THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



53 



Reclamation Notes 



ARIZONA. 



The appointment of a survey board to outline the 

 area of the Salt river reclamation project has been an- 

 nounced. A representative each from the United States 

 reclamation service, Washington and the United States 

 reclamation service at Phoenix and one from the Water 

 Users' association, comprise the survey board. The work 

 will begin at once. 



There has been quite a little complaint this fall about 

 road-flooding, and if there is any one evil in connection 

 with irrigation that justifies almost any means of pre- 

 vention, it is that one. The loss of water in this way is 

 deplorable, while the damage to roads and to ditches is 

 no small matter. All of us know that no farmer would 

 intentionally waste water, let his ditches break, or flood 

 a road. However, the frequent occurrence of flooding in 

 certain districts indicates a most careless neglect and a 

 failure to realize what a loss this entails, not only on the 

 farms directly affected, but on the community generally. 

 The cost of proper upkeep of dirt ditches is, of 

 course, quite an item, but is practically nothing compared 

 with the benefits therefrom. The clean ditch, with banks 

 in good condition, tends to greater velocity in the flow of 

 water, helps to do away with the weed nuisance, and is 

 not continually breaking out with a big loss of water and 

 the resulting damage to roads and crops. Of course, the 

 cement ditch will largely do away with this, but all 

 ranchers, of course, cannot afford to install them now. 

 All the more reason, then, for their giving greater care and 

 attention to the upkeep of their dirt ditches. Arizona 

 Republican. 



The Chandler- Walker syndicate who for the last two 

 months have been seeking to obtain signatures of land 

 owners in that section southeast of Chandler across the 

 Consolidated canal on which they purposed to install an 

 up-to-date system of pumping plants whereby they would 

 reclaim about ten thousand acres of fine land have about 

 obtained the required amount of land, work will begin in 

 a short time. Only such lands as are signed up when the 

 allotment of water is made will enjoy the benefits of the 

 system to be installed as it would be impossible to allot 

 water to the other lands that come in later as the amount 

 developed will be one second foot per quarter section. 

 It is the intention of the promoters to install a plant and 

 then test the water supply and allot it as far as it will 

 go and then put in another plant and so on. The average 

 lift of water in the project is about 45 feet and it is not 

 expected that the expense of pumping will be very much 

 higher than the charges under the gravity system. 



CALIFORNIA. 



At the annual meeting of the Monte Vista Irrigation 

 Company, held at the offices of Emit Firth, in Los Ange- 

 les recently, the land owners took over from Mr. Firth 

 the water company interests, consisting of four high power 

 pumping plants, ten miles of pipe line, supplies, and other 

 property. The company, it is stated, has no bonded in- 

 debtedness and has money in its treasury. This is the 

 final step in the organization on a working basis by Mr. 

 Firth of another of several large co-operative water com- 

 panies. 



The following officers were elected: Frank Banks, 

 president; C. A. Marks, vice-president and Perry R. Skeen, 

 secretar3' and treasurer. 



Plans for the formation of an extensive irrigation 

 district in parts of Calaveras and San Joaquin counties 

 in order to secure unity of action for the proposed im- 

 pounding of the waters of the Calaveras river above Jenny 

 Lind were threshed out at a meeting of those interested 

 in the proposition at the Chamber of Commerce. 



A motion providing for necessary steps toward the 

 organization of a district was made by Mayor Reibenstein 

 of Stockton, but it was decided that no vote be taken 



until the next meeting in order that all phases of the 

 matter might be thoroughly investigated. Congressman 

 C. F. Curry, who is here familiarizing himself with the 

 needs of his constituents, told what has been done and 

 what is being done in the national capital in regard to 

 the plan, and also gave his opinion on the best way to 

 proceed. 



Officers of the La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring 

 Valley irrigation district were formally declared elected 

 by the county supervisors at San Diego recently after 

 a canvass of the votes had shown the formation of the 

 irrigation district by a vote of 397 for the proposition to 

 o against it. 



The directors who were declared duly elected are 

 Charles Samson, S. C. Grable, J. H. Halley, J. A. Thomp- 

 son, J. H. Barry, Tax Collector T. P. Jenkins, Assessor 

 R. A. Smith and Treasurer L. Sperbeck. 



It is the declared purpose of the district to secure a 

 water supply for the district from the San Diego river 

 valley. But one other irrigation district has ever been 

 formed in the county in the twenty years the law provid- 

 ing for such districts has been on the statute books. The 

 first district was the San Ysidro. 



Burton Smith recently tendered his resignation as 

 engineer of the Turlock irrigation district, requesting the 

 board of directors to take action on it before January 1, 

 ]914. Smith states that his resignation is due to impaired 

 health and also to the fact that most of the engineering 

 in connection with construction and improvement of the 

 Turlock irrigation district has been done. 



Because not furnished with water for irrigation, P. H. 

 Shirley of Fresno, who owns three farm lots in the Syca- 

 mgre Ranch tract, has brought suit against the Fresna 

 Canal and Irrigation Company, claiming damages for loss- 

 of this season's labor and outlay. 



The ranch tract is held under a water right of the 

 canal company with the Occidental Land and Improve- 

 ment company to furnish water. 



Relying upon the promise to be furnished water, 

 Shirley says he planted vines and figs, and prepared and 

 checked twenty acres for alfalfa, but that no water was 

 provided, despite repeated demands. The vines and trees 

 died and he could not sow alfalfa. 



All his labor, he says, went for naught, and before 

 he can again sow he will again have to cultivate, plow, 

 harrow and check. He figures his total loss and cost at 

 $402. 



COLORADO. 



An aftermath of the crash of the George H. Paul 

 Orchard company, an extensive horticultural undertak- 

 ing near Pueblo, was recorded in the district court at 

 Pueblo recently when suit was filed by the Arkansas Val- 

 ley Construction company for $4,112.65 which it claims is 

 due on a construction contract by the orchard company. 



Incidentally, the suit brings up an involved question. 

 It asks for judgment in the form of a lien on the Teller 

 reservoir which the plaintiff claims was in possession of 

 the orchard company when the contract was signed and 

 completed. The contract was to construct concrete con- 

 duits and laterals from the reservoir through the orchard 

 company's property and to repair old laterals. 



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 

 it is much larger. From what he could see he believes 

 the site feasible and if the capacity of the reservoir should 

 prove to be what certain previous estimates have placed 

 it at he regards it as one of the comparatively least ex- 

 pensive storage propositions in the west. A former sur- 

 vey by other parties estimates that a dam 135 feet high 



