64 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Reclamation Notes 



CALIFORNIA. 



Fred E. Fay of Los Angeles, and eastern associates 

 have purchased a quarter section of land adjoining the 

 town of Lois, which will be cut up into ten-acre tracts 

 and planted to oranges. The land is reported to be very 

 level, is well sheltered and it is said to be underlaid 

 with water. A fine irrigation system will be installed. 



Prospects for securing irrigation of lands in the dis- 

 trict known as White Lake in Siskiyou county are favor- 

 able at this time. The Van Brimmer Ditch Company has 

 made an agreement to permit J. H. Wise and others 

 to use water from the company's canal. A new company 

 is being formed to use the ditch water supply and they 

 propose to take about fifty cubic feet of water per second 

 from White Lake to a point near Brownell, where 

 it will be lifted by a pumping plant and then spread over 

 the land to be improved by two ditches which will be 

 dug. 



Work on the diverting dam of the Oakdale and South 

 San Joaquin Irrigation districts in the Stanislaus river, 

 above Knight's Ferry, is progressing rapidly. The coffer- 

 dams are in and the dam site is unwatered. The rock 

 on the bottom of the river will be excavated to the 

 depth of four feet to avoid all possible faults in the 

 rock, thus insuring a stable foundation. 



The management of the Lutheran Colony Company 

 of Red Bluff has filed on 8,000 inches of water in Little 

 Antelope creek for irrigation and domestic purposes. 

 The water will be diverted by a stone or masonry dam 

 and distributed by flumes and ditches over the lands. 



In order that the original number of acres may be 

 contained in the Orland Irrigation project, the govern- 

 ment will sign up 600 acres outside of the present bound- 

 aries of the project to replace 600 acres which will be lost 

 by the withdrawal of water supply from the town of 

 Orland from the undertaking. 



The Siskiyou Irrigation Association held a meeting 

 in Montague recently to act on the report submitted by 

 its engineer, J. E. Ludy, concerning the irrigation of 

 120,000 acres of land in the Big and Little Shasta valleys. 

 The system, it is estimated, will cost about $835,000. 

 Water will be taken from Klamath river above Klamath 

 Hot Springs. 



A. Collins, a San Francisco engineer, has filed a water 

 location for 300,000 inches to be taken from the Sacra- 

 mento river at the mouth of Redbank creek, three .miles 

 below Red Bluff, to be used for irrigation in Tehama, 

 Glenn, Colusa and Yolo counties. 



Emory Wishon of Coalinga has leased 4,800 acres 

 of land two miles east of that city and will install an 

 irrigation plant to bring the land under cultivation. This 

 land has been known as the Pleasant Valley stock farm. 



The West Side Irrigation District is promoting plans 

 to irrigate 8,000 acres of rich land in the Imperial valley. 

 Papers are being prepared for incorporation under the 

 state law as a mutual water company. Practically all of 

 the land that will be embraced in this district has been 

 filed upon. The soil is of a sandy character, has a light 

 gravel coating in some sections, and is very fertile. 



The Elkhorn Land Company of Woodland, Yolo 

 county, has filed a petition with the Board of Supervisors 

 for the organization of a reclamation district embracing 

 1,241 acres of land. The proposed district lies between 

 Woodland and Elkhorn and west of the Sacramento river. 



The Surprise Valley Water Company, whose main of- 

 fice is located in Los Angeles, has let the contracts for 

 the building of an irrigation system in Surprise valley 

 at an estimated cost of $350,000. Water will be supplied 

 to land owners at a cost of $35 per acre, with eleven 

 years in which to make the payments. Thousands of 

 acres of rich land will be brought under cultivation 

 through this project and the development work has al- 

 ready begun. The Provident Investment Company is 

 financing the water system. 



To pay off an indebtedness of $39,000 before the con- 

 solidation with reclamation district No. 108, an assessment 

 will be levied on the property in district No. 729. 



COLORADO. 



The total outlay for the Uncompahgre Valley irriga- 

 tion project up to November first of this year amounts 

 to an average of $32.47 per acre. The project is con- 

 siderably more than half completed. 



One of the most extensive irrigation pumping plants 

 in Weld county is being installed on the ranch of W. 

 H. Arnett near Nunn. This pumping plant comprises a 

 40-foot well and a 100-foot tunnel. 



At a recent meeting of the directors of the Nepesta 

 Ditch & Reservoir Company, held in Pueblo, the follow- 

 ing officers were elected for the ensuing year: John 

 H. Voorhees, president; A. E. Trus, vice-president; Chas. 

 S. Essex, treasurer, and E. F. Nichols, secretary. The 

 company expects to spend $100,000 during the winter on 

 the completion of the Nepesta irrigation project, which 

 lies southeast of Pueblo, and in extensions of the canals 

 and laterals of the company. The mam canal will be 

 extended to reach lands not now under cultivation. 



Stockholders of the Fort Bent Ditch Company held 

 a meeting in Lamar recently and decided to borrow $12,000 

 with which to build a new dam and to redeem their out- 

 standing indebtedness. 



After four years of waiting, nine of the thirteen 

 claimants whose homesteads on the Redlands were con- 

 tested in 1907, have received their patents and placed them 

 on record with the county clerk. Over 6,000 acres of land, 

 all of it within ten miles of Grand Junction, was filed on 

 in 1905. Eastern capitalists were attracted to the project 

 and built the irrigation system. Charging an irregularity 

 in the homesteading, thirteen of the claims were con- 

 tested in 1907. The contests were taken up before the United 

 States land office at Montrose, where the contestants won. 

 It was appealed to the general land office at Washington, 

 D. C., and the claimants again lost, but in 1910 the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior ruled in favor of the claimants. 

 It is stated that the remaining four of the thirteen will 

 receive their patents from Washington in the near fu- 

 ture. 



Ranchmen in the vicinity of Grand Junction have 

 started plans for the formation of an irrigation district 

 for the patented land in that section. Pennsylvania cap- 

 italists have already started the construction of a $2,000,- 

 000 irrigation system in that section. 



B. H. Tallmadge, former general manager of the 

 Pueblo-Rocky Ford Irrigation Company and the Pueblo- 

 Rocky Ford Land Company, who some months ago filed 

 a $750,000 suit against the two companies, now asks the 

 court to appoint a receiver to take over all their proper- 

 ties and assets and for an injunction restraining the offi- 

 cers and directors from disposing of any of the stocks, 

 bonds or other assets. Tallmadge asserts that these two 

 compaanies were formed for the purpose of swindling 

 prospective purchasers of land and water rights. The 

 Pueblo-Rocky Ford system is situated just southeast of 

 Pueblo and the company has spent $3,000,000 preparing 

 reservoirs and canals to irrigate 50,000 acres of land. 



