THE IKEIGATION AGE. 



situation sufficiently well to take up the matter of 

 entertainment of a congress that may, perhaps, be 

 of no direct benefit to the community at large or 

 individual owners. 



The objection, however, raised by Mr. Fowler 

 and the repudiation of the agreement that the dele- 

 gates from Arizona made with the governing board 

 of the congress comes with poor grace from a man 

 who has been associated with the work as has Mr. 

 Fowler, and it is doubtful if a decision of the com- 

 mittee of twenty can be wisely sustained in view of 

 the fact that a back-down in a case of this kind is 

 likely to be injurious to the city of Phoenix. 



The project engineer will forward such applica- 

 tion with his report and recommendation through 

 the supervising engineer to the director of the 

 United States Reclamation Service. 



The director of the Reclamation Service will 

 make suitable recommendation thereon to the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior. 



IMPORTANT RULING BY SECRETARY OF 

 THE INTERIOR. 



The irrigated West as a whole reports a bumper 

 crop and the condition of farmers is generally pros- 

 perous. Here and there, especially in sections east 

 of the Rocky Mountains, there have occurred hail 

 storms, none of which, however, has resulted in 

 widespread losses. The individual cases of damage 

 to crops were sufficiently necessary to warrant the 

 giving of temporary relief from payments for water 

 rights and the Secretary of the Interior has recently 

 issued a Service Order as follows : 



Water users on reclamation projects whose 

 growing crops are damaged or destroyed by hail 

 and who for this reason are unable to make pay- 

 ment of the building charges under the Reclamation 

 Act, which would become delinquent at the time of 

 the next installment thereof became due, may, in 

 the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, be 

 allowed a postponement of such charges, but no 

 such postponement shall be for more than one year 

 or extend beyond the ten-year annual payment pe- 

 riod, the time within which the water right charges 

 are required to be paid. No application will be con- 

 sidered from any water user who is delinquent in 

 the payment of any reclamation charges. 



Application for postponement must be made 

 through the project manager or project engineer, 

 upon the form prepared for the purpose, stating 

 that the water user is unable to pay the building 

 charge, so become delinquent and shall give in detail 

 (a) description of applicant's land, length of resi- 

 dence thereon, description of improvements and 

 statement of their value; (b) serial number of the 

 water right application, with the amounts paid on 

 account, respectively, of the building and the opera- 

 tion and maintenance charges for the several years 

 in which installments of such charges were clue ; 

 (c) the irrigable acreage for which water is avail- 

 able for the current year; (d) the number of acres 

 in cultivation and the crops to which cultivated ; (e) 

 statement as to the cause of destruction or damage 

 of crops and date when loss occurred ; (f) number 

 of acres and the nature of the crops destroyed or 

 damaged ; (g) statement of the condition of the 

 crops before destroyed or damaged, with estimated 

 total vield if destruction or damage had' not oc- 

 curred ; (h) actual yield, if any, and estimated loss 

 in rponey. 



GOVERNMENT DAIRY DIVISION OPENS 

 BRANCH OFFICE IN SALT LAKE CITY. 



In extension of the government's work for the 

 development of the dairy industry in the far west, 

 the Dairy Division of the Bureau of Animal Indus- 

 try, United States Department of Agriculture, has 

 opened a branch office at Salt Lake City, Utah, in 

 the Mclntyre building. Mr. A. K. Risser, who was 

 at one time in charge of similar work in the South- 

 ern states, will be in charge, and will have the as- 

 sistance of Mr. F. H. Bothell, expert in market milk 

 inspection, and Mr. G. M. Lambert, expert in cream- 

 ery management. In addition to these there are now 

 two Dairy Division men working in Idaho in co- 

 operation with the State University, two in North 

 Dakota in cooperation with the State Dairy Com- 

 missioner, one in Colorado in cooperation with the 

 Agricultural College, and one has been assigned to 

 Utah to begin work there at once in cooperation 

 with the Agricultural College. All of these men will 

 be directed from the Salt Lake City office. 



The Secretary of Agriculture desires to increase 

 this work in the Western States as rapidly as funds 

 will permit, provided proper cooperative agreement 

 can be made. These men go right out among the 

 dairy farmers and give them personal aid in im- 

 proving their work, in building silos, in keeping- 

 records of the individual cows to see which are 

 profitable and which are not, and in other ways. 



In the Southern states, where dairying has been 

 backward, the field men of the Department of Agri- 

 culture have helped many dairymen to increase their 

 profits 200 or 300 per cent within one or two years, 

 and at the same time increased the wholesomeness 

 of their products. It is expected that even better 

 results will be obtained in the West. Nine Southern 

 states which were doing no educational work in 

 dairying at all when the Dairy Division began work 

 there some years ago are now paying a part or all 

 of the cost of that work, and it is producing splen- 

 did results. 



The far West should stop procuring dairy prod- 

 ucts from the East. In addition to producing its 

 own supply it should begin to help supply the East. 

 The rich western lands, now that irrigation is being 

 supplied, produce cheap alfalfa and other feeds, and 

 this will make dairying very profitable. Moreover, 

 dairying is necessary in order to make alfalfa rais- 

 ing as profitable as it should be. The all-important 

 thing is that as dairying is started in new regions it 

 should be started right, and the Department of 

 Agriculture is helping to start it right. 



All the work will be done in cooperation with 

 state institutions, and as soon as they are in a posi- 

 tion to carry on the work without it, the Depart- 

 ment's aid will be withdrawn. 



