THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



23 



COLORADO. 



The Irrigation Committee of the Denver Chamber of 

 Commerce will write a letter to Secretary of the Interior 

 Lane asking him to define more clearly his attitude toward 

 the appointment of a commission to settle contentions 

 .^is to water supply and rights of way in this state between 

 the federal government and the state and private irrigation 

 projects. 



Secretary Lane told State Engineer Field in Denver 

 last week that he was willing to leave the facts in the 

 cases in dispute to the decision of a commission con- 

 stituted of experts. Thousands of acres of land in the 

 state remain undeveloped and unproductive on account of 

 existing differences. 



J. C. Ulrich, the engineer who was engaged by the 

 committee to inspect the proposed reservoir site on the 

 Conejos river has returned from a trip to the site. He 

 went carefully over the ground and formed conclusions 

 from comparisons of the site with that of the Farmers' 

 Union reservoir on the Rio Grande which enterprise he 

 engineered. He made no tests to determine the charac- 

 ter of the formation and consequently was not prepared 

 to make a definite report but from surface observations 

 he pronounced the proposition substantially the same as 

 the Farmers' Union reservoir site, with the exception that 

 R is much larger. 



A farmer in this irrigation country has ten advan- 

 tages for making money where the farmer of twenty-five 

 years ago had one. It is no uncommon thing for a single 

 acre of land with the present methods of cultivation and 

 present markets and market prices to be made to produce 

 net profits of from $100 to $200. The farmer of the pass- 

 ing generation never dreamed of such possibilities and 

 it is difficult for eastern folks to believe that it can be 

 done. Denver Field and Farm. 



A Montrose, Colo., paper says: According to a 

 decision of H. C. Getty, irrigation engineer, the primary 

 rights of the Government to water from one point in a 

 stream hold good farther down the stream if any of the 

 water originally taken is returned through ditches and 

 canals to the stream. This, however, with the proviso 

 that the Government must establish the actual amount 

 flowing back into the stream, and retake that and no 

 more. In other words, the primary rights to waters fol- 

 low that water wherever it may be found. 



The ruling came in the case of the Government's 

 claim for return waters from the Gunnison river. A por- 

 tion of the Gunnison is diverted into the Ironstone ditch. 

 Farther down some of this water returns to the Gunni- 

 son. and the Government contended this flow could again 

 be diverted, holding that if it was entitled to it once it 

 was entitled to it for all time. The decision upholds the 

 claim as against those holding decrees to the natural flow 

 farther down the stream from the point where the irri- 

 gation waters return. 



Action looking toward a reversal of the attitude of 

 the Department of the Interior unfavorable to the with- 

 drawal from public entry about 35,000 acres adjacent to 

 Denver's mountain park system, is promised by John 

 Truesdell of the national reclamation service, after being 

 taken through the district by President Macbeth of the 

 park board. An immediate decision is necessary, accord- 

 ing to Macbeth. 



"Now that good roads are assured, if these lands 

 are left open they will soon fall into the hands of private 

 individuals the wooded parts denuded of trees and 75 per 

 cent of the attractiveness of the park system will be lost. 

 Then much of our labor and money so far expended will 

 have gone to naught." he says. 



The interior department was asked to withdraw 35,000 

 acres deemed essential to the beauty of the parks. 



Plans are under way for the erection of a big plant 

 here to distill oil from the boulders around Kimball creek. 

 Discoveries made by J. G. Harrington, a rancher, has 

 demonstrated that that section is rich in both lubricating 

 and illuminating oils. 



Irrigation Company against State Engineer John E. Field 

 to determine the right of Kansas irrigators to the water 

 of the Republican river it was held that the state line 

 should not determine the right of people to take water 

 from a stream. If Judge Lewis should continue this 

 holding in the final decision and if it should be upheld 

 it would be quite a reverse to the position taken by the 

 irrigators of Colorado. 



Investigations with the intention of devising some 

 means whereby thousands of acres in Montezuma county 

 and the San Luis valley lying idle may be cultivated 

 and brought to settlement are to be begun next week by 

 John E. Field, state engineer, and Volney T. Hoggatt, 

 register of the state land board. The two are to make a 

 trip of inspection to see how water may be put on state 

 land in the two sections. 



Field says there are 250,000 acres idle. The register 

 has particularly in mind 10,000 acres in Montezuma county 

 and 9,000 in the San Luis valley affected by contracts with 

 the state land board. Many persons are said to have 

 purchased land and others to have leased it merely for 

 the purpose of speculation. 



A contract will be let in October for the construction 

 of the Moffat irrigating system in Saguache county. The 

 project will cost about $400,000 and place under water 

 more than 50,000 acres of excellent agricultural lands. 



In addition to the many miles of laterals there will 

 be built 100 miles of main canals. The country is nearly 

 level and the dirt that will be excavated will be used for 

 the rounding up and surfacing of highways to parallel 

 the ditches. The water for the system will be developed 

 from surface flow in the creeks and rivers and from 

 pumping plants scattered over the district. 



The plans, which have been prepared by Engineer 

 Whiting of Denver, call for twenty electrical pumping 

 plants. Wells will be dug at specified places and the pump- 

 ing plants erected over them. The power will be sup- 

 plied from the main power house to generate 400 horse- 

 power. Seven sub-transformer stations will be built. 



IDAHO. 



The King Hill Irrigation Company controversy, 

 which has dragged in courts of Idaho for years, is to be 

 tried out on its merits in the Federal Court, Boise, be- 

 fore Judge Dietrich. Close to $1,000,000 is involved, to- 

 gether with securities, including bonds and one of the im- 

 portant irrigation projects in the southern part of the 

 state, now in the hands of a receiver. 



The American Trust & Savings Bank of Chicago is 

 trustee for the bondholders. The Continental & Com- 

 mercial Trust & Savings Company of Chicago is financially 

 interested in the outcome of the litigation, as is the 

 Craster Farm & Orchard Company, the Pacific Coast Pipe 

 Company, the Minneapolis Steel & Machinery Company, 

 the C. R. Shaw Lumber Company of Boise and other 

 concerns. 



Governor Haines, in company with other members of 

 the state land board, passed through Blackfoot, Idaho, 

 recently, en route to Mackay and other points on the Big 

 Lost River irrigation project, which they plan to give 

 a thorough inspection. If possible, some effective solu- 

 tion to the problem will be settled upon. 



The Secretary of the Interior has directed the re- 

 clamation service to execute a contract with the Minne- 

 apolis Steel and Machinery Company of Minneapolis, 

 Minn., for furnishing semi-steel discharge pipe for bal- 

 anced valves for the Arrowrock dam, Boise irrigation 

 project. The contract price is $19,420.42. 



In a preliminary opinion given by Judge Lewis of 

 the Federal Court, who is hearing the suit of the Pioneer 



MONTANA. 



One hundred thousand acres of arid land in the Milk 

 river valley in Montana are to be turned into a garden 

 spot by a vast irrigation project undertaken by the United 

 States Government. The work has just commenced. 

 Water from the continental watershed is to be stored in 

 two reservoirs in Glacier National Park, which will be 

 drained through canals into the Milk river during the 

 dry summer months. 



Upper and Lower St. Mary's lakes are to be made 

 into a reservoir by a steel and concrete dam which will 



