330 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



TEXAN HEADS IRRIGATION CONGRESS 



THE International Irrigation Congress, which 

 held a week's convention "on wheels" during 

 the past month, with sessions at Stockton, Fresno, 

 Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif., elected the 

 following officers: Richard F. Burgess, El Paso, 

 Texas, president ; J. S. Dennis, Calgary, Alberta, 

 first vice-president ; George A. Smith, Salt Lake 

 City, second vice-president: L. A. Nares, Fresno. 

 third vice-president ; Kurt Greenwald, Denver, 

 fourth vice-president; Lafayette Clapp, Hatch, X. 

 M., fifth vice-president ; Arthur Hooker, Spokane, 

 secretary. 



President Burgess, Retiring President Case, 

 Secretary Hooker and R. Insinger, Spokane; L. A. 

 Nares, Fresno, and Richard W. Young, Salt Lake 

 City, were elected members of the board of gov- 

 ernors, which will select the next annual meeting 

 place within the next few weeks. 



The Congress adopted a series of resolutions, 

 chief of which are the following: 



Urging a system of rural credits and aid to set- 

 tlement as the paramount need of irrigation develop- 

 ment in western America. 



Development of a better marketing system. 



Completing of existing irrigation projects. 



Better legislative control and supervision of irri- 

 gation districts. 



Revision of reclamation costs through assist- 

 ance of the United States Department of the In- 

 terior. 



Federal, state and provincial liberal appropria- 

 tions for continuing the gauging of streams, hydro- 

 graphic surveys, irrigation investigations and 

 studies. 



Federal and state co-operation for river regula- 

 tion and control. 



A committee on legislation was appointed, com- 

 posed of one or more members from each Western 

 state, to present to Congress and to the different 

 legislatures matters indorsed by the Congress or its 

 executive committee as proper subjects for legisla- 

 tive action. 



Country life is dying in America because of the 

 drudgery of the farmer and the lonesomeness of his 

 wife, according to William E. Smythe, of San Fran- 

 cisco, one of the speakers. 



To substantiate his statement that "America 

 is dying on the land," he cited statistics to show that 

 between 1900 and 1910, country population increased 

 but 4 per cent, while the increase of population in 

 the cities was 40 per cent. Also, he said, the demand 

 for farm produce increased 22 per cent, while the 

 increase of the supplies of the farm was but 2 per 

 cent. 



"This Congress must deal with these problems 

 until they are solved," said Mr. Smythe. As a 

 remedy against the farmer becoming discouraged, 

 he suggested intensified farming on small acreage. 



President Wilson sent the following telegram 

 to the convention : 



"It is a matter of much regret to me that it is 

 not possible to greet you personally and to express 

 to you my interest in your work and my best wishes 

 that success may attend the efforts you are making. 

 Your work, while apparently limited to the arid 

 Western regions, actually affects the interests of the 

 nation as a whole, and the closest and most cordial 

 co-operation possible should obtain between the 

 Federal Government and the States in the further- 

 ance of real conservation and utilization of our 

 natural resources. I sincerely hope that you may 

 have a very successful and fruitful session." 



W. R. Williams, State Superintendent of Banks 

 of California, said that a State commission appointed 

 to pass upon bonds offered by irrigation districts 

 for purchase by savings banks had approved issues 

 aggregating $11,163,511 since its creation in 1913. 



"A State can do nothing better," he said, "than 

 to furnish means whereby particularly safe securi- 

 ties, based on land at conservative values, may be 

 issued and offered for sale in the places where there 

 is a greater amount of money than there is a local 

 demand for it, and where, consequently, a lower rate 

 of interest prevails." 



President D. W. Carmichael of the Sacramento 

 Chamber of Commerce, said : 



"Personally I am thoroughly convinced that 

 colonization on a large scale will not again be a pos- 

 sibility in any portion of the L'nited States or Can- 

 ada until there shall have been devised and put into 

 effect upon the Western continent an economic and 

 scientific method of distribution of farm products. 



"Some method of national or international dis- 

 tribution of farm products must be devised to bring 

 the producer closer to the consumer and make im- 

 possible the centralization of food products and the 

 creation of food trusts. 



"Some time in the not distant future, some man, 

 or some men, or some corporation will suddenly 

 awaken to the possibilities of absolute verity in 

 colonization work and will put upon the market 

 some tract of land and settle it under such condi- 

 tions. Having done so, they will, thereafter be able, 

 so to speak, to sell land anywhere in the United 

 States by 'mail order.' " 



HOW TO DIG BIG WELLS 



The American Well Works, of Aurora, 111., has 

 just issued a very ably prepared booklet on "Methods 

 of Constructing Large Capacity Deep Wells for Irri- 

 gation Pumping in the Great Plains." It tells a re- 

 markable story of the development by pump irriga- 

 tion in the Panhandle of Texas- and Eastern New 

 Mexico. 



KANSAS IRRIGATORS MEET 



The fourth annual meeting of the Kansas Irri- 

 gation Congress will be held at Garden City, Kan., 

 October 13 and 14. A large part of the program will 

 be devoted to a discussing of irrigation by pumping. 



