68 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



OREGON'S IRRIGATION STATISTICS. 



Census Director Durand has issued the first official 

 statement from the Census Bureau relative to the statis- 

 tics on irrigation in Oregon. It is based on a preliminary 

 comparative summary submitted by Dr. Le Grand Powers, 

 chief statistician of the division of agriculture in the Bu- 

 reau of the Census, under whose supervision it was pre- 

 pared by R. T. Teele, special agent in charge of irrigation. 



This summary shows for both 1909 and 1899 the num- 

 ber of farms irrigated, the acreage irrigated, the total cost 

 of irrigation systems, and the average cost per acre irri- 

 gated. It shows also for the year 1909 acreage irrigated 

 with pumped water and the average annual cost of main- 

 tenance and operation. It shows for 1910 the acreage 

 which existing enterprises were capable of supplying, the 

 acreage included in existing projects, the number of in- 

 dependent enterprises, total length of ditches, number of 

 reservoirs, capacity of reservoirs, number of flowing wells, 

 number of wells pumped for irrigation, the number of 

 pumping plants, and engine capacity of pumping plants. 

 The acreage irrigated is classified by the type of enter- 

 prise supplying water and by the source of water supply. 



It should be noted that the figures are subject to re- 

 vision after more complete tabulation, but it is not ex- 

 pected that there will be any material modification of the 

 totals or percentages reported. 



The total number of farms irrigated in 1909 was 6,669, 

 against 4,636 in 1899, an increase of 2,033, or 43.9 per cent. 

 Within the same period the number of farms in the state 

 had increased 27 per cent, indicating that irrigation is in- 

 creasing more rapidly than dry farming in the state. 



The total acreage irrigated in 1909 was 686,129 acres, 

 against 388,310 acres in 1899, an increase of 297,819 acres, 

 or 76.7 per cent. During the same period the improved 

 acreage of farms increased 28.4 per cent, indicating again 

 the rapid advance of irrigation. The area irrigated was 

 16.1 per cent of the improved land in farms in 109 and 11.7 

 per cent in 1899. 



The total acreage which all enterprises were capable 

 of irrigating in 1910 was 830,526 acres, an excess of 144,397 

 acres over the area irrigated in 1909. The acreage in- 

 cluded in projects either completed or under construction 

 in 1910 was 2,527,208 acres, an excess of 1,841,070 acres 

 over the area irrigated in 1909. This indicates the area 

 which will be available within the next few years for the 

 extension of irrigation, and shows that the area irrigated 

 can be almost tripled without the construction of addi- 

 tional works. 



The number of independent enterprises reported in 

 1910 was 3,745. The total length of main ditches in 1910 

 was 5,649 miles, against 2,283 miles in 1899, an increase of 

 3,366 miles, or 147.4 per cent. The number of reservoirs 

 reported in 1910 was 276, having a combined capacity ot 

 1,317,370 acre-feet. The number of wells pumped for irri- 

 gation was 91 and the number of pumping plants 229. The 

 engine capacity of pumping plants was 3,278 horsepower. 

 The acreage irrigated with pumped water was 5,711 acres. 



The total cost of irrigation systems reported in 1910 

 was $12,689,0r44, against $1,843,771 in 1899, an increase of 

 $10,845,273, or 588.2 per cent. The average cost per acre 

 in 1910 was $15.28, against $4.75 in 1899, an increase of 

 $10.53, or 221.7 per cent. The average cost of operation 

 and maintenance per acre in 1909 was 75 cents, against 22 

 cents in 1899, an increase of 53 cents, or 240.9 per cent. This 

 makes 22,000 acres, or 3.2 per cent of the total; United 

 States Indian Service (various acts of Congress), 429 

 acres, or 0.1 per cent of the total; Carey Act (act of Con- 

 gress, Aug. 18, 1894), 24,750 acres, or 3.6 per cent of the 

 total; irrigation districts, 1,500 acres, or 0.2 per cent; co- 

 operative enterprises, 149,985 acres, or 21.9 per cent; com- 

 mercial enterprises, 77,387 acres, or 11.3 per cent; and in- 

 dividual or partnership enterprises, 410,078 acres, or 59.8 

 per cent, .^orks built by the United States Reclamation 

 Service and by the Carey Act enterprises are to be turned 

 over to the water users for operation and maintenance. 

 Including these, 88.7 per cent of the acreage irrigated in 

 1909 was supplied by works controlled by the water users. 



Streams supplied 646,866 acres, or 94.3 per cent of the 

 total acreage irrigated in 1909; lakes supplied 23,736 acres, 

 or 3.5 per cent; wells supplied 1,460* acres, or 0.2 per cent; 

 springs supplied 10,788 acres, or 1.6 per cent; and reser- 

 voirs supplied 3,279 acres, or 0.5 per cent. 



PLACER GOLD IN NORTHWESTERN MONTANA. 



Many glacial moraines contain particles of gold, yet 

 the metal is very rarely so abundant as to make their 

 treatment profitable. This is due to the fact that run- 

 ning water has not had opportunity to concentrate the 

 precious metal scoured by the glacier from the decom- 

 posed surface of the mountains. In a short report, how- 

 ever, just issued by the United States Geological Survey, 

 F. C. Schrader gives an interesting account of gold-bear- 

 ing ground moraines at Kennedy Creek and Libby Creek, 

 Montana. The Kennedy Creek deposit, says Mr. Schra- 

 der, is commonly known to mining men who have ex- 

 amined it as ancient lake gravel, but it seems plainly to 

 be a subglacial or ice-laid deposit of till a ground mo- 

 raine. The material is evidently derived from the upland 

 mountains on the northeast, whence it was scoured off the 

 surface by the ice sheet, shoved and dragged down the 

 slopes, crushed, ground, and finally compressed beneath 

 the ponderous ice mass. The ice sheet probably covered 

 the basin with a thickness of a thousand or more feet for 

 a period of centuries. 



A most unusual feature is the fact that this glacial de- 

 posit does not stem to have been concentrated by later 

 streams nor to have derived its gold from pre-existing 

 placers. If this view is correct there must occur in the 

 mountains or uplands to the northeast, in the path of the 

 ice that deposited the moraine, some rich gold-bearing 

 vein or bedrock area as yet undiscovered. 



Tests made of the deposit in six different shafts fairly 

 well distributed over about half a square mile in the 

 southern part of the basin show the gold content of the 

 deposits to range from 20 cents a cubic yard near the sur- 

 face to about $5 a cubic yard in the bottom foot of gravel 

 next to bedrock, from which it is readily apparent that the 

 deposits contain considerable gold. By some mining men 

 the amount of gold present in the basin has been esti- 

 mated at $18,000,000. From the data contained in the 

 present tests, after reasonable allowance is made for bowl- 

 ders, which in the lower part of the section constitute 

 about 10 per cent of the material, the deposit in the south- 

 ern part of the basin seems to contain on the average 

 about 80 cents a cubic yard, including everything from the 

 surface down to bedrock, or about $4 a bedrock yard. 

 This would amount to about $17,360 an acre, or more 

 than $5,500,00a for the Kennedy placer portion of the area 

 examined. The estimate does not include the neck of the 

 deposit in the downstream outlet, which in places attains 

 a. thickness of 80 feet or more and is known to carry con- 

 siderable gold. In the basin as a whole, if gravel of this 

 grade is present throughout, there is probably more than 

 $11,000,000 worth of gold. 



The entire district of which Kennedy Creek is a por- 

 tion is roughly estimated by Mr. Schrader to contain 

 about $100,000,000 worth of gold, much of which, he states, 

 to judge from the attention the district is receiving, will 

 probably be won in the near future. A copy of Mr. 

 Schrader's report, which is contained in Bulletin 47ff-B, 

 may be obtained on application to the Director, United 

 States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. 



HONEY A WELL PAYING SIDE LINE. 



A profitable industry is being developed on many of 

 the government irrigation projects in the production of 

 honey, and press reports from recent state and county 

 fairs indicate that the quality of this honey is superior. 

 The flavor is exceptionally fine and the color clear and 

 sparkling. Alfalfa is the chief source from which the bees 

 secure their supply, and as it blooms constantly from early 

 spring until late in the fall the bees have something to 

 work on all the time, allowing a greater amount of honey 

 to be stored. 



Many of the projects are located in famous fruit sec- 

 tions and the combination is found to be of mutual advan- 

 tage. The trees furnish an abundance of honey during 

 the blossoming period, and orchardmen state that the 

 economic importance of the bee, from the standpoint of 

 its value in the pollenization of fruit, cannot be overesti- 

 mated. White clover and small fruits, and in the plains 

 regions many varieties of wild flowers also furnish sources 

 of supply. 



The bee industry is a lucrative side line for the regu- 

 (Continued on page 72.) 



