300 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



Reclamation Notes 



CALIFORNIA. 



The Cucamonga Land and Irrigation Company is tak- 

 ing bids for the construction of the second section of 

 concrete pipe line to be laid in their development of acre- 

 age near Cucamonga. Plans are being prepared for a sys- 

 tem 5,700 feet long. About 1,200 acres will be subdivided 

 and placed on the market in ten-acre tracts. 



E. P. Burnham of Hemet has been awarded the con- 

 tract for the construction of a cement pipe line two miles 

 long on the ranch of Patton Bros, at Winchester. 



The Co-operative Land and Trust Company of San 

 Francisco and Los Angeles is installing an irrigation sys- 

 tem in the Fairmead colonies, which is creating a great 

 deal of interest in Madera county. The system is being 

 installed in units of 160 acres. Each unit is equipped with 

 a central pumping plant capable of irrigating a quarter 

 section of alfalfa. The plant pumps into a reservoir from 

 which canals radiate to each ten and twenty acre tracts. 

 The entire system pump, well, reservoir and ditches 

 goes with the land and is the property of the land owners 

 in the unit. Each acre carries with it one share of stock 

 in the irrigation company which entitles the owner of that 

 acre to sufficient water to irrigate his land. None but the 

 owners of land in a unit have any interest in the irrigation 

 plant, and 'they control it absolutely. 



The Mathieson ranch in the Conejo, near Oxnard, 

 also known as the Potrero ranch, is to be improved, and 

 an irrigation system installed. Two pumping plants are 

 being installed to help carry the water through a pipe line 

 to the ranch. 



The Sacramento Valley Irrigation Company and Los 

 Angeles capitalists have purchased large tracts of land 

 between Maxwell and Sites and will construct a reservoir 

 to irrigate the Houx ranch near Sites and other tracts 

 which have been purchased. It is stated that work will 

 commence immediately and that it will take two years' 

 time to complete the reservoir. 



Eleven thousand acres of lake land near Portersville is 

 now being drained and will be planted to Egyptian corn, 

 v/heat and other cereals. In the shallow portion of Tulare 

 lake four dredges have been installed and these machines 

 have thrown up levees around 3,600 acres of the land and 

 the water is now being pumped out of this section. A 

 huge water wheel propelled by a gas engine, empties the 

 lake, now covering 3,600 acres, into Tulare lake proper. 

 A large pump is pumping water from the same lagoon, 

 this stream being used to irrigate the land already drained 

 and planted to wheat. It is estimated that the cost of re- 

 claiming this land will be $5 per acre, or a total of $56,000. 

 The valuation of the property when the improvements 

 are complete will be approximately $1.000,000. 



Irrigation by sprinkling is being tried in California 

 and is meeting with favor, the only drawback being the 

 cost of installation. It is said that by turning on the 

 spray during a cold night the air can be kept above the 

 freezing point. 



It is reported that work on the Oakdale irrigation 

 project will be completed and water turned into the canals 

 by October of this year. Over 65,000 acres of land are 

 included in the Oakdale district, and the completion of 

 the work will make a total of about 400,000 acres under 

 irrigation in Stanislaus county. 



COLORADO. 



The Northern Colorado Irrigation district has filed 

 a contract with the North Poudre and Weld County reser- 

 voir company of Denver for construction of an irrigation 



system to provide for 50,000 acres of land in northern 

 Weld county. Bonds for $2,400,000 have been voted to 

 pay for the construction of the project. The district boun- 

 daries extend to Carr on the north, Nunn on the south 

 and Dover in its center. Flood water with some district 

 water rights will furnish the supply. The reservoirs will 

 be built from the beds of streams. It is said that the 

 water supply has been investigated and found adequate. 



Civil engineers have begun work on the survey to be 

 made for the Dolores river reservoir system. Prominent 

 men, including Senator West, Senator Gove and President 

 Ripley of the Santa Fe Railroad, are interested in this 

 project. The company proposes to bring 200,000 acres of 

 land lying northwest of Cortez, partly in Utah and partly 

 in Colorado, under cultivation. Conservation of the over- 

 flow waters of the Dolores river is to be accomplished by 

 reservoirs which w.ill impound 234,000 acre feet at a cost 

 of $4,000,000. 



Construction of three reservoirs to irrigate 20,000 

 acres of land lying immediately west of Fort Morgan is 

 10 be started immediately. A bond issue of $750,000 has 

 been placed. The company, of which Peter Morris, is 

 president, have paid the state land board $19,520 for a 

 deed to the state land which lies in the proposed sites for 

 two of the reservoirs. The reservoirs are to have a ca- 

 pacity of 27,000 acre feet. One will be located 20 miles 

 south of Willings, the second seven miles southwest, and 

 the third one and one-half miles south. The bond issue 

 was taken by Dougherty & Co. of Denver. The project 

 is to be known as the Niles Irrigation district. 



William R. Kelly of Greeley has been appointed 

 referee in water district No. 1 to succeed the late Judge 

 C A. Bennett. The adjudication of rights involves over 

 100,000,000,000 feet of water in this district, which is 

 valued at several millions. 



The case of Bert Clark, a Chicago promoter, vs. The 

 Fort Morgan National Bank was dismissed in open court 

 by motion of both parties to the suit. Clark brought suit 

 on the grounds that the Morgan National bank had sold 

 him, under alleged misrepresentation, bonds of the Badger 

 Irrigation & Reservoir company, of the face value of $240,- 

 000. The court awarded judgment to the plaintiff. 



President Taft has authorized Secretary of the In- 

 terior Fisher to proceed with construction of the Grand 

 Valley Irrigation project in Colorado without awaiting 

 adjudication of the water rights. 



An engineering company of Denver has made a re- 

 port to the farmers of the Oklahoma district in regard to 

 the Nunn Creek reservoir site, located about 60 miles in 

 the mountains west of Loveland. The watershed is suf- 

 ficient for the irrigation of more than 25,000 acres of land. 

 At the side of the reservoir a dam will- be built and water 

 will be sent through a tunnel into the Poudre valley, 

 where it can be turned into the north side ditch and onto 

 the land. About 15,000 acres of land are embraced in 

 the project, which lies five miles northeast of Lqyeland. 

 S. Q. Jackson of Loveland is president of the promoting 

 company. 



The dam of the Roam Creek Irrigation Company 

 project, twenty miles north of De Beque, went out on 

 May 28th, releasing the waters of the basin and washing 

 out bridges and crops the entire length of the valley. 

 Conservative estimates place The loss at more than $30,- 

 000 to the water system and crops. Another dam will be 

 built immediately to stofe water from the flow from the 

 snow which is not yet melted. It is hoped that enough 

 can be secured for this season's irrigation. 



IDAHO. 



The power plant at the Boise dam, about 12 miles 

 from Boise, has been thoroughly tried out, and the engi- 

 neers in charge have submitted a very favorable report to 

 the Reclamation office at Washington, D. C. About 2,000 

 horse-power will be developed at this plant and trans- 

 mitted electrically to the Arrowrock damsite, a distance of 



