THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



43 



WATER RESOURCES OF VICTORIA 



At the present time, some 250,000 acres are irri- 

 gated in Victoria, Australia, and a policy of steady 

 development is being carried out, with a view of 

 ultimately bringing an extra 500,000 acres under 

 irrigation. The Sugarloaf Reservoir is in course of 

 construction, and, when completed, will impound 

 320,000 acre-feet of water. The storage at Waranga 

 Basin is being increased to impound 330,000 acre- 

 feet. Other storages are contemplated under the 

 Murray Waters Agreement, and it is anticipated 

 that when the present and prospective requirements 

 are met some 750,000 acres of land will be placed 

 under irrigated culture. 



A VIGOROUS PROTEST 



It is apparent that the government will be com- 

 pelled to modify its recent orders to water users 

 on Federal projects. The objection to the recent 

 ruling is well put by the editor of the Churchill 

 County Eagle, at Fallon, Nevada. He says: 



"After January 1, 1916, all payments due the 

 U. S. Reclamation Service for construction and 

 operation and maintenance charges must be re- 

 mitted direct to the Denver office, in accordance 

 with General Order 98. Bills will be rendered di- 

 rect to the water user from the Denver office and 

 the remittance must be made in currency, postoffice 

 money order or bank draft. 



"This will necessarily be a sourse of inconven- 

 ience and a little more expense to the water users. 

 It would be much easier for the water users to be 

 able to deal direct with the local headquarters, as 

 in the past, and it appears to this paper that the 

 interest and convenience of the' water users is the 

 first thing to be considered in administering recla- 

 mation affairs. 



"If subject to cancellation, the law forbids the 

 delivery of water until the full payment has been 

 made. Then in case the water user cannot raise 

 the money until about the time his crops are hard 

 pressed for water, he must still wait until the money 

 goes to Denver and the notice of its payment sent 

 back to Fallon before the local officials would be 

 permitted to turn on the water. But this is not all. 

 If there are any penalties and these are overlooked, 

 or the farmer does not figure out the per cent pen- 

 alty to a cent, just as the government does, the en- 

 tire remittance must be sent back to the farmer to 

 make good the trifling deficiency before he could 

 be given credit meantime his crops might be burn- 

 ing up for want of water that is running to waste. 



"But it does not stop here. After the 1st of 

 January, when a new settler comes in and makes 

 application for homestead entry, he will be informed 

 at Reclamation headquarters that they cannot ac- 

 cept his money for the first water payment of $3 

 per acre, but that it must be sent to Denver ; neither 

 can they issue to him a certificate to accompany his 

 homestead application to the Carson Land Office, 

 until they have received notice from Denver that 

 he has made the payment there. Under present 

 regulations, his homestead application must be ac- 

 companied by the certificate that the water payment 

 has been made before it can be accepted at Carson 

 City. Therefore, it would appear that the pros- 



pective settler must wait until his money can be 

 sent to Denver and the order comes back to the 

 local headquarters before the certificate can be 

 issued. Then he may send his application to Carson 

 City, and in the course of a few days will receive 

 notice of the acceptance or rejection of his entry. 



"There will also be a degree of uncertainty in 

 the matter of relinquishments, and this probably 

 will be a source of great inconvenience to the home- 

 steader who desires to sell, for the prospective buyer 

 is likely to get out of the notion before all of the 

 desired information can be secured from the Denver 

 office. 



"The question very naturally arises, why can- 

 not these matters be attended to here in Fallon? 

 Tf it is a question of economy there are most as- 

 suredly other changes that could be made with 

 which the water user has nothing to do personally. 

 In fact, aside from the distribution of water, the 

 only direct dealings the farmers have with the serv- 

 ice is along the very lines that has been sent away 

 beyond the Rocky Mountains to Denver. In the 

 future when a water user steps into the local recla- 

 mation office to straighten out some tangle, he must 

 be informed that it will be necessary for him to 

 correspond with the Denver office, while the same 

 affair could no doubt be settled with one-tenth of 

 the trouble by a short conversation with the local 

 officials. Correspondence at best requires a great 

 deal of time and many times is anything but satis- 

 factory in business dealings." 



(Continued from page 40) 



plete success lies through the alfalfa field, into the 

 feeding and breeding of live stock. 



A very interesting soil products exhibition was 

 held in connection with the convention. Seager 

 Wheeler, Rosthern, Sask., carried away a large 

 share of the prizes in grains and grasses. He was 

 awarded the first prize for hard winter wheat, first 

 for hard spring wheat, first for threshed spring 

 wheat, seconds for oats and for red clover, and third 

 for alfalfa. Another Saskatchewan man, from the 

 irrigation section of Maple Creek, namely, W. H. 

 Abbott, also made a killing with firsts for barley, 

 brome grass, western rye grass, timothy, fodder 

 corn and alfalfa. 



The judging committee was composed of W. 

 H. Fairfield, superintendent of experimental farm, 

 Lethbridge ; G. H. Hutton, superintendent of expe- 

 rimental farm, Lacombe ; Dean E. A. Howes, of the 

 faculty of agriculture, University of Edmonton ; and 

 Deputy Minister of Agriculture W. E. Scott, of Vic- 

 toria, B. C. 



Some fine exhibits were made by the Publicity 

 Branch of the C. P. R., Calgary ; the Southern Al- 

 berta Road Company, Medicine Hat, Alta. ; G. D. 

 Walters, of the Irrigation Branch, Department of 

 Interior, Calgary ; Dominion Experimental Farm, 

 Lethbridge; and A. L. Fryberger, a farmer at Gem 

 in the Bassano Irrigation Colony. 



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