Colorado river near El Centre. 



A new irrigation system in Glenn County supplies all 

 the water the farmers can use, with plenty to spare. The 

 new farms under the system are making good and the 

 development of the district is rapid. 



The most important irrigation project ever launched 

 in Santa Barbara county, aside from the work of the 

 Union Sugar Company in the Santa Maria valley, is now 

 in a fair way to fulfillment in the Sisquoc region. 



That land owners of the Orland district want 25,000 

 acres irrigated in addition to the 14,000 embraced in the 

 government irrigation project, and whether the govern- 

 ment lends aid or not they are going to have that area 

 irrigated, was the substance of a decision reached at a 

 meeting held recently by fifty-nine land owners of that 

 section. 



After a series of tests on irrigation problems through- 

 out the state and a complete investigation of the use of 

 underground water at Pomona, the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has issued two bulletins on problems 

 before California ranchers. The bulletins are descriptive 

 of methods used at different points in the sta.te and are 

 being distributed at the department located at the State 

 University, Berkeley, California. 



Plans of the Chuckawalla Development Company to 

 irrigate 250,000 acres of mesa land in the Palo Verde have 

 been approved by the Secretary of War and will be car- 

 ried out under the supervision of Lieut. Charles T. Leeds, 

 United States Engineer for the district. The project con- 

 templated ; s to take water from the Colorado river on .he 

 California side below Parker, Arizona, and raise it with a 



series of pumping plants more than 300 feet to various 

 levels of the interior many miles to the westward. A 

 special act of Congress was necessary to give the company 

 permission to dam the Colorado river. 



The Standish Water Company has a large force of 

 men at work finishing its water system south of Amendee 

 and this large irrigation plant will be in operation shortly. 



After a hearing extending over two months, the board 

 of supervisors have fixed the water rates for irrigation at 

 $3 for one cubic foot per second for twenty-four hours. 

 The Yolo Consolidated Water Company is not satisfied 

 with the new rate and it is said the matter will be taken 

 into the courts on the ground that the rate will not allow 

 them 6 per cent on their investment. 



COLORADO. 



Without a vote in opposition, the Pueblo irrigation 

 project carried. This enterprise means the reclamation 

 of about 50,00*0 acres of arid land in the southwestern 

 part of Pueblo County at an approximate cost of $2,- 

 500,000. 



Mr. Fred L. Barrett, manager of the Southwestern 

 Construction Company, was recently in Chicago, where 

 he completed the arrangements for financing the Bent- 

 Prowers irrigation project, which will bring into cultiva- 

 tion 80,000 acres. The district has been bonded for $4,- 

 000,0*00 and is composed of some of the finest land in the 

 lower Arkansas valley, lying south and west of Lamar. 



Mr. Morris Bien, chief legal adviser of the Reclama- 

 tion Service; E. E. Honnald, assistant legal adviser, and 

 Phillip T. Welles, of the Department of the Interior, have 

 arranged with the Water Users Association for bringing 

 into one enterprise the ditch and water systems of the 

 Uncompahgre valley. 



An irrigation deal of great importance was con- 

 sumated recently when the Lajara reservoir, heretofore 

 owned by Anderson, Ord & Swope of Colorado Springs, 

 passed into the possession of the Terrace Irrigation dis- 

 trict. 



By. a district system of drainage and irrigation for the 

 lands southwest of Alamosa, comprising 128,000 acres, 

 the water placed upon the upper portion will be used over 

 at least four times before it finally reaches the Rio Grande 1 

 river on the extreme eastern edge of the district. 



By the purchase of the Divide Canal by the Windsor 

 Reservoir and Canal Company, which is controlled by the 

 Larimer & Weld Company, a further consolidation of 

 ditches in northern Colorado under control of the Larimei' 

 & Weld Ditch Company, commonly known as the Eaton 

 ditch, has come about. 



Directors of the Palisades and Mesa irrigation dis- 

 tricts have agreed to the compromise offered by the gov- 

 ernment and work on the construction of the high line 

 canal will be started at once. 



MONTANA. 



The matter of the organization of the Tongue and 

 Yellowstone rivers irrigation district came on for a hear- 

 ing recently in the district court and it appeared that no 

 objections had been filed to the granting of the petition. 



Word comes from Malta that official notice has been 

 received there that work on the Lower Milk River irri- 

 tration project will not be continued this summer. Settlers 

 in the vicinity of that project are greatly disappointed, 

 their expectations for certainty in crops each year having 

 been founded on the belief that the work on the project 

 would be accomplished this summer. 



Work has been commenced on the long proposed 

 irrigation project just east of Thompson, whereby the 

 waters of the Thompson river are to be diverted and car- 

 ried over a large tract of land thought to be especially 

 si'ited to fruit raising. The initial project is planned to 

 irrigate about 4,000 acres. 



