44 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



NEWS NOTES FROM IRRIGATION PROJECTS 



OF THE COUNTRY 



Nebraska 



The Nebraska State Irrigation As- 

 sociation at its annual meeting in 

 Omaha in December endorsed the tri- 

 county irrigation project, which con- 

 templates a big ditch to lead the flood 

 waters of the Platte upon the soil of 

 Gosper, Phelps and Kearney coun- 

 ties. It was pointed out that this 

 project could in no way infringe upon 

 the rights of any other irrigation 

 project, since it contemplates using 

 only the flood waters that otherwise 

 go to waste and simply help to swell 

 the destructive floods of the lower 

 Mississippi. They favored a federal 

 appropriation for this purpose. The 

 convention recommended to congress 

 that the Jones bill, now pending, be 

 passed. This is the bill introduced 

 during the 1914 session of congress, 

 providing for a guarantee by the fed- 

 eral government of the payment on 

 bonds to be issued by irrigation and 

 drainage districts in the United 

 States. The convention resolved that 

 the attorney general of the state 

 should be requested to bring action 

 in the courts to enforce the rights 

 of Nebraska citizens on the South 

 Platte river against the water users 

 in Colorado. 



Pump irrigation is to be demon- 

 strated in Lincoln county on a large 

 scale. Prof. L. W. Chase of Lincoln 

 has decided that the pump irrigation 

 is to be tried at the experimental sub- 

 station south of North Platte. 



Idaho 



After two days discussion with rep- 

 resentatives of all the electric power 

 companies operating on Snake river 

 in southern Idaho, the public utilities 

 commission in December finally ap- 

 proved the schedule of rates for elec- 

 tric power for irrigation pumping 

 purposes from April 1, 1915, to Octo- 

 ber 1, 1917. For installation of less 

 than 10 horsepower. Demand charge, 

 $12 per year per horsepower of maxi- 

 mum demand, plus an energy charge 

 as follows: Five cents per K. W. H. 

 for first 45 K. W. H. per horsepower 

 of maximum demand per month; y* 

 cent per K. W. H. for all current con- 

 sumed over 45 K. W. H. per horse- 

 power of maximum demand per 

 month. Discount of 5 per cent on 

 monthly bill if paid within 10 days 

 from date of bill. Maximum bill: 

 The company, under this rate, will 

 not bill the consumer for irrigation 

 pumping service more than $28 net 

 per horsepower of maximum demand 

 for five months' service, nor more 

 than $33.50 net per horsepower of 

 maximum demand for six months' 

 service. Other rates show slight re- 

 duction for larger uses. 



Oregon 



On the sandy .soils of the Umatilla 

 Reclamation Project in Oregon it is 

 necessary to handle irrigation water 



very carefully in order to get the 

 greatest benefit. Many tests were 

 made on the Project Experiment 

 Farm located at Hermiston, Ore., last 

 year, to determine the most econom- 

 ical methods of handling irrigation 

 water. The specialists in charge of 

 this work lay emphasis on the use of 

 short irrigation furrows, ranging from 

 100 to 200 feet in length, and 20 to 30 

 inches apart, using fairly shallow, 

 well-opened furrows to facilitate the 

 flow of water. They also advocate 

 that water should be run for only a 

 short time in one place, as loss soon 

 occurs from deep percolation. Since 

 the storage capacity of this soil is 

 very low, only a small amount of wa- 

 ter should be used for each irrigation, 

 and frequent applications made to 

 maintain an adequate supply for plant 

 growth. Best results were obtained 

 by using a comparatively large stream 

 of water while irrigating, in order to 

 cover the land as quickly as possible. 



The Oregon Irrigation Convention, 

 held December 28 at Portland, en- 

 dorsed the Senator Jones' bill now 

 pending in Congress, providing for 

 Federal guarantee of irrigation district 

 bonds. The time of the convention 

 was largely devoted to a discussion 

 of the district method of financing 

 and developing irrigation projects. 



South Dakota 



A big irrigation project contem- 

 plating the reclamation of from 100,- 

 000 to 150,000 acres of land in what 

 is termed the Angustura district, has 

 been started there, and is receiving 

 promises not only of federal, but of 

 state aid as well. 



Arizona 



The underflow of the Gila river will 

 be made to furnish water for irrigat- 

 ing 14,600 acres of land in Yuma 

 county if an application just filed by 

 the state land department is granted 

 and the plans of a California syndi- 

 cate are carried out. 



Arizona holds a big irrigation 

 conference at Tucson, January 14. 

 Officials of the various water users' 

 associations from all over the state, 

 practical irrigators, and professors 

 from the State Agricultural College 

 will be on hand to discuss practically 

 all the problems peculiar to irrigating 

 in Arizona. 



Utah 



The Utah irrigation law, authoriz- 

 ing any person desiring water for ir- 

 rigation purposes to enlarge existing 

 canals after compensating the owners, 

 has been declared constitutional by 

 the United States supreme court. 



tect its rights against the threatened 

 cancellation of the lands within that 

 project by the government. The com- 

 missioner of the general land office 

 notified the state land department 

 that unless something was done on 

 the Big Lost River project the lands 

 would be turned back to the public 

 domain. January 1, 1916, was the 

 date named for the required showing 

 to be made. In the meantime settlers 

 have squatted along the Big Lost 

 River taking land for homes and have 

 appropriated such water as was 

 needed for irrigation purposes from 

 the river. This appears to have com- 

 plicated matters in relation to the 

 project although the register of the 

 state land board has ruled that the 

 squatters are without rights to the 

 water or any of the land in the proj- 

 ect under the present status. 



Texas 



Washington and Austin are to co- 

 operate in irrigation investigations in 

 Texas. This decision was reached at 

 a conference in Austin between R. P. 

 Teele, assistant chief, Bureau of Pub- 

 lic Roads and Rural Engineering, Ir- 

 rigation Investigations, Department 

 of Agriculture, of Washington, and 

 W. L. Rockwell, in charge of the San 

 Antonio office, for the Government, 

 and J. C. Nagle, chairman of the 

 Board of Water Engineers and E. B. 

 Gore and John Wilson, members, for 

 the state. 



Besides the station at Mercedes, on 

 which the first appropriation is to be 

 expended, stations contemplated are 

 at Plainview, in the South Plains; at 

 El Paso, and at some point in the. San 

 Saba-Colorado basin region of Cen- 

 tral Texas. 



Wyoming 



Wyoming comes in for nearly two 

 million dollars in the estimates sent 

 to congress this week, for its govern- 

 ment irrigation projects, $850,000 be- 

 ing the amount asked for the Fort 

 Laramie unit, $767,000 for the Sho- 

 shone project, and $250,000 for the 

 interstate canal. A total of $64,200 

 is asked for road work, distributed as 

 follows: Roads in the Yellowstone 

 Park to Belt Line, $38,700; roads east, 

 $7,500; widening roads east, $6,000; 

 roads south, $10,000. Three public 

 building estimates were also trans- 

 mitted to congress $30,000 for Buf- 

 falo, $15,000 for Cody, and $5,000 for 

 Basin. 



The Utah Construction Company 

 of Ogden, purchaser of the Big Lost 

 River irrigation project and its irri- 

 gation system, is taking steps to pro- 



New . Mexico 



Elwood Mead and E. A. Clark, 

 president and secretary, respectively, 

 of the board of cost review for irri- 

 gation projects, visited the Carlsbad 

 project in December to determine for 

 themselves the worth of the improve- 

 ments made by the reclamation serv- 

 ice. Their actions are anticipated 

 with special interest as a result of the 

 report of the local cost review board, 



