386 



THE IERIGATION AGE. 



By this order the building charge for the last 

 instalment which became payable is reduced to one- 

 third of the amount due, but not to less than 50 

 cents per acre ; the payment of the balance is to be 

 deferred and added to the last instalment on the 

 water right application. For those who have al- 

 ready paid the charges due a corresponding credit 

 is to- be given on the next annual instalment or they 

 may have the credit applied to the operation and 

 maintenance charges now due. 



No person is to receive the benefit of this con- 

 cession on December 1 next who has not paid all 

 the amounts due for operation and maintenance 

 and who has cultivated less than one-half of the 

 irrigable area of his land or not less than five acres 

 for each full irrigation season since water was first 

 available for the land. 



It is provided further in the case of those who 

 are now delinquent and subject to cancellation that 

 if they make payment of the operation and main- 

 tenance charges for irrigating their land, no steps 

 will be taken toward cancellation until December 

 1, 1913. 



The Secretary of the Interior has authorized 

 the Director of the Reclamation Service to execute 

 contract with the Steacy-Schmidt Manufacturing 

 Company, of York, Pa., for furnishing twenty cast 

 iron sluice gates for the Jackson Lake dam, Snake 

 River storage unit, Wyoming. The contract price 

 is $18,140. This dam was constructed primarily to 

 store water for use on the Minidoka irrigation 

 project, Southern Idaho. By an arrangement with 

 the Carey Act project at Twin Falls, water stored 

 in this reservoir is now also used to supplement 

 the original supply of that project. 



Secretary Lane on June 12 vacated and set aside 

 Paragraph 38 of the general reclamation regula- 

 tions approved February 6, 1913, which limited the 

 right of assignments under the Act of June 23, 

 1910, to qualifiy homesteaders, and issued a new 

 regulation which does not contain this restriction. 



Former Secretary Fisher had held that under 

 this act which permitted assignments of the whole 

 or part of an entry under a reclamation project after 

 final proof of residence, improvement and cultiva- 

 tion for the period required by law, but before final 

 payment of the reclamation charges, the assignees 

 were limited to persons who were qualified to make 

 entry under the Homestead Law. 



This ruling greatly restricted the number of 

 persons to whom assignments could be made and 

 therefore it was very difficult for any entryman to 

 sell his entry or any part thereof. 



The new ruling by Secretary Lane makes no 

 restriction except as to the limit of area which is 

 fixed at a maximum of 160 acres by the Reclamation 

 Law, and that the assignment must be a bona fide 

 sale, and also that a husband or wife cannot assign 

 to one another. 



Tulsa, Oklahoma, through the Deep Waterways 

 Committee of the Commercial Club, headed by L. J. 

 F. Roonery, is taking a deep interest in the proposi- 

 tion to create a new artificial river through the 

 great arid plains of western South Dakota, Ne- 

 braska, Kansas and Oklahoma. The plan was 



originated by J. C. Hopper, president of the Citi- 

 zens' National Bank of Ness City, Kan., and through 

 him a working force has been organized that it is 

 hoped will in the next few years lead to definite 

 action. The plan in brief is to use the Panama 

 Canal machinery to dig a river running from the 

 Black Hills in South Dakota to the Cimarron River 

 in Oklahoma, crossing other rivers on viaducts. 



By a threatened change in the course of the 

 Missouri River the Williston federal irrigation sta- 

 tion near Williston, N. D., is in danger of being 

 made worthless. Three and a half miles north of 

 Williston the bank of the river has fallen so low 

 that the annual June rise of the river will flow over 

 it into an old backwater channel which will carry 

 the water west and south of Williston about three 

 miles, and this channel would become permanent. 

 The city's water supply also would be cut off. 



Williston commercial bodies recently addressed 

 a plea to the United States army engineers at Kansas 

 City asking that immediate steps be taken to pre- 

 vent the threatened change. 



Organization of the Kentucky Overhead Irri- 

 gation Company, having a capital of $150,000, was 

 made public recently with the announcement that 

 the company had purchased from Walter S. Adams 

 and Rush C. Watkins, representing the Farm Land 

 Company, 360 acres of farm land in the Newburg 

 road. The consideration was $30,000. The land will 

 be divided into ten-acre farms and sold. Irrigation 

 will be supplied through the company's system of 

 overhead pipes, by which ground within a distance 

 of thirty feet on each side is uniformly sprayed. 



The new company is similar to concerns of the 

 same name operating in other states. Local capital 

 is interested. The company has been in process 

 of organization for several months. 



Several committees appointed by the citizens 

 are busy arranging details for the organization of an 

 irrigation district under the recent district irrigation 

 law, which will be in effect June 30. It is proposed 

 to include about 40,000 acres of land in the vicinity 

 of Barstow, Texas, and construct a large reservoir 

 which will be used for storing water from the Pecos 

 River to supply this land with an abundance of 

 water. 



LUTE WILCOX TALKS. 



Louis W. Hill of the Great Northern railroad, 

 says he has seen hundreds of settlers on reclamation 

 projects in Oregon waiting wearily for work on 

 irrigation systems to be resumed and declares it is 

 a disgrace to the government that these people have 

 no one to defend them. "The government owes 

 these people a bonus," he- says, "and I think it ought 

 to be paid them. The reclamation service has been 

 too slow. There is no hope of reform in its opera- 

 tions as long as incompetent men are at its head. 

 Engineers employed by the service are as competent 

 as any other engineers, but if things do not go 

 Newell's way he cans the engineer who disagrees 

 with him. They had L. C. Hill picked out to suc- 

 ceed Newell. Now Newell is investigating him and 

 trying to drive him out of the service." Field and 

 Farm. 



