350 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The farmers of Utah are much ahead of Cali- 

 fornia in the matter of adopting new reclamation 

 ideas, according to R. A. Hart, supervisor of the 

 United States Drainage Investigations. Mr. Hart 

 has just completed an extensive investigation of the 

 raisin land near Fresno, Cal., where over-irrigation 

 has almost ruined the land. He is now engaged in 

 making a report of the investigation and is planning 

 to establish an experimental tract at Fresno, with 

 the co-operation of the University of California. 



A project to increase the water supply of the 

 state of Utah by wells that will tap the under- 

 ground flow is attracting considerable attention 

 throughout that state now. 



The farmers who were served with water for 

 irrigation from the Davis and Weber County canal 

 have been notified that it will probably be possible 

 for them to take water from the laterals soon. The 

 repairs to the canal, which was badly out of order, 

 are about completed. 



There will be no meeting of the National Irri- 

 gation Congress in the year 1913. This announce- 

 ment was made a week ago, but it was not until 

 recently that George A. Snow, chairman of the 

 board of governors of the congress, made a definite 

 announcement. At the meeting held in Salt Lake 

 last year, Phoenix was designated as the next meet- 

 ing place, but that city was unable to make the 

 necessary guarantee. 



The West Branch Irrigation Company, Clear 

 Valley, Davis county, Utah, has been organized 

 with a capital stock of $4,000. 



A special meeting of the Land Board of Utah 

 was held June 18th and consideration was given the 

 Buckhorn Reclamation project in Grand county. 

 The plan contemplates the reclamation of more 

 than half a million acres, and is one of the largest 

 projects ever brought to the attention of the Land 

 Board of that state. 



A committee composed of Horace Sheley, L. C. 

 Miller and George Austin were appointed recently 

 by the Irrigation Committee of the Commercial 

 Club of Salt Lake City to act as a publicity bureau 

 for that committee. The new publicity bureau will 

 attend to the work of distributing government re- 

 ports on irrigation and drainage throughout the 

 farming communities of the state of Utah. 



KANSAS. 



The contract for installing the largest irriga- 

 tion plant on a single farm in Kansas will be let by 

 the board of control August 15. The plant will 

 be on the new state insane hospital farm near 

 Larned and by next year there will be 600 acres 

 which may be irrigated whenever artificial water- 

 ing is necessary. 



Artesian wells flowing the year around supply 

 valley farms of Meade County, Kan., with sufficient 

 water for irrigation. George Landes, formerly of 

 Hutchinson, has a farm of 400 acres near Fowler 



which has not a pump on the place. Two artesian 

 wells the real flowing kind supply his place with 

 water for every purpose without having to pump 

 a drop. 



The Hutchinson (Kan.) News states that a 

 good demonstration of the value of intensive farm- 

 ing and irrigating in a practical way may be found 

 at the truck garden of G. C. Curtis, located near 

 that place. Mr. Curtis, with 8 acres, is making 

 more real money and realizing more profits than 

 the average farmer with a quarter section of land. 

 This veteran gardener states that he has marketed 

 a crop that figured out at the rate of $1,700 per 

 acre. The crop consisted of green onions and they 

 brought a fancy price. 



As an illustration of what irrigation will do 

 for land in Kansas it is stated that 2 acres of cab- 

 bage planted near Wichita brought $200 and that 

 the land has now been planted to turnips since 

 harvesting the cabbages. It is the opinion of the 

 farmer that the turnips will produce at least that 

 amount or nearly $200 per acre for the season. 



To prove the value of pumping irrigation, Car- 

 ter Bros, of Wichita, Kan., have installed an experi- 

 mental well ; the pump is centrifugal with a 2^- 

 inch enclosed propeller. The well is 40 feet deep 

 with water rising to within 10 feet of the surface. 

 It is believed that the outfit will insure a crop on 

 a half section of land at a cost not to exceed $175 

 per year. 



The Kansas City Big Horn Irrigation Com- 

 pany, a $750,000 Wyoming corporation, was re- 

 cently granted a charter by the State of Kansas to 

 do business in that State. The Kansas business 

 will consist in selling stock to Kansas investors. 

 James A. Flotner, with headquarters at Kansas 

 City, Mo., is president of the company. 



J. L. Cullom, who has charge of the Under- 

 wood farm east of Hutchinson, Kan., has sold the 

 product of a half acre of land planted to potatoes for 

 $146. Mr. Cullom states that he could not have 

 gotten anything like this money had it not been 

 for the fact that the land was irrigated. 



Edwin Yaggy, one of the most extensive and 

 successful orchardists in Kansas, is a believer in 

 irrigation. He says that nearly every year there 

 comes a time, perhaps lasting only a few days, that 

 if a man could have -water, the crops would be se- 

 cured. One year he had a crop of 50,000 bushels 

 of apples, and believes that if he had been fixed to 

 irrigate the orchard just at the critical time his 

 crop would have been 100,000 bushels instead of 

 50,000. Mr. Yaggy has evidently been studying the 

 subject of supplemental irrigation to good ad- 

 vantage. 



Wichita, Kansas, has come forward for a bid 

 for the Nationoal Irrigation Congress for 1913. 

 This comes to us in the form of a disptach dated 

 Aug. 13th. The matter was presented to the presi- 

 dent of the congress, Major Richard Young, of Salt 



