140 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



reservoirs reported was 1,604, having a combined capacity 

 of 743,269 acre-feet. The number of wells pumped for 

 irrigation was 10,710, and the number of all pumping 

 plants was 9,267. The engine capacity of pumping plants 

 was 123,590 horsepower. The acreage irrigated with 

 pumped water was 309,134 acres. Flowing wells supplied 

 water to 55,818 acres. 



The total cost of irrigation systems reported in 1910 

 was $72,445,669, against $19,181,610 in 1899, an increase of 

 $53,264,059, or 277.7 per cent. The average cost per acre 

 was $20.02 in 1910, against $13.26 in 1899, an increase of 

 $6.76, or 51 per cent. The average cost of operation and 

 maintenance per acre in 1909 was $1.54. 



The acreage irrigated in 1909 has been classified ac- 

 cording to the state and federal laws under which the 

 works were built or are operated, as follows: United 

 States Reclamation Service (act of Congress June 17, 

 1902), 400 acres, or less than 1 per cent of the total; 

 United States Indian Service (various acts of Congress), 

 3,490 acres, or 0.1 per cent of the total; irrigation districts, 

 173,793 acres, or 6.5 per cent; cooperative enterprises, 

 779,020 acres, or 29.2 per cent; commercial enterprises, 

 746,265 acres, or 28 per cent; and individual and partner- 

 ship enterprises, 961,136 acres, or 36.1 per cent. United 

 States Reclamation Service works are to be turned over 

 to the water users for operation and maintenance as soon 

 as they are paid for. Including these, 71.8 per cent of the 

 acreage irrigated in 1909 was supplied by works controlled 

 by the water users. 



Streams supplied 2,265,032 acres, or 85 per cent of the 

 total acreage irrigated in 1909; lakes supplied 18,470 acres, 

 or 0.7 per cent; wells supplied 332,413 acres, or 12.5 per 

 cent; springs supplied 31,779 acres, or 1.2 per cent; and 

 reservoirs supplied 16,410 acres, or 0.6 per cent. 



POINTS OF INTEREST FROM WYOMING. 



To people accustomed to thinking of Wyoming as 

 practically a barren plain, a visit to any one of the many 

 orchards in any irrigated district of the state would be 

 a revelation. 



Within five miles of Lander is located one of the 

 finest fruit farms in the Rocky Mountains, yet but few 

 people even know there is such a place. It is the experi- 

 ment station of the state of Wyoming, surmounting a 

 high bluff on the Popo Agie river, a short distance from 

 the road. No one traveling on the road, however, would 

 have the slightest suspicion of the proximity of such 

 an orchard. An army might pass without being aware 

 that within a stone's throw is enough fruit to feed a 

 division. 



There are more than 1,300 trees in this orchard and 

 this year will show an abundant yield of over one hun- 

 dred varieties of apples, pears, plums and cherries. 



A complete record of all kinds of fruit is kept at this 

 farm, and before long it will be possible to know just 

 what kinds are adapted to this climate. Already it has 

 been determined that Hibernal, Duchess, Wealthy, and 

 Yellow Transparent apples; Idaho, Bartlett and Sickle 

 pears, and Weaver, Burbank and Aitkins plums thrive 

 well in this country. 



There are 21 varieties of crab-apples and all are 

 prolific. Two trees bearing a fruit which is a cross be- 

 tween a plum and a cherry are always heavily laden with 

 fruit in the bearing season. 



Many of the trees are so heavy with fruit that the 

 limbs bend to the ground. One little two-year-old apple 

 tree had thirty-nine large perfect apples of the Wealthy 

 variety. 



The Big Horn Basin is conceded by those who have 

 investigated the subject to have a great future in the 

 apple world. With excellent water and air drainage, a 

 sandy loam and volcanic ash soil, 300 sunshiny days in 

 the year, no fruit or tree pests, apples grow and attain 

 a flavor, color and size that few other districts in the 

 United States can equal. 



There has never been an apple crop failure in the 

 Basin and this year the trees are loaded with fruit. 



During a wind storm not long ago two hundred or 

 more apples were blown from a tree in Cody and yet it 

 is as full as it can hold, the branches bending far down 

 with the luscious fruit. 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLY OF TOWNS 

 AND CITIES. 



Secretary Wilson has decided that the interests of 

 cities and towns which obtain their water from streams 

 having their water sheds within national forests call for 

 special measures of protection, and he has therefore 

 developed a plan of cooperation for the department of 

 agriculture with those communities which are alive to the 

 importance of keeping their water supply pure. 



There are many western towns and cities, some of 

 them of large size, which derive their water from drain- 

 age basins lying inside the national forests. One of the 

 recognized objects of forestry is to insure the permanence 

 and protect the purity of municipal water supplies. As 

 the forests are maintained for the benefit of the public, 

 Secretary Wilson considers it the duty of his department 

 to do all that it can both to prevent the pollution of such 

 supplies and to create or maintain conditions most favor- 

 able to a constant flow of clear water. 



Stock raising and occupancy of the land for the 

 various kinds of use which are ordinarily encouraged on 

 the national forests may be highly undesirable if allowed 

 on drainage basins which are the sources of drinking 

 water. There is also to be considered the injury which 

 may be done if the water is silt-laden. By protecting and 

 improving the forest cover and by enforcing special regu- 

 lations to minimize erosion and to provide for the main- 

 tenance of sanitary conditions, the government will try to 

 safeguard the interests of the public. 



A form of agreement has been drawn up, providing 

 that, when cooperation is entered into between the secre- 

 tary of agriculture and any city desiring conservation and 

 protection of its water supply, the secretary will not per- 

 mit the use of the land involved without approval by the 

 town or city except for the protection and care of the 

 forests, marking, cutting, and disposing of timber which 

 the forest officers find may be removed without injury 

 to the water supply of the city, or for the building of 

 roads, trails, telephone lines, etc., not inconsistent with 

 the objects of the agreement, or for rights of way acquired 

 under acts of Congress. The secretary also agrees to 

 require all persons employed on or occupying any of the 

 land both to comply with the regulations governing 

 national forests and to observe all sanitary regulations 

 which the city may propose and the secretary approve. 



The agreement provides for the extension and im- 

 provement of the forests on the part of the government 

 by seeding and planting and the best methods of silvicul- 

 ture and forest management, so far as the funds available 

 will permit. The city on its side is expected to assist in 

 the work by paying the salaries of the additional guards 

 necessary to carry out the agreement, and in case exten- 

 sive forest operations are immediately desired by the city, 

 it would bear the major part of the cost entailed by this 

 work. 



At a recent meeting held in Chinook, Mont., the Milk 

 River irrigation project was discussed. This project will 

 embrace 250,000 acres of land and it is estimated that 

 the cost per acre will be about $10. Water will be taken 

 from St. Mary's lake. The canal when completed will 

 be twenty-eight miles long and will empty St. Mary's 

 water into Milk river, which will furnish water for thou- 

 sands of acres. 



A tract of land embracing about 2,000 acres forty-five 

 miles west of Roswell, N. M., will be watered in the near 

 future from El Macho. 



Construction of the Chuckawalla dam across the 

 Colorado river at a point forty miles north of Needles, 

 Ariz., will be commenced in about six months. The plans 

 include an intake dam and settling reservoir about fifteen 

 miles above Ehrenberg. Plans call for fifty miles of initial 

 canals to distribute the water over 300,000 acres. A. H. 

 Koebig, of I.os Angeles, Calif., is the engineer in charge 

 of the construction work, and he states that it will take 

 about 5 years to complete the project. The company 

 which will undertake the work is capitalized at $10,000,000 



