THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



303 



trees and shrubs have converted sand wastes into 

 pleasure grounds of great beauty. 



The attention of the Palestine colony is called 

 to the wonderful reclamation of the Landes, France, 

 where a wealth-producing forest of maritime pine, 

 the source of the French turpentine, has been grown 

 to take the place of shifting dunes. 



The American foresters also give the address 

 of the French seedsman who furnished this govern- 

 ment with the maritime pine seed which has. been 

 used in planting experiments on the Florida na- 

 tional forest, near the Gulf coast. 



In many parts of southern Idaho. 

 Idaho notably the cities and village cen- 



Settlers ters, the people have met and adopt- 



Sympathize ed resolutions of sympathy with the 

 With Kuhns Kuhn brothers, of Pittsburgh, Pa., 

 in their financial troubles. This ac- 

 tion speaks loudly in behalf of the honesty with 

 which the work of irrigation in that part of the 

 country has been conducted. Settlers under the 

 Carey Act in the Twin Falls region of Idaho realize 

 that they are fully protected. The Kuhns have been 

 unfortunate in their banking enterprises, but won- 

 derfully successful in their irrigation ventures. It 

 is well understood that these latter are not affected 

 in any particular by the assignment; that the set- 

 tlers who have bought water rights will get, and are 

 getting, what they pay for, and that the bankruptcy 

 (if it be bankruptcy) of the enterprising men who 

 constructed the great works will not affect them. 



It would be well for the cause of irrigation if a 

 similar statement could truthfully be made of other 

 failures, but unfortunately it cannot. All told, the 

 Kuhns have constructed irrigation and power plants 

 to the value of something like $18,000,000 in south- 

 ern Idaho. They have safeguarded this mammoth 

 investment so well that they are not only safe them- 

 selves on this particular investment, but the people 

 who have been induced to invest their money there 

 in farms, orchards, and business, are also safe. 



All the bonds and other securities issued against 

 these irrigation plants were put out by the Ameri- 

 can Waterworks Company, not by the Kuhns. It 

 is true that a receiver was appointed for this com- 

 pany on the voluntary petition of the directors, but 

 it was merely a move to head off such ill-advised, 

 hasty action as might be precipitated by those un- 

 acquainted with the real conditions. The receiver 

 is about to be dismissed, the courts holding that the 

 company is an independent concern and perfectly 

 solvent. It could ,not well be otherwise. The money 

 paid in by purchasers of water rights constitutes a 

 trust fund which goes to retire the securities, and is 

 amply sufficient to meet all obligations. 



It is not often that a community, or aggrega- 

 tion of communities, will express sympathy with 

 the principals in a mammoth failure. That the peo- 

 ple of Idaho have done so in no uncertain words is 

 evidence that the settlers are well convinced that 

 they have been treated fairly, their rights have been 

 amply protected, and that the Kuhns and the other 

 gentlemen associated with them have done a won- 

 derfully beneficial work for Idaho and the entire 

 West. It is too bad that the fortune of business has 

 been such as to accomplish the financial downfall of 

 the Pittsburgh bankers, but they can have the satis- 

 faction of knowing that it was not caused by their 

 work in irrigation development. In this latter line 

 they have builded an empire, and it has brought a 

 just reward. 



Edwin Yaggy, one of the extensive 

 Convert and successful orcharders in Kansas, 



to is a firm believer in supplemental ir- 



Supplemental rigation. He says that in that sec- 

 Irrigation tion of the country there comes a 



time nearly every year, perhaps only 

 lasting a few days, when if the ground could have 

 water good crops would be assured. Mr. Yaggy 

 states that one year recently he had a crop of 50,000 

 bushels of apples, but believes that if he had been 

 fixed to irrigate his orchard at the critical time the 

 crop would have exceeded 100,000 bushels. By 

 reason of the lack of water at that particular time 

 the apples were undersized and very materially cut 

 down in quantity, so the loss came from two 

 directions. In speaking of irrigation, Mr. Yaggy 

 says that the most practical work along that line 

 is being done at the state reformatory grounds and 

 on the grounds around public institutions in Kan- 

 sas. He has learned a lesson that the IRRIGATION AGE 

 has been trying to teach for many years, namely, 

 that of a supplemental irrigation plant, which if 

 established on a 40-acre tract and properly worked 

 out, would, during the ordinary dry spell, bring the 

 other three-quarters of a quarter section farm up 

 to a normal crop for the entire 160 acres. In other 

 words, if, during the inevitable dry spell, a man is 

 able to properly irrigate one-quarter of his tract, 

 say ten acres out of an estimated holding of 40 

 acres, and can make the ten acres which is irrigated 

 produce four times what it would if left without 

 water, he is holding up to a normal average for his 

 entire 40 acres or what could be obtained during a 

 favorable season when moisture conditions are 

 right. Every farmer in the United States who has 

 the means could well afford to try the experiment 

 of irrigating during each season's dry spell, at least 

 10 acres, and by comparing the products of this 10 

 acres with any other 10 acres in his tract would 



