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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



public, but is engaged solely in providing water for its 

 own lands for irrigation purposes, which lands it sells 

 with a perpetual water right. 



The opinion of the state's attorney is undoubtedly 

 correct, for, although the Hanford Irrigation Company 

 is not now engaged in the business of selling power and 

 water, it may do so at some future time and if exempted 

 now from the operation of the law might claim future 

 immunity. Laws of this kind should be comprehensive 

 and so framed that they cover a particular field fully and 

 leave no loop holes whereby they may be made inoperative 

 in certain cases. 



Where there are laws in a state regulating public 

 service corporations by all means let them be enforced 

 without exception against all such corporations coming 

 within the provision of them. 



The Present Stage of Irrigation Develop- 

 ment and a Forecast of the Future* 



The two hot months of July and August 

 of 1911 are being balanced nicely now by 

 the two cold months of January and 

 February of 1912. If the excess of the 

 July and August heat could be mixed 

 witli the excessive cold of January and 

 February the conditions would be far more appreciated. 



Thoughts 

 That 



Come and 

 Go. 



It is a very misleading way in which the geographer 

 usually determines the average temperature of a certain 

 locality, namely, by adding the temperatures of all the 

 days in a year together and dividing by the number of 

 days. In this method the excessive high and low tem- 

 peratures disappear. 



* * * 



Thus for the 4th of July, 1911, the highest tempera- 

 ture in Chicago was 104" F., and on the 4th of January, 

 1912, it was 18 F. below zero. The average temperature 

 of these two extremes is 61 F., which looks very good 

 as an average, but does not convey any idea of the suffer- 

 ing involved during the two days producing this average. 



* * * 



Xote also how nearly these two extremes occur, just 

 exactly six months apart; the writer has observed simi- 

 lar time laws on many occasions so that there might 

 be discovered here a law of nature regulating these cli- 

 matic and meteorological conditions. 



* * * 



The "Primer of Hydraulics" is now ready and will be 

 sent, postpaid, to any address upon receipt of $2.50; 

 send all remittances to THE IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago. 



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Renew your subscription promptly. One dollar per 

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 mation THE IRRIGATION AGE brings to its readers each 

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 renewing their subscription for the IRRIGATION AGE by 

 sending $3.00 to the IRRIGATION AGE, for which the 

 Journal will be sent for one year and the "Primer of Hy- 

 draulics" cloth bound. 



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 AGE. After that you will not want to do without it. 



Twenty years ago I had the honor of being a delegate 

 to the'first National Irrigation Congress held in Salt Lake 

 City. In celebrating the twentieth anniversary of this 

 organization, it would be appropriate to pass in review the 

 many achievements of the past twenty years in the devel- 

 opment of the arid region by means of irrigation. The 

 time necessary to make a presentation of this kind and 

 the ability to perform the task are, in my case, both lack- 

 ing, and I shall therefore be obliged to confine my remarks 

 to a much shorter period and call your attention to but 

 a few out of many achievements. 



Government Irrigation. 



Two branches of the United States Government have 

 to do with irrigation. The Reclamation Service operates 

 under the Department of the Interior in accordance with 

 the provisions of the Reclamation Law of 1902. Under 

 that law this service provides water supplies for govern- 

 ment lands and has a fund at its disposal derived from the 

 sale of the greater part of the public land in the West. 

 This fund is employed in the building of canals and 

 structures for certain well-defined tracts of land. It, there- 

 fore, expends large sums on comparatively small areas. 



Our office, on the other hand, operates under the 

 Department of Agriculture and receives annual appropria- 

 tions from Congress for irrigation investigations. We 

 cover a very wide territory with a very limited amount of 

 money. Our organization not only extends over the whole 

 arid and semi-arid belts where we carry on investigations 

 helpful to the individual irrigators of those entire sections, 

 but we are also making a study of rice irrigation in the 

 Gulf States as well as of supplemental irrigation in the 

 humid region. 



The statements that I shall make in attempting to 

 outline the present stage of development in irrigation are 

 derived chiefly from our state agents and from the pub- 

 lished reports of the Bureau of the Census, with which 

 our branch has been cooperating for eighteen months 

 past. They shall also be confined to the arid region, since 

 Mr. Williams of our office is to follow me in presenting 

 irrigation conditions in the humid region. 



Importance of Irrigation to Western States. 



Those of you who have watched the rise and progress 

 of the commonwealths throughout the Rocky Mountain 

 and Pacific Coast regions, must have observed how large 

 a part irrigated products now bear to the total revenue. 

 Unlike mining, which has unearthed countless millions by 

 the toil of the many, but has allowed nearly all of this 

 vast wealth to pass into the hands of the few, leaving the 

 original toiler stranded and helpless, irrigation builds up 

 enduring commonwealths, by establishing homes on the 

 land and by fostering a high order of citizenship, good 

 institutions and a stable government. 



Irrigated agriculture lies at the foundation of much of 

 the material prosperity of the West. Through the agency 

 of water wisely used, deserts are converted into productive 

 fields and orchards and herds and prosperous communi- 

 ties take the place of wild animals and an uncivilized race. 

 It also furnishes food and clothing for the dwellers in 

 cities, raw material for the manufacturer and traffic for the 

 transportation company. If it were possible to remove 

 from the arid region the comparatively small area which 

 has been rendered highly productive by means of irriga- 

 tion, it would go far to undo the labor of half a century 

 in building up the western half of the Union. 



The Population of the West. 



The census for 1910 gives the population of the 17 

 states and territories lying west of the Missouri river at 

 nearly 16J/2 million. This is an increase of 42 per cent in 

 10 years. In the same time the rate of increase through- 

 out the remaining 31 states was only 17 per cent. I often 

 look upon the trend of population from east to west in 

 this country as bearing some resemblance to the passage 



*By Samuel Fortier, Chief of Irrigation Investigations, Office of 

 Experiment Stations, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



