260 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Reclamation Notes 



CALIFORNIA. 



The Sacramento Valley Irrigation Company is preparing 

 to irrigate several thousand acres of barley in the Maxwell 

 and Delevan units. The company has about 15,000 acres in 

 these units, and while it does not expect to irrigate all of this 

 land, efforts will be made to irrigate as much as possible. 



A. Grunauer, Chas. Slack and Ed Sloan, all of Byron, 

 have filed on 25,000 inches of water for irrigation purposes, 

 to be taken from Old River, near Clifton Court. At this 

 point a six-foot tide runs which always insures a plentiful 

 supply of water. According to reports a corporation will be 

 formed and the territory to be reclaimed will be bonded to 

 raise the necessary money for the construction of canals, 

 pumping plant, etc. Part of the land to be reclaimed lies 

 in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, but the bulk is in 

 San Joaquin county. 



The Brown-Simmons Company, composed of F. L. Brown 

 of Oakland, C. B. Simmons and G. L. Walker of Portland, 

 Oregon, has filed articles of incorporation with the county 

 .clerk. The purposes of the company are to buy and sell 

 land and to construct irrigation systems. The company 

 owns about 13,000 acres of land in the vicinity of Bangor, 

 Palermo and Central House, which it proposes to irrigate. 



J. Nahl of Dinuba has begun suit in the superior court 

 against the Alta Irrigation district for $4,753. Nahl claims 

 that on March 10 the water of the Alta ditch overflowed 

 and damaged his eucalyptus grove to the amount involved. 



An assessment of $20,300 for the improvements needed 

 and the payment of back salaries for employes was voted 

 by the board of directors of the Modesto Irrigation district 

 at a recent meeting. The board also set May 29 as the date 

 of the recall elections against Covall, Trask and Gilman, 

 directors of the district. 



Suit to Obtain possession of the entire shore line of 

 Clear Lake has been filed against 205 property owners of 

 Lakeport by the Yolo Water and Power Company. The com- 

 pany proposes raising the lake ten feet above the low water 

 mark in order to irrigate 200,000 acres of Yolo county land 

 and to generate electricity for public consumption. Clear Lake 

 covers eighty square miles and is 1,300 feet above sea level. 



Trustees of District No. 70, embracing about 20,000 

 acres of fertile land, lying near Meridian, are panning to 

 raise $176,000 to complete additional reclamation work. The 

 supplemental plan of reclamation covers the work of in- 

 creasing the size of the Butte slough and Sacramento River 

 levees and the excavation of the Butte slough by-pass and 

 the acquiring of rights of way for the above purposes. 



The canals and tunnel of the Oakdale irrigation system 

 are being finished in record-breaking time, one tunnel being 

 driven 1,145 feet in twenty-nine work days. 



COLORADO. 



An irrigation committee has been appointed by the Den- 

 ver Chamber of Commerce to look into all irrigation projects 

 in the state and to prosecute irrigation fake projects. It is 

 the opinion of the chamber that many good projects have 

 been kept out of Colorado for the last five years because 

 the promoters could not raise the money for them, and tlley 

 lay the blame to the "wild cat" schemes on which eastern 

 capitalists have lost money. 



The Ignacio Irrigation district, near Durango, has been 

 placed with the Colorado Land and Water Supply Company 

 under a contract providing that no entryman may be ac- 

 cepted until water is actually on the land. L. M. Sutton, 

 president of the company, has agreed to this new feature in 



Carey Act projects and will sign -the contract in the near 

 future. The Ignacio district includes 10,000 acres. The 

 new company will give a $20,000 bond to guarantee the con- 

 tract. 



The Wilcox Canal, which will supply water to 10,000 

 acres of land between Rifle and Grand Junction, has been 

 completed and water turned into it. The canal is eight 

 miles long, and is a combination gravity and power system. 

 The ditch will take its water from the Grand river at Rifle 

 and carry it twenty-nine miles to the land to be irrigated. 



New York, Chicago and Denver capitalists are said to 

 have each put up $400,000 with which to complete the Greeley- 

 Poudre Irrigation district, embracing 125,000 acres in north- 

 ern Weld county. D. A. Camfield of Denver and Chicago is 

 heavily interested in the project, as is also W. G. Evans of 

 Denver. 



IDAHO. 



Fred Lee, a representative of the Fairbanks Morse Com- 

 pany of Spokane, Washington, will reclaim 250 acres of land 

 below Lewiston, this year. Mr. Lee will install a pumping 

 system and will plant his entire acreage to alfalfa. 



Plans for the creation of another extensive irrigated 

 region embracing Twin Falls and Owyhee counties have 

 been announced by I. B. Perrine of Twin Falls and W. D. 

 Brown of Rexburg. The new project, which will embrace at 

 least 600,000 acres of land, will cost approximately $22,000,- 

 000. In a general way the plans for the project include the 

 construction of a dam across Snake River at American Falls, 

 impounding the waters in a natural reservoir of about 65,000 

 acres in area. The new project is called the Bruneau Exten- 

 sion, and with its completion the Twin Falls project will 

 include a total of 1,060,000 acres of irrigated land. To 

 convey the stored water onto the 600,000 acres a concrete 

 lined canal 140 miles long will be built from the town of 

 Cephas to the Bruneau river. 



Work is progressing rapidly on the irrigation canal on 

 the west side of Salmon river in the Challis valley. Water 

 which will reclaim a large tract of farming land will be taken 

 from Challis river. 



The Crane Falls Power and Irrigation Company of Boise 

 have placed an order with the Westinghouse Electric and 

 Mfg. Company of East Pittsburgh, Pa., for three electric 

 motors, aggregating 5,645 horse-power. The Crane Falls 

 Company is building a project which will reclaim a large area 

 known as the Gem tract. Water for irrigation is being taken 

 from the Snake river. The pumping station, located at Crane 

 Falls, will be completed early in 1913. 



The Secretary of the Interior has authorized the Recla- 

 mation Service to make a conditional sale to the village of 

 Burley, on the Minidoka Irrigation project, of the necessary 

 poles and wires for a transmission line from the present dis- 

 tributing point on the Minidoka project to the site of the pro- 

 posed sugar beet factory. The sale is to become absolute 

 upon payment by the village to the United States of the value 

 of the materials. Should the village fail to fulfill the condi- 

 tions of the sale, the property reverts to the United States 

 and will be used by it in the delivery of the power to the 

 owners of the factory. 



NEW MEXICO. 



A. T. Coffin is having an irrigation outfit installed on 

 his ranch three miles south of Hondale. 



D. J. McCanne, formerly chief engineer with the Fort 

 Sumner Irrigation project, is endeavoring to persuade Ros- 

 well capitalists to finance an irrigation project near Fort 

 Sumner. This was formerly known as the Urton Lake 

 project and was abandoned by the government and the land 

 turned over to the state. The state is now segregating 

 195,000 acres under the Carey Act, and Mr. McCanne is 

 reported to have said that his company will take up 150,000 

 acres. The land which will be open to entry on May 29 

 will be sold at 50 cents per acre, and the purchaser must 

 also pay for the water right. It is stated that it will take 

 about $3,000,000 to finance the project. 



